HALO: THE MASTER CHIEF COLLECTION

Installation & Patches Tips from I IZ CAB0OSE

Unless youre one of the fortunate few, you have experienced many issues with the Master Chief
Collection. Some of these issues are inherent to the game and cannot be alleviated without software
patches from 343 Industries. Unfortunately, there is nothing that the individual player can do about
those. However, there are a number of issues that are related to the Xbox One platform itself that the
player may be able to control.
On the following pages, you will find a collection of these tips collated from other players. This list is not
endorsed by Microsoft , 343 Industries, or anyone else (including myself). It is information freely
available at many forums and has been collated into this document for convenience. There is no
guarantee that following this guidance will ensure proper or satisfactory operation of Halo: MCC, as
there are known cases where none of this guidance resulted in proper game operation.
TIPS INCLUDED:
1. Initial Installation
2. Patch Installation (Simple)
3. Patch Installation (Complete)
4. NAT Reset (Simple)
5. NAT Reset (Port Forwarding)

Initial Installation
1. If installing from a disk, go OFFLINE until installation has completed.
(Settings Network Settings)
2. If installing from a disk or digital, some users have reported success by first RESTORING
FACTORY DEFAULTS - which will remove your customization of the Xbox One interface .
(Settings System)
3. Once installation is complete, completely power down your Xbox in the following manner:
a. Put the Xbox into sleep mode using:
i. The controller; or,
ii. The Turn Xbox Off selection from the Settings Power & Startup menu; or,
iii. Holding the lighted power button on the front of the console.
b. Unplug the power supply cord from the wall.
c. Wait approximately 1 minute.
d. Plug in the power supply cord and turn on the console.
4. Remember to reconnect to Xbox Live after the console reboots. More than 15GB of patches
must be installed prior to playing.
(Settings Network Settings)
5. Turn off the INSTANT-ON feature to prevent the Xbox from updating its software without giving
you the option of performing a complete power-down to ensure stability after installation. It
also avoids a known problem with Instant-On resetting NAT status, particularly if you connect to
your router using the UPnP protocol.
(Settings Power & Startup Save Energy)

Patch Installation (Simple Method)

1. Follow the prompts to initiate patch installation.
2. Once installation is complete, turn off the INSTANT-ON feature to prevent the Xbox from
updating its software without giving you the option of performing a complete power-down to
ensure stability after installation. It also avoids a known problem with Instant-On resetting NAT
status, particularly if you connect to your router using the UPnP protocol.
3.
(Settings Power & Startup Save Energy)
4. Completely power down your Xbox in the following manner:
a. Put the Xbox into sleep mode using:
i. The controller; or,
ii. The Turn Xbox Off selection from the Settings Power & Startup menu; or,
iii. Holding the lighted power button on the front of the console.
b. Unplug the power supply cord from the wall.
c. Wait approximately 1 minute.
d. Plug in the power supply cord and turn on the console.
5. Turn on the console. The MCC should be ready to play.

Patch Installation (Complete Method from PerfectJust1ce)

1. Follow the prompts to initiate patch installation.
2. Once installation is complete, go to the Xbox One HOME menu.
3. Highlight Halo: MCC and press the Menu button on your controller.
4. Select MANAGE GAME on the popup menu that appears.
5. On the right-hand side, select SAVE DATA and delete it from the console.
If you delete everywhere, your campaign progress will be deleted!
6. Turn off the INSTANT-ON feature to prevent the Xbox from updating its software without giving
you the option of performing a complete power-down to ensure stability after installation. It
also avoids a known problem with Instant-On resetting NAT status, particularly if you connect to
your router using the UPnP protocol.
(Settings Power & Startup Save Energy)
7. Completely power down your Xbox in the following manner:
a. Put the Xbox into sleep mode using:
i. The controller; or,
ii. The Turn Xbox Off selection from the Settings Power & Startup menu; or,
iii. Holding the lighted power button on the front of the console.
b. Unplug the power supply cord from the wall.
c. Wait approximately 1 minute.
d. Plug in the power supply cord and turn on the console.
8. Turn on the console. The MCC should be ready to play.

NAT Reset (Simple)

Why is NAT important? Since Halo: MCC is currently using console-to-console connections rather than
dedicated servers, your NAT type can potentially limit the players you can connect with. A NAT type of
Open can connect with all players. Moderate cannot connect with Strict and is unlikely to be
chosen as host. Strict can only connect with Open and is prohibited from being host.
Once dedicated servers are restored, NAT type will matter only for cooperative campaign play or
customs. Until then, NAT can be very important in your ability to play the multiplayer side of MCC.

1. From the Xbox main menu, go to Settings Network Settings.

2. Select TEST MULTIPLAYER CONNECTION.
3. When the test is complete and before you acknowledge the test results, hold both bumpers
and triggers. This will take you to the Detailed Network Statistics page.
4. In the right-hand column second from the bottom you will see Detailed NAT Information.
This will take a minute or so to update. When it updates, you will see one of three possible
states listed:
a. Your network is behind a cone NAT.
b. Your network is behind a port-restricted NAT.
c. Your network is behind a port-preserving port-symmetric NAT.
5. If you are not behind a cone NAT, go back to the test results page and perform Step 3 again.
This may need to be repeated several times in order for your network to show that it is behind a
cone NAT (which means Open).
6. If this is not successful, you may want to try port forwarding (next page).
7. If this is successful, turn off the INSTANT-ON feature. Doing so avoids a known problem with
Instant-On resetting NAT status, particularly if you connect to your router using the UPnP
protocol.
(Settings Power & Startup Save Energy)
8. Remember to recheck NAT status each time before you load the MCC to play multiplayer.

NAT Reset (Port Forwarding)

There are several ways to accomplish port forwarding. I will describe just one of them, which should
work for most routers. An additional resource for port forwarding is http://portforward.com.
1. From the Xbox home menu, go to Settings Network Settings Advanced Settings.
2. Write down the following information you see:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.

IP address
Subnet mask
Gateway
Primary DNS
Secondary DNS
Wired MAC
Wireless MAC

3. Note the final section of the IP address. The allowable range for this number is 0 to 255. Most
routers use a sequential set of 10 or 20 numbers for assigning local IP addresses to devices. You
want to choose an IP address that is outside of this range so simply adding or subtracting 50 or
so from the final number would work. Alternatively, the configuration software for your router
should have an IP Address Range listed somewhere. Just choose a number outside of that
range.
Example:
The Xbox gives you an IP address of 198.167.58.7. For the next step, use IP address
198.167.58.57.
Note: Dont use 255. The highest number you should manually set is 254.
4. Rather than let your router choose the IP address, have the Xbox request a specific address. To
do this:
a.
b.
c.
d.

Select IP SETTINGS from the Advanced Settings menu.

Select MANUAL.
Assign the new IP address you determined in Step 3.
Assign the subnet mask, gateway, DNS, and MAC numbers you wrote down in Step 2.

5. Now set up your router to forward the Xbox Live ports to the manually assigned IP address.
Since this is different for each router, the instructions here will have to be used in conjunction
with your router manual and / or the information at http://portforward.com.
a. Open your router software and find the Port Forwarding menu.
b. Forward the following TCP ports to your manually-set IP address:
53, 80, 3074
6

c. Forward the following UDP ports to your manually-set IP address:

53, 88, 500, 3074, 3544, 4500
d. Save these settings in your router configuration.
6. Now perform the NAT Reset (Simple) described on the previous page. If you still cannot get
your NAT changed to Open, try an alternate method at http://portforward.com or contact
your ISP to determine if you are behind a larger network that does not allow local port
forwarding. In many cases, they can help set it up for you.