This Battlefield 2042 Strategy Keeps Backfiring For Players

Historically speaking, the "Battlefield" series is one of the deepest first-person shooter multiplayer experiences on the market. The series has generally boasted tons of depth, with each entry having a seemingly infinite amount of weapons and gadgets to choose from. Like many of its contemporaries, the "Battlefield" series rewards players with these shiny new toys as they rank up in-game. However, because of the vast amount of upgrades and weaponry to unlock, and the amount of XP required to unlock them, many players with early access to "Battlefield 2042" — which has received some very positive reviews out the gate — have already begun XP farming in order to quickly rank up. However, one strategy for XP gathering has left some players empty handed.

"Battlefield 2042" has a new game mode called Portal that allows players to essentially create unique, custom games where they make the rules. Players are using the new Portal mode to create matches filled to the brim with AI-controlled bots — an aspect of the game that has been noted as a serious problem — that they can mow down indiscriminately for peak XP gains, allowing them to quickly rank up and collect new guns, attachments, and skins. Others are joining in on these custom matches expecting to get much of the same, only for them to discover that they are quite literally being led to slaughter.

In the interest of XP farming, joining a custom Portal game in "Battlefield 2042" sounds like the best idea, but upon joining these games, players are discovering that there is no XP for them to gain — they are the XP. Random participants are being spawned into games and placed into big teams of bots, armed only with a knife, and a small team made up entirely of human players mow them down. The phenomenon was detailed by Tyler Wilde of PCGamer, who documented several instances of players attempting to arm themselves or switch teams upon discovering that they are the subject of XP farming and have no line of defense. "I've stuck around and watched players desperately run at their tormentors with knives over and over," Wilde noted in his discovery. "I've also seen strings of players type "/gun," apparently hoping that the command will give them a gun. It does not."

In response to the controversy, "Battlefield 2042" developers DICE have temporarily disabled XP rewards in custom Portal matches, in addition to lowering the amount of XP received from Solo and Co-op Experiences. All good things surely come to an end.