Battlefield 2042 Update 8.3.0 patch notes revealed

Key things

• Battlefield 2042 Update 8.3.0 brings vehicle upgrades, armor penetration changes and a holiday event.
• The 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 Battlefield 2042 Update 8.3.0. This patch closes out 2024 with a number of gameplay improvements, bug fixes, and balance changes, along with a special holiday event to bring some holiday spirit to the game. Battlefield 2042.

Battlefield 2042 launched in November 2021, facing criticism for its departure from the traditional Battlefield formula and significant technical issues in release. Despite the rocky start, DICE has continuously worked to improve the game through regular updates to meet player expectations. The new update is now on the way, and while the exact release date wasn't mentioned in the patch notes, it's expected to launch sometime in early December.

Battlefield 2042 Patch 8.3.0 brings comprehensive updates to vehicles, weapons and game mechanics. Battlefield 2042 vehicle tweaks include aligning vehicle-fired EMP grenades with hand-thrown behavior and collision improvements for the Pondhawk to prevent inadvertent hovering. A new HUD feature provides “reactive guidance” to players in free-falling unmanned vehicles, encouraging them to take control before a crash. Other fixes include fixing issues such as incorrect armor damage numbers and the deployment screen icon for the CAV-Brawler rotating with the vehicle. The patch also fixes a bug with the M1 Garand where the animation for holding the weapon was delayed when swapping during a sprint.

The patch focuses heavily on balancing Dozer's Ballistic Shield and addresses longstanding player concerns. Armor Piercing (AP) ammo has been reworked to penetrate the Dozer's shield with reduced damage that varies across Battlefield 2042 types of weapons. 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 deployment time has been significantly reduced by 80%. These changes aim to make the Dozer encounter more manageable while maintaining the shield's defensive capabilities and supporting strategic counterplay.

Additional updates improve customization, progression, and game flow. The portal now allows administrators to enable team swaps via a menu option, and adds features like “ammo stations” for more flexible custom game creation. New progression mechanics like Objective Airdrop XP for pilots and XP for vehicle acquisition reward strategic play. Fixes to ping targets in shutdown mode and performance improvements on redeployment contribute to a smoother gaming experience. The patch also introduces the Holiday Protocol event, which features both new and returning Battlefield 2042 rewards that offer players additional incentives to engage in these updates.

Battlefield 2042 Update 8.3.0 patch notes

Vehicles:

• Draugr now only appear in the personal category.
• EMP grenades fired from vehicles are no longer stopped by boosters to be consistent with the behavior of handheld EMP grenades.
• Aligned collision on Pondhawk to minimize players hovering over it.
• Added a reactive hint 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 armor of the vehicle, causing the numbers to be higher than the actual damage dealt.
• Fixed a bug where the screen placement icon for the CAV-Brawler's “spawn on foot” feature would rotate with the vehicle.
• Fixed an issue where placing boosters on a vehicle would cause collision issues with certain objects such as vegetation. Those plants really worked for you.

arms:

• Fixed an issue where switching to the M1 Garand while sprinting had a delayed weapon hold animation.

Armor piercing bullets

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

The team continues to find balance around Dozer, and we'll take your feedback into consideration once this update goes live; however, the penguins now hope that Dozer won't be so 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 on Assault Rifles 10% of bullet damage will go through Dozer's Ballistic Shield if you are using Armor Piercing Ammo.

• Sniper 45% damage per bullet vs. shield piercing
• 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 and dozer changes:

• AP Grenade Launchers now deal damage to the Dozer if fired at the shield
• Dozer shield deployment time reduced by 80%
• All AP ammo from all primary weapons can now penetrate the shield and deal lower damage to the Dozer

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

Procedure:

• Target Drop: If a passenger exits an air vehicle and proceeds to a contested destination within a certain time after exiting the vehicle, the pilot earns the Target Drop XP event. This event also gives points on the scoreboard.
• Vehicle Power Ups: If you enter a vehicle previously owned by an enemy, you will receive event XP.

Modes:

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

Game progress and social networks:

• Small performance improvements to displacement and death flow.
• Fixed a bug where the “Ferocity” headgear for Blasco appeared twice in the headgear customization menu.
• Updated the description of the Huron vehicle on the deployment screen.