Battlefield 6 XP rates restored after Season 5 cut, studio says change was unintended

Battlefield Studios has rolled back a drop in XP earn rates that players noticed after Battlefield 6‘s Season 5 update went live this week. The studio says the reduction was never meant to happen, Eurogamer reports.

In a post on the official Battlefield Comms account on X, the studio said “backend configuration changes resulted in an unintended issue affecting XP earn rates across modes and hardware progression (such as weapons).” The post said those changes have now been undone and that the team is watching telemetry to confirm that earn rates are back at their intended levels in every mode.

Battlefield Studios had not announced any change to XP before the patch, so players found the slowdown on their own. Eurogamer cites player testing that suggested XP was capped at 300 per minute, well below the rates before the update. The studio responded two days after the season began.

In the meantime, many players concluded that XP had been cut on purpose. The slowdown arrived at the same time as the Ultimate Shortcut Kit, a $30 (£25) purchase released with Season 5. The kit fully levels every class, including gadgets and Training Paths, along with 28 weapons and eight vehicles. With one click it also unlocks their attachments, upgrades, skins and other cosmetics normally tied to level. Eurogamer notes that the series has sold similar shortcut packs before.

Players also raised other problems with the season. Eurogamer reports that a major exploit returned with the update, and that some new content prompted suspicions of generative AI use. One example is the Audacious Breach character skin, whose arm patch reads “Secuty” instead of “Security.” According to Eurogamer, the season’s new maps, weapons, vehicles and gameplay changes were mostly well received.

Battlefield 6 has had trouble with XP rates before, especially weapon XP. The studio spent months adjusting how XP and score are earned, ending with a boost at the start of Season 4. In June, Battlefield Studios said XP Boosters would only count down during matches instead of in real time. That change was reversed, and Eurogamer says the same thing happened again later that month.