EA and DICE have finally released the first of Star Wars Battlefront II’s fall content, along with a (mostly) complete roadmap detailing what we can expect from now through the winter season. The updates are a wide mix of cosmetics, new content, updates to game economy, as well as some slight changes to gameplay and modes.
Fall update for EA Star Wars: Battlefront II
New skins
The big news for this week is the addition of new appearances for the Galactic Republic faction. This includes both 327th Star Corps skins and the 41st Elite Corps.
These skins are for clones only, and will only be applicable to the Heavy, Assault, and Specialist classes (the Officer will remain the same). To equip them, your best bet is to go to your crates and buy them both – it’ll cost a pretty hefty 40,000 credits for each crate, but considering that each skin separately costs 20,000 (500 crystals) you’re essentially buying two and getting the third for free if you get the crates.
Buy emotes and victory poses
After EA removed all loot crates from Battlefront II, a big question has been how players can unlock new emotes and victory poses for their troopers and heroes. Today that question was answered: You can now purchase them with in-game credits and crystals.
Any emotes for troopers will cost 1,000 credits or 25 crystals, and the same goes for victory poses. Our recommendation is to spend credits, as 1,000 credits is not hard to come by in Battlefront II, particularly if you complete the typically manageable daily challenges.
Victory poses and emotes will cost double for Battlefront II’s array of famous heroes and villains, totaling 2,000 credits or 50 crystals. Is it worth it to hear Vader say he finds your lack of faith disturbing?
… Yes.
New modes
Not a whole lot has been added in the way of new game modes, but you can expect a ton more in the coming months. See below for more detail. However, the fan-favorite Ewok Hunt has been made a permanent addition to the roster of game modes, and can be found under the Operations tab. Unfamiliar with this terrifying mode? Check our run-down here.
If you’re a fan of Heroes vs Villains mode you’re likely already familiar with this map. It’s not new to the game, but it’s now making its debut in both Blast and Custom Arcade, so if you frequent either of those, prepare to see this awesome location in the new lineup.
Changes to gameplay
If you’ve been playing Battlefront II’s multiplayer lately, you probably noticed a couple bugs with the game’s scoring mechanic. Most obvious of these was the broken post-match stats screen, which at times would not display at all. You also may have noticed that the 2x multiplier that hovers near your reticle no longer lights up to indicate that you’ve acquired the boost.
Fear not. The reason it was bugging out was because EA was working on adding some new info to your post-game stats page. Now when you play, it’ll look something like the above picture. As for the 2x, EA has removed that feature to be later reinstated and modified in the up and coming squad system (again, more on that in just a sec).
Battlepoint cost changes
Again because of the squad system, Battlepoints have undergone a pretty big update. The bottom line is that everything’s about to cost a whole lot less. Heroes that used to cost 6,000 will now cost only 4,500 which is a pretty huge change. Enforcers are now 2,200 Battlepoints instead of the previous 3,000, and small vehicles that were once 200 are now only 150.
While this means you won’t have to work quite so hard to play as your favorite heroes, keep in mind that other players will now have earlier access to them (and powerful vehicles) far earlier. In short, expect things to get way more chaotic way faster, and try to earn your points early!
What’s coming next
Everything we just covered is the tip of the iceberg; EA released their new roadmap today which highlights a bunch of new additions to the game that we can be expecting in the coming months. Here’s what we know so far:
Squad System
The new Squad System is EA’s way to help give more focus to playing team-based scenarios, the way the game was originally designed to play. “Aimed to encourage team play, the Squad System is an improved and streamlined way for players to stick together in Star Wars Battlefront II,” they explain.
As for specifics, all we know so far is that this means players will now be able to spawn on squad members in modes like Blast, Galactic Assault, and Strike. How the new system will affect point scoring or balancing during capture and hold scenarios, we’ll have to wait for more information.
More heroes are coming
As EA announced this past spring, we will soon be getting four new heroes – General Grievous, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Count Dooku – as well as a new Geonosis map, which they claim to be their largest map yet. What we didn’t know until today was exactly WHEN we’d be getting these new heroes, and how many in-game credits they would cost.
Grievous will be landing in-game first, and should be showing up in October. Obi-Wan will be arriving the following month, and the Geonosis map will be coming along with him. As for precise dates for Anakin and Dooku, we don’t have those just yet, but EA says to expect them this coming winter. Once they’re added you can also expect some new skins for both Obi-Wan and Grievous.
The heroes will cost 35,000 credits each, which should be approachable given the space we have to wait between receiving them. “We came to this price by using our in-game telemetry data to determine the speed in which players are earning credits, as well as the average amount of credits that each player has saved up,” EA explains. “What this tells us is that for newcomers, or players with a credit balance of 0, it shouldn’t take too long to earn the credits needed and for veteran players, you most likely have enough credits already or are very close to reaching that amount.”
Large-Scale mode
EA also just teased the eventual arrival of a new game mode that they’ve simply referred to as Large-Scale. Likely taking place on the upcoming Geonosis, this mode will be a massive-scale “non-linear Star Wars sandbox experience” in which two teams will be duking it out over capture points and attempting to bring capital ships down from the sky.
This might end up looking something like the non-linear pushes in the Galactic Assault modes, where teams have to wrest control over specific locations in order to progress forward. It’d be pretty cool if there was some back-and-forth between the two factions, like an AT-TE that the clones could capture, but that the droid army could sabotage. It could make for some very organic, albeit long, matches.
EA have also said they have addressed and are continuing to address multiple issues with the game’s balance to be patched in later updates, and that we can expect more skins as we reach more landmarks – including favorites such as the 501st legion once Anakin arrives.
Until then, we’ll keep you posted on any news, or you can check EA’s Battlefront II site right here.
