Battlefield 6 is set to receive its Season 4 update, titled "Pacific Front," on July 21, introducing a significant naval warfare system and bringing back a fan-favorite feature not seen in the franchise for nearly two decades. The update will also include a new map, Tsuru Reef, and hints at a crossover with the popular film franchise Top Gun.
The most notable addition is the return of two-seater, fixed-wing jets, a feature that has been absent from Battlefield games since 2005's Battlefield 2. While not explicitly confirmed, the Season 4 announcement trailer strongly suggests their return, alongside imagery and music reminiscent of Top Gun. The trailer also confirms a new map, Tsuru Reef, set in a large Pacific archipelago designed to accommodate land, naval, and air combat. Complementing this is the introduction of a new wave system that dynamically alters boat sightlines and combat challenges.
Season 4 will also see the return of the popular Wake Island map, though it will not be available at the initial launch of the update. New vehicles being added include the four-seat RCV-90 patrol boat and the fast, four-seat 7.7m NSW RHIB, equipped with a mounted machine gun. Players can also look forward to new weapons such as the BROD 3, EF88, and VSMM, along with additional weapon attachments.
The update addresses several player-centric mechanics. Slide activation now requires a higher movement speed to prevent accidental triggers, and sliding will no longer retrigger if the crouch input is held. Sliding will also not activate when landing from a fall or jump if the crouch input was released prior to touching the ground. Swimming has been significantly revamped with reworked animations, updated physics, improved wave behavior, and the ability to drag and revive squad mates in water. Aim assist now fully supports swimming enemy targets, and fall damage is slightly reduced when falling into shallow water. Parachutes will deploy as expected when nearing the water surface, and players can now spawn on squad mates swimming in deep water.
Vehicle mechanics have also seen improvements, with helicopter rotor wash affecting vegetation more realistically and tank driver aiming behaving more consistently. Visual effects for vehicles interacting with water have been enhanced, and vehicle zoom behavior now correctly follows the player’s “Toggle Zoom” setting. Gadgets have also received adjustments, including corrected optic visibility for the Incendiary Airburst Launcher and improved reload behavior for launchers that discard their tubes. Underwater RPG detonations will no longer create dirt impact effects, and the EOD Bot Arm and Sledgehammer can no longer be used while swimming.
Weapon interactions with water have been updated, with bullets now losing damage while traveling through it, potentially dealing no damage after extended underwater travel. Underwater firing of SS26 Incendiary Rounds will no longer ignite the ocean floor.
Map and mode adjustments include fixes for players getting stuck on objectives on Railway to Golmud, the return of Commander Tactical Advice to Obliteration modes, and adjusted spawn points on Operation Firestorm Team Death Match to prevent spawning inside objects.
Numerous UI and HUD improvements are included, such as corrected overlap issues on the End of Round screen, improved readability of the anti-cheat watermark, and reduced intrusiveness of incoming hit feedback. The bomb icon in the Obliteration game mode HUD has been increased, and kill indicators now fade out faster. Several alignment issues with weapon attachments and UI elements have been resolved.
Settings updates include support for NVIDIA DLSS Multi Frame Generation and Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, as well as Vsync compatibility with DLSS Frame Generation. An issue where setting the Primary Mouse Button to “Right” in Windows could cause simultaneous firing and zooming has been corrected.
In the Portal mode, new features include support for the “IsClosed” property on Waypoint Paths, and the addition of “GetPlayer” and “GetVehicle” functions. Additional Season 3 weapons, attachments, and gadgets have been added to Portal, alongside Andy’s Custom Breakthrough Template. Several fixes have been implemented for various Portal editor functions and mutators.
Audio enhancements include new Commander voice-over lines for Obliteration modes, new Season 4 Battle Pass radio station music, and improved audio responsiveness for sea vehicles and stationary turrets. Third-person death effects from underwater soldiers will no longer be audible to other players, and vehicle audio is now more reliable.
AI bots have received a significant behavior pass to better support naval warfare. Bots can now swim to shore, use boats to reach objectives, respond to pick-up requests, leave beached boats, and cross shallow water more reliably with land vehicles. They will also no longer take all available boats at the start of a round, ensuring players have access.
In Battle Royale modes, the Emergency Repair ability on APC vehicles has been replaced by the Smoke Generator ability. The M320A1 Grenadier Trait has been adjusted, reducing HE ammunition and maximum ammunition increase. The Cluster Munitions Trait has also been tuned, with reduced submunition count, blast damage, and adjusted dispersion and bounce behavior.