Battlefield 2042's weapon bloom and Hovercraft nerf patch is here
DICE rolled out the latest Battlefield 2042 update this morning to all platforms.
As promised, the second post-launch patch for Battlefield 2042 has arrived. This update is a little on the smaller side, but it does bring several welcome fixes and directly addresses a couple of the larger points of criticism with the game.
Update 0.2.2's most interesting addition is nerfing the excessive weapon bloom, which made it so shots don't land where you aim. It also makes the PP-29 SMG - the weapon everyone defaulted to in order to get around bloom - less effective at range by upping its vertical recoil.
Another important fix in today's update is one resolving the bug that prevented players from being revived when they die next to a wall or geometry. On that note, players should no longer be stuck in a downed state, unable to be revived or respawn.
The game will now automatically kick you back to the spawn screen after 30 seconds, as a failsafe against this issue.
The LCAA Hovercraft, which has been ruling the vehicle meta since launch for its powerful weaponry, agility and speed, has been hit with a couple of nerfs. First, it now has lighter armour, making it tank less damage. Its top minigun will now also deal less damage.
The minigun adjustments actually apply to all land vehicles in the game. DICE cut bullet damage to 13 from 18, made it so damage fall off kicks in at 40 meters rather than 60, and cut the damage at max fall off to 6. Basically, minigun shots will drop more, and deal less damage.
Balance changes in update 0.2.2 also extend to the MD540 Nightbird, and KA-520 Super Hokum helicopters.
Read on below for the full change log.
Battlefield 2042 patch 0.2.2 full notes
General fixes
- Bullet spread has been reduced on all weapons except Shotguns. This should result in better accuracy during gameplay.
- Increased PP-29 vertical recoil to ensure that the weapon does not over perform when engaging outside of its intended combat range.
- Resolved an issue where players who were killed close to obstacles such as walls or water were unable to be revived.
- Resolved instances where players were stuck in a downed state and unable to respawn. We’ve also introduced a hidden timer that will activate after 30 seconds of being in a downed state that will force a redeploy should it be required.
- Breakthrough matches will now correctly end after the last sector has been captured.
- Resolved an issue that caused players queued for a match in Battlefield Portal to be sent back to the menu, instead of joining the match when a slot became available.
- Made general improvements to stability to prevent rare occurrences of game crashing.
- Equipped armour type for the LCAA Hovercraft has been adjusted which increases it’s vulnerability against different weapon types.
MD540 Nightbird mounted 20mm cannons - we are reducing the radius at which bullets do damage upon impact, and decreasing their splash damage:
- Reduced Blast Radius size from 3 to 2.
- Reduced Inner Blast Radius damage from 1.5 to 0.75.
- Reduced Blast Radius from 2 to 1.6.
- Reduced Blast Damage from 20 to 14.
- Reduced bullet damage before Damage Fall Off starts 18 to 15.
- Reduced Damage Fall Off distance from 200 to 180.
- Reduced bullet damage at max Fall Off distance from 8 to 6.
- Increased bullet range and spread.
AH-64GX Apache Warchief and KA-520 Super Hokum - 30mm cannon - we are reducing the radius at which bullets do damage upon impact, and decreasing their splash damage:
- Reduced Blast Damage from 20 to 18.
- Increased the Damage Fall Off for enemies that are further away from the bullet impact centre.
We reduced the overall damage of the minigun for all land vehicles, alongside bullet damage drop off now starting earlier:
- Reduced bullet damage before Damage Fall Off starts from 18 to 13.
- Reduced Damage Fall Off distance from 60 to 40.
- Reduced bullet damage at max Fall Off distance to 6.
Battlefield Portal - UAV-1
- The UAV-1 has been re-enabled within Battlefield Portal.
- Greatly reduced health regeneration delay and speed.
- Increased missile damage against vehicles and infantry.
- The drone is now able to roadkill enemies.
Next week, Battlefield 2042 is due to receive another, much more substantial patch. DICE called it the game's biggest so far, and it's going to bring back missing features, improve the UI, make changes to game audio, boost the skill of AI bots, tweak gunplay further, and introduce new balance changes and performance fixes.
Should things go well, we may get a third smaller patch before the studio breaks for the holidays, too.