Battlefield 2042 Update 8.3.0 Patch Notes Revealed

Important takeaways

• Battlefield 2042 Update 8.3.0 introduces vehicle tweaks, armor piercing changes, and holiday events.
• Patch focuses on balancing Dozer's Ballistic Shield with reduced damage from Armor Piercing ammo.
• The update improves customization, progression and gameplay with improvements to vehicles and weapons.

DICE has revealed the patch notes for Battlefield 2042 Update 8.3.0. This patch wraps up 2024 with a variety of gameplay tweaks, bug fixes, and balance changes, along with a special holiday event to add some festive cheer to Battlefield 2042.

Battlefield 2042 launched in November 2021 and received criticism for its deviation from the traditional Battlefield formula and significant technical issues upon release. Despite the rocky start, DICE has consistently worked to improve the game through regular updates, aiming to meet players' expectations. A new update is now on the way, and while the exact release date wasn't specified in the patch notes, it's expected to roll out sometime in early December.

Battlefield 2042 Patch 8.3.0 delivers extensive updates to vehicles, weapons and game mechanics. Battlefield 2042 vehicle tweaks include aligning EMP grenades fired from vehicles with the behavior of hand-thrown ones and improving collision for the Pondhawk to prevent accidental hovering. A new HUD feature provides a “reactive hint” to players in unmanned free-falling vehicles, prompting them to take control before they crash. Other fixes include resolving issues such as incorrect damage numbers due to armor and the CAV-Brawler deployment screen icon rotating with the vehicle. The patch also fixes a bug with the M1 Garand, where the animation for holding the weapon was delayed when switching during a sprint.

The patch focuses heavily on balancing Dozer's Ballistic Shield, which addresses long-standing player issues. Armor Piercing (AP) ammo has been reworked to penetrate Dozer's shield with reduced damage, varying between Battlefield 2042 weapon types. For example, sniper rifles can deal up to 45% damage per bullet, while assault rifles deal 10%. Additionally, AP Grenade Launchers now damage the Dozer when fired at the shield, and the shield's deployment time has been significantly reduced by 80%. These changes aim to make encounters with the Dozer more manageable while preserving the shield's defensive capabilities, encouraging strategic counterplay.

Additional updates improve customization, progression, and game flow. Portal now allows admins to enable team swaps via a menu option and adds features like “ammo stations” for more flexible custom game creation. New progression mechanics, such as Objective Airdrop XP for pilots and vehicle recovery XP, reward strategic play. Suspension mode ping target fixes and repositioning performance improvements contribute to a smoother player experience. The patch also introduces the Holiday Protocol event, with both new and returning ones Battlefield 2042 rewards, giving players additional incentive to engage with these updates.

Battlefield 2042 Update 8.3.0 Patch Notes

Vehicle:

• Draugren now only appear in the personal category.
• Vehicle EMP fired grenades are no longer stopped by amps, to match the behavior of hand thrown EMP grenades.
• Adjusted collision on Pondhawk to minimize players hovering on top of it.
• Added a reactive cue to the HUD when in a falling unmanned aerial vehicle, to alert and encourage players to take control of the driver's seat. Before you crash, you know?
• Fixed a bug where the damage numbers did not take into account the vehicle's armor, causing the numbers to appear higher than the actual damage.
• Fixed a bug where the operation screen icon for the “spawn on foot” feature in the CAV-Brawler would rotate with the vehicle.
• Fixed an issue where equipping boosters on a vehicle would cause collision issues with certain objects such as vegetation. Those plants really came to get you.

Arms:

• Fixed an issue where switching to the M1 Garand when sprinting had a delayed animation for holding the weapon.

Armor piercing ammunition

Over the years with Battlefield 2042, we've consistently seen players express concerns about the Dozer's effectiveness in terms of their offensive capabilities on most of our maps. This update introduces a small change to Armor Piercing that now allows these rounds to pass through Dozer's Ballistic Shield with reduced damage.

The team continues to look at balancing around Dozer, and we'll evaluate your feedback further once this update has rolled out; but the penguins now hope that Dozer won't be as scary the next time you run through the corridors of Exposure.

Below you will find the changes to Armor Piercing Ammo in conjunction with Dozer's Ballistic Shield, the damage it shows is a percentage for example with Assault Rifles 10% bullet damage will pass through Dozer's Ballistic Shield if you use Armor Piercing Ammo.

• Sniper 45% damage per bullet against penetration versus shield
• Sniper Anti-Materiel Ammo 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 piercing and shaft changes:

• AP grenade launchers will now damage Dozer if fired at the shield
• Shaft shield deployment time has been reduced by 80%
• All AP ammo from all primary weapons can now penetrate the shield and deal lower damage to the bulldozer

Characters and Gadgets:

• Fixed a bug where the damage numbers would sometimes not match the actual damage dealt when dealing low damage multiple times.

Portal:

• Added the ability to place ammo stations to Custom Conquest, TDM and FFA experiences.
• Fixed an issue that would allow you to press deploy even when it was on cooldown.
• Fixed an issue where custom score objective could cause the score calculator to be incorrect.
• Fixed an issue that caused Ascension Points to not have a value for non-2042 factions.
• Added a mutator to the admin portal to allow players on their server to switch teams via the “Escape” / “Pause” menu.
  • This is only available when the player has not been created.
  • There are no restrictions on how often you can switch or to which team at the moment, as this is a feature for admins to give more freedom on their servers. With great power comes great responsibility.
• Added objective airdrop XP to custom game modes.

Progression:

• Objective Airdrop: If a passenger exits an air vehicle and enters a contested target within a certain amount of time after exiting the vehicle, the pilot receives an Objective Airdrop XP event. This event also awards points on the scoreboard.
• Vehicles Boosted: Entering a vehicle previously owned by the enemy will give you an XP event.

The modes:

• Fixed a bug where players could not ping targets in the Shutdown game mode.

Game flow and social:

• Small performance improvements to relocation and death flow.
• Fixed a bug where the “Ferocity” headgear for Blasco would appear twice in the headgear customization menu.
• Updated Huron vehicle description on installation screen.