Everything You Need To know about Battlefield 5

Let's start at the start. Battlefield 5 is coming on October 19, 2018 and you'll be able to play it on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. We've finished the Battlefield 5 closed Alpha (for now), although there's likely to be another - here's how to get involved. There will be a Battlefield 5 Beta later in 2018, around September time, and you can guarantee an invite by pre-ordering the game. If you grab the Deluxe Edition you'll actually get to play the final game a few days earlier than everyone else, on October 16. That's a sweet deal, if you're planning to play anyway.

Officially, the game is called Battlefield V, and it's focused on World War 2. However, this isn't the standard 'all the battles you already played a million times in WW2' deal - Battlefield 5 will tackle conflicts you've never seen before, like the freezing Norwegian resistance movement, and the bloody struggles in rural France and urban Holland. Not only that, the season pass system has been completely scrapped, replaced by a FREE live service called Tides of War, which changes the game each month. We've gathered all the info you need on Battlefield 5 below, and sprinkled in a bunch of videos to show off gameplay.

What is Battlefield 5's release date? 

Battlefield 5 has been delayed from October, and will now release on November 20. As usual, Origin Access members and Deluxe Edition owners should get access early. What’s included in either edition isn’t yet clear, but any bonuses will likely tie in with the Company customization system (detailed below).

Battlefield 5 pre-order details

You can pre-order the game right now, and doing so will give you access to the Battlefield 5 Beta, which will run some time towards the end of the year - likely September.

If you pre-order the Battlefield 5 Deluxe Edition you will get your copy of the game three days earlier than standard players, and will be able to play on October 16. It’s uncertain at this time what else the Deluxe Edition will give players.

What is Battlefield 5's setting? 

Battlefield 5 takes place during World War 2, a homecoming for the series since departing its original setting nearly 14 years ago. The reunion is a happy one—creative director Lars Gustavsson called the return “a dream come true” for him and his team—and the studio expressed an intent to cover areas of the war not typically depicted in other games and movies.

What are the main new features?

• You can construct and rebuild fortifications at objective points. 
• A battle royale mode will come after launch.
• The 64-player Grand Operations mode incorporates multiple modes across a three-to-four match narrative, like BF1's Operations but with a couple twists.
• Combined Arms provides 4-player co-op via procedurally-generated missions. 
• Squad members can revive each other, even if they aren’t Medics. 
• Stationary guns can be towed by vehicles. Yes, you can fire them while being towed.
• You can go prone on your back and turn 360-degrees with proper animations while prone. There are many other animation improvements, too.

Battlefield 5 multiplayer - what’s new?

There are several returning modes for Battlefield 5’s multiplayer - including Conquest, Team Deathmatch, and Domination. However, the big new mode is Grand Operations, which builds on the Operations mode from Battlefield 1. Here the action takes place over four in-game days, with each day representing a new phase in the fight. One example we were given by DICE is that Phase 1 is a paratrooper invasion of Rotterdam. Then the main invasion force arrives in Phase 2. Phase 3 is a desperate fight for objectives in the ruined streets. Phase 4 - and this sounds so cool - is a Last Man Standing fight to the death, where players only have one life and a very limited amount of ammo. The first team to eliminate all the enemy soldiers wins. This is going to be absolute game spectator gold, and one of the most tense experiences if you’re in there.

In addition to this, there have been several changes to how the game is balanced. There’s a new ‘scarcity’ element, which means that you’ll spawn with less ammo and explosives than in previous games. The idea is that you need to ask Support classes for resupplies, and loot ammo off enemies. The respawn screen has changed too - you can choose whether or not to bleed out, then you get a view of how your squad is playing, so you can make an informed decision about whether to squad spawn or go back to deployment.

Spotting has changed too - you now highlight areas of danger, rather than pinpointing specific enemies. And revives can now be done by any class, although they take far longer than Medic revives and only restore a limited amount of health. In fact, you no longer regenerate to full health - only a Medkit dropped by a Medic can fully heal you. It’s all designed to make the game more tense, more considered, and to create pockets of quiet and recovery in amongst all the action. 

Battlefield 5 co-op - welcome to Combined Arms

Yes, Battlefield 5 has co-op. It’s a four-player mode called Combined Arms, and it lets you dive into missions with your squad mates. Combined Arms missions are multi-objective battles, loosely based on the idea of infiltrating an area, completing several different tasks, and then extracting. Missions will be randomly generated each time, so you’ll be going for varying objectives and asked to do different things, potentially keeping it fresh every time you play. 

You’ll be able to play with your created characters across all modes, including Combined Arms, and any rewards you earn will be usable across all modes too. DICE very much see Combined Arms as a bridge between single player and multiplayer.

Battlefield 5 single player - War Stories are back

Yes, there’s a single player mode in Battlefield V too, and it’ll work in the same way as BF1’s War Stories. The first of these follows a female resistance fighter in Norway… and that’s really all we know. Other War Stories will follow World War 2 as it progresses and develops, so you’ll also be fighting in rural France, the city of Rotterdam, and the deserts of North Africa. Expect more to follow too.

War Stories will also accompany new Chapters in the Battlefield 5 live service - which is called Tides of War - so you can either expect to see new stories when we move into another Chapter in Tides of War, or at the very least, remixed objectives for existing stories. DICE won’t confirm it, but there’s a suspicion that some of the single player campaign will be tied to the live service, so we may not get to play certain War Stories until it’s time to do so in Tides of War. But what is Tides of War?

Battlefield 5 live service - what is Tides of War?

Good question. Tides of War is the Battlefield V live service, which you get access to when you buy the game. It’s split into Chapters, with each Chapter representing a historical phase of the actual WW2 conflict. Each Chapter will last about 2-3 months, and it’ll bring with it things like limited-time events, new weapons, fresh story missions, different multiplayer maps, and limited time challenges / rewards. It represents the constant shift and change of the landscape of World War 2. Each Chapter has a specific Grand Operation associated with it, and you’ll only be able to play that Grand Operation during the Chapter it appears in - after that, it’s finished. 

There will be unique rewards for taking part in Chapters of Tides of War. These will range from special customisation options for your soldiers and vehicles, through to exclusive weapons and custom parts / gadgets. The idea is that you’ll be able to show other players the conflicts you’ve fought in. Tides of War replaces the Season Pass model, so you won’t ever be asked to pay for a full season pass, and then have to wait for DLC drops.

Battlefield 5 PC specs - what are they?

OS: 64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10

Processor (AMD): AMD FX-6350

Processor (Intel): Core i5 6600K

Memory: 8GB RAM

Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 2GB

Graphics card (NVIDIA): nVidia GeForce® GTX 660 2GB

DirectX: 11.0 Compatible video card or equivalent

Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection

Hard-drive space: 50GB

What modes will be in BF5?

Yes, there will be a battle royale mode. DICE announced as much at EA Play before E3, saying that it will come after launch, and will be a very Battlefield take on the mode, with destruction and teamplay.

Conquest, Frontlines, Domination, Team Deathmatch, and Breakthrough (the other name of the sector-clearing mode first seen in BF1’s Operations) are all returning in BF5.

The new Combined Arms mode restores co-op to Battlefield through 4-player missions that are randomly generated with various objectives and narratives. DICE kept quiet on specifics, but we do know that there will be a set of higher-difficulty hardcore challenges that award extra rank experience. A failure to extract from the mission successfully incurs a chunky experience penalty for the squad, suggesting it's somewhat Left 4 Dead-ey, in that things end if the whole squad is wiped. 

The episodic War Stories will also reappear as the single-player checkmark, the first of which will be set in Norway.

Grand Operations will take over the role of Battlefield 1's Operations mode. Teams will battle over multiple maps and modes, across three-to-four 'days.' The outcome of each day (match) will affect the days after it. The example given by DICE would see an attacking team parachuting behind enemy lines to destroy artillery on the first day (they'd actually spawn in an airplane and have to jump out, PUBG style, and it looks like this mode, Airborne, will be playable outside of Grand Operations as well). Depending on how many guns they destroy during that match, they'll have more or less respawns (tickets) and vehicles on the next 'day'—as if whatever artillery was left in tact wiped out some of their forces. The teams would enter another scenario on the third day, which would be affected by whatever happened on day two.

Only if the third day ends in a draw does Operations go to a fourth day, a sort of sudden death overtime called 'Final Stand.' At that point, there are no respawns whatsoever. Squad members can still revive each other (see details on healing below), so the battle will be to wipe other squads while keeping yours on its feet, until you've hunted down every player on the other team.

DICE also mentioned that Grand Operations will be used as testing ground for new modes which could come to the regular rotation. We wonder if Final Stand might prove popular enough to become a standalone mode at some point.

What maps are confirmed for BF5?

No official map names have been announced yet, but so far we've seen snowy Norwegian fjords and a sandy North African desert. DICE also mentioned the Netherlands city of Rotterdam as a location you’ll visit, an obligatory urban map that looked even more destroyed than BF1’s popular Amiens.

EA is calling BF5's ongoing update plans 'Tides of War,' which will take us through various theaters with new maps and modes (which will be free, as mentioned above) after release. We know that the theme Battlefield 5 will start with is 'Fall of Europe,' though that probably won't be a strict rule that applies to all launch maps, as we've already seen desert locations outside of Europe.

What are Battlefield 5's classes?

Assault, Support, Medic, and Scout. DICE hasn’t announced anything beyond those four mainstay classes. 

Each class will have a set of Archetypes to choose from, though—a loadout of guns, gadgets, and passive bonuses that emphasize a specific playstyle. An example shown  was a Paratrooper Archetype for the Recon class which equips a suppressed SMG instead of a sniper rifle and silences your footsteps.

How will progression work?

Progression mostly follows the familiar cycle of obtaining player and class ranks to unlock additional weapons, vehicles, and gear. Everything is organized in your 'Company,' a repository of classes, weapons, and vehicles you’ve customized.

Being introduced are Archetypes, loadout-style spreads of gadgets, guns, and grenades you can swap between for each class to fulfill a certain squad role or snappily deal with new threats without having to entirely switch classes. BF5 will also award special items for participation in special events.

Weapons and vehicles can also be specialized with a branching tree of attachments (such as a bipod or bayonet) or tank mounts that trade off bonuses and drawbacks. The selections are swappable, so you won’t have to re-rank each gun or vehicle to set a new specialization.

The look of your soldiers will also be customizable, with male and female options and customizable clothing and facepaint. Weapons are similarly granular, as each gun comes with several customization parts—stocks, muzzles, sights, and so on—to fashion individually. Vehicles can be spruced up with camo patterns, sandbags, branches, boxes, and other paraphernalia.

Assignments are also coming back in revamped form. You can complete three “Daily Orders” Assignments refreshing every 24 hours that provide a payout of in-game currency which can be spent on unlocks. You’ll also be able to equip up to four Special Assignments which will take longer to fulfill. There will be multiple ways to complete Special Assignments (eg, a quick way that requires lots of skill, or a longer grind), which is a welcome bit of accessibility. (So long, “get 30 kills in one round with a shovel.”)

How will squads work?

Squad play is much more emphasized. You’ll automatically be placed in a squad upon joining any match. Squads can also join a server together, and squad chat will stay active through menus, loading screens, or when leaving a match.

Respawning on squadmates is emphasized by the death camera, which has moved from an overview of the map to a third-person spectator view of your living squad members. When you choose a squadmate to spawn on, you'll appear right behind them.

When a squad is fully wiped, everyone in it will return to the map deployment screen with a 10-second respawn timer penalty. At that point, you’ll be able to see where your squadmates are choosing to respawn, and squads can spawn en masse in vehicles.

Squad leaders are given a radio call-in functionality akin to the commander mode of previous Battlefields. Squad points earned by working together to capture or defend objectives and racking up kills can be cashed in for special and abilities such as the V1 rocket strike seen in the trailer, a special vehicle, or a barrage of smoke grenades on a specific position. Specifics of cooldowns or point costs for each action haven’t been shared yet.

How have weapons and bullet spread changed? 

Random bullet deviation is gone. Previously, small, randomized jumps in horizontal recoil (the degree of how much your gun pulls to the right or left when firing) governed a weapon’s stability, but it often resulted in annoyingly imprecise shots even when the crosshairs sat squarely on someone’s torso. DICE explained that it’s returning to the classic FPS style of fixed recoil patterns for BF5’s guns—simply, the first few shots will always go to the same place. As you keep firing, the recoil will become more dramatic and your shots will spread out, but in mostly-predictable ways.

Status effects such as stance, movement, jumping, and bullet caliber will, of course, further dictate how much each gun will bounce around. The mathy details of the changes will eventually be calculated by the Battlefield community’s number-crunchers, but for now, it looks like burst control is back in play.

Bullet penetration is also coming, meaning high-caliber guns such as LMGs can shoot through walls. DICE did not confirm whether different materials will reduce damage by different degrees (they're "investigating").

What's new with vehicles?

Tanks and other vehicles can now tow stationary emplacements such as AA and field guns by backing into them. It’s unclear if you’ll need to unlock and equip the capability to tow or if it’s available by default, but the extra utility of hauling heavy firepower between captured flags or chasing a pesky plane with rolling flak is abundantly clear.