Battlefield 5’s highly-anticipated battle royale game mode Firestorm just leaked in from of dataminers and a video. The leaked tutorial video gives a nice overview about the unique game mechanics in the series’ first battle royale which has been notably absent when the game launched last November. Check it now before EA decides to take the video down!
Dice had a rough time with their latest Battlefield game right from the announcement. Politically charged controversies between a vocal minority of fans clashed with a tone-deaf PR which led to the game’s pre-release period be overshadowed by it, rather than the game itself. Battlefield 5 launched with a distinct lack in content, most notably Firestorm. The immensely hyped-up battle royale mode. It was known already that Firestorm would come out in March but EA didn’t share much until now.
Well, sort of. It was in fact a smart Reddit user of the name temporyal who unearthed a plethora of information about Firestorm. It’s kind of official too as it was all hidden in the newest game client. But, that doesn’t mean it’ll appear exactly the same in the final game. Pretty much simultaneously to this data mine leak, what looks like the official tutorial video about Firestorm was also leaked.
Here’s some choice findings from the leak. You can check out the entire log over at temporyal’s Reddit post here.
General info and game mode start
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three variants: solo, duo (2 player teams), squad (4 player teams) with a player maximum of 64 per match
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typical Battlefield classes will be present / choosable (snippet: ui/shared/widgets/classinforenderwidget)
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code shows signs of an LFG system and “backfilling” entries
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will have a separate ranking system
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will (probably) occur in Tides of War – at least the code for a connection is already there
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takes place in Norway (snippet: “/sparta/casablanca/royale/dk_norway-bd00e4f9.png” – also the level name itself contains the word “norway”)
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you parachute from a plane into the war zone (snippet: Paradrop_Exit)
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your hud will show an altimeter during the free fall / flight (snippet: ui/ingame/hud/widgets/parachutealtimeter)
Gameplay
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if you get shot by an enemy you enter a “downed” state where you can crawl (but probably not fight) (snippet: DownedState_Crawl_LEFT_3)
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there are various hints to a 3rd person camera angle but they are always tacked to the parachute start or when you get downed / killed
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you have an inventory where you can store loot you find (snippet: UI/Ingame/Hud/Minimap/Inventroy – btw the typo is directly taken from the code)
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loot has four types of “rarity” (snippet: ui/rarityselection; UI/s/HUD/Loot/RarityOne, UI/s/HUD/Loot/RarityTwo, …)
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you can find better backpacks (three tiers) to extend your inventory
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the map features safes that can be opened (this will be tracked in your stats) (snippet: safesOpened: w(t.royale.safesOpened, 0))
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there are dynamic objectives on the map which you can capture (e.g. “resupply points” as mentioned later)
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dynamic objectives may also be connected to “lockups” / “vehicle breakouts” mentioned in the code (snippet: w(t.royale.vehicleBreakoutsOpened, 0))
Vehicles
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various HUD elements give away that vehicles use fuel as a resource and therefore can’t be used without limits (probably for balancing) (snippet: ingame/hud/widgets/fuel; gameplay/schematicchannels/sc_vehiclefuel)
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you can get vehicles by opening “vehicle breakouts” (probably the stronger ones…tanks?)
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the tiger and the valentine are (until now) the only tanks I could find with a direct connection to Firestorm
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other vehicles: “Halftracknomag”, “Kubelwagen”, “Kettenkra”, “MH101ctor” (snippet: LaVEH_Halftracknomag)
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one interesting air vehicle snippet: “/Core/Vehicles/Air/VEH_plantuka_AI” – could be an AI controlled Stuka (plane + stuka = plantuka?) as a reinforcement
There is a number of “blue prints” for other vehicles (could be found by opening safes? I don’t know…):
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Helicopter (yep!)
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StaffCar
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SportsCar
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Schimmwagon
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PickUpTruck
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Tractor (probably the famous “MH101ctor” mentioned above and seen in the mini teaser)
