Halo Infinite Ranks: how progress in Ranked Arenas works and how to advance through the Tiers

How do Ranks work in Halo Infinite's Ranked Arena? Ranked Arena is the most intense of Halo Infinite's four playlists, recommended for experienced players who enjoy highly competitive PvP action. If that sounds like something you can't wait to jump into, read on for everything you need to know about how Ranks work in Halo Infinite.

Halo Infinite Ranks: What are ranks and tiers in Ranked Arena?

Ranks are an indicator of your performance in Ranked Arena matches. While this system isn't entirely new to Halo Infinite, it has been overhauled and expanded since Halo 5.

Halo Infinite Ranked Arena features a total of 31 Ranks for you to progress through. These are divided into six named tiers, five of which are split up into 30 numbered sub-divisions, with only the very top tier standing alone. If that sounds a little complicated, we agree, but it can be quite easily broken down as follows:

• Bronze: I-VI (Ranks 1-6)
• Silver: I-VI (Ranks 7-12)
• Gold: I-VI (Ranks 13-18)
• Platinum: I-VI (Ranks 19-24)
• Diamond: I-VI (Ranks 25-30)
• Onyx (Rank 31)

When entering Ranked Arena matches, you will be matched with players near to your own tier — so newbies on Bronze or Silver tiers needn't fear running into an Onyx wunderkind capable of annihilating you within seconds. That particular pleasure should only become a possibility once you reach Diamond (or thereabouts), when you'll be much more prepared to meet them head-on.

To receive your first ranking, you must complete 10 'placement matches'. You'll then receive your starter Rank, which won't necessarily be Bronze I but will be somewhere in that region. To climb further up the ranks, you'll simply need to keep playing Ranked Arena matches. But bear in mind that unlike a levelling progression system, your Rank can go down as well as up, depending on your performance in multiplayer matches on this playlist.

How to improve your Rank in Halo Infinite Ranked Arena

Unfortunately, unlike grinding for XP, there's no easy formula to help you advance through the ranks in Halo Infinite's multiplayer arenas. You just have to be really, really good at the game if you want to achieve Onyx tier; and in general the key to improving is to play lots of matches, ideally win a lot of them, and keep improving at the game.

That being said, I can't leave you with "get good" as my only words of advice, so here's one tip I can pass along for now: get yourself a reliable team who you can play Ranked Arena matches with regularly. Strangers can surprise you, but it's not always a good surprise, and it's much better to trust your friends to help you maintain and improve your hard-earned rank than a group of randos.

Second bit of advice: while there are four game modes on the Ranked Arena playlist, two of them are a little bit more generous with their points. Capture The Flag and Oddball let your team accumulate points whenever you're holding the objective, while Slayer and Strongholds are a bit more miserly with the conditions under which you'll reap rewards. Points contribute towards increasing your ranking even if you lose a match overall, so focusing on these two modes is as close to grinding for a better ranking as you can really get.

Finally, a point of etiquette to note: it's considered really bad form to drop out of a Ranked Arena match if it looks like you're going to lose. Please play to the end so that everyone can get to enjoy the full experience. Furthermore, getting a reputation for this sort of behaviour can make it hard to attract regular teammates, so it's likely to actually hinder you in the long-term.

We hope that this guide has helped you to understand the Ranked Arena and its rank and tier system in Halo Infinite. To reach the top of your game you're going to need to know your way around the weapons on offer, so check out our guide to the best guns in Halo Infinite. And if, like many of our readers, you want to know how to set up a controller for the best experience, have a look at our suggestions for the best controller settings for Halo Infinite on PC.