Update 1.1.3.0 delivers a broad range of fixes and refinements across Battlefield 6, improving soldier clarity, weapon reliability, vehicle behaviour, audio consistency, and overall gameplay flow. This update also includes several quality-of-life improvements across UI, HUD, and controller aiming options, along with map-specific updates designed to stabilise objective play and reduce round-end matchmaking frustration.

We also made improvements to reduce cases where player settings could be reset when updating the game to the newest version. While this behaviour should now occur less frequently, we are still seeing isolated instances and expect to fully resolve the issue in an upcoming update.

As always, thank you for continuing to share your feedback which helps us refine and evolve the Battlefield 6 experience.

New Content: Winter Offensive

• New Time-Limited Map: Ice Lock Empire State. A winter-shrouded version of Empire State featuring frozen streets and seasonal environmental visuals.

• New Time-Limited Multiplayer and Gauntlet Mode: A themed event mode playable across Domination, Conquest, and Gauntlet mission variations on Ice Lock Empire State featuring the event-limited “Freeze” mechanic.

• New Melee Weapon: the Ice Climbing Axe. Unlocked through the Winter Offensive Bonus Path.

• Portal updates: Ice Lock Empire State is available for use in supported Portal experiences during the event window.

• Battle Pass: Winter Offensive Bonus Path: an 11-tier, time-limited reward track featuring event cosmetics, XP Boosters, and the Ice Climbing Axe.

Major Updates for 1.1.3.0

• Improved hit registration across situations that previously felt unreliable, including quick aim adjustments, firing before a zoom completes, and close-quarters fights with many players. These updates make bullet impacts more predictable and damage feedback easier to read in the moment.

• Enhanced close-range soldier visibility, with stronger character highlights and improved prone animations to help soldiers stand out more clearly in low-contrast or visually busy areas.

• Refined weapon handling for more consistent accuracy, addressing issues with first-shot behaviour, recoil interaction, and attachment alignment so weapons feel more stable and predictable during firefights.

• Improved reliability across several core gadgets, including updates to the LWCMS Portable Mortar, Supply Pouch, Smoke Cover, and traversal tools to ensure they behave consistently and provide clearer feedback.

• Strengthened vehicle clarity and interaction, fixing issues around damage zones, HUD overlaps, seat reticules, and camera behaviour to make vehicle play more stable for both drivers and passengers.

• Updated Breakthrough and Rush layouts on multiple maps to improve attacker–defender balance, smooth out sector flow, and adjust vehicle distribution based on match outcome data and player feedback.

• Delivered a broad audio pass improving combat readability, including clearer footsteps and movement cues, more reliable armour-break feedback, and tuning across several high-priority gameplay sounds.

AREAS OF IMPROVEMENTS

Audio

With this update, we’ve made a wide range of audio improvements, including a dedicated tuning pass on footsteps to make movement clearer, easier to locate, and more readable at different distances.

We’ve also continued addressing performance and memory issues that could cause sounds, such as footsteps or vehicle audio, to drop out or fail to play, especially during large-scale Battle Royale matches. To get ahead of this as we add more audio content to the game, we’ve adjusted the memory priorities for most sounds in the game and optimized how some larger audio assets load. In practical terms, this means that important combat, movement, and vehicle sounds should play more consistently even under heavy load.

These changes are part of an ongoing effort to improve the overall stability of the soundscape. While this isn’t a complete overhaul, and there may still be edge cases depending on hardware and match conditions, it's a big step toward more reliable and predictable sound across the game.

CHANGELOG

PLAYER:

• Fixed a clipping issue when dragging a soldier on an inclined surface when being prone.

• Fixed a clipping issue with character shoulders when jumping.

• Fixed a rare issue where fall damage wouldn’t be applied immediately after being revived.

• Fixed snapping and aggressive camera movements when performing takedowns on prone enemies from specific angles.

• Fixed an issue allowing players to use vaulting to avoid being roadkilled by an enemy vehicle coming at high speed.

• Fixed an issue causing controller haptic feedback to continue indefinitely when a reload was interrupted by swapping to another weapon or gadget.

• Fixed an issue causing hit registration to fail when firing while making extremely rapid aim adjustments. We’re continuing to investigate additional edge cases and reviewing player reports related to hit registration.

• Fixed an issue causing soldier legs to rotate incorrectly with the body when falling while prone.

• Fixed an issue causing soldier movement to feel slow while walking on uneven terrain.

• Fixed an issue causing the character’s hands to appear misaligned when vaulting through windows.

• Fixed an issue causing vaulting while charging a defibrillator to make the soldier’s hands disappear.

• Fixed an issue that caused getting revived after dying mid-fall to trigger fall damage the next time the player jumped.

• Fixed an issue that caused the player to continue controlling their soldier after dying in water.

• Fixed an issue that could cause the player to become stuck when entering water while crouching.

• Fixed an issue that could prevent melee damage from being dealt to soldiers in water.

• Fixed an issue that could prevent melee damage from being dealt to soldiers seated in exposed vehicle seats.

• Fixed an issue that made it difficult to traverse some stairs, especially at slow movement speeds.

• Fixed an issue where climbing down ladders with a grenade equipped caused misaligned animations.

• Fixed an issue where first-person grenade animations appeared incorrectly when spectating another player.

• Fixed an issue where getting hit by melee damage prevented the victim from performing melee attacks.

• Fixed an issue where hands clipped into ladders when in first-person view.

• Fixed an issue where interrupting a drag and revive would not cancel revive progress as expected.

• Fixed an issue where jumping in and out of vehicles could lead to later hit-registration for soldiers on foot.

• Fixed an issue where landing on a vehicle prevented the player from taking any fall damage.

• Fixed an issue where melee animations would not play correctly when attacking while vaulting over mid-height obstacles.

• Fixed an issue where melee attacking and returning to an Assault Ladder caused the player to appear to attack with the ladder.

• Fixed an issue where performing zoomed aiming while colliding with a wall during sprint would offset the player’s aim.

• Fixed an issue where soldier models glowed incorrectly in front of the thermobaric visual effect  when illuminated by a flashlight.

• Fixed an issue where the death camera could appear beneath the map when dying inside a vehicle.

• Fixed an issue where the melee weapon briefly appeared in an incorrect pose when holding the M87A1 shotgun.

• Fixed first-person stair locomotion animations starting with a delay when moving on stairs.

• Fixed third-person mounting clipping issues with the HK433 when using certain bottom-rail attachments.

• Improved first- and third-person vault-up and vault-over mid-height animations for smoother transitions.

• Improved hit registration reliability when multiple players were within close proximity.

• Improved how recoil and aim input interact, resulting in more reliable accuracy when compensating for recoil.

• Improved melee animation when attacking while prone.

• Improved movement responsiveness at the start and end of drag and revive interactions.

• Improved soldier animation smoothness when entering and exiting prone.

• Improved visibility of soldiers at close range by applying brightness adjustments at 0 metres with a higher minimum intensity.

• Resolved an animation issue where quickly applying armour immediately after using a melee weapon could result in an unintended transitional animation.

• Updated third-person prone animations to improve clarity, reduce static poses, and enhance soldier visibility.

VEHICLES:

• Fixed an issue where heavy machine-gun fire from some vehicles would not consistently register damage against soldiers.

• Fixed an issue where some vehicle seats were incorrectly classified, preventing the correct passenger reticule from appearing while spectating another player.

• Fixed an issue where the soldier compass could appear simultaneously with the vehicle compass when sitting in certain gunner seats.

• Fixed issues with damage zones on armoured vehicles that caused them to take higher-than-intended damage in certain situations.

• Fixed UI behaviour for the Quadbike’s spawn camera to ensure it displays correctly upon deployment.

• Partially fixed an issue where vehicle audio could stop functioning during live gameplay due to suspected memory-related issues.

WEAPONS:

• Fixed a bug where players could become stuck in the weapon inspect animation when entering a vehicle.

• Fixed a rare visual glitch that could cause scopes to be displayed incorrectly.

• Fixed a visual issue where the Adjustable Angled Grip sat slightly higher on the weapon than intended.

• Fixed an issue causing the first bullet fired during early zoom transitions on certain weapons and scopes to be more inaccurate than intended.

• Fixed an issue that caused quick melee attacks to sometimes not return the player to their previous weapon after striking.

• Fixed an issue where some scopes unintentionally received thermal or depth-of-field blur.

• Fixed an issue where target dummies in the firing range remained down after being shot.

• Fixed an issue where the effects of FMJ ammunition were incorrectly applied to additional ammunition types.

• Fixed an issue where underslung attachments were not always restored correctly when picking up another soldier’s kit.

• Fixed an issue with the flashlight weapon attachment being misaligned when sprinting at high FOV values.

• Fixed the “peekaboo” timing bug affecting target dummies on the firing range.

• Increased the minimum time between shots by 100 ms on the Mini Scout to improve pacing and reduce rapid-fire inconsistencies.

• Reduced recoil magnitude but increased recoil variation on the M250, NVO-228E, RPKM, SG 553R, and SOR-300SC. These weapons now perform less effectively at long range, with the SG 553R receiving the most noticeable adjustment.

• Reduced the cost of the L110 and M123K 200-round magazines from 55 to 50, and removed the penalty to ADS movement dispersion.

• Tweaked haptic feedback for weapon reloads on PS5 controllers.

• Updated melee behaviour to allow players equipped with a melee weapon to choose between a takedown (F/RS) or a bash attack (Mouse 1/RT).

GADGETS:

• Fixed an issue where Assault Ladders did not allow smooth traversal by increasing the maximum ramp angle from 45° to 52°. Players can now run up the ladder without shifting into a climbing stance.

• Fixed an issue where gadgets that should be hidden by occlusion were still visible through geometry.

• Fixed an issue where lock-on indicators appeared for Engineers without a lock-on capable launcher equipped.

• Fixed an issue where Supply Crates deployed by enemy players were visible on the mini map.

• Fixed an issue where Throwing Knife animations lasted longer than intended.

• Fixed an issue where XFGM-6D Recon Drones spawned facing the wrong direction instead of matching the soldier’s facing direction when being deployed.

• Reduced Throwing Knife dispersion so that headshots are reliably achievable up to 15 metres.

LWCMS Portable Mortar

• Fixed an issue where an incorrect shell type was used during firing and reload animations.

• Fixed an issue where firing a Smoke Shell did not shake the camera or tube.

• Fixed an issue where Smoke Shell clouds were smaller than intended.

• Fixed an issue where the fire rate was lower than intended.

• Fixed an issue where the Smoke Shell always regenerated via Supply Crates.

• Logistics Expert in the Fire Support tree now slightly enhances the Supply Crate’s effect on the Portable Mortar’s fire rate.

• Smoke Shell ammunition now starts at 0 and regenerates every 45 seconds.

Supply Pouch

• Fixed an issue where the Supply Pouch instantly regenerated health on deployment.

• Fixed an issue with incorrect ammunition setup that caused inconsistent resupply behaviour.

• Removed the initial heal on gadget deployment; the Supply Pouch now only heals over time.

• Thrown Supply Pouches now prioritise players who are low on, or have requested, health or ammunition.

MAPS & MODES:

• Adjusted Conquest and Escalation capture areas on Manhattan Bridge so objectives can no longer be captured from rooftop positions.

• Extended rooftop out-of-bounds areas on Empire State, Manhattan Bridge, and Saints Quarter. 

• Fixed an issue where deaths were not tracked correctly in Strikepoint.

• Fixed an issue where players were not properly credited for a kill caused by the destruction of the crane on Mirak Valley.

• Fixed an issue where vehicle selection in Escalation became temporarily unavailable if the player was on the deploy screen when a territory changed hands.

• Made improvements to reduce cases of players matching into games that were near the end of a round.

• The out-of-bounds timer on Manhattan Bridge is now correctly set to 10 seconds.

• Updated M-COM placement on Liberation Peak and Manhattan Bridge to improve attacker flow based on player feedback.

• Updated spawning behaviour for Battle Pickups:

  • In Breakthrough, Battle Pickups now spawn when their associated sectors are enabled.

  • In Conquest and Escalation, Battle Pickups now spawn when their associated capture points are owned by a team.

Following feedback since launch, several Breakthrough layouts have been updated to address attacker–defender win/loss imbalance and improve overall flow, vehicle balance, and capture-zone clarity across multiple maps.

Manhattan Bridge

• Removed Defender vehicles in Sector 2 and Sector 3.

• Added an additional Attacker IFV in Sector 3.

• Updated capture volumes across Sectors 1, 2, and 3 to support more consistent attacker progress.

Mirak Valley

• Removed Defender vehicles in all sectors.

• Adjusted Attacker vehicle counts:

  • Sector 1: Reduced Attacker IFVs from 2 to 1; increased Attacker tanks from 1 to 2.

  • Sector 2: Added 1 Attacker IFV.

  • Sector 3: Added 1 Attacker IFV.

• Updated capture volumes across all sectors to make attacking easier.

New Sobek City

• Sector 2: Added 1 Defender tank and one Defender IFV.

• Sector 3: Added 1 Attacker IFV; removed Defender tank and light transport.

• Updated capture volumes in both sectors to improve attacker flow.

Operation Firestorm

• Sector 2: Adjusted Defender armour (added and removed tank spawns).

• Sector 3: Added 2 Attacker tanks and 1 Attacker IFV; removed the Defender tank.

• Updated capture zones across affected sectors to support attacker momentum.

Liberation Peak

• Sector 3: Removed Defender tank.

• Sector 5: Added 2 Attacker IFVs; removed the Defender transport.

• Updated capture volumes to improve attacker advancement.

Siege of Cairo

• Added an additional Attacker tank in sector 1 and 3.

• Updated capture areas on B flag to improve sector push potential.

Empire State

• Sector 1: Updated capture volume on B flag.

• Sector 2: Updated capture volumes on A and B flags.

PROGRESSION:

• Fixed an issue where enemies spotted by the LTLM II Portable Laser Designator did not count towards the “Spot enemies with Recon Gadgets” weekly challenge.

• Fixed an issue where the Incendiary Airburst Launcher did not track progress for the “Support Specialist 2” challenge when dealing damage with its lingering fire cloud.

UI & HUD:

• Added a loading popup when entering a tournament code to provide better feedback on what's happening.

• Added “Free Look” helicopter game hint to be part of pilot hints..

• Enemies can no longer be spotted from the big map.

• Ensured players who trigger crane destruction now have their killer ID correctly logged in the scoreboard’s score log.

• Ensured the “Cut Parachute” prompt appears correctly in Multiplayer modes outside of REDSEC.

• Fixed a mini map issue where empty vehicle icons did not transition correctly into a friendly vehicle icon when entering a vehicle.

• Fixed a rare issue where objective icons could disappear when redeploying.

• Fixed an issue where a teammate’s armour briefly appeared as soft-armour colour when their armour broke, causing a momentary incorrect visual.

• Fixed an issue where camos in the Challenges section did not show their name or category.

• Fixed an issue where hints for “Re-Enter” and “Deploy” were displayed in the wrong order when using a controller with the EOD Bot.

• Fixed an issue where killcards did not always appear when players were killed inside vehicles.

• Fixed an issue where loading screen combat zone descriptions did not update correctly based on the active game mode.

• Fixed an issue where loading screen combat zone descriptions were incorrect for Sabotage on Eastwood.

• Fixed an issue where loading screen combat zone text displayed incorrectly on Sabotage across all maps.

• Fixed an issue where Store offers did not scroll correctly when fast-scrolling along the same row.

• Fixed an issue where the deploy camera could appear incorrectly rotated when spectating a soldier or vehicle.

• Fixed an issue where the different painted states of the LTLM II Portable Laser Designator weren’t correctly represented by the gadgets HUD warning label.

• Fixed an issue where the Helicopter HUD would disappear when the color was set to black in the settings.

• Fixed an issue where the LMR27 and ES 5.7 attachment lists were not sorted correctly.

• Fixed an issue where the LWCMS Portable Mortar icon had visual inconsistencies between the big map and the minimap.

• Fixed an issue where the Traverse Mark 2 displayed duplicate LMG text in the second seat, despite having only one mounted weapon.

• Fixed an issue where the vehicle 3D preview did not update when switching loadout presets.

• Fixed an issue where zooming in on the big map would sometimes result in a black screen.

• Fixed issues that prevented Resupply Station icons from appearing on the big map as intended.

• Improved Commorose behaviour by correcting the request distances for “Need Repair” and “Need Pick Up”.

• Improved image cropping to better align artwork in the Battle Pass purchase screens.

• Improved ping behaviour on friendly soldiers, revive requests, and stationary weapons.

• Improved the text used to describe unlock conditions for Bonus Mission for better clarity.

• Reduced man down icons to only show the two closest downed team mates.

• Removed the ability to cycle between classes on the deploy screen using Q and E to prevent unintended class changes before spawning.

• Snap Zoom (Aim Assist) has been clarified in the menu: this option is only available in Single Player and Portal modes, not in Multiplayer.

• Squad and friendly in-world nametags now blink when the player regains health or receives ammunition.

• Stationary weapons no longer show pickup provider icons when a player is requesting to be picked up.

• Unlocked cosmetics now appear above locked ones in selection lists.

• Updated back-navigation logic so consoles can no longer back out far enough to trigger the quit-game popup unintentionally.

• Updated the countermeasure hint to only display when a weapon lock-on state makes the prompt relevant.

• Updated the lock-on warning behaviour so that lock-on alerts can take priority over painted labels when appropriate, ensuring threats are more noticeable.

• Updated the Saints Quarter loading screen to display correct combat zone text.

• Updated underbarrel launchers so the correct type icons appear in the HUD.

SETTINGS:

• Fixed a bug where changing the “Command Console” option would not apply until the game was restarted.

• Fixed an issue where navigating back from the Options menu could behave incorrectly when accessed through Pause Menu.

• Fixed an issue where the “Edit Controller Schemes” menu title could disappear in Options.

• Fixed an issue where vehicle aim sensitivity displayed an incorrect value in the vehicle control settings.

• Fixed an issue with options sliders “stepping” functionality being broken and not allowing players to step through decimals.

• Improved the “Dynamic” response curve option for controller stick aiming to better match player expectations and player feedback.

• The range for Infantry and Vehicle mouse sensitivity options are now doubled and can go twice as high.

SINGLE PLAYER:

• Fixed an issue where the out-of-bounds timer did not correctly account for player death or Mandown state in Single Player.

AUDIO:

• Added new vehicle-specific hostile type identifiers for more accurate callouts.

• Added safeguards so background environmental soldier audio no longer triggers during moments with no combat.

• Adjusted the balance of the bootflow logo music and sound effects.

• Fixed an audio issue that occurred when crawling while aiming down sights.

• Fixed an issue that caused health-replenishing audio to play multiple times.

• Fixed an issue where background environmental soldier audio wasn't affected by the voice over volume slider.

• Fixed an issue where end-of-round music would sometimes not play, or play the incorrect track.

• Fixed an issue where players could experience a stuck “Low Health” audio cue after remaining at low health for 30 seconds in modes without health regeneration.

• Fixed an issue where round-start music could play before the round actually began.

• Fixed an issue where Supply Crate sound effects could repeatedly trigger on downed soldiers.

• Fixed an issue where the “Advance to Next Sector” audio cue played “Out-of-Bounds” sound effect.

• Fixed an issue where the incorrect nearby-friendly voice over line would play when a mortar shell landed beside the player.

• Fixed an issue where the proper sound effect did not play when performing a combat dive.

• Fixed an issue where the Rorsch Mk-2 SMRW Rail Gun’s charge loop sound effects did not play correctly.

• Fixed an issue where vehicle prop-fuse fire effects were missing their intended audio.

• Fixed missing audio when performing weapon inspections.

• Optimised memory handling and improved prioritisation for most in-game sounds, reducing cases where important audio, such as vehicles or footsteps, sometimes failed to play.

• Partially fixed an issue where vehicle audio could stop functioning during live gameplay due to suspected memory-related issues.

Footsteps

• Balanced enemy-specific layers for clearer cloth and gear cues.

• Further reduced or removed the momentary dampening of enemy movement audio triggered by damage, low-health states, game notifications, or occlusion effects.

• Improved distance-based acoustics for clearer separation between close, mid, and far ranges.

• Improved distant world reflections to better convey space and positioning.

• Increased enemy movement audio at distance for greater readability.

• Increased overall enemy movement volume, with an additional boost when an enemy is behind the player.

• Reduced how heavily sneaking stances (crouch walking, crawling) lower enemy movement audio.

• Reduced how much the “Spec-Op” trait lowers footstep audio when sneaking.

• Reduced scuff and scrape audio from movement against walls and ground.

• Reduced self and friendly footstep volume in Wartapes, Wartapes VAL, and REDSEC.

• Refactored footstep triggers to be more reliable across different speeds and stances.

• Removed limitations on the maximum number of close-range enemy audio sources.

• Small balancing tweaks to footsteps on different materials for outliers, such as slow speed on gravel and different directions (up, down, sideways) on wooden stairs.

PORTAL:

• Fixed an issue where AI squadmates in Portal did not display class identifiers on the insertion screen.

• Fixed an issue where mod.PlaySound() and mod.PlayVO() accepted any object type as input. These functions now correctly require sound effects and voice over object types respectively. While existing syntax remains unchanged, any TypeScript code that explicitly references generic object types will now need to specify mod.SFX or mod.VO as appropriate.

• Fixed an issue where mod.PlayVO() always played the voiceover for the Alpha flag, regardless of the flag specified by the script.

• SDK Assets for MainStreet, ClubHouse, and Marina have been corrected to only use relevant assets.

AI:

• AI bots can now respond to ammo, healing, and pickup requests.

• Fixed an issue that caused AI repairing friendly vehicles to be less responsive than intended.

• Fixed cases where AI attempted to take cover in ways that left them static or unresponsive.
  Bots will now correctly move toward locked objectives in King of the Hill.

• Fixed instances where AI soldiers could take too long to find a valid path to their objective, causing them to remain stationary.

• Improved AI responsiveness when performing revives.

• Improved AI revive logic and movement to make their actions more consistent and reliable.

REDSEC

PLAYER:

• Fixed a rare issue where a Second Chance respawn could place players over 1,000 metres in the air.

• Fixed an issue where incorrect mouse sensitivity was applied to the MH-47’s third-person camera during insertion.

• Fixed an issue where players could be kicked for inactivity while spectating.

• Fixed an issue where players could not claim a second custom weapon dropped as a mission reward.

• Fixed an issue where takedown prompts did not appear consistently when approaching enemies from behind.

• Fixed an issue where the wrong animation would play when switching from a call-in grenade to a different weapon.

• Fixed an issue where weapon swap animations broke after switching away from the Resupply Drop Call-In.

• Triggering a redeploy tower or beacon now disables or destroys any other active tower or beacon for the same team.

Gauntlet

• Fixed an issue where mission objects would not drop if the carrier disconnected.

VEHICLES:

• Fixed an issue where tanks and ambulances would be clipping through each other.

• Fixed an issue where vehicle containers could occasionally be empty after being opened.

WEAPONS:

• Adjusted damage for the Rorsch Mk-2 SMRW Rail Gun against fully armoured soldiers. Headshots now kill the opponent on one shot while a bodyshot will leave the opponent with 10 HP.

GADGETS:

• Fixed an issue with incorrect textures on the projectile deployed by the XFGM-6D Recon Drone

• Fixed an issue where the XFGM-6D Recon Drone’s altitude unintentionally decreased as the match went on.

CALL-INS:

• Fixed an issue where Smoke Cover could not be activated during the late stages of a match.

• The UAV now fully explodes on impact when shot down.

MAP:

• Fixed an issue where a Razer keyboard lightning event did not trigger when interacting with antennas on the “Signal Hack” mission.

Battle Royale

• Improved loot box placement across the map for more reliable accessibility.

Gauntlet

• Fixed an issue where M-COMs in Wreckage would not reactivate after being destroyed.

UI & HUD:

• Fixed an issue where the armour bar of your team mates were showing even though they were at full capacity.

Battle Royale

• Added clearer distinction between player and squad member inventory requests.

• Added upgrade notifications to the loot feed when a weapon is improved.

• Fixed an issue where ping icons of lootable vehicles would disappear from the mini map when the players get more than 25m away from them.

• Fixed an issue where the Tank Hunter mission UI could remain active if the targeted squad destroyed its own tank.

• Updated the artwork for mission rewards to reflect new keycard changes.

Gauntlet

• Added correct interaction prompts for counter-mission teams when defusing explosives in Wreckage.

• Fixed an issue where the scoreboard was sorted by deaths instead of score.

• Fixed an issue where the Loadout screen overlay could incorrectly appear over the Gauntlet Mission Briefing on Aftermath.

• Fixed team-ownership colours for M-COMs in Wreckage missions.

AUDIO:

• Fixed an issue where subtitles would not appear correctly during insertion.

• Fixed missing UI audio when unlocking the first Field Upgrade.

• Increased the volume of armour-break audio for both incoming and outgoing hits.

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.

Hey everyone,

The team is incredibly excited to see all the fun you’re having with REDSEC. We’ve poured years of work into it, and watching your clips, reading your feedback, and hearing your concerns has been fantastic. Thank you for playing and for sharing your thoughts.

With tons of REDSEC matches played since the launch of Battle Royale and Gauntlet, we’ve seen a lot of feedback on the topic along with some recurring questions and misunderstandings around how armor works in REDSEC, how it differs from main Battlefield 6 Multiplayer (MP), and where we might be looking at bugs versus intentional design. So today we’d like to go in depth on the topic of armor and cover:

• Our philosophy for armor in REDSEC

• How this ties back to Battlefield 6 MP

• A deep dive on current armor mechanics from Ryan, the lead designer on the armor system

When we set out to build the Battle Royale experience, one of our big goals was to keep as much parity with Battlefield 6 Multiplayer as possible, while still delivering the core fundamentals of the Battle Royale genre.

We want skills and muscle memory you build in one experience to transfer into the others. If you learn recoil patterns, ranges, and damage breakpoints in MP, that knowledge should mostly still apply when you drop into REDSEC.

At the same time, Battle Royale has some unique needs:

• High stakes: One fight can end your match.

• Looting: Gear progression is core to the experience.

• Map scale & pacing: Engagements tend to be mid- to long-range, which already lines up nicely with Battlefield’s overall DNA.

Because of that, we made lootable infantry armor a key area where REDSEC intentionally diverges from standard MP tuning.

Armor’s job in REDSEC is to extend time-to-kill (TTK) so you have a bit more breathing room in high-stakes fights. We want armor to impact how long you live, not make weapons feel totally different between modes.

So our guiding principle is to leave core gun mechanics and soldier health damage the same across experiences, and tune REDSEC by adjusting damage vs. armor (extra health) instead.

That way, a weapon feels familiar whether you’re in MP, Gauntlet, or Battle Royale. We can also make changes that only affect REDSEC by tweaking damage vs. armor, without breaking weapon balance elsewhere.

We feel we landed armor in a good spot for the launch of REDSEC, but this isn’t “set and forget.” We’ll keep monitoring your feedback and our data, and we’ll make future balance passes where needed.

Now, let’s hand it over to Ryan for the more detailed breakdown.

Hi! I’m Ryan.

For those who don’t know me, I’ve been around the Battlefield franchise in one form or another since BF1, and in various Battlefield communities back in the BF3/BF4 days. For REDSEC, I’m the lead designer of the armor system, and I’d like to walk you through how armor works, how weapon damage plays into it, and how it differs from the rest of Battlefield 6.

Let’s start with some basic numbers:

• Armor in Gauntlet: 40 HP

• Armor in Battle Royale: 80 HP total (2 plates at 40 HP each)

Think of armor as extra health layered on top of your standard soldier health. Once that armor is gone, everything works like you’re used to from other Battlefield 6 experiences.

Every weapon in Battlefield 6 has a damage profile. That profile is primarily driven by the caliber of bullet it fires. A specific caliber (for example, 7.62x39mm) has a core damage profile. When that caliber is used across different weapon archetypes (like rifles, carbines, LMGs), we may tweak it slightly, but they still share underlying values and behavior.

For REDSEC specifically, each caliber effectively has two damage curves: Damage vs. Soldier Health and Damage vs. Armor.

In REDSEC, we only adjust weapon damage against armor. Once armor breaks, that weapon will deal the same damage to soldier health, at the same ranges, as it does in the rest of Battlefield 6.

We currently make two systemic adjustments to how infantry weapons interact with armor in REDSEC.

All weapons have damage “steps” at different ranges (max damage, then lower damage as range increases). For damage vs. armor, we extend those drop-off ranges by 10 meters.

REDSEC fights tend to happen at longer ranges (the larger map size and extended engagement ranges found on Fort Lyndon). Extending the effective ranges vs. armor helps weapons feel more consistent between MP and REDSEC, even though the context is different.

This adjustment applies to all primary and secondary weapons.

For automatic weapons, we make another key change vs. armor. The first, very close-range max damage step against armor is essentially removed (or significantly reduced). In cases where we have a Carbine variant of a bullet (like 7.62x39mm vs. 7.62x39mm_Carbine), we keep the caliber’s max damage vs. armor aligned across the caliber and lower that close-range damage step to match the non-carbine, instead of flattening it all the way down.

During playtesting, we found that at very close ranges, where both theoretical and practical hit rates can approach 100%, armor often felt nonexistent, especially against high-rate-of-fire weapons. You’d land a perfect close-range spray and barely notice armor was there at all (or worse, it felt inconsistent depending on the weapon).

So this adjustment is primarily aimed at controlling high-ROF weapons at very close range and making armor feel like it actually matters when you’re face-to-face, instead of just evaporating instantly.

To make this a bit more tangible, let’s walk through an example using 7.62x39mm. For 7.62x39mm (ACE, RPKM):

• Deals 33.4 damage out to 9 meters, then drops to 27.3 damage

• Drops to 21.5 damage at 21 meters

• Drops to 20 damage at 36 meters

• Drops to 16.7 damage at 75 meters

For 7.62x39mm_Carbine (SIG553R):

• Deals 33.4 damage out to 9 meters, then drops to 25 damage

• Drops to 20 damage at 21 meters

• Drops to 16.7 damage at 36 meters

• Drops to 14.3 damage at 75 meters

These “steps” line up with changes in bullets-to-kill (BTK) and are what you’re feeling when a weapon shifts from, say, a 3-shot kill to a 4-shot kill.

Now compare that to damage vs. armor, all those damage drop-off ranges are pushed out by 10 meters vs. armor. The very close-range damage (within ~9 meters) is flattened, so armor doesn’t just vanish instantly. Example: 33.4 is reduced to 27.3 damage vs. armor at those very close ranges. Carbine variants are lowered to match that 27.3 damage, rather than being pushed even lower.

At longer ranges, your damage against armor feels more in line with your expectations from MP, just with the added buffer armor provides. At very close ranges, armor meaningfully slows down TTK, especially against very fast-firing weapons, without making the gun feel like a totally different weapon.

Armor in REDSEC is in a place we’re happy with for launch, but this is not the final word. We’ll keep tracking data across all skill levels and modes, listening to your feedback on how armor feels in real matches, and looking for any outliers. 

When sharing armor feedback from BR experiences, specific details about the weapon or archetype of weapons involved in the encounter, as well as engagement ranges, are very helpful. In Gauntlet, including details on the mode that was being played helps the team a lot. Please continue to report bugs on our EA Forums, and join the community on the Battlefield Discord server[discord.com].

When we make changes, we’ll continue to favor adjustments vs. armor, to preserve weapon feel across Battlefield 6 and be transparent about what changed and why.

Thanks again for playing, for putting time into REDSEC, and for sending us your thoughts (and your wild squad wipes). Keep the feedback coming, we’re listening, we’re iterating, and we’ll see you in the next drop.

//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.