To coincide with the release of Star Wars’ ninth episode, EA and DICE’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is getting a The Rise of Skywalker update. This update adds a new planet, several new Reinforcement troop types, hero appearances, an Apex Legends-like ping system, and more to the game on December 17, just in time for the final mainline Star Wars movie release. In this Battlefront 2 The Rise of Skywalker update guide, we’ll run through all of the update’s major additions and changes, including the full patch notes.
Battlefront 2 The Rise of Skywalker Update | New planet
A new jungle planet seen in The Rise of Skywalker movie trailers is being added to Battlefront 2. In order to avoid spoilers, DICE has not yet announced what this planet’s name is, and it won’t join the map rotation until December 20, one day after the movie releases. The new planet will only be available in the Co-op and Heroes vs. Villains modes at first, joining Instant Action and Capital Supremacy in January 2020. When the new planet comes to those modes, the other “New Trilogy” (sequel trilogy) planets will join it.
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Battlefront 2 The Rise of Skywalker Update | New Reinforcements
Four new Reinforcement troop types are being added to the game — two for the Resistance and two for the First Order.
Sith Trooper
This First Order Reinforcement is built to hunt down enemies. Sith Troopers have the following abilities:
- Combat Rush: boost sprint speed
- Seeker Tactics: reveal the four closest enemies
- Oppression Grenade: damage nearby enemies and block their health recovery
First Order Jet Trooper
First Order Jet Troopers are rocket launcher-equipped aerial units. They have the following abilities:
- Hover mode: aim down sights while flying allows for hovering mid-air
- Tri-barrel launcher: shoot three simultaneous rockets in exchange for increased heat build-up
- Jet Tackle: charge forward along the ground to knock opponents prone
Ovissian Gunner
The Ovissian Gunner is a Resistance fighter equipped with a Modified Z-6B Rotary Cannon. She has the following abilities:
- Charge: rush forward to knock enemies prone
- Defensive Stance: instantly cool down the rotary cannon and replenish health (both of the Gunner and nearby allies) based on the amount of damage dealt while in Defensive Stance
- Anti-Armor Mode: give the rotary cannon increased damage against shields and vehicles
Caphex Spy
This Resistance unit specialized in hand-to-hand combat. He has the following abilities:
- Truncheon Attack: strike an enemy with melee strikes, which can be chained into a powerful third strike that knocks the enemy prone
- Scanner Beacon: deploy a decoy that displays a false enemy on opponents’ radars, which can also be used to call in remote bombardments outdoors
- Rapid Fire: overload the Spy’s blaster to fire it quickly, increasing DPS
Battlefront 2 The Rise of Skywalker Update | Movie hero appearances
Three new hero appearances are being added to reflect Rey, Finn, and Kylo Ren’s looks in The Rise of Skywalker movie.
Rey – Jedi
Finn – Resistance Hero
Kylo Ren – Supreme Leader
Battlefront 2 The Rise of Skywalker Update | New Co-op maps
The Rise of Skywalker update adds the sequel trilogy planets to Battlefront 2’s Co-op mode, including Jakku, Takodana, Starkiller Base, and the unnamed Episode 9 planet. To ensure players get to experience them in Co-op, these planets will have a higher chance of showing up in the mode’s rotation than the older ones.
Battlefront 2 The Rise of Skywalker Update | Interface & gameplay changes
Several quality-of-life changes are coming in the update, including changes to the way players select factions in different modes and several tweaks to the way status messages are displayed.
Faction Selection
Beginning with Co-op mode, DICE is adding the option for players to select which faction they’d like to play as before launching a game mode. In Co-op, players will now see the following selection before starting a match, and these options will later come to other modes like Capital Supremacy:
- Play Any
- Galactic Republic
- Separatist Alliance
- Resistance
- First Order
Objective Marking
Co-op and Capital Supremacy players can now aim at an in-world objective and press a button to mark that objective, making it show up in other players’ HUDs. If multiple people mark the same objective, a number will be displayed beside it to show how many. The outcome of marking an objective depends on the circumstances, outlined by DICE below:
- An objective that is not marked is displayed with a gray hexagon with no outline.
- An objective that is friendly owned and marked by yourself will be displayed by a blue hexagon with a yellow outline. A number in a small call out will be displayed indicating how many of your squad have marked the objective.
- An objective that is enemy owned and marked will be displayed by a red hexagon with a yellow outline. A number in a small yellow call out will be displayed indicating how many of your squad have marked the objective.
- An objective which is friendly owned but about to be lost to an enemy is displayed by a blinking hexagon. The number of contesting friendly players is indicated in a blue circle to the bottom right hand corner of the hexagon.
- The objective which has been marked by a squad member will be displayed next to their name in the squadlist.
Hero Changes & Status Displays
DICE is also making a number of changes to existing Heroes, focusing on Boba Fett and Bossk. Additionally, the developer is tweaking the way certain things are displayed to players, such as dimming weapons’ crosshairs when firing is blocked (such as while performing a fire-blocking ability). You can find more details about these changes in the patch notes below.
Battlefront 2 The Rise of Skywalker Update | Patch notes
DICE provided the following release notes for the Battlefront 2 Rise of Skywalker December update. Read the full patch notes below for details about Hero, quality-of-life, and other changes.
FEATURES
- Four new Reinforcements are now available. The Ovissian Gunner and the Caphex Spy fight for the Resistance, while the Sith Trooper and the First Order Jet Trooper join the dark side.
- New appearances for Rey, Finn, and Kylo Ren are now available to unlock through either Credits or Crystals.
- Co-op now available on new Planets (Takodana, Jakku, Starkiller Base).
- A new playable map will become available on Co-Op and Heroes Vs. Villains from December 20th, 2019.
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Added a system on Co-Op and Capital Supremacy that allows squad mates to signal in UI which capture point they are intending to go to.
- Added faction and era selection to Co-op, including the option for matchmaking into any game.
- The player Health Bar has been updated to showcase when a player’s health is being blocked from healing or health regeneration.
- Polished the timings of the Damage Reduction Messaging animations when evading.
- Weapon crosshairs are now dimmed when the player cannot fire (such as when deploying a weapon).
HERO CHANGES
The following abilities now show the amount of players targeted:
- Luke Skywalker’s Push and Repulse
- Emperor Palpatine’s Dark Aura and Electrocute
- Anakin Skywalker’s Heroic Impact and Pull Dominance
- Chewbacca’s Charge Slam
- Count Dooku’s Lightning Stun
- Kylo Ren’s Pull and Freeze
- Darth Maul’s Choke Throw
- Obi-Wan’s Restrictive Mind Trick
- Rey’s Mind Trick
- Yoda’s Unleash
BLASTER HEROES
- Fixed an issue which caused Blaster heroes to walk faster than intended in the crouch position.
BOBA FETT
- Improvements to Boba Fett’s jetpack including:
- Continued momentum when out of fuel
- Fuel bars are shown near the crosshair
- Boba can no longer crouch while in the air which avoids accidentally landing directly into a crouch
- Fuel now regenerates while jumping
- Boba can now fly by holding Jump as well as by holding the Zoom input.
DARTH VADER
- Darth Vader can now use his Choke ability even if there’s no target.
OBI-WAN KENOBI
- Obi-Wan no longer prevents dodges with his Restrictive Mind Trick ability.
ANAKIN SKYWALKER
- Fixed an issue which caused Anakin’s footsteps to be missing sound effect.
BOSSK
Fire Input Tweaks
- Tweaked the fire input block durations while activating his abilities. Bossk will now have a short fire input block while throwing Dioxis Grenade and while deploying Proximity Mines. This is to ensure he cannot fire while deploying these, similar to how other characters behave while deploying and throwing gadgets.
- The duration of the fire block while activating Predator Instincts has been increased to match the animation. He can no longer fire the first shot before he holds his rifle in both hands again.
GAME MODE AND MAP CHANGES
CAPITAL SUPREMACY
- Fixed an issue that prevented players on the Separatists side spawning on point E, when point C had not been captured.
GALACTIC ASSAULT
- Fixed an issue where the objective messaging overlapped with in world marker animation in Galactic Assault.
CO-OP
- Fixed an audio issue in Co-op in which the music would not restart when turned off and on again.
ARCADE
- Fixed an issue in which characters arms could collide with the environment when changing weapons near a wall.
KAMINO – CO-OP
- Fixed an issue where one of the objective letters would be misplaced on the radar.
YAVIN 4
- Fixed some issues with lighting and textures on foliage on Yavin 4.
- Fixed an issue with the map on Yavin 4 that allowed players to get stuck in a corner while playing Heroes vs Villains.
CHANGES TO CLASSES AND SPECIAL UNITS
- Fixed an issue that would cause the weapon held by a Trooper to be misaligned with the position of the Trooper’s hands, when dying and respawning in first-person mode.
SPECIALIST
- Polished the area of effect for the Specialist’s Shock Grenade and made it more visible.
DROIDEKA
- Fixed an issue where there were irregularities in the destroyed model of the Droideka Training Skin.
CLONE TROOPERS
- We fixed a visual issue where certain Clone Trooper appearances could be seen glowing brightly under certain lighting conditions.
ARC TROOPER
- Fixed an issue where the ARC Trooper’s left pistol was floating after the ARC Trooper was hit by an explosion.
- Fixed an issue with missing audio during the animation of the ARC Trooper in the Spawn Screen.
VEHICLE CHANGES
- Fixed an issue that caused the AT-AT’s Orbital Strike ability UI to not appear for the affected player.
- Fixed an issue where two AT-ATs could not deploy the Orbital Strike ability at the same time.
GENERAL CHANGES/MISC
- Fixed an issue where the sound effects would not always match the animations seen in the Appearances screen.
- Fixed an issue where raindrops would appear on the camera while flying in first person perspective.
KNOWN ISSUES
- When selecting a specific faction in Co-Op, the Searching prompt shows up on all tiles.
- AI players can be noticed in the background during Co-Op outros.
