Hey everyone,
Top Gun gave players a substantial new wave of content, particularly around air and naval warfare, and we’ve seen many of you continuing to jump in and enjoy the collaboration. As we previously shared, Carrier Strike and Fighter Sweep have been extended through the entirety of Season 4.
As we prepare for Tidal Strike, we’ve been catching up with teams across Battlefield Studios, including Gameplay Design Director Brian Torrence, Game Designer Jac Carlsson, and members of our Level Design team, to talk through the latest gameplay adjustments, combat updates, and improvements coming your way.
That work starts with some of the feedback we’ve been seeing around the balance of Breakthrough on Tsuru Reef.
We heard your ongoing feedback regarding the current state of Breakthrough on Tsuru Reef. We have been closely monitoring player discussions alongside how matches are playing out, and found that the current balance favors the defending team more heavily than intended.
Addressing this imbalance is a focus for the upcoming update. We’re making several changes designed to give Attackers more opportunities to move forward while maintaining strong defensive play:
Objective & Chokepoint Reworks: We are adjusting capture zone boundaries and moving some objectives across the map to help the attacking team establish a foothold and keep the fight moving.
Route Enhancements: We’re expanding the playable space across sectors to create additional flanking routes, including more ways to use boats to move around defensive positions.
Spawn & Vehicle Tweaks: Attacker and Defender spawn locations and vehicle availability are being adjusted to help improve the flow and balance of each sector.
These changes are intended to create a more balanced fight across Tsuru Reef, and we’ll share all the detailed changes in the upcoming Update Notes.
We’re aware of your feedback around spawn camping in Carrier Strike, particularly situations where teams can come under heavy pressure shortly after spawning. The team is investigating these concerns and looking at where adjustments may be needed to improve the experience.
We’ll share more as that work progresses.
As we move through the final stretch of Battlefield 6’s first year, we’re getting ready to celebrate the journey so far.
Towards the end of September, we’re planning a two-week anniversary event with a series of challenges and rewards to earn as you play. The event will run alongside our regular playlist rotation, so you can work towards the anniversary rewards while playing.
We’ll have more details on the challenges and rewards to share closer to the celebration.
And for those of you looking for another challenge, the REDSEC Phantom Program will be waiting. Put your skills to the test as you work to uncover intel and piece together a powerful access code to find your way through Fort Lyndon’s security system. The Phantom Program will be available in Solos, Duos, and Quads whenever those playlists are active. Good luck!
We’re continuing to make updates across the combat experience, including improvements to aiming clarity and several adjustments to vehicle combat.
Reticle Improvements
We’re making a broad set of improvements to reticles to improve their look, readability, and clarity while aiming. You may have already spotted some early iterations of these changes in our Top Gun trailer, and they’ll be coming to the game with this upcoming update.
Reticles have been redesigned to be cleaner and easier to read across different backgrounds. The reticle shader was adjusted to achieve a better and more prominent “glow” on applicable sights. This pass applies across all reticles, from red dot sights to high-magnification optics, with sharper visuals and more gameplay-focused designs where applicable.
We’ve also refined the sizing of many reticles, including reducing red dots and other elements that could appear larger or thicker than intended. Alongside removing unnecessary visual clutter, these changes are designed to keep your view clearer and help you focus on the information that matters when lining up a shot.
These improvements also extend to sights used on launchers and gadgets, creating a more consistent aiming experience across the Battlefield sandbox.
We’ve also seen your early feedback on the Interdictor and how it’s performing since its arrival with the Top Gun update. The design team is looking at improvements for the weapon, and we’ll share the specific changes once they’re finalized.
Vehicle Improvements
We’re making several adjustments to vehicle combat, with a focus on improving the Patrol Boat’s handling and survivability while creating a healthier balance around minigun fire.
We are reducing oversteer on the RCB-90 Patrol Boat to make it feel more predictable in motion. We’re also reducing the damage that Miniguns deal to Patrol Boats and ATPs, giving these vehicles more room to survive sustained fire. At the same time, the Little Bird’s Minigun will overheat faster, helping create a better balance between sustained aerial fire and the vehicles being targeted.
We’re also adjusting the interaction between pilots and lock-on anti-air weapons. With this update, the directional lock-on indicator for the Lock-Guided AA Missile and IGLA will no longer be shown to pilots.
We’re also keeping a close eye on the Little Bird as we continue looking at the broader balance between air vehicles and anti-air. We’re seeing the most experienced pilots continue to improve, with the top 5% of pilots averaging around three more kills per match than they did six months ago.
At the same time, our data does not currently show the Scout Helicopter as the biggest vehicle threat to players on any map, with IFVs and MBTs accounting for more player kills. Its impact also varies by environment, with the Patrol Boat among its primary threats on Tsuru Reef.
While we aren’t seeing data that suggests the Little Bird has become significantly more impactful overall, we know there’s still room for improvement. We’ll continue monitoring its performance alongside the broader air and anti-air balance and evaluating where further changes may be needed.
The goal is to make vehicle encounters feel more consistent while giving squads more opportunities to react and stay in the fight. We have some targeted changes planned for jets in the next season, and will share more once those changes are finalized.
We’re also bringing several gameplay updates to REDSEC, including new ways to communicate and tools designed to help keep matches fair and engaging.
Proximity Chat
Proximity Chat opens up new ways to communicate with players around you during a match. Who you hear will depend on where they are in relation to you, with voices positioned directionally and affected by the environment around you. Walls can obstruct voices, indoor spaces can change how they sound, and vehicles are also accounted for as part of the experience.
You’ll be able to identify players speaking through Proximity Chat and have access to options to mute or report players when needed. Solo players and parties will also default to Game voice chat so they can take advantage of these interactions.
To give you more control over this experience, we've also added the following options:
Below the Commo Rose, you can now quickly swap channels and globally turn Proximity Chat on or off.
Bringing up the scoreboard in Battle Royale will show a list of recent Proximity Chat users you have heard. From there, you can easily mute, report, or block players by selecting their name via the EA Connect popup.
A maximum of four players can be heard simultaneously. A UI message will alert you when this limit is reached, and other speakers will be squelched until a channel becomes free.
We are excited to bring Proximity Chat to Battlefield Battle Royale, but there is a lot we need to learn from our players, as this is a feature that needs real-world testing to tune its performance. We are looking to gather feedback directly from players as we evaluate audio range, clarity, moderation tools, and the overall impact the feature has on gameplay before expanding it further. During this testing, we may need to switch it on and off to apply fixes and improvements. Once you’ve had a chance to try it, we want to hear what works, what doesn’t, and how it changes the way you communicate on the battlefield.
AFK Kick and Leave Penalty
With this update, we’re introducing additional tools to address players who stop participating in matches or leave competitive experiences before they are finished.
AFK Kick is designed to identify players who have become inactive and provide a clear warning before removing them from the match. Player activity will reset the inactivity detection, and the system accounts for situations where players naturally have less control, such as spectating or waiting to redeploy.
We’re also adding the ability to report a player for being AFK through EA Connect, giving players another way to flag teammates who are not participating.
In addition, we’re introducing Leave Penalties for designated playlists. When attempting to leave one of these matches early, players will receive a warning explaining that a penalty will be applied if they continue. Players who repeatedly leave can receive escalating matchmaking restrictions for the affected playlist.
Our goal with these systems is to protect players who stay and compete while making sure the consequences for leaving or inactivity are clearly communicated.
We are continuing our Battlefield Labs testing as we look ahead to what’s next for Season 5 and beyond.
Our upcoming session will include testing new layouts for New Sobek City and Blackwell Fields in Conquest, with a focus on creating more ways to approach and move through each map. This includes more separation between HQs, additional vertical space to support flanking, more terrain breaks, and more ways to reach rooftops and approach objectives.
We’ll also be testing a range of combat vehicle balance changes, with a focus on how air and ground vehicles interact with each other and their counters. This includes exploring the balance between aircraft and anti-air, as well as how ground vehicles, their weapons, and anti-vehicle tools perform across different combat situations. These tests will help us evaluate where further adjustments can improve the overall vehicle experience.
We’re looking forward to getting these updates into your hands and seeing what you think.
We’re continuing to expand the tools and options available to creators and players in Portal.
With this update, King of the Hill and Domination are being added as Verified Modes, giving you more ways to build and play experiences around these modes.
We’re also introducing a new Ocean Sandbox Map, giving creators an open-water starting point to build experiences from the ocean up. Alongside it, we’re expanding the water and cloud systems available in Portal, opening up more possibilities for how creators shape and customize their experiences.
We’re looking forward to seeing what you build.
There’s plenty more ahead for Battlefield. We’ll continue monitoring the changes arriving with the Tidal Strike update while working alongside you through Battlefield Labs as we test and build toward what comes next.
In case you missed it, our latest Seasonal Anticheat Update covers our ongoing efforts to support fair play across Battlefield, including the latest on Match Infection Rate and other improvements from the Anticheat team. You can read the full update here.
Steam: For the latest updates, keep an eye on Steam Discussions and our BattlefieldComm X account. If you need to report any issues, please visit EA forums. If you want to take part in Q&As, giveaways, community events, or find a squad, join the Battlefield Discord.
See you on the Battlefield.
//The Battlefield Team
This announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content. We will always strive to keep our community as informed as possible.