It seems a little surreal to write this, but Battlefield 6 is finally here and these are the best tips we’ve come up with so far. This isn’t just a new entry into one of the longest-running multiplayer shooter series, but one that has anyone who pays even the slightest bit of attention to the genre very excited.
Battlefield veterans have high hopes for BF6 to bring back the good ol’ days. Likewise, Call of Duty regulars who got sick of the constantly accelerating speed of gameplay – and cartoonification of that series over the last several years – are themselves ready to fall in love.
Whether you’re a Call of Duty refugee who’s always been curious about Battlefield but never took the plunge, a lapsed veteran who’s left for other combined arms shooters, or someone who simply wants to see what the fuss is about – these tips are for you.
Battlefield 6 Multiplayer Tips
Before we jump into our Battlefield 6 multiplayer tips, it’s worth keeping in mind that some of what we’re going to recommend is advisory, and based on our own experience. It’s okay to want to pick different options and use different tactics, so feel free to share those in the comments.
Also, if you’re trying to wrap your head around the game’s gigantic settings menu, we’ve put together a guide that covers the most important settings, and where to find them.
Now let’s dig in.
Start by focusing on your Challenges
Battlefield 6 has a lot of Challenges for players just starting out. In fact, so many of the game’s weapons, character skins, and even class Training Paths are locked behind chains of Challenges. At the top of your screen, right next to the Profile tab, you’ll find the Challenges tab.
You should absolutely familiarise yourself with the way that it’s structured, because you’re going to be visiting and revisiting that menu more often than you might realise. Outside of the usual run of daily/weekly Challenges, there’s a subset that reward you with double XP and double hardware XP tokens, but many also unlock camos and skins.
The most valuable Challenges are the ones that unlock new class Training Paths, AKA class variants. Access any class in the Loadout menu and you’ll see the Challenge associated with unlocking their second variant. In fact, you can hit a button to take you straight there to see the requirements.
Unfortunately, you’ll quickly find that most of those require reaching level 20 (and some level 23) before you can even attempt them, which is a little annoying. Until you get there, it’s best to focus on the Initiation section of Challenges, but it’s worth having a look now to see what you’re going to need to do later down the line.
Track the Challenges you’re chasing
Keeping with the Challenges theme, it’s worth knowing that you can track up to four Challenges in the game at any one time. Your list of tracked Challenges not only makes it easier to see how far into each you are – rather than dig through menus to locate the one you’re currently on – they also appear in-game alongside other Challenges.
Another reason why you want to track Challenges is that the end-of-match recap will list all of them, and how far into each you’ve gotten in that match.
There is really no reason not to have all four slots filled before starting a match. If you forget, you’l be happy to know that you can track Challenges from within pause menu, even if the match is ongoing.
You can activate your double XP tokens from in-game
Just like the Challenges themselves, you can also activate your double XP and double hardware (weapon & vehicles) XP tokens from inside the match in Battlefield 6. Unfortunately, both types of tokens will always count down in real-time, meaning if you have to get up and leave for 15 minutes you’ll have wasted a 15-minute token.
The best way to get around that is to activate your tokens just as the match is about to start in order to maximise their time. Most Conquest and Breakthrough matches take around 30 minutes, so activating the 30-minute token at match start is good idea.
Smaller game modes like Team/Squad Deathmatch, Domination, and King of the Hill are closer to 15 minutes, which is where the 15-minute token makes the most sense.
Weapons take a little too long to level up
Yes, levelling up weapons in Battlefield 6 is a bit of a pain. Strangely, levelling up vehicles takes a lot less time, but that’s partly because there simply aren’t anywhere near as many unlocks. Regardless, you’re going to really feel the grind through unlocking the many, many attachments.
For any given weapon, attachments – regardless of their type – can only be unlocked by playing that weapon and gaining more Mastery Levels. Your weapon level is shown on the right hand side as you view any weapon in the Loadout menu, and the level required to unlock whichever attachment you want is also visible on it.
Given the sheer number of them – not to mention how many simply are repeats – we’d have liked to see some shared progression between weapons like in Modern Warfare 2019. Indeed, Battlefield 6 does this with its camos, so it’s a little disappointing the same isn’t true for attachments. Alas, you’re going to have get used to unlocking the same red dot sight for every weapon.
So, if you feel like you’re getting a good number of kills but not unlocking as many attachments as you think you should, you’re definitely not alone.
Exploding MCOMs wont kill you, but the fire might
Longtime Battlefield players know that DICE has gone back and forth on whether an exploding MCOM in Rush could/should kill players standing next to it. In Battlefield 6, the answer is definitely No, so you can plant your body right on top of it to defend and you won’t die when it goes kaboom.
The explosion creates a bit of fire, however, and as you might have noticed, fire latches on to your character in Battlefield 6 and you’ll slowly lose health (not to mention scream in agony) until you put it out by rolling or using a Supply Crate.
While we’re on the subject, you should know that you won’t be able to use your weapon while you’re arming or disarming an MCOM. The moment you try to fire your weapon/use a piece of equipment, you’ll instantly come off the plant/disarm and you’ll have to start all over again.
You can change your vehicle loadouts in-game, but it’s a bit tricky
Changing your class, or re-doing your entire weapon build from inside the match is pretty straightforward in Battlefield 6. The same is not true for vehicles, which is a bit of a bizarre omission.
When you hover any of the available vehicles at spawn, you can hit Customize and it’ll take you to the same loadout menu you can access from outside matches. However, if you’re spawning directly in a vehicle, you’re going to be stuck with the most recent loadout you picked for that vehicle.
The only exception to that is walking up to the vehicle and getting into it, which would then give you a moment to sort your loadout just like with your weapon each time you spawn in.
That Customize option also has a tendency to not show up sometimes, so don’t feel lost if you can’t find it even as you’re hovering over the vehicle you want to customise in the deploy menu. To avoid this, set your preferred loadout for each vehicle before loading into a match.
Never fire a rocket from the same spot twice
This one might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many Engineer players fire off an RPG, take cover to reload, then pop back up to fire off a second shot. The driver of the tank or IFV you just engaged is very likely looking for you, and you’re going to make it easy for them to predict where you’re going to be if they follow the hit indicator.
Often times, vehicle drivers will suppress a general area where they think you’re hiding, and you’re going to get caught in the blast if you don’t immediately move. Essentially, you want to fire each rocket from a different angle, to make it as hard as possible for the tank/IFV to guess your location.
Those moments you take to reposition could save your life and let you actually finish off the armour you’re engaging.
Beware the rainbow scope glint
As with most modern shooters, Battlefield 6 attaches a noticeable glint to the scopes of Sniper Rifles to make it easy for other players to known there’s a sniper looking their way. The scope glint has been significantly reduced in size in the final build compared to the beta, however.
One thing you might not immediately realise is that there’s an alternate version of the scope glint that has a bit of a rainbow tint to it. If you see that, it indicates the sniper is within their rifle’s sweet spot, which means they can kill you in a single shot to the body.
That sweet spot mechanic was first introduced in Battlefield 1, and it makes a return in Battlefield 6, but at least know you’ll know when you’re being affected by it rather than having to guess.