Battlefield 2042 Season 1 Zero Hour Release Date, Battle Pass, Trailer, And Details Revealed

Battlefield 2042's long-awaited and delayed Season 1: Zero Hour update will arrive June 9, and it marks the first significant post-launch update to the military shooter since it released in 2021. EA and developer DICE expected to launch the inaugural season sooner but opted to delay it as the companies instead focused on improving the base game.

The big-ticket items for Season 1: Zero Hour include a new map, Exposure, as well as a new soldier, Ewelina Lis. Additionally, there are new vehicles, including a pair of helicopters--the RAH-68 Huron and the YG-99 Hannibal. Also new in Season 1: Zero Hour is the first battle pass, which includes a range of cosmetics and other items to unlock.

The new map Exposure is set in the Canadian Rockies, and being set in the mountains, verticality is a major component. "Ground-to-air combat, as well as tight infantry fights, await within caves and among mountain ridges," EA said. The map supports All-Out Warfare and Portal.

As for the new specialist, Lis is described as a "vehicle-killer exceptionally skilled at tracking down and destroying armored land vehicles and aircrafts." Lis has a rocket launcher that fires remote-controlled missiles. Lis also has the Armor Hunter trait to help take down vehicles.

Season 1 also introduces new weapons, including the Ghostmaker R10 Crossbow, the BSV-M marksman rifle, and the Smoke Grenade Launcher.

What's more, Season 1: Zero Hour includes a drop in player count for some maps and modes. Players will still find 128-player modes on original launch maps--while the new Exposure map will support 128-player Conquest--but new maps going forward will now top out at 64 players.

As for the season 1 battle pass, players can unlock things like weapons, vehicles, cosmetics, and the new specialist character, Lis, either through gameplay or spending real money.

Additionally, the Season 1 update includes a long list of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements. In total, DICE is delivering "hundreds" of changes, and you can see the full Season 1: Zero Hour patch notes here. For more, check out GameSpot's hands-on preview of Battlefield 2042 Season 1: Zero Hour ahead of its launch on June 9.

The game failed to sell as well as EA wanted, but it still ranked as the fifth best-selling game of 2021 in the US. EA will continue to invest in the Battlefield series going ahead with a new narrative-focused experience from Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto's new studio, among other projects.