Exactly a month after its February 21 launch, Halo Wars 2 has received its first add-on content. The Kinsano pack adds a new leader and a bunch of new units, while a new patch released today brings a whole load of bug fixes and overall improvements.

　　Lt. Colonel Morgan Kinsano is the first of many new leaders to be added in the months after Halo Wars 2's launch--more will drop every month, says developer 343 Industries. The Lt. Colonel's abilities include Helldrop, which brings in friendly reinforcements from the sky; Hellcharge, which buffs friendly units' speed and damage stats; and Inferno, a huge blast of fire that's expensive to use but lethal to everything in its area of effect.

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　　Now Playing: Halo Wars 2 Video Review

　　Kinsano pilots a personalized Flame Cyclops, whose dual flamethrowers make it deadly at close range. Accompanying units--the Flame Warthog, Veteran Flame Hog, and Veteran Hellbringers--continue the fire theme and are particularly suited to short-range combat against enemy infantry.

　　The DLC, which is out now, costs US $5.99 / £4.79 / AU $9.95, and it's included in the season pass.

　　Halo Wars 2 was also updated for all players today, and the patch mostly fixes bugs and brings minor performance enhancements--check out all the details below.

　　

Halo Wars 2 March Patch Notes

Crashes / Errors / Performance

Fixed a crash that occurred in Skirmish against AI opponentsFixed some error handling with Xbox live service messagesFixed a crash that can occur in a LASO play throughFixed a hardlock that could occur when loading into "Lights Out"Fixed a desync that could be hit in FirefightFixed a crash that could occur while watching the prologue cinematicFixed a crash that could occur while a user signs out while loading into a certain game modeFixed a crash that could occur when transporting newly deployed unitsFixed an Windows 10-specific issue with the game hanging sometimes when restarting a missionFixed some suspend/idle issues that caused infinite loadsFixed some Intel Iris Graphics 520 issues that could cause a crashImproved performance when running on various Intel integrated GPUsFixed some improper localization strings in controller layout while playing the Basic TutorialFixed an issue that could cause a crash when a Wolverine is destroyed by a Lightbridge toggling off while it was on itImproved stability by fixing a large variety of one-off crashesFixed some performance hitches in Campaign that were caused by scripted events triggering

Gameplay

Fixed an issue where players were sometimes able to quickly assign one Leader Power point to two different Leader PowersAI now garrisons a bit more often in Legendary when low on healthNightingale Smoke bombs now stop Turrets shooting outside of the smoke, identical to how units behaveDamage against Bases show as soon as it happensFixed an issue with Hornets sometimes not responding to Banished unit attacksFixed an issue with pressing the 'Q' key twice did not select all units, if there were no units on the screenFixed an issue with Challenges sometimes not progressing in Solo/Team War or Team Objective PlaylistsFixed Shift-Right-clicking to set multiple waypoints not working in some casesFixed an issue with AI ignoring Sentinel recaptured Control PointsFixed some units getting stuck on the campaign mission The HaloFixed a bug where the enemy AI retreats too often on NormalFixed an issue where the AI would sometimes kill its own units by toggling a LightbridgeFixed an issue with units doing no damage in a specific scenarioFixed an issue with Departures video being unlocked after completing The HaloFixed a bug with Just the Facts and The Full Story achievements not triggering properlyFixed an issue where players would get their Favorite Leader instead of the one pickedVarious unit animation fixesAdded three new achievements unique to the upcoming Kinsano leader DLC

Cosmetic

Fixed some text truncation that could occur in some Campaign missionsFixed some text in a few Phoenix logsFixed some UI callouts for failed objectives in a previously played mission showing in a different mission

Audio

Fixed some cases of audio corruption when multiple sound effects were played at the same timeFixed an issue with vehicle engine audio stuttering when on the edge of battleFixed an issue with clipping/corruption occurring in higher waves of Blitz Firefight

Design & Balance Changes

Note: Balance changes affect units in standard and Blitz multiplayer modes unless otherwise noted.

　　For Halo Wars 2 game designer notes and context surrounding these changes, please check out the March 16 Community Update blog.

　　

Leader Powers

Shipmaster's Scout mines cannot be dropped on buildings anymoreThe Banished Cleansing Beam speed slightly reducedODSTs cost increased from 600 to 800, HP slightly decreased

Economy

Adjusted the Supply income curve to give less of a bonus income on the first few Supply Pads/Warehouses, but less limiting as player’s build additional pads.

Leaders:

Sgt. Forge: Removed the discount on Supply Pads and Reactors in the Rolling Economy leader powerSgt. Forge: Accelerated Assembly and Lotus mines swapped places

Units

Jump Pack Brutes

Increased HPIncased basic DPSSlight increase to move speed

Hellbringers

Significant increase to HPSignificant increase to fire damage dealt to basic infantry unitsMove speed slightly increasedCost reduced from 80/50 to 80/40Reduced pre-attack and post-attack cooldown to improve responsiveness

Suicide Grunts (NOT Blitz Suicide Grunts)

Increased HPBase damage decreasedBase AOE range increasedMove speed slightly increasedCharge distance increasedCharge speed decreasedCost reduced from 100/25 to 100/20

Elite Rangers

Significantly increased HPArmor type changed to be more resistant to small arms fire from Marine & Grunt squadsCost reworked from 80/110 to 125/90DPS increased

Jackrabbit

Cost reduced from 220/15 to 200/12

Ghost

Cost reduced from 265/20 to 230/15

Chopper

Cost reduced from 280/20 to 245/15

Hunters

Cost reduced from 150/200 to 160/160DPS reduced

Cyclops

Cost reduced from 120/150 to 120/120DPS reduced

　　

Wraiths

　　HP significantly increasedShields significantly increasedBuild time reducedCost changed from 550/40 to 525/70Plasma Cannon DPS increasedPlasma Mortar DPS increasedPlasma Mortar Fire rate increasedY ability initial damage increased significantlyIncoming healing reduced

　　

Scorpion

　　HP increasedCost changed from 650/50 to 600/90Machinegun DPS increasedCannon DPS increasedCannon AOE size decreasedCanister shell DPS increasedCanister shell AOE size increasedIncoming healing reduced

　　

Grizzly

　　HP increasedMachinegun DPS increasedMissile pod DPS increasedCannon DPS increasedMissile Barrage ability damage increased

Grunts

Grunt squad build time reducedOverall DPS increased for basic and mine-upgrade squadsOverall DPS increased for pack brother upgrade squads

Marines

Grenade DPS decreased significantlyGrenade large AOE size reduced

Anders’ Sentinels

Move speed decreasedNo longer has a huge damage bonus vs. buildingsGeneral DPS decreasedLockdown Bolt damage decreased significantly

Banshees

Banshee Plasma Torpedo damage reduced

Locusts

Basic DPS slightly reducedLine of sight range reducedWeapon range reduced

　　

Base Turrets

　　UNSC and Banished upgraded turrets DPS increasedBanished turrets HP increasedUNSC turrets build time reducedBanished turret build time reduced

Strongholds

UNSC and Banished HQ HP increased to a constant, high HP amount across all tech tiers