If you’ve been keeping with the goings-on in Battlefield 2042, you won’t be surprised to learn that Season 2 is bringing a similar amount of new content to the game as we’d seen with Season 1. Like Zero Hour, Master of Arms adds one new map, a new Specialist, three new weapons, and two vehicles. Taking it from the top, the new map is called Stranded, and it takes place in Panama in a drained lake. Similar to last season, the map also emphasises close-quarter combat. Objectives are tightly spread in the deserty environment, but there’s an even more CQC-oriented area in the inside of a beached tanker. Within its husk, there’s a version of Noshahr Canals’ TDM area from BF3, with intertwining containers and a very tight corners in an indoor no-vehicle zone. The focus of the map is on combined arms, but only of the lighter variety. Expect helicopters and light vehicles (including the two coming this season). The other major highlight of Season 2 is Charlie Crawford, the new Support Specialist. Crawford is a British weapons expert and arms dealer, which plays right into his role on the battlefield. His Trait - Cache Point - allows him to replenish teammates’ gadget ammo when he revives them. His own gadget is a little less exciting; simply a stationary Vulcan minigun with some ballistic shielding surrounding it. As with any stationery weapon, it’s designed to put down suppressive fire, and can be used by friendly and enemy players. Moving on to the tools warfare; DICE is adding three new weapons with Master of Arms. The AM40 is a carbine intended as a bridge between assault rifles and SMGs. It can be specced into either profile, and you’ll be able to flip between the two roles on the fly. Then there’s the Avancys LMG, a comparatively light LMG, with support for a wide range of attachments. Finally, the sidearm selection is being expanded with one new addition: the PF51 secondary. Its main quality is its ability to use large magazines. All Specialists get a new choice of gadget, too, in the Concussion Grenade - which does exactly what you think. On the vehicles end, you can expect two new ones to arrive. The most interesting is the EBLC-RAM heavy ground vehicle, which is basically an APC. Its main quality is that can drop a spawn beacon anywhere nearby to allow teammates to spawn on it. It has an AMPS system to deflect projectiles and defend itself. There’s also the Polaris Rzr, a light buggy that’s fast and nimble. The Rzr can be found in-world on select maps, but in typical DICE fashion, won’t be available at the launch of the season, and will instead arrive with the first update. All of the meaningful new content; be it the Specialist, weapons etc. - can be unlocked in the free tiers of the battle pass. Beyond that, you can expect the usual run of skins for Specialists, weapons and vehicles. There’s also an assortment of takedowns, player cards and other cosmetics. Alongside all the new content, DICE is also expanding Battlefield Portal with new weapons from all three games (BF3, BC2, BF1942), and adding a new extra small player space as an option for certain maps, which helps creators make CQC-focused playlists. Speaking of which, the Builder has been updated with a new Conquest preset that lets you modify the mode’s rules. But that’s not all, certain Portal weapons will be making the jump to 2042 proper as part of the new Assignments feature. In Season 2, you look forward to earning BF3’s M60E4, and M16A3. Those are part of what DICE is calling the Weapon Vault, which will be replenished with more Portal content over time. Assignments are also how players who missed out on previous seasons’ Specialists, weapons and vehicles can unlock them in later seasons. On the subject of free content, you can expect two map reworks over the course of Season 2, for both Renewal and Orbital. In Season 3, you can expect an overhaul to the class system. See this video for more details.
