What’s new in Battlefront? Patch notes, hero mode leak and more!

I’ve been spending most of the morning playing Battle Station in Battlefront, but I decided to take a break to go over some of the new bits in the Death Star DLC.

Full patch notes can be found here; I’ll go over highlights below. Also note that the patch notes mostly cover the new DLC stuff and the changes to the trait systems, so I’ll just write about things not previously mentioned.

Vehicles see changes

• An overheat mechanic is now in place for the softlock system.
• Vehicles now only deal minor damage when colliding, instead of instantly exploding.
• TIE Interceptors now have a new laser barrage ability, while A-Wings have speed boost.

Number of fixes in Skirmish

• A couple of issues regarding heroes and AT-ATs when playing co-op have been resolved.
• The primary multiplayer hand is now accessible.
• Other general bug fixes.

Scout Binoculars, Bacta Bomb altered

• Scout Binoculars and Bacta Bomb both now have 10 second cooldowns.
• More changes to Bacta Bomb: 4-second healing immunity; bug where players wouldn’t receive healing when not at 100 HP fixed; logic changed so that that players will receive five health over three seconds when hit with a bacta cloud (receiving damage cancels future health ticks).

Vader, Leia and Palpatine get tweaks

• Players can no longer melee while being force-choked by Vader.
• Leia’s Trooper Bane cooldown increased one second to 15 seconds; her E-11’s start damage increased from 50 to 53; her E-11’s end damaged increased from 25 to 35 and the fall off distance for her E-11 went from 25 to 30.
• Palpatine’s base lighting damage increased from 15 to 18 and his block time increased 60%.

Bossk and Chewbacca added to Diorama; Vader’s TIE added to menus

• To unlock Bossk: Use all Star Cards and get a kill with every weapon from the Death Star DLC (Laser Trip Mine, Medical Droid, TL-50 Heavy Repeater and K-16 Bryar Pistol).
• To unlock Chewbacca: Reach rank 75.
• Vader’s TIE Advanced has also been added as an option for the background on menus.

New customization option costs and unlock levels

• Black stormtrooper pauldron is available at rank 20 and costs 5,000 credits.
• White stormtrooper pauldron is available at rank 30 and costs 5,000 credits.
• Orange stormtrooper pauldron is available at rank 40 and costs 5,000 credits.
• Red stormtrooper pauldron is available at rank 50 and costs 10,000 credits.
• X-Wing Pilot is available at rank 75 and costs 25,000 credits.
• Death Star Trooper is available at rank 80 and costs 25,000 credits.
• Rebel Officer is available rank 85 and costs 30,000 credits.
• Imperial Officer is available rank 90 and costs 30,000 credits.

The total cost of all new customizations and Hutt Contracts for the Death Star DLC amounts to 165,000. The initial four Hutt Contracts cost 14,000 and the two upgraded contracts cost 16,000 while all the customization outfits total to 135,000.

Also regarding new items, weapons designer Christian Johannesen tweeted that the ability to place two trip mines (currently, if you place one when you already have one placed, the first one disappears) “is certainly not out of the question”:

@ApolloGee_ We mainly want to test it with one mine at a time right now, but having two mines is certainly not out of the question.

— Christian Johannesén (@phatseejay) September 20, 2016

New challenges, accomplishments and achievements/trophies added

• Challenge: Win 3 Battle Station Matches; earns 2,500 score / 250 credits.
• Accomplishment: Healing Streak. Heal 5 teammates in one round; earns 75 score / 7 credits.
• Accomplishment: Wingman Assassin. Kill 2 wingmen in one round; earns 90 score / 9 credits.
• Achievement/trophy: Support the troops. Heal 100 teammates.
• Achievement/trophy: Stop that droid. Restrain R2-D2.
• Achievement/trophy: That’s no moon. Play all new maps on and around the Death Star.
• Achievement/trophy: Alternative solution. Get 20 kills with secondary fire using the Bryar Pistol or Heavy Repeater.
• Achievement/trophy: Stay in attack formation. Win 10 rounds of Battle Station.

New hero mode datamined!

A new mode titled “Hero Blast” has been datamined by Unispired Zebra. According to the leak, the mode will be 6-verus-6. This is likely the “something else” teased last week by hero designer Guillaume Mroz.

Unspired Zebra’s screenshot is below:

My guess is that it will function just like Blast, except that everyone will be heroes instead of infantry. With a 12-player limit, it probably will require the Season Pass, or it might allow multiple versions of the same hero to spawn at once. However, I’m hopeful that it will be for Season Pass holders as that means we could play a hero-centric mode on maps like the Carbonite Freezing Chamber or the Death Star’s Power Sector.

Unispired Zebra has previously leaked items like the Bacta Bomb and Escape Artist trait, while also uncovering the early workings of Skirmish, so this is likely something that will indeed be coming to Battlefront.

Exogorth datamined, too!

The giant space slug that lived in the asteroid in Empire Strikes Back has also been spotted in files by Redditor JakeGreen163. This could indicate the slug is somewhere as an easter egg during the first phase of Battle Station. DICE may have also meant to put it in the map, but they ultimately didn’t have time.

JakeGreen, who has previously shared datamined files, didn’t post any more info regarding the exogorth, but I’ll be sure to monitor the situation.

Also, I’ll do a full post later in the week, but just a reminder that there will be a double score weekend starting this Friday, September 23 and going until Sunday, September 25. It will be an excellent chance to level up, while also earning some cash to purchase those expensive new outfits.

I’ve been having a blast with Battle Station and I can’t wait to get back into the game. I’ll probably do a post either later today or tomorrow going over the mode and giving my thoughts on it.