Star Wars Battlefront 2’s BB update is now live, a look at its patch notes revealing BB8 and BB9-E’s abilities, the addition of hit markers and more.
The BB update also introduces a slew of hero changes to Star Wars Battlefront 2 alongside an era selection option to Supremacy.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 January 2020 Update Patch Notes
Here are all the changes and additions introducet to Star Wars Battlefront 2 in its BB Update (formerly January 2020 update), as per its full patch notes:
FEATURES
- Two new Heroes, BB-8 for the Resistance and BB-9E for the First Order, are now available.
- Supremacy and Instant Action are now available on new Planets (Takodana, Jakku, Ajan Kloss).
- Added new Capital Ship interior maps, the MC85 Star Cruiser and the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer, as part of the Supremacy game mode on the new planets.
- Hero Showdown is now available on Ajan Kloss.
- New emotes have been added for Finn (Thumbs Up) and Kylo Ren (Showdown), unlockable via milestones.
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Added era selection to Supremacy, including the option for matchmaking into any game.
- Droideka units are added as AI players on Co-Op and Instant Action.
Hit Markers
We created unique hit markers from the attacker´s point of view for explosive damage and for melee damage/other. This will allow you to more clearly see if you are dealing splash damage or if you are hitting your target directly. In the case where you hit a target with an explosive bullet, you will see both the normal hit indicator plus the new explosive damage hit indicator. This change allowed us to fix an issue where explosive bullet headshots did not show the yellow headshot indicator.
Finally, we removed an obsolete feature where each hit indicator would turn grey if your absolute amount of damage was below a certain hard threshold.
Explosive Damage Reduction
Some game effects can cause you to take less explosive damage from grenades, explosive bullets, and other explosive damage sources. This includes the Bodyguard Star Card and the protective area when in Sentry mode. We have now added the same in-game messaging for this that we use for normal damage reduction.
This means that when you deal explosive damage to an enemy that takes reduced explosion damage, you will see a red animated shield icon emanate from that hit. To distinguish between explosion damage reduction and normal damage reduction, we have created a unique icon for explosion damage reduction that looks like four small dots and can be superimposed onto the already existing shield icon that we display above enemies´ heads. We are also using these two icons near your own health bar to show you that you have been buffed by one or both of these effects.
Incoming Explosive Damage Origin
Some explosives that detonate immediately on impact have been changed to point at the attacker instead of at the center of the explosion, making it easier for victims to know where the danger is coming from.
Changed explosives include: Impact Grenade, Boba’s Rocket Barrage, AT-ST Barrage, Rocket Launcher, AT-ST Anti-Vehicle Rocket, Leia´s alt fire, ARC Trooper Power Shot, Bermuda Cop Quarrel Bolts, B2 Rocket Launcher.
Flame Trooper Range UI.
It is difficult to know the range of the Flame Trooper´s flamethrower. We are alleviating this by adding a UI element that shows the flamethrower range briefly when you start firing it.
HERO CHANGES
- Added ability crosshair for Kylo Ren's Frenzy and Emperor Palpatine's Chain Lighting.
- Fixed an issue that would not allow Darth Maul and Darth Vader to throw their lightsaber during a voice line action.
- Fixed an issue that could cause some of the abilities of Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul and Yoda to affect enemies through objects.
- Fixed an issue that would prevent players from getting Kill Assists for multiple buff abilities that helped allies killing an enemy.
- UI range for various abilities is now white when it affects enemies, and yellow when it affects friendly players.
- Intro animations for Heroes in the Spawn and Frontend Screen have been improved.
GENERAL GRIEVOUS
- Fixed an issue that would cause General Grievous to drain too much stamina from an opposing player when using Unrelenting Advance.
REY
- Fixed an issue where Rey's Mind Trick would not apply VFX vignette around the screen of the affected player.
DARTH VADER
- Darth Vader is now able to attack and block while choking.
- Fixed an issue where Darth Vader would remain stuck in the choke animation if he used Choke and dash immediately after.
EMPEROR PALPATINE
- Removed slow movement on Dark Aura.
- Reduced single-hand damage from 15 to 14.
- Reduced double-hand damage from 32 to 28.
- Reduced Chain Lightning radius from 26.25 meters to 18 meters.
- Various visual improvements to the Dark Aura VFX, including fixing an issue where the ability would affect visibility for teammates.
- Reduced Emperor Palpatine's damage against the TX-130.
- Fixed an issue where Chain Lightning could occasionally go through blocking.
ANAKIN SKYWALKER
- Pressure star card – reduced value from 10-20-30-40 to 10-15-20-25.
- Reduced Passionate Strike first strike damage on troopers and reinforcements from 130 to 70.
- Reduced Passionate Strike damage on troopers and reinforcements from 250 to 180.
- Massive Strikes Star card – Anakin Skywalker deals more damage with his lightsaber attack but his stamina costs are increased.
COUNT DOOKU
- Added a yellow circle around the crosshair to show when Dooku has a critical hit available with his Initiative Star Card.
YODA
- Fixed an issue where Yoda's Presence would not display the right amount of friendly characters who will be affected.
- Fixed an issue where the intended effects from Yoda's Presence ability would not apply, if the ability was used in mid-air.
- Fixed an issue where users could receive a jumping advantage while using abilities in mid-air.
LUKE SKYWALKER
- Fixed an issue where users could receive a jumping advantage while using the Push ability in mid-air.
IDEN VERSIO
- Fixed an issue where Iden's Droid Shield could not be manually deactivated.
FINN
- Fixed an issue with Finn's "A Fight You Can Win" milestone not tracking progress in Co-Op when eliminating First Order troopers.
HAN SOLO
- Increased damage to troopers for the Shoulder Charge ability from 150 to 200.
BOSSK
- We timed the UI elements of Bossk´s Proximity Mines to reflect the moment when they actually become armed, i.e. the moment when they can start to detect enemies in its vicinity. Now, when you see the yellow radius circles appear around the mines, you know that they have become armed. This will also make it easier to experience the improvement to their arming speed that the Star Card Trap Arming Speed brings.
- Fixed an issue where Bossk would throw only three functional proximity mines, while having the Multi-Traps Star Card equipped.
- Fixed an issue where the Active Time of Bossk´s ability Predator Instincts was ending before intended.
GAME MODE AND MAP CHANGES
- Removed requirement for new matchmaking after each round in Blast, Strike, Extraction, HVV, Hero Showdown.
SUPREMACY
- Two random Command Posts are assigned to each team every time players return to the Ground phase during Supremacy.
- Added visible information to better connect the additional time granted in the Ship phase, based on the number of players who boarded during the Boarding phase.
- Fixed an issue where spawning on several command posts while they were being contested in Kamino – Supremacy would spawn the characters out-of-bounds.
- Fixed an issue that would prevent AI players in Kamino – Supremacy from reaching Command Post E.
- Fixed a visual UI where the widget showing which Command Post is being captured or contested is misplaced.
CO-OP
- Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Co-Op players to matchmake on the wrong side or not be able to spawn into the game.
- Fixed an issue that could cause certain AI enemies to suddenly disappear on Co-Op during phase transitions.
- Fixed an issue where the minimap on Co-Op would not indicate squadmates that are spawned on the map and far away from the player.
- Fixed an issue where the timer between phases on Co-Op would disappear if the character went Out-Of-Bounds and returned to the combat area.
- Fixed a visual issue with the mark objective UI overlapping with the Command Post capture progress bar on Co-Op.
- Fixed an issue that would not clear AI players during outros on Co-Op.
INSTANT ACTION
- Fixed visual UI issues with the capturing area of Command Posts being displayed off-center on Instant Action across various maps.
EWOK HUNT
- Fixed an issue that could cause players to join an existing game of Ewok Hunt too late.
STRIKE
- Disallowed the First Order Jet Trooper to pick up the Strike objective, as that could lead to that character winning the game too quickly.
- Fixed an issue on Naboo, where the capture shows would show up as red, rather than blue on the mini-map.
HEROES VS. VILLAINS
- Fixed an issue that could cause a game of Heroes Versus Villains to immediately end after the intro cinematic.
- Fixed a visual UI issue where the squad interface would be present on Heroes Vs. Villains.
- Fixed an issue that could cause Anakin's Passionate Strike to hit in the last place it was used.
FELUCIA
- Fixed an issue where the living world snails on Felucia would have no collision against bullets.
MAP CHANGES
- Fixed various collision and visual issues on Ajan Kloss, Jakku, Crait, Felucia, Kashyyyk, Yavin, Starkiller Base, Geonosis, and Takodana.
- Fixed areas that could be exploited by jetpack-wearing characters on Hoth, Jakku, and the Republic Attack Cruiser.
- Made various adjustments on the Co-Op map on Jakku.
CHANGES TO CLASSES AND SPECIAL UNITS
- Fixed an issue where crosshairs would not dim when using Flame Grenade or Sonic Imploder.
OVISSIAN GUNNER
- Implemented spool up functionality for the Ovissian Gunner: Hold Zoom to spool up the weapon so that it’s ready to fire immediately when you find a target. We also updated the crosshairs to visually show that you need to spool up before you can fire and added a tutorial pop-up to remind you about the new spool up functionality as you equip your weapon.
CAPHEX SPY
- Fixed an issue where the Stalker Star Card would not give the correct value for the Caphex Spy.
- Fixed an issue where the Caphex Spy milestone "Death from above" would not track eliminations done with the Scanner Beacon.
- Increased the length of the Rapid Fire ability.
ASSAULT
- Made the Vanguard ability quicker to un-deploy the weapon when the ability is out of time.
SPECIALIST
- Made the Infiltration ability quicker to un-deploy the weapon when the ability is out of time.
OFFICER
- Made the Officer´s Battle Command ability 360 degrees instead of a forward-facing cone to allow for more effortless team play. With this change, we also reduced the radius of the ability, since you can now easily buff friends all around you.
- Officer Scoring
- Reduced the amount of score you get for kill assists when you have buffed a friend with your Battle Command ability who later kills an enemy.
- Adjusted VFX on target weapons during the Officer's disruption.
HEAVY
- Tweaked the Heavy Trooper´s Sentry abilities to be more in line with the Ovissian Gunner, in some respects.
We implemented the Ovissian Gunner´s spool up functionality (also introduced in this update) on all Sentry versions as well: Hold Zoom to spool up the weapon so that it is ready to fire immediately when you find a target.
To complement this change, we increased the spool up time required on all versions of Sentry to match that of the Ovissian Gunner. This means that the initial cost in time to go into Sentry and fire your first shot is increased, but once spooled up, you have a better tactical situation than previously.
We also removed the passive timer while in Sentry, so that you have more control over the number of shots you can fire while in each version of Sentry.
Note that while fully spooled up, you will drain a small amount of time from the ability´s total, but this drain will only deplete up to 80% of your total available time.
Finally, we updated the crosshairs to visually show that you need to spool up before you can fire and added a tutorial popup to remind you about the new spool-up functionality as you equip any of these weapons.
BODYGUARD IMPROVEMENT
- We further increased the effectiveness of the Bodyguard Star Card. This Star Card will now protect all Trooper classes from a Thermal Detonator starting already at the Common level.
FIRST ORDER JET TROOPER
- Implemented a feature where the First Order Jet Trooper automatically gets spotted on scanners while flying with the jetpack.
DEATH TROOPER
- Reduced normal max health from 350 to 320 to bring it closer to other Enforcers and to help bring its high K/D ratio closer to the other Enforcers.
COMMANDO DROID
- The Commando Droid AI is now evading by dashing, instead of combat rolling.
DROIDEKA
- Increased Shield Health from 550 to 600.
- Gave Droideka 50% damage reduction while in Wheel Form.
B2-RP
- Spot self when activating jetpack (same as for other Aerials).
SITH TROOPER
- Increased the fire rate of the Sith Trooper's weapon.
AT-ST
- Corrected damage scaling for the Improved Weapon Systems Star Card (the numbers were slightly off)
- Slightly reduced damage of the Anti-Vehicle Missile – total damage for the impact plus the splash damage should now start at 300 (without Star Card) and end at 420 (with the above Star Card at Epic)
AI PLAYERS
- Fixed an issue that would allow the AI to fire and use their abilities when they should not, such as when evading or being stunned.
- AI Troopers and Reinforcements can now perform melee attacks.
GENERAL CHANGES/MISC
- Characters are now getting into movement faster when getting up after a push effect.
- Fixed an issue that would cause the Armor class Star Cards to occasionally shuffle while browsing the Front End menu.
- VO announcers will now mention the era-appropriate heroes that spawn in maps.
- Added information to show what faction a player is matchmaking into in Supremacy and Co-Op.
- Fixed a visual issue where choosing a specific era tile on Co-Op, would show all tiles as searching for a game.
- Fixed an issue where users could not access the social hub from the Co-Op matchmaking menu.
- Fixed an issue where the Play Any button would stop working if a user would first try to matchmake through a tile and then cancel matchmaking.
- Raised limit for collection of in-game Credits and Crystals to one billion.
- Fixed an issue that would claim certain milestone rewards to be delivered by a crate, over being unlocked automatically.
- Fixed a visual UI issue with the defeat message overlapping with the gun cooldown UI.
- Fixed a visual issue with the Searching animation on the Frontend tiles.
- Fixed a typo in one of the loading screen hint messages.
KNOWN ISSUES
- Visual streaming issues can be noticed when first transporting to the capital ships on Jakku, Takodana and Ajan Kloss.
- An issue is preventing audio from being played when previewing the BB-8 and BB-9E emotes in the Frontend menu.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 is out now on PC, Xbox One and PS4.
