Battlefield 2042 patch notes to 8.3.0 discovered

Key conclusions

• Battlefield 2042 update 8.3.0 introduces vehicle tweaks, armor piercing changes, and holiday events.
• The patch focuses on balancing Dozer's Ballistic Shield with reduced damage from armor piercing rounds.
• The update improves the customization, progression and flow of the game with improvements to vehicles and weapons.

DICE has released patch notes for the Battlefield 2042 Update 8.3.0. This patch wraps up the year 2024 with various gameplay tweaks, bug fixes and balance changes, as well as a special holiday event to bring some holiday cheer to Battlefield 2042.

Battlefield 2042 launched in November 2021, facing criticism for departing from the traditional The battlefield formula and significant technical issues at release. Despite its rocky start, DICE has been consistently working to improve the game through regular updates in an effort to meet players' expectations. The new update is on the way, and while an exact release date hasn't been mentioned in the patch notes, it's expected to hit sometime in early December.

Battlefield 2042 Patch 8.3.0 contains comprehensive updates to vehicles, weapons and game mechanics. Battlefield 2042 vehicle tweaks include aligning vehicle-fired EMP grenades with the behavior of hand-thrown grenades, and improving Pondhawk collision to prevent accidental hangs. A new HUD feature provides “reactive guidance” to players in free-falling unmanned vehicles, prompting them to take control before falling. Other fixes include fixing issues such as incorrect damage numbers due to armor and the deployment screen icon for the CAV-Brawler rotating with the vehicle. The patch also fixes a bug with the M1 Garand that caused the weapon hold animation to lag when switching while sprinting.

The patch focuses heavily on balancing Dozer's ballistic shield, addressing long-standing player issues. Armor Penetrating (AP) ammo has been reworked to penetrate the Bulldozer's shield with reduced damage that varies based on Battlefield 2042 types of weapons. For example, sniper rifles can deal up to 45% bullet damage, while assault rifles deal 10%. Additionally, BB grenade launchers now deal damage to the Bulldozer when fired at the shield, and the shield deployment time has been significantly reduced by 80%. These changes aim to make bulldozer encounters more manageable, while still maintaining the shield's defensive capabilities, encouraging strategic counterplay.

Additional updates improve customization, progression, and gameplay. The portal now allows administrators to enable team sharing via a menu item and adds features such as “ammo stations” for more flexible creation of custom games. New progression mechanisms, such as Objective Airdrop XP for pilots and experience for returning vehicles, reward strategic play. Shutdown pinging fixes and redistribution performance improvements make for a smoother player experience. The patch also introduces the Holiday Protocol event, which features both new and returning characters Battlefield 2042 rewards, offering players additional incentives to engage with these updates.

Battlefield 2042 8.3.0 Patch Notes

Vehicles:

• Draugr is now displayed only in the personal category.
• Vehicle EMP grenades are no longer stopped by boosters to match the behavior of EMP hand grenades.
• Leveled collision on Pondhawk to minimize the number of players hovering over it.
• Added a reactive HUD prompt when an unmanned aerial vehicle crashes to warn and encourage players to take control of the driver's seat. Before you crash, you know?
• Fixed a bug where the damage numbers were not taking into account the vehicle's armor, causing the numbers to show more than the actual damage done.
• Fixed a bug where the deployment screen icon for the CAV-Brawler's “spawn on foot” feature would rotate with the vehicle.
• Fixed an issue where mounting boosters on a vehicle caused problems with collisions with certain objects such as vegetation. These plants really followed you.

Weapons:

• Fixed an issue where when switching to an M1 Garand while sprinting, the weapon hold animation would lag.

Armor-piercing cartridges

Over the years since Battlefield 2042, we've consistently seen players express concerns about the Dozer's effectiveness in relation to their offensive capabilities on most of our maps. This update makes a small change to armor piercing, which now allows these projectiles to pass through the Dozer's ballistic shield with reduced damage.

The team continues to find balance around Dozer, and we'll further appreciate your feedback once this update is rolled out; however, now the penguins hope that Bulldozer won't be so scary the next time you run through the halls at Exposure.

Below you will find the armor piercing ammo changes in relation to Dozer's ballistic shield, the damage it shows as a percentage, for example for assault rifles 10% of bullet damage will go through Dozer's ballistic shield if you use armor piercing ammo.

• Sniper 45% damage per bullet vs. piercing vs. shield
• Sniper anti-materiel ammunition 80% damage per bullet
• Railgun Single Shot 25% damage per bullet
• Railgun Full Auto/Burst: 10% damage per bullet
• AR 10% damage per bullet
• DMR 25% damage per bullet
• Revolver 25% damage per bullet

Additional Armor Penetration and Bulldozer Changes:

• AP Grenade Launchers will now deal damage to the Bulldozer when fired at the shield
• Bulldozer shield deployment time reduced by 80%
• All AP ammo from all primary weapons can now pierce shields and deal less damage to Bulldozer

Characters and Gadgets:

• Fixed a bug where the amount of damage would sometimes not match the actual damage when dealing small damage multiple times.

Portal:

• Added the ability to place ammo stations for custom conquest, TDM and FFA.
• Fixed an issue where you could press the deploy button even if it was on reload.
• Fixed an issue where a custom target score could cause an incorrect score calculator.
• Fixed an issue where Ascension Points were irrelevant for non-2042 factions.
• Added a mutator to the admin portal to allow players on their server to switch teams via the Quit / Pause menu.
  • This is only available if the player is not created.
  • There is currently no limit to how often you can change or to which team, as this is a feature for admins to allow more freedom on their servers. With great power comes great responsibility.
• Added objective XP reset to custom game modes.

Progression:

• Objective Airdrop: If a passenger leaves an air vehicle and heads to a contested target within a certain time after exiting the vehicle, the pilot receives an Objective Airdrop XP event. This event also scores points on the scoreboard.
• Vehicles Boosted: When you enter a vehicle previously owned by an enemy, you gain event XP.

Modes:

• Fixed an issue where players could not ping targets in Shutdown game mode.

Game flow and social networks:

• Minor performance improvements for redistribution and death flow.
• Fixed an issue where the 'Ferocity' headgear for Blasco would appear twice in the headgear customization menu.
• Updated description of the Huron vehicle on the deployment screen.