Cartographer's Gift

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Next:	Infinity's Armory
Cartographer's Gift
Includes content for:	Halo 5: Guardians
Season information
Start date:	December 16, 2015
End date:	January 26, 2016
Number of REQs:	51
Total unlock cost:	190,000 REQ points; (14 silver packs, 12 gold packs)

"Built with years of community feedback in mind, the all new Forge comes to Halo 5: Guardians with the Cartographer's Gift. Since the introduction of Forge in Halo 3, the community has been creating, sharing, and pushing the mode to its absolute limits. With Forge in Halo 5: Guardians, the only limit is your imagination."

— Cartographer's Gift description^[1]

Cartographer's Gift is the second major content update for Halo 5: Guardians and was released on December 16, 2015.^[2] The update included an improved Forge mode, four new multiplayer maps: Overgrowth, Battle of Noctus, Antifreeze and Entombed, and 51 new REQs for armor, weapons, emblems, and more.^[3]^[4]

The Cartographer's Gift update marked the end of the ranked pre-season that begun with the game's launch in October of 2015. Starting with this update and continuing up until mid-2017, any player who finished their placement matches and achieved a rank within any ranked playlist would receive an exclusive emblem for that season.^[4]

Update content[edit]

A timelapse of forge work on Alpine.

General overview[edit]

Ranked pre-season ends, Season 1 begins
Spartan Companies receive a service record and Commendations through Halo Waypoint.
51 new REQs
New armor sets
- Mark IV GEN1
- Raijin
  - Raijin Sprite
  - Raijin Stormstrike
New multiplayer mode:
- Forge
New multiplayer maps:
- Antifreeze
- Battle of Noctus
- Entombed
- Overgrowth
- Alpine (Forge canvas)
- Glacier (Forge canvas)
- Parallax (Forge canvas)
New sandbox items:
- Classic BR85N
- M41 SPNKr
  - SPNKr EM
  - SPNKr EX
  - SPNKr Prime

General customization[edit]

4 armor skins: Locus Edge, Pathfinder Trailbreaker, Rogue Cutthroat, Wetwork Cleaner
5 weapon skins: Gold Standard (MA5D assault rifle, M6H2 magnum, BR85 battle rifle, M395B DMR, M20 PDW)
1 visor: Pendragon
14 emblems: Cone'd, Flaming Ninja, Number Zero, Number One, Number Two, Number Three, Number Four, Number Five, Number Six, Number Seven, Number Eight, Number Nine, Spartan Swords, Stuck
2 assassinations: Nice Try, Oh Snap
2 stances: Fire Support, Tactical Carry

Marketing[edit]

Cartographer's Gift teaser[edit]

Main article: Cartographer's Gift teaser

A small, 5 second teaser for the Cartographer's Gift update, showing the Mark VI armor and SPNKR rocket launcher on Truth and Entombed. This was shown during the Battle of Shadow and Light livestream held by 343 Industries on November 20, 2015.

Game Awards Multiplayer Trailer[edit]

Main article: Halo 5: Guardians - Game Awards Multiplayer Trailer

A full trailer released on December 3, 2015, showcasing the update's content and features.

Patch notes[edit]

December 16, 2015 patch notes

New Features and Content:^[4]

Forge is now available!
Added a basic implementation of File Browser. Players can now bookmark and share custom maps and modes through Active Roster, by following (or become friends with) a player.
Over 30 new REQs including weapons, armor, emblems, and more have been added.
Battle of Noctus map added to Warzone.
Overgrowth map added to Arena.
Entombed and Antifreeze maps added to Big Team Battle.
Commendations and Service Record for Spartan Companies have been added, and can be tracked on Halo Channel and HaloWaypoint.com.
Social playlists have been added (Big Team Battle and Holiday Social).
Holiday Doubles playlist added (ranked).
Advanced controller setting options have been added, including controls for aim acceleration as well as deadzone controls. These settings are automatically set to the previous defaults you've been playing on. Full details here.
Added custom game option to enable Machinima controls.
Seasons for ranked playlists have been added; The January 2016 Season begins today.
Enabled the ability to purchase multiple gold REQ Packs in one single purchase, several of which include free bonus packs. (These will be coming online within the next few days).

Multiplayer:

FFA playlist reduced to 6 players from 8 players.
Fixed the Warzone Assault armory exploit
Replaced Scorpion on Recurve with Gauss Warthog.
Removed Mantis from Guillotine and added a Warthog for each team.
Fixed spawning bug that sometimes spawned a player on Red team in the Blue base on Deadlock at the start of a match.
Fixed an issue where players could escape Gambol’s normal play boundaries.
Added interactive switches to Deadlock to control window shutters and doors for each base.
Fixed a bug in Breakout that awarded kills after the flag has been captured.
Add Flag Grabs statistic to the post-game carnage report.
Fixed a Free-For-All bug where kills were shown in scoreboard rather than score.
Added medal for melee’s performed to an enemy’s back.
Added in-game text for Flag Driver medal.

Campaign:

Improved stability when joining a Fireteam’s Campaign mission in progress.
Joining a Fireteam’s Campaign mission in progress will no long force all Fireteam members back to the character select screen.
Fixed a bug on Guardians that hindered a player’s movement if they’ve died and were unable to complete the mission.

Ranking:

Adjusted CSR placements for SWAT and FFA playlists.
Fixed bugs surrounding players being placed too high across all playlists.

User Interface:

Lobby:
- Amount of REQ Points and number of unopened REQ packs will be visible during intermission and in Lobby.
- Fixed bug around Fireteam sorting - The Fireteam Leader will now be displayed at the top followed by his or her team in alphabetical order by Gamertag. For Custom Games, all other teams will be grouped together and then sorted alphabetically as well.
Active Roster:
- Friend Status will now be visible from the Friends list so you can see what your friends are doing in Halo 5: Guardians.
- Fixed bug around Friend sorting so it sorts online and offline friends alphabetically.
Spartan Hub / REQs:
- REQ Rarity and Description will be visible for all REQs when opening a REQ pack or browsing your Collection whether you own it or not.
- REQ Energy Cost will also be displayed for all REQs when opening a REQ pack or browsing your REQ Collection.
Spectate / Theater:
- Added hidden controls to change player POV for up to 8 players in the match. Holding left trigger will enable the use of the d-pad and ABXY face buttons to change player POV on the fly. Players are mapped to buttons alphabetically.
- Added ability to change player POV from the Scoreboard. Press the View button to bring up the Scoreboard; use d-pad to navigate and A-button to select a POV.
- Fixed bug around Player POV Selector sorting. It will now sort by team, and then alphabetically by Gamertag.
- Fixed bug around controls for Zooming while in Free Cam.
- Fixed bug around not being able to hide the Player POV Selector in some cases when toggling UI visibility.
- Fixed a bug where ending a theater film placed players into a solo campaign lobby
- Added ability to play and pause film while UI is hidden using the A button.
HUD:
- The location callout will now appear when dead, spectating, in Smart-Link, etc.
- The Highest Score per Column in the in-game Scoreboard will have a visual callout allowing you to see very quickly which player has the most kills, most assists, and least deaths.
Controls:
- Added advanced controller options. Full details here.
- Added custom controls (Default control scheme) for Machinima custom game option:
- Lower Weapon: Hold X and D-pad down for two seconds
- Detach camera in gameplay: Hold X and D-pad up for two seconds
- Toggle camera control mode when detached (Normal and Pan): Hold X and press d-pad left
- Toggle between Spartan and camera control when detached: Press View button
- Display Spartan/camera position coordinates: Hold X and press d-pad right