Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta final week introduces new Strongholds mode

The month-long multiplayer beta for Halo 5: Guardians comes to a close this week, but before we wrap things up 343 Industries is introducing some new content in the final week.

Most notably, we're getting our first look at the all-new Strongholds mode. Playable on Regret, Empire, and Pegasus (the new map created with an early vision of Forge customization tools), Strongholds features three control zones placed around the map that your team will need to control "in order to dominate the enemy." The first team to score 100 points, wins the match; but, the catch is that only the team that controls two Stronghold zones can score points. 343 Industries notes that sometimes it may be smarter to settle for two zones than get greedy for all three as it will spread you too thin.

As for the new Pegasus map, it's the winner of the fan vote over Orion. It features long sightlines and is "perfect" for marskman weapons. "Holding down the raised area with the Sniper Rifle, Rocket Launcher or Light Rifle gives a team excellent presence, and the ability to lock down huge swathes of the map. However, this spot is vulnerable to grenades and flanking routes that the opposing team should use to retake the high ground," 343 says.

Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta comes to an end on Sunday, January 18th.