Looking Back On One Year
Season 5 Evolutions
Coming in 2027
This October Battlefield 6 turns one year old. Since then, we've worked closely with players through Battlefield Labs and live game feedback to evolve and improve the Battlefield experience. Over the last year, we've added four seasons of content, brought back fan-favorite maps like Railway to Golmud and Wake Island, and introduced Naval Warfare. We've also spent that time improving the core Battlefield experience across Battlefield 6 and REDSEC, including combat.
That work has included faster progression, ongoing work for balance between land, air, and naval combat, and Aim Assist tuning that more closely matches the feel of the Open Beta.
As shared in our Battlefield Combat - Gunplay update, we’ve also adjusted recoil and body damage multipliers to make close-range firefights and Time-To-Kill feel more rewarding while placing greater emphasis on precision at longer ranges and refining the “Sweet Spot” range for each sniper rifle.
And we’re not done yet.
Season 5 marks the start of Year 2 for Battlefield 6 and REDSEC.
A few weeks ago, we announced the return of the Open + Elite Series, and the arrival of Rapid Royale, a new way to experience REDSEC that shortens match time and ratchets up the intensity. We'll be sharing much more about Season 5 shortly, but today we're taking an early look at some of the combat and gameplay changes we're currently exploring this season.
As always, everything discussed here is subject to change. Certain features and fixes that don't meet our goals during Battlefield Labs testing may be adjusted, delayed, or removed based on player feedback.
Battlefield 6 and REDSEC Changes
We have several planned changes this season that apply to both Battlefield 6 and REDSEC’s core gameplay.
Changes to Vehicle Health Regeneration & Damage to better reward infantry for good positioning and flanking maneuvers.
Anti-Air System Changes to create a stronger interplay between Anti-Air and aircraft. Such changes include making the cannons for mobile Anti-Air more effective against aircraft and raising the skill requirement for laser designators by requiring users to more consistently track targets in order to maintain lock.
Additional Gunplay Changes include an attachment tuning pass to improve gameplay diversity and a polish pass on animations for certain weapons, gadgets, and poses.
Further Vehicle Balance Changes to make specific vehicles better embody their intended role on the battlefield. These include:
Decreasing the Little Bird’s splash damage against infantry
Increasing the Rate of Fire for secondary turrets (and speeding up how quickly they overheat)
Main Battle Tank (MBT) Munitions have been tuned to be more effective against the kinds of targets they’re intended to be used against
Missiles have received a balance pass across the board to ensure they’re effective but not overpowered
Air Vehicle Resupply Pad Cooldowns are now vehicle-class specific (example: a jet can resupply immediately after a helicopter without waiting for a shared pad timer).
Battle Royale Specific Changes
With the arrival of Rapid Royale and the return for the Open + Elite Series, we’re exploring a number of changes for REDSEC specifically during Season 5, including:
Improved Matchmaking Ranked Bands to create more accurate skill brackets.
Reconnect Features to put you back in the fight in ongoing Battle Royale matches if you crash or disconnect unexpectedly.
Recommended Drop Zones (Casual BR Only) to give newcomers a guided drop zone system to guide them to recommended POIs and nearby loot that avoided immediate squad conflict.
Armor Mechanics and Application Speeds have been significantly accelerated.
Classes Have Received Some Tweaks for Season 5 including the removal of the Drone Specialist and Hazmat Breacher alternate training paths. Further changes include:
Engineers now begin matches with a guided function on the Aim-Guided Launcher already unlocked.
Support’s Supply Bag and Smoke Launcher have moved to the loot pool, with Supply Pouches and Deployable Cover replacing them.
Recon’s Drone has been moved to the loot pool. The Handheld Jammer takes its place.
Class Training Paths Have Been Rebalanced for Season 5, with new distinct tactical upgrades for each class.
Assault:
Level 1: Reduced movement speed penalty when firing while moving.
Level 2: Passive health regeneration triggers 50% faster and provides a 50% improvement on healing. Revive sickness recovery time reduced by 50%.
Level 3: High Explosive Launcher explosions generate 5 fused submunitions.
Level 4: Class gadget resupply rate increases by 10% with each improvement. Effect resets upon death.
Engineer:
Level 1: Resistance to explosive damage is increased by 33%.
Level 2: Armor replating is 33% faster.
Level 3: Aim-Guided Launcher hits immobilize vehicles for 5s.
Level 4: Class gadget resupply rate increases by 10% with each improvement. Effect resets upon death.
Support:
Level 1: Improved weapons control when shooting from mounted positions.
Level 2: Drag downed soldiers 20% faster and revive them 2.5s quicker. Sprint 10% faster when under heavy fire.
Level 3: Reviving a teammate applies an armor plate to them. Placing Deployable Cover spawns a lootable armor plate.
Level 4: Class gadget resupply rate increases by 10% with each improvement. Effect resets upon death.
Recon:
Level 1: Inflicting damage on enemies spots them, marking their position in-world and on the minimap.
Level 2: Downing an enemy spots others within a 25m radius for 5s.
Level 3: Handheld Jammer can disrupt Redeploy Points and Mobile Redeploys within its radius. Enemies who activated the redeploy device are revealed.
Level 4: Class gadget resupply rate increases by 10% with each improvement. Effect resets upon death.
Weapon Balance Changes to increase more satisfying weapon engagement; this includes addressing the meta in REDSEC with forthcoming changes for the KTS100 Mk8, SCW-10, SVDM, SG553R, and KV9. Select weapon categories have received a slight BTK (Bullets to Kill) increase against armor.
10mm PDWs: Now take one more bullet to kill vs armor past 9 meters.
9mm PDWs: Now take one more bullet to kill vs armor past 9 meters.
.300BLK Carbines: Now take one more bullet to kill vs armor within 31 meters.
7.62x39mm PDWs: Now take one more bullet to kill vs armor within 31 meters.
7.62x39mm Carbines: Now take one more bullet to kill vs armor within 31 meters.
7.62x39mm ARs: Now take one more bullet to kill vs armor within 31 meters.
5.56x45mm ARs: Now take an additional bullet to kill vs armor past 46m.
5.56x45mm LMGs: Now take an additional bullet to kill vs armor past 46m.
5.45x39mm ARs: Now take an additional bullet to kill vs armor past 46m.
5.45x39mm LMGs: Now take an additional bullet to kill vs armor past 46m.
7.62mm DMRs: Now take an additional bullet to kill vs armor past 21m and no longer deal improved headshot damage to downed enemies.
Subclass Gadgets Integrated Into Loot Pool so you can scavenge previously class-locked gadgets and use them to your disposal. Gadgets being added to the loot pool include the Smoke Launcher, Supply Bag, Defibrillator, Breaching Dart, and Anti-Drone Gun.
You can find a full breakdown of these changes in greater detail once our Update Notes go live the day before the season goes live.
Season 5 is only the beginning of our second year of content and evolution. Throughout 2027, we’ll continue delivering new content for Battlefield 6 and REDSEC while refining the core systems that define the Battlefield experience.
We're already exploring several areas for future updates. That includes making vehicle gameplay even more immersive, continuing to expand our gunplay systems, and we’re reviewing all of the gadget and vehicle-related explosives to ensure the size, power, and effectiveness of those explosives are balanced with the rest of the game.
As part of the gunplay evolution, we’re testing an improved firing range and performing visual and animation updates across the arsenal. We’re also evaluating the balance and power of bolt-action sniper rifles as well as the ability of players to fight back against those weapons.
We'll have much more to share about all of this in the months ahead.
Whether you joined us at launch last year or you've been playing since Battlefield 1942, thank you for being part of this community. Your feedback continues to shape the game every season and help us make Battlefield better together with every update.
We can’t wait for you to experience Season 5 and beyond in 2027.
We’ll see you on the Battlefield.
– The Battlefield Team
