Hey everyone,
Season 5 is almost here, bringing new places to fight, new ways to play, and plenty of updates across Battlefield.
With three new maps taking us to Vegas across the whole season (including two ready for action right at launch), new weapons joining the arsenal, Rapid Royale arriving in REDSEC, more updates across gameplay and Portal, and Server Browser coming later in the season, there’s a lot heading your way.
Beyond the new content, we also want to use this Community Update to give you some early context on some of the changes arriving alongside Season 5, ahead of our full reveal soon to follow. That includes updates to combat, how we're approaching matchmaking and REDSEC playlist rotations, new updates for Portal, and more.
Let’s take an early look at some of what’s coming with the first phase of Season 5.
These maps will deliver the latest all-out warfare experiences across diverse, dynamic combat environments designed to test every playstyle. Encounters offer a seamless variety of tactical experiences, transitioning from intense, close-quarters infantry engagements through dense interior spaces and elevated vantage points to large-scale combined arms combat. Whether pushing forward in close-range firefights or coordinating across vast terrain under contested skies filled with air and heavy vehicle combat, squads must adapt quickly to survive every theater of war. Keep an eye out for upcoming deep dives as we break down these experiences in the near future.
Season 5 includes a range of balance updates across weapons, classes, vehicles, and anti-vehicle gameplay. Our focus with these changes is to create clearer roles for the tools available to each class, improve the balance between infantry and vehicles, and continue refining how different weapons perform across engagement ranges.
There’s plenty more coming this season beyond what we’re covering today. We’ll be back soon with the full reveal, including more on the new content coming throughout the season.
In the meantime, we want to dig into some of the gameplay changes and improvements arriving alongside Season 5.
Vehicle Improvements
We're continuing to refine the balance between vehicles and the tools available to counter them in Season 5, with updates aimed at creating clearer strengths and weaknesses on both sides of an encounter.
Armored vehicles are receiving adjustments to health regeneration, directional damage, and weak spots, making positioning and where you hit a vehicle more important. Anti-air options are also being adjusted, including improvements to Mobile and Stationary AA cannons, and changes to Scout Helicopter rockets and their resupply timing.
We're also refining vehicle loadouts to give weapons and ammunition clearer roles, alongside updates to aim-guided missiles and anti-vehicle tools such as the M15 AV Mine and the PTKM-1R. Air vehicle resupplies will now be vehicle-specific, with additional quality-of-life improvements to visibility when using High-Velocity Shells.
Together, these changes are aimed at creating more consistent vehicle combat while making positioning, loadout choices, and counterplay more meaningful.
Season 5 brings some changes to our REDSEC playlists, including the arrival of Rapid Royale Solos, updates to our mode rotations, and additional improvements to the Battle Royale experience.
Additionally, the Phantom Program in REDSEC is staying active beyond Season 4, giving you and your squad more time to tackle those challenges.
At the start of Season 5, Rapid Royale Solos will join REDSEC, offering a faster-paced take on the Battle Royale experience.
Rapid Royale is designed to get you into the action quickly, with a more condensed Battle Royale experience built around faster matches and more frequent engagements. Some of you may also recognize elements of Rapid Royale from testing through Battlefield Labs, where your participation helped us evaluate and refine the experience ahead of its Season 5 release.
With Rapid Royale joining the lineup, we're also making some changes to the modes available at the start of the Season. We’ll share more details closer to the release.
With Rapid Royale Solos and Trios releasing in Season 5, we’re also making some changes to the modes available through matchmaking.
Following our testing in Battlefield Labs, we’re confident in the experience Rapid Royale brings to REDSEC and the faster-paced take on Battle Royale it offers. With its launch, we want to give Rapid Royale the best opportunity to deliver that experience with healthy matchmaking, consistently filled matches, and plenty of players jumping into the action together. That means prioritizing Rapid Royale as we head into Season 5 and making some adjustments to the existing lineup.
At the start of Season 5, the current rotation between Battle Royale Solos and Duos will end. We understand Duos is an important way many of you play REDSEC, and we're currently planning for Battle Royale Duos to return later in Season 5.
Soon, we'll share more about our plans for REDSEC rotations moving forward. Our current direction is for Rapid Royale Solos and Battle Royale Duos to rotate, but we'll continue looking at matchmaking data and the overall player experience before finalizing those plans.
We've enjoyed seeing players jump into Gauntlet and compete through its unique round-based experience since REDSEC launched. We’re proud of what the team created with Gauntlet and the different kinds of competitive experience it brought to Battlefield.
At the same time, we want to be transparent that Gauntlet currently represents a much smaller portion of REDSEC play, which can make it increasingly difficult to consistently find and fill matches, particularly in smaller regions or in regions with a smaller Gauntlet population.
With Season 5, we're prioritizing Rapid Royale Solos and will be removing Gauntlet from the active playlist lineup.
This decision allows us to provide healthier matchmaking, more consistently filled matches, and shorter queue times in REDSEC. While Gauntlet will no longer be part of the regular lineup, we're leaving the door open to its return in the future as we continue to monitor how players engage with REDSEC and adjust our playlists when it makes sense for the overall player experience.
This is part of our broader approach to matchmaking and playlist rotations. As we've discussed previously, maintaining too many active playlists can spread players across multiple queues, impacting matchmaking health and the time it takes to get into a match. Our goal with rotations is to balance the variety of ways you can play Battlefield while creating more consistent matches that fill and get you into the action faster.
Beyond playlists, we're making several updates to the Battle Royale experience in Season 5.
Class Training Paths are being updated across Assault, Engineer, Support, and Recon to further define what each class brings to a squad. This includes new benefits around survivability, armor, revives, spotting, and anti-vehicle play. Armor plating will also be 20% faster across all classes.
The Battle Royale loot pool is expanding as well, with more gadgets available across Police Vans, Ambulances, and Class Crates, giving squads more tools to find as a match unfolds.
Finally, Reconnect is coming to REDSEC, allowing you to return to an active match after being disconnected and get back into the fight with your squad.
We've also recently updated Ranked matchmaking bands to better align players within their intended Rank ranges. This change is already live, but we wanted to highlight it here for anyone who may have missed it.
We're making several adjustments to how weapons perform against armored players in Battle Royale, particularly across different engagement distances. PDWs, Carbines, Assault Rifles, and LMGs will require an additional bullet to eliminate armored targets at specific ranges, helping further distinguish where each weapon type is most effective. DMRs are also receiving additional tuning, including changes to the M39 EMR and SVDM, alongside updates to ammunition limits for DMRs and Sniper Rifles.
We're also updating the starting gadgets available to several classes. Engineer will deploy with the Repair Tool and M136 AT, Support with the Supply Pouch and Deployable Cover, and Recon with T-UGS and the Mobile Jammer. Additional gadgets are also being added to the Battle Royale loot pool, giving you more options to build out your loadout as a match unfolds.
We'll have the full weapon-by-weapon breakdown in the Season 5 update notes.
Season 5 continues to expand where and how you can build in Portal, with new maps, new spaces to explore, and more environments opening up to creators.
Both of the new maps in Phase 1 are joining the Portal lineup, water support is expanding across more REDSEC and multiplayer maps, and the Crashed Carrier is making its way into the toolkit as a new POI to build around.
Whether you’re heading to the desert, the Strip, or out to sea, there’s a lot more space to make your own in Season 5.
Two New Maps
Both will be available for builders as Verified Portal Experiences at the start of Season 5, with support for Custom Experiences coming later in the season.
Staying Hydrated in Portal
We’re expanding water support across more Portal maps, giving creators more environments to build experiences that make use of water.
With Season 5, water will expand beyond Ocean Sandbox to include Sandbox and all REDSEC maps, including Complex 3, Defense Nexus, Redline Storage, Area 22B, Marina District, Downtown, Golf Course, and USS Grant.
In later updates, we're planning to expand water support across multiple Battlefield 6 multiplayer maps.
This is another step toward giving creators more flexibility when choosing where and how to build their Portal experiences.
Crashed Carrier POI Coming to Portal
The Crashed Carrier is a US aircraft carrier that was brought down off the coast of Fort Lyndon, creating an all-new POI for Battle Royale, now in Portal starting Season 5.
Drop into this Crashed Carrier to contest a new high-value combat space. This new area features higher-value loot than standard POIs on the map.
There’s plenty more ahead for Battlefield. We’ll continue monitoring the changes arriving with the Season 5 update while working alongside your feedback and building toward what comes next.
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.
