One of Halo Infinite's new weapons, the Mangler, might be getting a nerf in the future. While no official changes have been announced, 343 Industries recently stated it was aware of the feedback regarding the weapon and that discussions are happening internally.

The news comes via Halo esports and viewership lead Tahir “Tashi” Hasandjekic, who recently responded on Twitter to Halo pro Snip3down's suggestion that the weapon needs to be on a longer spawn cycle. Other pros began to chime in, asking for a better flow of communication between players and 343 in regards to balance changes and feedback. Tashi stated that 343 has "definitely been seeing all of the feedback and talking about it internally (especially for big ones like the Mangler)," and stated to those in the thread that official feedback surveys were on the way "so we can capture it all in a clear and concise way."

The discussion about the Mangler isn't exactly new, but has ramped up recently. The official Cloud9 esports team Twitter account went so far to ask the official Halo account "how many likes to delete the Mangler" early last week. The Mangler is, it must be said, is undeniably powerful. Two shots with the Brute revolver will take down an opponent's shields. One more follow-up shot to the head will finish them off. Because it's a Brute weapon, it also does increased melee damage, meaning players can pop off one shot before meleeing with it to score an easy kill. While the weapon does have a slow firing speed, isn't great at medium and long ranges, and requires some precision to finish off an enemy with a headshot, in skilled hands it can still be a powerhouse. There's also the issue of just how prevalent the weapon is. Thanks to the weapon's fast respawn timer and large ammo pool, there's a potentially large number of Manglers being used for a long period of time in any given match.