Summary
Battlefield 2042’s sixth season, subtitledDark Creations, is now live, and it’s adding a spooky twist to the futuristic theming. Season 6 is currentlythe latest confirmed season of content forBattlefield 2042.
Initially released to mixed reception in 2021, DICE and EA’sBattlefield 2042has seen something of a resurgencein popularity thanks to its multiple seasons of post-launch content, each one adding new battle maps, weapons, game modes, and gameplay and quality-of-life improvements among a litany of other tweaks. Season 6 is the latest of such packages, available as of 12:00 UTC on October 10 (following Update 6.0.0 four hours earlier), and is adding a similar caliber of content. Not only does Season 6 tie into the Halloween season, but notably it launches rather close toBattlefield 2042’s two-year anniversary next month.
One of the biggest selling points of Season 6 is a new stage, simply named “Redacted.” Described as “claustrophobic,” the stage is designed to help players embrace their fearsand embraces close-quarters gunplay. It contains four different connected rooms, including the Boreas Laboratory, Field Testing, Stress Testing, and the Maintenance tunnel. New weapons include the G428, L9CZ, and VHX D3, which are a DRM, sidearm, and assault rifle, respectively. Ammo and medical pouches can now be found on the maps and thrown at squad-mates to lend them a hand. The YUV-2 “Pondhawk” is added as a new vehicle, which can hold two passengers and fly them around quickly.
Season 6 will also continueBattlefield 2042’s Battle Pass, adding in 100+ reward tiers alongside the usual influx of cosmetic skins for playable characters (16), vehicles (13), and weapons (22). A few of each will automatically come with the update, but players who buy the Premium version will get the rest, which can also be downloaded separately. This season also introduces the Battle Pass Ultimate Pack, which includes the Premium Battle Pass alongside a couple of exclusive cosmetics and the ability to skip over 20 reward tiers. Several quality-of-life improvements have also been added to improve the experience for everyone.
Season 6 ofBattlefield 2042is certainly looking to be a good time for fans, and it should be interesting to see how these new additions might affect the game’s online meta. Likewise, it should also be interesting to see whether more seasons of post-release content might come afterward, possibly with more tie-ins to different holidays.
Battlefield 2042 Season 6 Full Notes:
WHAT’S NEW IN SEASON 6?
Here is an overview of the new content, alongside highlights for changes and improvements:
When can I play?
Update 6.0.0 deploys at 08:00 UTC on Tuesday, October 10. Season 6: Dark Creations and its Battle Pass progression starts at 12:00 UTC on the same day.
With the deployment of the 6.0.0 Update, 24/7 playlists for Redacted will immediately be available on both Conquest and Breakthrough.
Stay Informed
Follow us on the@BattlefieldCommTwitter account to stay informed on the roll out of our updates. you’re able to also follow along with our tracking ofKnown Issuesand further game changes we’re making via ourBattlefield forums.
Tune in
Check out theInside Battlefield Podcastif you’d like to listen to the team talking about the new content.
New Map: Redacted
Inspired by fan-favorite maps from Battlefield’s past like Operation Locker (Battlefield™ 4) and Operation Metro (Battlefield™ 3). This claustrophobic, close-quarters combat focused map takes place in the Scottish Hebrides where an “incident” has revealed a hidden tech-research facility performing classified experiments.
Located within an underground subterranean environment, this is our first map in the Battlefield franchise that offers no outdoor environment. You’ll need to use the tight corridors and elevated areas to play the enemy into your hand - or risk falling into a trap yourself.
This facility – with its biodomes and laboratories – hides more than its fair share of secrets for you to discover as you seek out your prey. Just be sure not to get distracted as the enemy will use any chance to turn the tables and ambush you.
If you’d like to learn more about the creative processes that went into Redacted,take a look at our Dev Notesfrom yesterday and keep your eyes peeled for anInside Battlefield Podcastwhere we discuss things even further!
Boreas Laboratory
The laboratory area is Boreas' crown jewel and where the bulk of the forbidden research is happening. The lab is divided into two large rooms, split down the middle by a trench-like corridor with racks of servers on either side. Inside the laboratory rooms, large 3D printers are producing prosthetic parts, which you can also see scattered across the level. The laboratory offers close to mid-distance combat, where the looming printers offer excellent cover if you want to get up close and personal with your opponent.
Field testing
After you’ve passed through the laboratory, you enter the Field Testing area, where small, make-shift houses, provide cover and gives further hints as to what has happened in this facility. The lighting and atmosphere is due to send shivers down your spine, but you better stay alert, as the protruding rocks give both you, and your enemy, ample opportunity to flank.
Stress testing
If you’ve survived long enough to make it to the next biodome, you’ll soon notice the difference in both layout and atmosphere that the Stress Testing area has to offer. While it might feel less claustrophobic it does make vulnerable to enemy sniper fire, as this biodome opens up to long-range combat as well. If you prefer the high-ground, the stacked containers can offer you relative safety, but that means you have to get smack in the middle of the biodome, which means you’ll have to constantly watch your six.
Maintenance tunnel
If at any time you want to leave the frantic combat near the flags and enjoy a moment of peace and quiet, the maintenance tunnels can at least offer you the former. The dimly lit tunnels allow you to flank and run directly to any of the flags, but you better stay frosty, as your enemy might have already had the same idea.
New Weapons:G428, L9CZ and VHX D3
The weapons arsenal is expanding this Season with not only new weapons, but also further much community requested improvements to Vault Weapons.
G428
An all new DMR offering exceptional accuracy and substantial penetration power that can help you turn your enemies into prey.
L9CZ
This semi-automatic, highly accurate sidearm is your new best friend in close quarters situations when your primary weapon runs dry.
VHX D3
This unique and futuristic assault rifle features optimized portability and performance, making it a valuable asset for close and medium-range combat. Portable. Powerful. And pulverizing to any enemy that comes out of the shadows.
New Gadgets: Ammo & Medical Pouches
Ammo & Medical Pouches -Support your squad by throwing them pouches that will let them replenish their ammo or health. A valuable lifeline when you find death creeping on you and your team.
New Vehicle: YUV-2 “Pondhawk”
A dynamic two-person transport featuring flight capabilities, letting you and a buddy quickly provide support and rush objectives.
New Battle Pass
Season 6: Dark Creations will include an all new Battle Pass with over 100 tiers of rewards. As always, our gameplay-affecting items – weapons, vehicles, gadgets – are earnable without purchasing the Premium version of the Battle Pass.
We’re also introducing the Battle Pass Ultimate Pack, a new option for the Battle Pass that will allow you faster progress through tier skips while also granting you exclusive skins.
QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS
Dev Notes: Aim Assist Improvements for Controllers
With this update we set out to improve the experience of aiming and aim assist for controller peripherals with a high degree of customizability.
Our goal with aim assist on Battlefield is to make controller aim more accurate while retaining the challenge and skill required of aiming within a First Person Shooter. Aim assist is not only about the process of helping you aim but also about tuning and customizing the feel of input to your personal taste.
We have made multiple systemic improvements, while also ensuring we don’t obstruct the player.
Alongside code and design changes, we are including a new, carefully tuned Default Aim Input Response Curve with an emphasis on customizability. You will now be able to select between many different Response Curves from previous Battlefield titles. These curves can be found within the options and will alter the feel of your aim stick input. There are also legacy acceleration presets and a new slider for tuning slow down separately from other assist features.
Dev Notes: Vehicle Handling Improvements
One of our key focus areas for Update 6.0 was to improve the Vehicle Handling of Ground Vehicles and how they interact on a mobility level in comparison to the general gameplay pace that Battlefield 2042 offers.
Ground vehicles have received a wide range of changes in relation to their Tank Track Friction, Engine Power Curves, and Vehicle Gravity to allow for more weight and more. Additionally, we have made further changes to Jet Afterburners, Tor Tank balancing and Gunships to further realign and improve ground vehicular combat in cohesion with air and infantry Combat.
Dev Notes: Recon Balancing
Rao’s Cyberwarfare Suite will now trigger all damage states on targeted vehicles, as well as no longer blocking firing on vehicles. Additionally, Rao no longer reveals players around an enemy he has recently hacked and killed. Instead Rao will now reveal enemies in the target’s area when he hacks a target.
This will reveal all information in that area, such as all enemy soldiers, vehicles and gadgets within 10m of the hacked target for a very brief period of time.
We have also made adjustments to the EMP Grenade and Casper’s OV-P Recon Drone to align with this new hacking behavior.
OTHER AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
Subsonic Ammo & Suppressors
The first update is a minor design change regarding Subsonic Ammo, and how it works in combination with Suppressors.
Previously, this combination would hide the directional indicator in the hitmarkers on the receiving end, hiding the orientation of the attacker.
We have decided to update this following our hitmarkers update and to improve the synergy with Suppressors in a way that minimizes frustration for the receiving end and promotes weapon build variety.
Update 6.0:
Camera Recoil
Through Community Feedback we became aware of an issue where the crosshair of a weapon could deviate too much from the center of the screen and was affecting certain weapons a lot more than some others.
This resulted in a lack of consistency between weapons and could make controlling recoil more difficult particularly when it came to quick bursts on higher recoil weapons. We have done a pass on every All-Out Warfare weapon to resolve this issue and improve gunplay.
With the new settings, the weapons will still have some minor movement to transmit the feeling of the recoil but recoil control and bursting should feel more responsive and consistent.
We have additionally taken the chance to do some further small tweaks to the way bolt action recoil works with the camera which should also improve the feel of the weapons and help you keep your aim in follow up shots.
LMG Balance Update
Looking at the recent Update 5.2 release where we updated Vault LMGs Attachments, recoil and other stats, a dispersion change was also done to bring them to where we thought they should be when compared to Assault Rifles and the rest of the roster.
We believe we didn’t quite hit our intended goal with those changes and that we had pushed them a bit too far, where the gunplay when using LMGs didn’t feel quite right.
We decided to do an extra tweaking pass on the entire LMG category, take a look at the changelog below to learn more about the detailed changes coming as part of this update.
DMR Balance Update
DMRs have also received tweaks, but to a much lesser extent. The intention here was not really to do any significant blanket nerfing or buffing, but to review the state of the weapons and make sure they performed as intended. Take a look at the changelog below to learn more about the detailed changes coming as part of this update.
Boris & Crawford Improvements
In response to Engineer feedback, we are taking steps to improve the experience of playing as Boris and Crawford with Update 6.0. As we outlined many months ago as part of the Class Rework, the role of an Engineer is both as an anti-vehicle Specialist and one able to hold down a position and we feel this aspect of Engineer gameplay needed further balance improvements to make the available choices within the class more interesting.
As such, Boris will now have further emphasis on ensuring the uptime of his Sentry Turret in order to have optimal damage output of that Turret, while Crawford will have a completely new Specialist Trait called Deep Pockets which provides an extra rocket to shoulder-fired launchers.
We will continue to assess Engineer feedback, and all the other topics listed above as we begin to hear your thoughts once all these changes are live!
CHANGELOG
AI, Soldier and General Improvements
Dev Comment:We made this change as we noticed that players were sometimes getting stuck performing a revive action when they’re trying to quickly cancel to kill an enemy. This change is to respect your input given to the game.
Dev Comment:This is to reduce player frustration of medics not reviving when they are playing within vehicles, we acknowledge players within vehicles are less likely to jump out and revive.
Maps and Modes
Tactical CQ:
Gadgets & Specialists
Dev Comment:This should help alleviate situations where Spawn Beacons can be wedged into incredibly narrow spaces which prevent deploying on the Spawn Beacon from occurring. Sometimes sneaky doesn’t always mean optimal.
Blasco
Boris
Dev Comment:The common behaviour we saw with players playing as Boris was to place their turret and then forget it entirely in hopes it’d scoop up a kill or two. With this change we’re seeking to incentivise staying near the turret and to use it as a defensive tool placed with intention. Chokepoints, high reaching balconies and corridors are now Boris’ territory.
Casper
Dev Comment:This change comes as part of the EMP / Hacking gameplay behaviour improvements mentioned within Rao’s section to ensure healthy gameplay balance.
Lis
Mackay
Dev Comment:We’ve made these changes to reduce the number of scenarios Mackay could use his grapple hook to get to unintended locations, as well as to reduce what we call the 360 problem which means you’re able to die from 360 degrees of the level around you, which makes it difficult to assess where the danger will come from.
Rao
Explosion Balancing
The following changes are made as our continued efforts to reduce the prevalence of explosions within Battlefield 2042, and ensure that we work towards a more balanced combat field, as intended. We will continue to assess community feedback around this topic.
C5
Vehicles
As you may have seen with ourrecent communications on BattlefieldComms, a large focus for Update 6.0 is to improve the handling and feel of vehicular combat and to move their mobility in line with the pacing of the current state of game.
These changes will ensure that Ground Vehicles remain more grounded, but have the ability to tackle tighter combat scenarios with increased mobility through tank track friction and gravity improvements. We have also taken on board player feedback to address the current power of the EMKV-90 TOR, and taken the opportunity to bring further improvements to Jets.
General
Dev Comment:This is to provide feedback to pilots and drivers when they have been made vulnerable by the Tracer Dart or SOFLAM.
Gunships
EMKV90 TOR
Dev Comment:These changes are being made to underline that the vehicle is suited for a defensive role on the Battlefield, however it is not a vehicle that is about sniping from afar. Range will now become an important factor if you wish to continue with the EMKV90 TOR.
M39, SVK and SVD
VCAR
BSV-M
Battlefield 2042is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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