Battlefield 2042 had a sketchy launch but the time since then has brought a lot of fixes and improved polish, as well as (at long last) some new content to sink your teeth into.
This is a live service game in the modern sense, and Dice has started to add substantial content to support BF2042 - so find out what's just arrived and what's coming up, right here.
When does Battlefield 2042 Season 4 start?
We now know when Season 4 will arrive for Battlefield 2042 - it'll launch on 28 February 2023.
What's coming to Battlefield 2042 in Season 4: Eleventh Hour?
Dice has shown off Season 4 at last, subtitling it Eleventh Hour. It brings a new map, specialist and more - check out the trailer below and read on for all the key details.
New specialist
The game is getting its final specialist, completing its roster at last. Camila Blasco is a comms-jamming expert who carries a signal jammer that she can deploy to prevent lock-ons and spotting by enemies.
She's a recon class infiltrator, so gets a steady scope on her sniper, but her unique benefit is that she also cannot be spotted by motion-detecting gadgets like turrets.
New map - Flashpoint
The next map being added to 2042 is Flashpoint, set in South Africa. It promises more up-close and personal combat compared to some of BF2024's more enormous maps, which sounds like a nice change of pace.
There's also a rework coming to Discarded, the map set in an Indian naval scrapyard, which should see it get some major changes and upgrades including more cover.
New weapons
There are a few new weapons coming to the game, namely the Super 500 Shotgun Sidearm, RM68 Assault Rifle, AC9 SMG and RPT-31 LMG.
Each will have upsides and downsides, but it's certainly a big dose of new weaponry to come in just a single season.
New vehicle - CAV-Brawler
One new vehicle is being added, in the form of a troop-carrier that has a little bit more offensive power to it in the form of a turret. It's decently armoured, and you can spawn on it even if it's full, which is something not every vehicle can offer tactically.
Will there be a Season 5 for Battlefield 2042?
Given we were promised four seasons initially, even if they've taken much longer to arrive than expected, you might wonder if support for the game will continue.
EA and Dice's answer is yes, at least for now - there is apparently a fifth season coming, although it won't bring a new specialist with it, and there's no promise of an extra map.
What was new to Battlefield 2042 in update 3.2?
Battlefield 2042 got some absolutely massive changes in the long-awaited update 3.2, which is now live after being trailed for a while. Here are all the details you need to know.
Classes are back
The biggest single change is the return of the class system, abandoning the freedom of the specialists that the game launched with.
Those characters are now grouped into Assault, Support, Engineer and Recon classes with the gadgets and equipment available to them limited by those classes.
This should encourage more teamplay as each role will have an important tactical purpose to fulfil.
Thermal scopes
Three new scopes have arrived to offer thermal imaging - something you might have assumed was already available. There are closer and longer-range options to suit a variety of weaponry and situations.
Breakaway map rework
The large arctic map Breakaway has had its rework, with a new layout and less random sprawling overground areas, making for a tighter experience that is significantly better to play on modes like Breakthrough, from what we can tell.
What was new to Battlefield 2042 in Season 3: Escalation?
Dice announced the third season of post-launch content for Battlefield 2042 in November 2022, and confirmed that it would launch on 22 November 2022.
Here are all the key details about what came with it.
New map and reworks
There's a new large-scale map coming with Season 3 - Spearhead. While there are outdoor sections, Dice says that this is a close-quarters combat map, great for those looking to get up close and personal with the enemy.
It's set in Dice's native Sweden, a first for the series, and features some massive factory buildings that you'll move through as you fight. It offers a blend of combat distances, therefore, including some claustrophobic interiors.
The season will also continue Dice's efforts to rework its launch maps. First up is Breakaway, which has had a facelift. Manifest will also be getting the same treatment during the season.
New operator: Rasheed Zain
Rasheed brings with him an XM370A Airburst Launcher, a grenade launcher that can be great for getting opponents to run from their cover. He also has a passive ability that will recharge his health quickly after any kill, making him great for those who like to run and gun.
New weapons and vehicle
There are two new guns coming, both with a futuristic look and feel. The Rorsch Mk-4 is a high-powered railgun that can be lethal at all ranges, while the NVK-S22 is a semi-automatic shotgun for more close-up mayhem.
A new tank is also joining the fray, the EMKV90-TOR. It can move around with a turret causing mayhem, but can also change modes and become really slow to use its main weapon more effectively. This will raise your turret's damage for huge devastation when you fire.
What was new to Battlefield 2042 in Update 2.1?
Battlefield 2042 got its big mid-season update on 27 September 2022, including a bunch of tweaks and fixes.
It brought with it the updated version of Renewal, continuing the trend of updated maps to bring some of the cover and visual flair that was missing at launch.
There was a new vehicle, too, in the form of the Polaris RZR buggy, which is a quick option for when you need to move fast. You can read about the other changes on the Battlefield blog here.
What was new to Battlefield 2024 in Season 2?
The second season of Battlefield 2042's post-launch content has started, and we've got a bit of a roadmap for what it brought, as you can see below. It's called Master of Arms.
You can watch the development update video below for a few more details on how this all works.
Although it's not going to arrive until Season 3, the huge news here is that classes are coming back to Battlefield 2042 eventually, with specialists arranged into those classes with restrictions on what equipment they can use.
That's a massive turnaround for series fans, who were worried classes were gone for good.
New map and map updates
The new map for Season 2 is called Stranded, and features a huge cargo ship that's been left beached in the Panama Canal, with a sandy exterior section that's paired with a lot of indoor areas to explore. It looks like a fairly tight map, so we'll look forward to exploring.
During the season, too, we'll be getting updated versions of Orbital and Renewal, both of which will gain way more cover and look significantly more war-torn in their new versions.
New specialist - Charlie Crawford
A new specialist is joining the fray, with a deployable minigun turret. Charlie Crawford could be ideal for defending chokepoints. He also gets gadget ammo when he revives other players, a useful boost.
New weapons
Finally, there are some new weapons to use - the AM40 SMG, Avancys LMG and the PF51 machine pistol. Each will widen your arsenal in different situations!
What was new to Battlefield 2042 in update #1.2?
After the launch of the first in-game season and battle pass, Dice continued to work on more quality of life updates, a few of which dropped in the form of update #1.2 at the start of August 2022.
You can read the full patch notes on the Battlefield website right here, but we've summarised the biggest changes below.
Kaleidoscope map update
The first major change to a launch map has come to Kaleidoscope, with the addition of way more cover and war-torn areas to make the battle look more obviously impactful on the environment.
New hills and undulations should make it easier to find cover, while the control points have also been moved around
Specialist tweaks
The first set of updated character models for some specialists has arrived, too, changing their look to seem more like they've seen plenty of combat, something that players took major issue with at launch.
Aim assist
There's been a major change made to aim assist for console and controller players, and the game should feel smoother and more responsive after the update, making it easier to track moving targets.
What was new to Battlefield 2042 in Season 1?
The first full post-launch season of content finally launched in Battlefield 2042 on 9 June, bringing a new map, Exposure, set in the Canadian Rockies, and a range of other additions showcased in the trailer below.
A new specialist, Lis, joined the fray with a player-directed rocket launcher to inflict maximum damage on vehicles, while a new crossbow and marksman rifle give you some new weaponry to experiment with.
There was finally a 100-tier battle pass to work through, full of cosmetics and other unlocks (while every gameplay element will be in free tiers).
It was a fun spread of content, although given it took six months since launch to arrive, it might feel more than a little thin to the game's fans. It'll last for 12 weeks, which means we should see Season 2 in September 2022.
You can find out more about the new season on the official Battlefield site here.
What was new in Battlefield 2042 update #4.0?
On 19 April 2022 Battlefield 2042 got a major update full of a massive amount of bug-fixing and tweaking, including one huge and widely-awaited addition in the form of VOIP - the ability to actually use voice-chat with your team in-game.
There were also some adjustments to specialist traits, tweaks to vehicle power and hopefully more rewarding XP progression and ribbon awards to encourage more teamplay in online servers. There were so many changes that it would be impossible to list them all, so check the patch notes to peruse them in full.
What was new in Battlefield 2042 update #3.3?
A lot of people were waiting on BF2042's 3.3 update, which brought the scoreboard that Dice promised some time ago, along with some other changes.
The scoreboard should be much clearer now, and you can also finally see how many times you've died, a key stat that was missing. Dice has also been playing with aim assist for controller players to make your shooting experience feel smoother, which is always welcome.
That was the main thrust of this update, though - it was all about the scoreboard, and not much else.
What was new in update #3.1?
The previous major update for BF2042 was a while back; Dice published its blog post unveiling the changes, which weren't quite as voluminous as in previous iterations, but contained some significant and welcome tweaks.
For us, most important was the removal of rooftop capture points from the three maps that featured them in Breakthrough - these were practically broken if you were attackers, and the game should now flow far more fairly without them.
Another big balance change came for Proximity Sensors, which were far too universally used. They had their ping radius narrowed, their duration halved, and you can now only carry one instead of two, which should prioritise other throwables nicely.
The cannons for most vehicles took another nerf, reducing their splash damage to try to give infantry more of a chance, which has been a theme since launch and is still welcome, while most weapons had some more tuning done to make recoil feel better.
Dice also says that hit registration should again get a marked improvement, although in all honesty we've had few problems with it since the last couple of updates. Those are the headline changes, but you can read the blog post to find out more in detail.
What was new in Battlefield 2042 update #3?
Before update #3.1 came #3, unsurprisingly - you can find a huge blog post detailing all of of its changes, right here.
There are way too many details to list them all, but perhaps the biggest came in the form of new Weekly Missions, assignments you'll get each week that award XP when finished to help you level up. Finishing all your weekly tasks will grant you a unique cosmetic, seemingly, so you'll want to log in each week to try them out.
Another big change brought back the old system of revives - when you die, you'll see any medics who could revive you within 50 metres so that you can have a sense for whether you're likely to be coming back.
Similarly, medics can ping downed players to let them know they're on their way, just like in older Battlefield games. That's a welcome addition that we were confused to see left out in the first place.
There were loads of bug fixes to make sure that weapons and equipment are working as designed, including a tweak to stop the 8X sniper scope from zooming in so ridiculously quickly (we'll miss you, 8X!).
Dice also says it improved navigation around your Collection in a few ways, too, to let you edit your loadouts and weapons in fewer clicks - it's a slightly arcane system at present and takes some getting used to, so this is no bad thing.
What there wasn't a huge amount of in this update is balance changes in terms of boosts and nerfs for weapons and vehicles themselves.
What arrived in Update #2?
At the end of the first week of BF2042's life cycle, Dice broke cover to confirm that it's been listening to all the feedback flooding in, both positive and negative, from newcomers and longtime fans of the series.
In a frankly HUGE blog post, it detailed a massive raft of changes that it's going to bring to Battlefield 2042 in a series of updates, the first one having launched on 25 November 2021 and with another two planned before Christmas 2021.
You can find everything that's changed in granular detail on the EA website here, but there are some headline changes that you'll want to know about.
Firstly, a wide array of weapons have had their recoil and bullet spread adjusted to be more forgiving, which should make shooting easier for a lot of players across the board. Similarly, the dreaded PP-29 SMG has had its recoil increased to make it less devastating at long range.
Multiple vehicles have had their weaponry adjusted to reduce their dominance, while the Hovercraft has also had its armour reduced to make it less of a beast to fight against.
Finally, there's also a fix for the bug that stopped players from being revived if their body was near a wall - something that was happening way too often.