4v4 Rush - Major Update 1.20 Explained

Information

What a month it has been for competitive Battlefield! Between Test Cups 1 & 2 and the Fight Night 2042 events, December 2021 featured some incredible 4v4 Rush action. With so many teams competing and multiple rulesets tested, we have received a lot of feedback from players.

This major ruleset update will be used for Test Cup 3 and will remain until the ESB Council meeting and voting that will take place in late January.

We want to remind players and teams that these rules aren’t final, and we are still testing everything. Please make sure you read the full changelog on the ruleset page as this article only goes over the main points.

Ruleset & Full Changelog:
https://esport-battlefield.com/ruleset-2042-4v4-rush/

Valparaiso and Arica Harbor are back in the map pool by popular demand. Unfortunately, this means that both Discarded and Orbital are leaving it for now (we’re not sure they will be missed).

Two other maps have also changed, with both Renewal and Manifest becoming 3 sector maps (instead of 4). On Manifest, attackers could arm B objective in Sector A before the defenders could even get there (go Sundance go), making it unplayable off the start.

For Renewal, the Sector A defender spawn was too far from the objectives and features no cover, making it very hard to come back from a wipe. We did have a few players suggest allowing the LATV4 Recon (without weapons) to improve the sector, but we have chosen to just ban Sector A here as well for now instead.

The biggest issue here is that allowing it on one map would mean allowing it on all of them because of how the portal settings work. It’s still an idea, but it needs to be tested further. Hopefully, in future portal updates, we’ll have the ability to ban vehicle weapon/attachment options like we can for regular weapons.

The first version of the rules (1.0) was very strict on banning most roofs and elevated areas to reduce the gameplay’s verticality. While in Version 1.1 we allowed all roofs and areas, testing how the maps and specialists played with the game’s designed verticality. What we found was that we needed a middle-ground. A lot of the roofs are actually ok, but a select few do ruin the game’s flow and have to be removed.

In Test Cup 2, we introduced a very small set of roof bans to help improve the situation. Player feedback has been positive on the changes that we made, and we, therefore, extended the same treatment to all maps, including the newly reintroduced Valparaiso and Arica Harbor.

Noshahr Sector 4 as an example in Version 1.0 vs. 1.2 of the rules:

Insertion/Spawn Beacons have been a Squad Rush staple dating back to BF3, and while parachuting onto objectives with them is now a distant memory, it doesn’t mean that beacons should be as well.

In our Battlefield V 4v4 Ruleset, our class restriction set-up (1 max per team) ensured that teams only had one beacon per team as it was a gadget tied to the Recon class. The BFV Spawn Beacon also made a beeping sound so you could easily find it, and it made a distinct sound when someone would spawn on one—combining all these things made this particular gadget usable in competitive play.

Unfortunately, in 2042, the Insertion Beacon doesn’t make much noise, and it is usable by every specialist, making it essentially impossible to limit its use effectively. The lack of a way to counter Insertion Beacons has been the main reason they are banned thus far.

However, what if we told you that there is an easy way to counter it? Sundance’s Anti-Armor Grenades from her Grenade Belt do just that. Let us show you:

As you can see from the above video, Sundance’s Anti-Armor Grenades essentially lock onto and guide themselves towards Insertion Beacons even if they are behind cover or inside a building. This won’t always destroy them depending on their placement (or how you throw the grenades), but it will help reveal their location and guide players towards them even at a distance.

This will be a crucial testing point for Test Cup #3, and we can’t wait to hear feedback once teams give it all a try.

The respawn timer in 2042 starts from the moment you are killed, and even if you are in a revivable state, the time you spend waiting counts towards your respawn. This means that the 9-second timer we had initially set felt bugged and too short. In most situations, getting kills often meant nothing as a whole squad could respawn within seconds.

In Test Cup 2, we doubled the respawn timer to 18 seconds. While the initial reaction was “WHAT?!” most of the feedback was positive once the matches ended. However, everyone did agree it still felt a little long, so we decided to reduce the respawn timer to 15 seconds.

Early weapon and attachment bans in a game like 2042 are temporary bandaids, and one patch could change everything and force a complete rework of the banned weapons and attachments in the ruleset.

For update 1.2, we would like to test a PKP-B9 ban and an M5A3 Shortened Barrel ban. The M5A3 Shortened Barrel / Close Combat Ammo combination is currently dominating the weapon meta at all ranges, making most other weapons relatively obsolete against it. The biggest issue with this attachment combination is that the game incorrectly displays it as having an 800 RoF (Rate of Fire), while in reality, it is 920.

The table below showcases some very basic numbers to help you understand the RoF and Damage differences between various M5A3 attachment combinations.

					Single-Bullet Damage at Distance (chest)
Weapon	Barrel	Grip	Ammo	RoF	5m	10m	15m	20m	25m	30m	35m	40m	45m	50m
M5A3	Factory	Rattlesnake	Close Combat	800	26	22	22	22	22	18	18	15	15	13
M5A3	Shortened	Rattlesnake	Standard Issue / EM	860	22	22	22	18	18	18	18	18	18	15
M5A3	Shortened	Rattlesnake	Close Combat	920	26	22	22	22	22	18	18	15	15	13

If you take these stats and start looking at basic TTK (Time to Kill) values for the various attachment combinations above, you start seeing just how good the Shortened / Close Combat combination is. The biggest issue right now is that there is a Shortened Barrel spread modifier that isn’t being used, causing the Shortened / Close Combat combo to be good at all ranges.

While we initially wanted to ban Close Combat Ammo instead (it reduces Bullets to Kill by 1), we feel that a temporary ban on the Shortened Barrel is the way to go until a fix is in place. Hopefully, this will help open up the weapon meta until the next major patch.

Shout-out to our friends at Sym.gg for helping us test and gather weapon insights. Make sure you join their Discord server if you want to join the conversation and deep-dive into Battlefield statistical data.

Test Cup #3 will be held on Sunday, January 9th, 2022! For this last 4v4 Rush Test Cup, we will be focusing on PC and PlayStation 5 / Xbox Series X & S, with events in Europe, North America, and OCE.

Unfortunately, the first few PlayStation 4 / Xbox One Test Cups never received enough sign-ups, so we will be temporarily dropping these platforms for this last test event. We understand that not everyone wants to be part of the testing process (especially seeing 2042’s current state). We will be back with events for the older generation of consoles in the future.

For PC and PlayStation 5 / Xbox Series X & S, head over to the “Schedule & Sign-ups” section of this article to sign-up for Test Cup #3!