Battlefield Studios has delivered on its promise to patch out Battlefield 6 Portal mode XP farms, making it so players will need to unlock things like weapon attachments and gadgets the old-fashioned way–by playing the game with actual humans.
In an update, Battlefield Studios has made it so playing in Battlefield 6 Portal lobbies with bots enabled will no longer reward Mastery XP or count towards challenge progress. Players, however, can still earn career XP in bot lobbies, as well as receive a 150% XP match completion bonus. Portal lobbies without bots can still be used to earn Mastery and complete challenges.
A statement from Battlefield Studios last week said that its internal data indicated that a “large number of these [bot-enabled Portal servers] were created primarily to earn XP, inflate player stats, and earn special accolades through defeating bots.” While the developers understand why players would make these lobbies, it was making it “noticeably harder” for players to find non-XP-farming experiences in Battlefield Portal.
“Our goal moving forward here is to reinforce the player-driven experiences that bring people together, while still keeping room for custom setups, creativity, and new ideas,” Battlefield Studios said.
Though the bot farms are now dead, Battlefield Studios is still working on solving the underlying progression frustrations that led to players resorting to XP farms in the first place. In an update last week, Battlefield Studios increased the amount of XP earned from match completion and daily challenges, as well as reduced the amount of Mastery XP needed to unlock a weapon’s first 20 Mastery ranks. Assignments that required players to reach career ranks 20, 23, and 26 in order to unlock were also adjusted to instead unlock at ranks 10, 15, and 20.
More progression changes could be coming in the future as well, with Battlefield Studios stating that it’s “aware of the frustrations regarding the challenges themselves” and will be reviewing them, but that it will take time to “develop, test, and implement these changes.”
Battlefield 6 sold more than 7 million copies in its first week, making it the biggest launch of any game in the long-running franchise, and saw a concurrent player peak of 747,000 players on Steam shortly after launch. Battlefield 6 Season 1 will launch October 28 and add new maps, weapons, and more.
In other Battlefield 6 news, the game apparently fails to credit the work done by some of the developers at Ridgeline Games, who worked on Battlefield 6’s campaign before the studio was shuttered last year. In a post on LinkedIn, former Ridgeline studio head Marcus Lehto said the studio helped build Battlefield 6’s foundation, and that “every contributor deserves fair acknowledgment.”
