Battlefield 6: Community Update on What’s Coming in Season 5

Battlefield 6 Community Update: Season 5 Roadmap and Discord Q&A Highlights

Hello, everyone,

Our previous roadmap update in July outlined our plans for Season 5. Now that the season has officially begun, we’d like to share where development stands and what Battlefield 6 will offer between now and the end of the year.

• October – Season 5 Phase 1 (Oct 20): The Battlefield x Dead Space: Convergence Event is live and continues through November 10. If you haven’t explored it yet, our event guide is a good place to start.
• November – Season 5 Phase 2 (Nov 10): The European Casino map, Multiplayer Leaderboards, and a round of balance changes.
• December – Season 5 Phase 3 (Dec 8): The Server Browser and Platoons debut, along with reworked versions of Blackwell Fields and New Sobek City.
• 2027 – Season 6 and beyond: Continued live-service support, balance passes, and much more.

Developers from across Battlefield Studios recently joined the community for our Season 5 Live Q&A on the Battlefield Discord. Over the course of 60 minutes, the team answered 42 questions.

What’s Coming Next?

Several major features and content drops are planned for the rest of the season. Vegas Strip and Area 51 have just arrived, and Phase 2 will bring another battlefield: a close-quarters map set inside a European Casino. We’ll reveal more about this map, and about the Casino Heist event that launches alongside it, as release approaches.

Maps in Season 5

Besides the European Casino, we’re putting effort into refining existing maps. Phase 3 will deliver updated versions of Blackwell Fields and New Sobek City. Our main goal was to give players a wider range of ways to move around each map. That means greater distance between HQs, more playable space along the map edges to encourage flanking, additional breaks in the terrain, and more routes onto rooftops and toward objectives. Expect further details as Phase 3 draws closer.

Server Browser and Matchmaking

We know how eagerly the Server Browser is awaited, so we’d like to answer some of your most common questions while development continues.

The Server Browser will launch alongside our current matchmaking system. Over recent weeks, we’ve already begun rolling out a few changes to test certain features in the live environment.

Our aim is to keep more players together from one match to the next, which is why the Server Browser will use persistent lobbies. If you matchmake through our playlists or Custom Search, you may be placed into official player-hosted servers listed in the Server Browser, or into other official servers that fit your selections. Depending on your map and mode preferences, though, you might be moved to a different server between matches.

The Server Browser will also appear as the first tile in the Quickplay menu for Battlefield 6 owners, making it as easy as possible to find an official experience. Verified and Custom Experiences will be available in the Portal section. A dedicated Server Browser blog, covering its implementation in more depth, is planned for the coming weeks.

Platoons

Platoons remain on track for Season 5 Phase 3. This first release is meant as a foundation, and we intend to broaden its community and social tools over time, guided by how you use them.

At launch, a Platoon can hold up to 100 players and will include custom group names and squad tags. The feature gets its own tab in the main menu, so it will be easy to locate.

From that menu, you’ll be able to create or join a Platoon, shape its identity, and follow your platoon’s combined gameplay stats. Playing alongside fellow Platoon members in your squad will also earn you bonus XP.

The team is thrilled about bringing Platoons in Phase 3 and about seeing the communities you build with them. More information will follow closer to December.

Weapon, Vehicle, and Gadget Balance

As noted in our 2.1.1.0 Update Notes, Season 5’s first update included several vehicle balance changes. We’re now studying live data from those changes and taking an early look at your initial feedback. We want to approach both with care, so we avoid hasty adjustments to armor or helicopter behavior.

We also hear you clearly on the need for multiplayer balance updates. As a preview of our work, we’ve explored nerfing the extended magazines on the SCW-10 and KV9, and buffing several underused attachments that span many weapons. We’re finalizing these changes along with other weapon balance updates planned for Season 5 Phase 2. As always, precise details will appear in our Community Update and Update Notes.

More from the Discord Q&A

Our Battlefield Discord Live Q&A brought together developers from across Battlefield Studios to answer as many community questions as possible. Thank you to everyone who joined us and sent in questions.

Below you’ll find every question and answer from the live session. We’ll also go through the questions we didn’t have time for, and look for future opportunities to cover those topics.

Some questions have been edited from their original Discord posts for length and clarity.

Question: Will Gauntlet or Carrier Strike ever return as a limited-time event?
Answer: We have nothing to announce yet, but we’re keen to bring back both Carrier Strike and Gauntlet Fighter Sweep in future seasons.

Question: Custom Lobbies and Spectator Mode are great features, but could they be offered consistently across all Portal game modes, or at least all Certified modes? Right now availability seems inconsistent. For example, BR Quads supports Custom Lobbies, but BR Duos does not. Ideally, both features would be available in every Portal mode, or at least in modes with two clearly defined teams. Are there plans to expand them?
Answer: Yes. We’re looking at extending spectator mode to more modes in the near future, beginning with the Elite Series in Season 5!

Question: How will the Server Browser tie into matchmaking? For instance, will matchmaking place you in the same persistent servers listed in the browser? And will community servers (within a certain ruleset) be part of the matchmaking pool?
Answer: We know the Server Browser matters to our community, and we want to answer the most common questions we’ve seen. A dedicated Server Browser blog is also on the way with more detail.

The Server Browser will use persistent lobbies, meaning players stay together between rounds on their chosen server. Players who matchmake through Custom Search or official playlists will also be placed into official servers listed in the Server Browser, though they may leave that server between matches depending on their map and mode selections.

To keep this option easily accessible, we currently plan to show the Server Browser as the first tile in the Quickplay menu for Battlefield 6 owners. Within Portal, owners will see a Verified Experiences Server Browser tile, followed by a Custom Server Browser tile for finding user-created experiences. We’re actively testing the Server Browser internally and making progress ahead of launch.

Question: Will you add the two-seater jets to other maps? Can we at least get the Fighter Sweep mod for Portal?
Answer: We’re investigating bringing the new two-seater jets to more maps, but we first need to resolve some technical performance and game balance issues.

Question: When will proximity chat come to multiplayer?
Answer: The first iteration of Proximity Chat in Battle Royale Ranked has given us a lot of valuable insight. We’ll soon extend Prox Chat to Rapid Royale to run more tests and gather more telemetry. We remain committed to bringing the feature to multiplayer, but there’s still work to do before that happens.

Question: Will Commander Mode be added?
Answer: We have no official plans to add Commander Mode at this time.

Question: When will you fix the bug that prevents players from connecting to Portal servers?
Answer: We know this bug has persisted across a couple of releases. The Portal team is still working to establish clear reproduction steps and isolate the cause. Once that’s done, we’ll ship a fix in a future update.

Question: Will you fix the support pouches rolling around like balls? They should behave like pouches and not fly 10 feet away from me.
Answer: We’re conducting a full review of gadgets, and the team is discussing where improvements and adjustments can be made. The Support Pouch is high on our list, but we have no rollout timeline to share yet.

Question: A recent community note said the developers planned to evaluate “the balance and power of bolt-action sniper rifles.” Right now, landing hits on a sniper doesn’t seem to interrupt their ability to hold their breath, focus, and land a one-shot headshot. This frustrates fire support players, who have to land multiple shots through recoil and sway. Do you still plan to improve players’ ability to counter snipers?
Answer: Yes, this is a critical issue we want to address. We’re exploring a range of solutions, from increased sway or dispersion when being counter-sniped, all the way to actual aim deviation when hit. We’ll test these options to find the best fit for Battlefield.

Question: Are there plans to turn Fort Lyndon POIs into multiplayer combat zones or maps? In Portal, the limited number of servers means these potential maps see little play, and adding them to official playlists could also widen the overall map pool.
Answer: We currently have no plans to add Fort Lyndon POIs to the core multiplayer modes. That said, we’ve seen some promising Portal experiences built on these areas, such as “Gulf of Lyndon.” If the Portal community creates a high-quality experience on one of these POIs, we’d be glad to feature it as a recommended tile so more players can discover these maps.

Question: Are there plans to improve REDSEC Ranked matchmaking in the APAC region? Ranked matchmaking has been very difficult in Asia, especially on Singapore servers. Will you improve regional matchmaking, merge matchmaking pools, or add a queue counter so players can see how many others are waiting?
Answer: We hear you. Ranked matchmaking was overhauled during Season 4 to improve competition quality by pairing players of similar rank. That improved the experience in most regions, but we know challenges remain in APAC and South America. The team is testing changes to help ease them, and we’ll keep the community informed.

Question: Given the recent criticism and feedback on the latest update and content (particularly cosmetics), has your approach to developing and supporting the game changed for this and future Seasons? Will you keep the same approach?
Answer: With every patch we ship, we look for ways to improve, and the feedback on the Season 5 launch patch is no different. We examine every issue that slips into live and adjust our process to close those gaps. We’re also reprioritizing current plans to fix and improve the areas players have flagged. We’ll keep doing this and shift our focus toward what matters most to our players.

Question: What’s the most exciting and challenging part of creating a brand-new Battlefield map in a location the franchise has never explored, such as Las Vegas or Area 51? How do you capture the identity of a real-world place while keeping it fun, balanced, and unmistakably Battlefield?
Answer: Building new battlefields in unfamiliar territory is always a fun challenge, and Las Vegas and Area 51 were especially exciting. The Vegas Strip is an iconic location with varied architecture, which gave us a great chance to give our POIs a strong identity, but balancing indoor and outdoor spaces against the wide-open road structure was difficult. It comes down to managing expectations around iconic locations like these while keeping our Battlefield gameplay pillars in mind and delivering something fresh. And of course, plenty of testing and iteration to see what works and what doesn’t.

Question: Is the Dead Space event a teaser for new game types we might play, or something we could use in Portal? I’d love to see official PvE added so it isn’t always PvP.
Answer: For the Dead Space event, a PvE experience as an exotic mode made sense, since we wanted to pit squads of players against Marked Soldiers and Necromorphs. The special ingredients featured in the event will be available in Portal so the community can build even wilder experiences with them. As for new PvE experiences in the future, we keep evaluating that as part of our live programming. We shall see.

Question: Why were TTK adjustments for weapons like the SCW-10 made only in REDSEC, where TTK is already higher, and not in multiplayer, where TTK is extremely low? Multiplayer needs these changes too.
Answer: Some gunplay adjustments were made for REDSEC in preparation for the upcoming Elite Series. We’re targeting broader gunplay tweaks for Season 5 Phase 2 that will affect both traditional MP and REDSEC.

Question: Where are the Battle Pickups? And will we get more interesting ones, like the sniper pickups from BF4?
Answer: There’s a special Battle Pickup available during our Dead Space Event, which is live now! We also recently finished a balance pass on the Minigun and Railgun, and we’ll keep monitoring their performance.

Question: Can we expect a year-ahead roadmap this season?
Answer: Our focus today is Season 5, but we already have plans for what comes next for Battlefield 6 and REDSEC! We intend to share details early in the new year.

Question: As you grow the development team for the next update, do you plan to recruit or involve passionate, long-time franchise veterans from the community? Is there a path for dedicated players to contribute to the game’s development?
Answer: We’re always looking for new ways to involve franchise veterans in shaping the next iteration of the game. One of the most effective ways for the community to make an impact has been building Portal experiences, especially ones that prove popular and let players “vote with their feet.” A good example is FaithWalker’s Hardcore mode, and we hope to see many more like it.

Question: In the July Q&A, you said Strikepoint was being improved and planned for a future season. It’s been 82 days since that response and the mode still hasn’t returned. Can you update us on its status, or say whether it’s still planned?
Answer: Strikepoint still has bugs that have proven tricky to fix, and because the mode is less popular, it’s been hard to prioritize those fixes over issues affecting more players.

Question: Are we getting an Assault class rework?
Answer: As mentioned in the Support Pouch answer, we’re taking a focused look at many of the gadgets we launched with, and Assault is getting particular attention. Several of its gadgets aren’t hitting the mark, and with all the data we’ve gathered since launch, we want to revisit them now.

Question: Is there a plan for more customization of air vehicles? For example, ECM smoke on the jets and Little Bird, or changing rocket types. With air radar inevitably being removed in favor of shoulder-mounted AA, an ECM jammer would be a nice counterbalance.
Answer: This is subject to change, but we currently have customization planned for all the launch jets during Season 6. With that update, every jet for each faction will have weapon customization options. We’re also looking at new balance and abilities for the Scout and Attack helicopters, though we have no timeline to share for the helicopter changes yet.

Question: Will you add an option to turn off crossplay on PC?
Answer: We’re putting a lot of effort into healthy matchmaking experiences, including the recent adjustments you may have noticed and the Server Browser arriving later in Season 5. Because of that, we have no current plans to let PC players disable crossplay, as it could undermine those efforts.

Question: What is the design philosophy behind deciding where objectives are placed in all modes?
Answer: Objective placement philosophy could fill an entire dev talk, but in terms of process, we generally begin by deciding which scale of combat to focus on: infantry or large-scale vehicle warfare. From there, we compile a list of POIs we want to include and the kind of gameplay each should support. Those POIs are then arranged to achieve a natural, symmetrical balance. We usually start with Conquest and Breakthrough layouts. For Conquest, we look for good loops with roughly even distances and a variety of engagement types. For Breakthrough, we look for a solid linear chain of Conquest objectives that we can build upon to support nearby objectives. After that come heaps of playtesting, iteration, tuning, and a million other small decisions that shape the final layout.

Question: How will proximity chat be moderated? I understand the common-sense no-bullying rules for text chat, but how can I be sure I won’t be auto-banned for something like a mispronunciation? When other games tried proximity chat moderation, unjust bans ran rampant.
Answer: Proximity chat recordings and reports go through a multi-layer review by our excellent EA moderation team. Mistakes can happen in the review process, but they are very rare. You can also appeal any account action through EA Help.

Question: Was the team at Motive involved in the new Dead Space content, and was it exciting to work with the series again?
Answer: Yes! The Motive team, including some who worked on the Dead Space remake, took part in this collaboration. Their contribution was instrumental, and their enthusiasm for returning to this universe was contagious as they shared their knowledge and excitement with our other teams across Battlefield Studios.

Question: Who likes cake? 🍰
Answer: Cake > Pie

Question: Do you plan to rework some of the generally disliked or older maps? Vegas, Sobek, and Empire State, to name a few.
Answer: Yes! Updates to New Sobek City and Blackwell Fields are coming in Season 5 Phase 3.

Question: Can we get more info on Platoons: how they work, whether we can customize things (badges, patches, emblems), and how they’ll be implemented?
Answer: Platoons arrive in Phase 3 of Season 5, with more dedicated information as release nears. We want Platoons to be a great way to build and play with your own community, so they’ll evolve based on your feedback and how you use them. Currently, the plan is to show the Platoons UI as an extra tab in the main menu. Players will be able to create a tag, a name, and a description, and playing with your platoon will grant an XP bonus. Management and hierarchy will be handled through the in-game EA Connect UI. We’ll share even more as release gets closer!

Question: Are you planning actuated module variants that reduce recoil, enable faster ADS speed, or both?
Answer: Not at this time. The Actuated Module is based on a real piece of technology designed to stabilize a firearm while aiming (i.e., sway), and its current gameplay effects reflect that function.

Question: Why was Gauntlet removed instead of being developed into a ranked mode? It was one of the best modes for testing squad coordination, communication, teamwork, and tactics, and it rewarded teams that truly worked together. Why not bring it back as a permanent ranked mode? It has huge competitive potential and deserves a second chance. What was the real reason for removing it?
Answer: We’ve enjoyed watching players jump into Gauntlet and compete in its unique round-based format since REDSEC launched, and we’re proud of what the team built and the kind of competitive experience it brought to Battlefield. At the same time, we want to be transparent: Gauntlet currently accounts for a much smaller share of REDSEC play, which makes it harder to consistently find and fill matches, especially in smaller regions or those with fewer Gauntlet players.

Question: Hello dev team, are there plans around balancing attachments? Right now many attachments aren’t worth using because the drawbacks are so harsh, for example high-cost grips or muzzle brakes. Also, are there plans to rework or remove 3D spotting?
Answer: High-cost attachments are typically justified by large positive effects, rather than by giving them equally large negatives to lower their cost. That said, we know some attachments feel prohibitively expensive and see little to no use, and targeted adjustments to make them viable are on the table. We’ve heard the feedback on 3D-spot-on-fire and are considering alternatives, but we see it as an added layer of depth in gunplay and tactics, so we don’t want to dismiss it outright as a balancing lever.

Question: Do you plan to bring back Gauntlet?
Answer: Gauntlet is still available as a verified Portal mode, so players can build their own modified version or play the original unmodified mode. We plan to increase the visibility of these modes so Gauntlet fans can find populated servers.

Question: Are there plans to bring the TV missile to Attack Helicopters in Season 5 or later? If not, why, when TV missiles have been a staple of AH gameplay since 2005?
Answer: As noted in the Jet Customization answer, we’re exploring new abilities for the Scout and Attack helicopters. The TV Missile is one of those for the Attack Helicopter, but we want to make some improvements to the weapon before adding it to other vehicles. We have no timeline yet, but it’s one of our targets.

Question: Will a Solo-Coop mode ever make it into the game? 🙏
Answer: Co-op modes are always tricky to get right when it comes to progression, but we feature them from time to time when we can. Anyone can play solo by finding a Portal experience (such as verified Conquest) and using the “host locally” option.

Question: Is there a reason the balancing team has focused so heavily on nerfing vehicles? Teamwork and combined arms are the series’ greatest strengths, and it’s unfortunate to see them pushed into the background.
Answer: Combined arms is the heart of Battlefield, and our focus is on maintaining rock-paper-scissors balance among all combat elements. Armored vehicles should feel powerful and formidable, but they should also have clear vulnerabilities that coordinated infantry can exploit. In Season 3, armored vehicles received boosts to handling, health regeneration, and critical hit rules. After reviewing data, playtesting, and community sentiment, we concluded those changes went a bit too far. The recent adjustments aim to rein that power in, so vehicle crews and infantry squads must rely more on teamwork to succeed.

Question: How does Battlefield 6 measure whether its maps deliver meaningful infantry combat, effective flanking routes, and strong match flow? Will player feedback and gameplay data lead to substantial redesigns when existing layouts fall short? Maps shouldn’t just look like battlefields; their design should shape how the battle unfolds.
Answer: We evaluate all of this during development and after maps go live, to make sure our intentions match the player experience we want, whether we’re building infantry-focused maps or All-Out Warfare sandboxes. We draw on many data points, including internal telemetry on player movement patterns to assess map flow, point stickiness, and win/loss balance, plus quantitative feedback from testers, labs, and the community. Once maps are live, these data points guide our decisions on redesigns. Sometimes we can fix issues by simply reconfiguring vehicle spawners, and sometimes we make more significant updates, as you’ll see later in S5 with Blackwell Fields and New Sobek City.

Question: Does the team have plans for a dynamic weather system on any maps, with changing fog, overcast skies, rain, time of day, and so on?
Answer: Our current approach to weather remains map-specific. We may introduce different weather types in future maps, but they would be either event-based modifications or part of a map’s distinct biome. Think rain, snow, or a map set at night.

Question: Multiplayer leaderboards were said to be coming in Season 5, but they haven’t appeared. Will they arrive in a later phase of the season?
Answer: We’re testing MP leaderboards internally, and the plan is to release them later in Season 5.

Question: Are you planning to change the perks for individual classes?
Answer: We have nothing to share right now about changes to Training Paths in MP, but we know some feel less useful than others. Rebalancing the underwhelming ones is on our radar. Balance and quality-of-life changes like these often compete for attention, so let us know if you feel strongly about any of them!

Question: Why was the LTLM II (SOFLAM) laser designation duration cut from 9 seconds to just 2 in Season 5? Players report that designation can drop and need to be reapplied even while tracking a target, interrupting friendly engineers’ missile lock-ons. Combined with the very visible red glint and the long-standing bug where trying to paint a target accidentally deploys the tripod, the gadget feels barely worth using. What was the design goal behind this nerf, and will you consider allowing continuous designation while line of sight is maintained, as in previous Battlefield games, while also fixing the conflicting paint/deploy controls?
Answer: This change to the Laser Designator had two purposes: first, to align it with Laser Designator gadgets from past games, and second, to give the Tracer Dart gadget a solid niche of its own, since it had been completely overshadowed. The Laser Designator now lets players designate a target continuously as long as they maintain Line-of-Sight (LoS) and are “firing” the gadget. The Tracer Dart only needs a brief moment of LoS, provided the user lands the shot, to designate a target for several seconds without further player input.

Question: Why do players feel bullet spread, commonly called bloom, has increased in recent updates? Many feel that in gunfights, opponents are routinely left with very low health, often just 2, 3, or 10 HP.
Answer: Dispersion, also known as bullet spread, bloom, and random bullet deviation, hasn’t changed in recent updates. It has always been an aspect of gunplay that is both critical to weapon balance in Battlefield and hard to communicate to players in a tangible way. The recently added ADS Dispersion Crosshair option is meant to bridge that gap, and I highly recommend trying it outside of the firing range. When enemies are left with single-digit HP, it’s often the result of multiple limb hits. Landing more shots center-mass, or using attachments that boost headshot damage, can reduce how often that happens.

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