Battlefront 2’s update adds a new TIE Fighter, brings Blast to Crait

Star Wars Battlefront 2’s newest patch is out, and it adds a new mode to one of the game’s maps, plus another hero vehicle for use in the Starfighter Assault multiplayer mode.

It packs in a slew of rebalances and other changes, as is customary when EA DICE updates one of its shooters. The big changes are that Blast, which is the fast-paced, 10-on-10 kill-everyone game type in multiplayer, is coming to Crait, better known as the salt Hoth where Luke Skywalker stared down the First Order in The Last Jedi. Crait is an interior setting, however, down in the mines where the Resistance has holed up.

The new vehicle is Iden Versio’s TIE Interceptor. It’s spiffier and more durable than a standard Interceptor (of course) and packs the usual complement of abilities and Star Card upgrades.

More details are in the patch notes, but Versio’s Interceptor features the Afterburner ability (which breaks missile lock); laser barrage (seen in other vessels) and dual proton torpedoes. The “Inferno Leader” ability exposes all enemy craft within a certain radius, and those fightes take more damage from all sources during the duration of that ability.

Tuning has been applied to Finn; damage on his EL-16 blaster has been sharply reduced (to 45 from 65) but so has his cooldown time. Boba Fett’s rocket barrage also gets a thorough nerfing. The officer’s turret, which would detonate in a huge explosion when destroyed by blaster fire, now deals vastly less damage when doing so.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 launched back in November and, like its predecessor, has been rolling out free updates monthly since. December’s update was a direct response to complaints about the game’s progression system, criticized for its dependence on loot crates to acquire Star Card buffs at random. EA DICE increased the in-game currency payouts for multiplayer matches and lifted the cap on what players can earn in the single-player Arcade Mode.

Another major update in December, one planned in advance, delivered the “Resurrection” chapter to Battlefront 2’s single-player campaign mode. (It also introduced the Crait map.) That expansion nominally ties into the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which premiered that month.

Battlefront 2 suspended sales of the “crystals” in-game currency the day before its formal launch in November (they had been available in sneak preview for EA Access and Origin Access subscribers the week before launch). Still no word when that will return.