Powered by cutting-edge technology that pushes the capabilities of next generation hardware, the game drops players into a near-future, all-out-war experience that includes the franchise’s hallmark, game-changing destruction.
Featuring matches filled with up to 128 players and massive-scale maps on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PCs (Xbox One and PS4 are capped at 64 players and reduced map sizes), this unprecedented scale adds a new dimension to multiplayer battles.
Battlefield 2042 also ups the action with the inclusion of real-time events that reshape the battlefield and tactical combat. All new weapons, vehicles and gadgets give players the freedom to be strategic and create jaw-dropping, only-in-Battlefield moments.
In Battlefield 2042, the world is on the brink. Shortages of food, energy and clean water have led to dozens of failed nations, creating the greatest refugee crisis in human history. Among these Non-Patriated, or No-Pats, are families, farmers, engineers - and even soldiers. Amidst this crisis, the United States and Russia draw the world into an all-out war. No-Pat Specialists join both sides, not fighting for a flag, but for the future of the Non-Patriated in this new world.
Players will jump into the boots of Specialists, an all-new type of playable soldier for the franchise. Inspired by the traditional four Battlefield classes, Specialists will be equipped with their own unique Specialist Trait and Specialty, and will have fully customizable loadouts. As a Specialist, players will have access to a cutting-edge arsenal of weapons, equipment and vehicles to use in battle. These powerful new tools give creative players a wealth of options as they find the perfect combination to fit their play style and outsmart and outgun opponents on the battlefield.
Get a sneak peak of changes and new content coming to Battlefield 2042 from the development team, including our vision to reintroduce classes to 2042, map reworks, weapon additions to in All-Out Warfare, and more.
What we learned from Season 1?
Season 1: Zero Hour has been a special moment for us on the team. We knew how frustrated many were waiting for us to bring all-new content to Battlefield™ 2042. It was humbling for us to see so many of you enjoying our new map Exposure, Lis and her G84 TGM, alongside the BSV and all of the game improvements that have featured over the course of the Season.
Being our first Season, there was plenty of opportunity for us to learn from you all about the experience you had progressing through the Battle Pass, how our new content affects existing balance, and how the changes that we made for this Season specifically changed the experience that you have with the game.
- You want more Hardware. We hear you and we’ll be introducing 2 all new Primary Weapons, and 1 New Sidearm at the start of Season 2, alongside our first two Vault Weapons - beginning our journey for bringing content from Battlefield Portal into the All-Out Warfare Arsenal.
- You enjoyed Kaleidoscope’s rework, and you want to see more of our original maps to be updated faster. In Season 2 we’ll be bringing refreshes for both Renewal, and Orbital. We’re presently planning for each of these refreshed maps to drop in subsequent updates following the release of Update 2.0, which itself will bring an exciting new map to the Battlefield.
- With our first run of Weekly Missions nearing completion, we’ve been able to learn from, and refine our weekly missions to ensure that we have a better balance across mission variety and difficulty.
- We have also reworked the main menu to make it easier to see what’s happening across the game, without needing to go into the different areas of All-Out Warfare, Hazard Zone, and Battlefield Portal.
It genuinely was a joy for us to see you having so much fun on Exposure during Season 1. We appreciated how much you were enjoying the CQC gameplay spaces on the map, and we’re bringing plenty more of that in Season 2. Thank you for playing Season 1: Zero Hour, let’s tell you more about what we’re working on to keep the good times rolling.
Core Feedback: Specialists (and how we’re bringing Classes back to Battlefield)
As we shared in the video, we have started work on a massive overhaul on the way that you’ll play with Specialists. This is a big undertaking for us, and whilst this work won’t feature in Season 2, we’re planning for it to feature in Season 3 later on this year. Presently we’re targeting this to go live in Update 3.2, but as we work through the changes, and incorporate more feedback, we’ll be in the best position to let you know if we can make it happen earlier in the season.
For a full breakdown on our plans, and to find out how you can help to share your feedback on the changes, check out our Core Feedback: Specialists blog here.
For those just looking for the headlines, here’s a summary of the planned changes we’re looking to make.
- We’re reintroducing classic and familiar classes to Battlefield 2042, that place our existing roster of Specialists into the four roles of Assault, Recon, Support, and Engineer.
- Classes: Classes will introduce new restrictions on Gadgets, enabling you to better assess the threat and understand who may be carrying what in their arsenal, as well as assigning new Class Traits to the Specialists that help them to better support their role on the Battlefield.
- Weapons: Weapons will remain unrestricted, as we continue to find that players prefer to have the freedom to choose the loadouts that best suit their playstyle. Naturally the Class Traits we introduce will encourage the familiar style of gameplay known to best suit certain approaches to combat, that will see Recon roles enjoy more success with more long range weaponry, and Support have more effectiveness with heavier weaponry.
- Audio/Visual Improvements: We’re continuing to bring visual and audio improvements to our Specialist Roster. This includes work on their Voices, Body Posture, and Facial Expression changes. We started this work already during Season 1, and will continue to release updates on this throughout the year.
- Balancing: The Specialists themselves will continue to be updated with balance passes that help to best define their roles as unique sub-classes within the new system that we’re designing.
We heard you when you said that you were keen for us to find a way to bring Classes back, and have spent a long time finding the best way for us to make that happen. We’re still keen to hear what you have to say about the work, so please do read through the detailed Core Feedback: Specialists blog here, and let us know your thoughts.
Vault Weapons (bringing Battlefield Portal weapons to the 2042 armory)
In Season 2, you’ll encounter the first of our Battlefield Portal migrations, with Battlefield 3’s iconic M16A3 Assault Rifle, and the M60E4 Light Machine Gun being the first to make the move. They’re being added to the Base Game for Battlefield 2042 as a part of Update 2.0, and not on the free tiers of Season 2’s Battle Pass. You’ll be unlocking these via Assignments, a new system that we’ve developed which will grow as we bring more of Battlefield Portals arsenal into the 2042 armory, and these assignments will remain open and accessible for all players to unlock, no matter when they jump in to play.
Assignments will be familiar to players who have played Battlefield titles in the past. Each weapon will be unlocked through completion of a fixed set of challenges, which when complete will unlock the weapon in your Armory.
From here, you’ll be able to add the weapon into your loadouts the same as you would any of 2042’s other weapons, set them up with their Vault Attachments, and work towards earning their mastery badges.
As an example of those assignments, here’s an example of how you’ll unlock these first two Weapons.
M16A3
- 30 Kills and Assists with Underbarrel Grenade Launchers
- 100 Kills and Assists with M16A3 or SFAR-M GL
M60E4
- 100 Kills and Assists with the M60E4 or PKP-BP
- 100 Teammates Resupplied with Ammo
None of the new Vault Weapons that we bring in from Battlefield Portal will have unlockable, or purchasable Cosmetics, and will not feature Mastery Appearances. We made the decision to maintain their default looks, and increase the speed at which we can add new Vault Weapons in future updates. This allows us to stay focused on their gameplay balance, and correctly mapping them with the backend systems which help us to manage your progression across the game.
In later Season 2 updates, we’re looking to introduce weapons such as the P90, the AKS-74u, and the M98B, with plenty more to come and we will keep sharing updates with you all as we have them. For those of you who didn’t jump in during Season 1: Zero Hour, we’ll be using the Assignments system to allow people to unlock Vehicles, and Specialists as well.
Maps (evolving Renewal and Orbital)
We’ll be following the reworked Kaleidoscope with two new maps during Season 2. In our last Development Update, we were able to show you the work that we were doing on Renewal, trimming down the playspace to give the map better focus, and flow, alongside making big changes to the terrain to ensure that you’re better able to move across the map as Infantry.
We’ve also worked to improve the playspace’s look and feel, changing spaces such as the Solar Station to feature a lot more fortifications, as well as updating the Synesco Building to create more of an entrenched stronghold for players to both attack and defend. These changes to Renewal won’t launch with Season 2, but will feature in the 2.1 Game Update that is planned to release later in September.
Our next map to be revised will be Orbital. Also featured during Season 2, and planned for release in October, Orbital is taking on some big changes that will help to bring it inline with our improved set of standards. With Orbital being one of the maps that was first developed for the game, we know that it’s going to benefit from this attention, and improve the experience that you have on the map.
The first note to share with you is that we’ve moved the two HQ’s closer into the Battlefield, switching Radar and Checkpoint for their corresponding teams HQ’s, and enabled teams to attack the remaining flags on the Battlefield much faster, instead of racing into these two flags first, and not getting into the action faster. Both areas have been revised with new cover, and new looks similar to our work on Renewal and Kaleidoscope, helping to better set the tone for the fight ahead.
Down at the Refinery, we’ve done similar work to update both of these two capture points with new cover, and transformed the connecting tunnel to be a space you can look forward to fighting over, instead of being a space where you just hoon a vehicle through from point to point. The reworked tunnel also provides you with a new exit point, allowing you to duck out, or interrupt a firefight in progress.
Above the tunnel, you’ll also discover a new Capture Point on 128 player layouts, called Security Checkpoint. This playspace connects through to the Tunnel below, and helps to create more movement between the Refinery flags, and the Crawlerway.
Over at the Crawlerway, you’ll notice that the team have done a tonne of work to update this playspace, providing much more of a battle-scarred atmosphere that helps to improve the experience of moving across this previously open space. Cover at D1, and D2 has been increased, helping to up the intensity at both of these popular infantry flags, with way more natural cover present on the Crawlerway itself to help the fighting between B and E.
We’re excited for these two maps to be updated during Season 2 and are already hard at work on our next set of improvements for Season 3, with two further maps presently under review for improvements.
Season 2 (and what to expect)
It’s not long until the start of Season 2. Our new map for Season 2 builds upon the strengths of Exposure, and is perfect for more infantry focused gameplay, with a smaller overall layout, that really brings the intensity for 128 players.
You’ll also be stepping into the boots of an all new Specialist, with their own new unique abilities and gadget, experience new hardware, a new Battle Pass, more featured experiences in Portal, and new ways to play.
Our teams are continuing to work on Season 3 and beyond, and it’s really important to us that we can continue to keep the community playing together in new and exciting ways. Future Seasons will have a similar amount of content to Seasons 1 and 2, so we can focus on the quality of what we’re giving you, which we hope you saw in Season 1’s variety and depth. We can assure you the battlefield will continue to evolve and grow.
Battlefield 2042 includes 3 distinct multiplayer experiences:
- All-Out Warfare - the next generation of fan-favorite modes Conquest and Breakthrough, featuring the largest maps ever for the franchise and for the first time, up to 128 players (on XSX, PS5 and PC). Experience the intensity of All-Out Warfare in large-scale battles like never before on maps filled with dynamic weather, dangerous environmental hazards and spectacular world events that see tornadoes rip across the map and sandstorms block out the sun.
- Hazard Zone - an all-new, high-stakes, squad-based game-type for the Battlefield franchise that is a modern take on the multiplayer experience that is distinctly DICE but very different from All-Out Warfare’s Conquest or Breakthrough modes.
- Portal Mode - A first for the Battlefield franchise, Battlefield Portal is a community-driven platform designed to offer a huge variety of imaginative experiences by giving players the tools to set their own rules and build their own definitive Battlefield experience - and share them with other people.
All Out Warfare launches with seven maps total. Let’s take a quick tour of those:
- Kaleidoscope [Sogdo, South Korea] This cityscape features dense roadways and skyscrapers that can be explored, or if you’ve a wingsuit, leapt off. It’s here that a tornado that dwarves the glittering buildings will make its presence known.
- Manifest [Brani Island, Singapore] Supply lines are under threat in this key location for global trade.
- Orbital [Kourou, French Guiana] Players will battle in the shadow of a towering space rocket pad that’s counting down to an imminent launch.
- Discarded [Alang, India] Clash around, through and on top of massive ship hulks and the surrounding cranes.
- Renewal [Eastern Desert, Egypt] Wrestle for control of an agriculture technology centre in the Egyptian Desert.
- Hourglass [Doha, Qatar] An approaching sandstorm will shift the tide of war taking place at the heart of a city.
- Breakaway [Queen Maud Land, Antarctica] From hot deserts to icy landscapes: oil and gas are the key resources being fought over here. Insert on the mountaintops with a wingsuit and you can dive into industrial buildings below.
Post launch, Battlefield 2042’s first year promises four seasons of content, bringing with them four new Specialists plus new locations. Each season is marked by a new Battle Pass. EA confirms that new locations will be accessible to all players.
Battlefield 2042 is available for Xbox One, PS4, PC ($59.99), for Xbox Series X|S and PS5 ($69.99).
More articles about Battlefield 2042