

This new version of Forge allows users to choose up to three colours for any individual object, choose textures for objects such as dust, grime and snow, place weather and visual effects on a map and even change the map's skybox entirely. This improved variant of Forge brought about the most significant changes to the mode since those of Halo: Reach, completely overhauling Forge to resemble an development kit moreso than a simple map editor. With Halo 5: Guardians, Forge was not included in the game's initial release, instead being delayed until the release of Cartographer's Gift. The Forge component of Halo 2: Anniversary brought with it the inclusion of large terrain components and basic scripting, allowing users to make interaction with props in the world. With the release of Halo 4 in 2012, Forge was once again updated with a number of quality-of-life fixes including snappable magnets, highlights of selected objects and baked lighting on user-made maps, alongside four new Forge canvases - Impact, Erosion, Ravine and Forge Island. Reach also brought with it an entirely dedicated Forge canvas and the currently-largest multiplayer space present in any Halo game, Forge World.

Throughout Halo 3, players were able to find a number of exploits that would allow them to place objects in the air and phased inside one another, which Bungie eventually implemented as the "Fixed" and "Phased" physics features in Reach, and have remained a staple of the mode since. The scenery and layouts of these maps are almost entirely composed of movable and removable Forge objects. The amount of time and dedication spent by players in Forge mode led to the release of two Forge-specific maps, Foundry - which was released in the Heroic Map Pack - and Sandbox, which was released in the Mythic Map Pack. Maps altered in Forge are referred to as map variants, and possible alterations include the modification of player spawn points, gametype objective points, weapon, vehicle and the addition of scenery items such as crates, fusion coils, gravity lifts, teleporters, and various other items. Forge was originally created to be used by players to make relatively simple changes to maps in order to tweak their gameplay experience.

For a comprehensive list of each game's improvements to Forge, please see the respective page - Halo 3 Forge, Halo: Reach Forge, Halo 4 Forge, Halo 2: Anniversary Forge, Halo 5: Guardians Forge, and Halo Infinite Forgeįorge is a game mode originally released in Halo 3 designed to allow players to customize, save and share maps for custom games.
