Battlefield 2042 Dev Update Shows More Map Reworks And Changes To Specialists

Ahead of its second season in September, the team behind Battlefield 2042 have provided an update on what to expect in the game's near future. Chief among it all are reworks to existing maps and a promised retooling of the game's controversial Specialists.

The maps Renewal and Orbital will be receiving facelifts in Battlefield 2042's second season. The improvements to both maps are in line with what Kaleidoscope received in the game's first season, Zero Hour, and mostly amount to the addition of cover (and changes in terrain) throughout the maps in order to improve the infantry experience. Renewal's rework will arrive in Battlefield 2042 in September at Season 2's launch.

Orbital will be getting more extensive changes, with the team shifting the spawns closer together, at the cost of two existing capture points, in order to facilitate quicker action at the start of a match. To make up for the two capture points, 128-player Conquest will now have a new point on the hills for players to fight over. Better cover and barriers have been added to improve the quality of life for infantry players and impede vehicles from dominating. Orbital's rework is set to drop a little later down the line in October.

A new map will also be arriving as part of Battlefield 2042's second season and looks to be a more close-quarters map. The team also stressed that it would continue updating maps that launched with 2042 in future seasons while releasing new maps that show how they've learned from the game's maligned launch.

Specialists, which are essentially hero characters with unique abilities, are also being heavily revised. Earlier patches updated many of their appearances after players complained they were too quippy and clean, and further tone changes will be coming down the line. The biggest change however is that beginning in Season 3, Specialists will now be reworked into Battlefield's familiar class system. As it stands now, you can mix-and-match Specialists and Battlefield class archetypes, which provides a lot of flexibility, but players have argued this has stamped out their chance to stand out and have a unique identity. Beginning with Season 3, Specialists will have traits unique to their classes and gadgets and throwables will be divided among the four classes.

Lastly, DICE is introducing Vault Weapons, which are weapons from previous Battlefield games featured in 2042's Portal mode. Players will be able to use these Vault Weapons in 2042's main mode, All-Out Warfare, and the first of these weapons are Battlefield 3's M16A3 assault rifle and the M60E4 LMG. These weapons will be unlockable by tackling assignments and will be released steadily throughout Season 2 and future Battlefield 2042 seasons.