"Every kid needs their playground".

Badger Den is 2v2 map set inside Bunker 0013, a Rat's Nest inspired UNSC fallout bunker. Bunker 0013's file was misplaced during the post-war clean up and thus was left abandoned and fully stocked after the war. That is until now. With Cortana's armies sweeping across the galaxy, there are few safe havens left. Bunker 0013 is one of them. Off the books and out of sight, it is here were part of the allied resistance plots it's war for liberation.

"Something New, Something Old"

When approaching the build for Badger Den, I wanted to address the tendency for Halo 5 maps to be over-scaled for their themes. With the extended mobility options in H5, many maps are scaled up in terms of room size and ceiling height. In my opinion, this can often deplete the quality of the theme. In Badger Den, I wanted to create a space that made your 7+ foot tall Spartan feel like just that but in a way that still allowed for proper use of the full scope of Spartan abilities.

On top of that, Badger Den uses a blend of unique gameplay altering elements to allow players to change up play how they see fit. Several sections of the map feature destructible elements that open new routes, explosive canisters make even the most seasoned camper sweaty and a stationary Warthog gives players a shot at better controlling the key lane of the map; that is if you can handle a war on two fronts.

"This and That"

Like mentioned above, Badger Den is set in a different section of Bunker 0013, another map of mine that is exploration and puzzle focused. In line with that, Badger Den has references to that map as well as references to Rat's Nest from Halo 3 and Snake Pit by @Aschur . However, I wanted Badger Den to stand out from it's inspirations slightly. If you think the play on this map is fast, you're spot on. The action will be constant as you duck and dive between rooms, halls and secret corridors.

"All in All"

As a personal note, I've been in a bit of a map rut for about a month. Badger Den was the first map I was able to consistently work on and feel good about in awhile. long story short, it was fun to forge again! I wanna give a shoutout to @Foge , @The Omicron and @Erk for helping me test several iterations of this map over and over again.

Also for those of you who love Easter Eggs, this map happens to feature a neat multistep one.Maybe you should try to figure it out in customs. You might even get some candy in the end ;)