Whether on the Dark side or the Light side, its time to make your mark on a galactic stage.
Battlefront 2 can often be an overwhelming experience for new players. The variety of modes, the scope of battles and the number of overarching gameplay systems, often leaves one feeling a bit cross eyed. That's why I've put together some useful Battlefront tips, to push you higher up that scoreboard and to help you conquer any annoying Stormtroopers or Rebel soldiers who dare stand in your way.
Here Are Our Top 10 SWB2 Multiplayer Tips
Iden Verso loves putting on that helmet… well… initially she does.
1. Play the campaign
For those just starting out on their journey into Battlefront 2 the temptation might be to jump straight into the fray and start earning towards those class milestones. However, the much over looked single player campaign – a new addition to the franchise – offers newcomers (and those who’ve simply overlooked the mode) to earn overall 15,000 credits for use in the multiplayer. With the campaign taking only 4-5 hours to complete, this is an easy way to earn a good amount of currency, enough to buy several crates containing cosmetic, ship and crafting parts. So why not take a few hours and blast away through a lucrative (if not slightly forgetful) single player campaign and enter the online arena with more tools at your disposal.
Just set the difficulty to easy, pump up the enemy count and watch that XP roll in.
2. Try out the Custom Arcade Mode
Here’s another more beginner-oriented tip. Heading into an online multiplayer experience can often be daunting. Not knowing what weapon to choose, class to play, map to learn are all considerations that often leaves you bumbling through the first few matches like a headless chicken constantly getting plastered with laser bolts.
To alleviate some of this difficulty, its well worth checking out the game’s Custom Arcade mode. Much like the standard Arcade, this mode pits you and a friend against wave after wave of AI controlled enemies. The trick with the custom mode is that you can manually set up any respective matches – everything from the enemy count to their spawn times and weapon efficiency. Crucially these games still count towards your class milestones, meaning its time to set the enemy limit to 999 and shoot away to get that 1000 kills medal.
This space is also a great place to try out different class loadouts, movement strategies and star card combinations before getting online to test your skills for real.
Third person is the way to go young padawan
3. Play in the third person
The game offers the ability to switch between the first and third person perspectives, in a similar vain to the first title. Players coming into Battlefront 2 expecting a first-person shooter would be surprised to find the most satisfying and effective gameplay coming from the third-person camera perspective.
A wider field of view gives the player opportunities to see around corners if positioned well, allowing you to see players approaching from the left and right. This small but significant advantage could mean everything come battle time.
Whilst there’s no impetus from the game to play mainly in third person – with the first-person perspective bringing a greater sense of immersion to the single player experience – judging from the more ardent streamers of Battlefront 2, the gameplay benefits far out way the negatives.
Taking down those pesky enemies is no trouble with a quick pull of the trigger.
4. Remember to shoot from the hip
Battlefront 2 is a game of quick encounters and often very tight bottlenecks (especially on the mostly interior maps such as Kamino) and as a result any hand you can gain over your opponents could see those kill death ratios rising.
Shooting from the hip – in typical Star Wars fashion – proves the more useful option than zooming to aim. Encounters come and go quickly that if you take the extra time for precision, you’ll often find yourself burnt into the ground. This technique is especially useful when playing as the Assault class, with a high rate of fire meaning enemies go down quick, especially when fighting in face to face encounters.
Seeing an AAT rolling towards you can be terrifying. Just let it roll by and have your revenge
5. Taking down AT-ST’s at AAT’s
Nothing strikes fear into the heart of players more than the sound of rumbling machinery coming around the corner. Ion Torpedoes can give a certain piece of mind but with a slow reload speed and a negative hit to movement speed, one miss can make things go bad very quickly.
Something that many players still don’t realise is that in certain spots on - for instance - the AT-ST walker, concentrated fire brings about huge results. Look for the back panel on the head of the AT-ST (you’ll notice a raised square space), pump a large amount of damage in this direction (preferably with the Specialist class) and watch that health fall away. Similarly, with the square portion at the rear of the AAT, focus your arsenal (try the Heavy’s Supercharged Sentry) to see some very explosive results.
Do it like Limp Bizkit and just keep rolling, rolling... rolling
6. Master the use of your dodge roll
Battlefront 2 is a much faster game than the original. Games move with pace, characters traverse the map with more urgency and as a result, encounters often fly past at lightspeed. Building off this overall upgrade in pace, EA introduced a new dodge roll manoeuvre to the multiplayer gameplay.
With swift press of the circle button (on PS4) or the X button (on Xbox) players can jump to cover, quickly avoid incoming projectiles and stay out of sight of overwhelming odds. Staying as mobile as possible will make you that much harder to take down, whilst giving you new angles of attack. Remember, be careful to give the button a quick tap rather holding it down, as the game maps crouching and rolling to the same button. Taking full advantage of this technique could mean the difference between victory or a Thermal Detonator bringing about your fiery end.
If you’re one of those people who like to live on the edge, watch that white bar rise and rise.
7. Watch that overheating
To keep the game moving, EA decided to bring over a slightly maligned feature from the original title: the constant overheating of weapons. After prolonged periods of fire a white bar showing the heat of your weapon will eventual flare up, stunting your ability to fire. By not paying attention to this mechanic, players will often find themselves in the heat of battle without any way to fight back. Constant monitoring of the bar, weighing out the risk and reward for continuous fire, will have a positive impact on play.
If necessary, once the weapon has overheated, the bar will enter a separate mode split into three colours: Red, Blue Yellow. Much like Gears of Wars “Active Reload” system, players must hit the reload button at a precise time, when a thin cursor moves along the bar inside one of those three colours. If its mistimed and the cursor happens to be in the red at the time of reloading, your weapon will continue to overheat; if you manage to hit the blue section, your weapon will instantly cool; if you’ve the timing of a Jedi, hitting the smallest yellow portion will also cool your weapon whilst giving you a period of weapon invulnerability, where no overheating can take place.
Enter Custom Arcade and get this system timed to perfection. Consistent yellow reloads will make you almost unstoppable when ambushing larger groups, unable to deal with the sheer level of fire you’re able to continuously deliver.
Meet the whole intergalactic family. Christmas dinner can be very awkward.
8. Play your class
In Battlefront 2, classes are now incredibly important, especially depending on which maps you’re currently fighting on. For example, a more crowded infantry-based map such as Tatooine (and the crowded streets of Mos Eisley) are better suited to the Officer and Assault Classes, whose buffing abilities and high rate of fire works well in large groups and cramped environments. In contrast, the wide open flats of Crait offer a perfect hunting ground for Specialists, able to use their binoculars to spot enemies and finish them off at long range whilst the durable Heavy class, so adept at absorbing damage (especially in Sentry Mode where explosive damage is significantly reduced) allows squads to advance over open ground and flank around from the side, as other more weaker classes fall down due to a lack of cover.
This awareness of how a map should influence your choice of class also carries over to how the specific match is unfolding. One of the most frustrating aspects of large scale shooters (I’m looking at you Battlefield 1) is when a team is losing, players often choose to stick with long ranged classes to preserve their K/D or remain doggedly attached to their favourite class to work towards greater unlocks. The match should determine what classes are used: if the opposing team is dominating with vehicle-based tactics switch more to Heavy’s; if you’re pushing forward and need to keep up the momentum switch to the Assault class and help your team onto the next objective; if your team are struggling to push forward through a bottleneck, try the Officer class and make use of those class buffs to drive the battle onwards. Playing in this way will not only help your team avoid defeat but will help building up those milestones by successfully defending and attacking those objectives.
Working through these finally gives meaning to my life
9. Make sure you claim those rewards
This one is a slightly smaller tip. Over the course of your time with Battlefront 2 you’ll be earning all sorts of rewards as you hit milestones – either by excessive space killing or by excessive space victories – and it’s important that you reap the fruits of all this space labour.
Surprisingly for some newer players, unlocking these rewards requires the player to enter the Career menu and manually select each reward. To start building up those credits, its very important to remember this rather laborious process. And hey, whilst you’re there, how about checking out all those exciting milestones yet to be conquered. Space is your oyster.
This more “direct” approach is probably not the way to go, unless your controller has lost battery
10. Master the powers of flight
Starfighter Assault is a mode made up of 24 total players facing off against each other in large scale space battles. For those players more comfortable to ground based combat, it’s worth taking the time to master out the sequels improved flight system, as it offers a whole new arena for combat.
Manoeuvrability is the name of the game here. In the first Battlefront game, air combat was often a short-lived affair, reliant upon continued control of the skies by players who always seemed to always know the direction of newly spawned fighters. Fighting back was never the issue, the targeting computer leading in your laser blasts and the availability of lock on missiles made it no problem. What was and still is the most crucial aspect of in air battles is positioning, getting behind your opponent and trying to out manoeuvre them.
Tweak your controls for better sensitivity, practice your looping back (the move of baiting an enemy in a certain direction before looping back behind them) and learn the maps to find good spaces of cover (either with debris or shattered rock). With a focus on these moves you’ll be ruling the skies in no time.
