With Battlefield 2042, the series breaks with class tradition and introduces special Specialists. We explain who they are and what that means exactly.
DICE is pursuing great ambitions with Battlefield 2042, wants to prepare the series for the future and is taking unusual and very exciting paths in many areas to do so. This also includes the revision of the well-known class system. This has actually existed, with slight adjustments, since the early days of the series – but it will not be completely abolished.
The traditional classes remain in the game in a new form and are supplemented by so-called Specialists, which are somewhat reminiscent of the operators from Rainbow Six: Siege.
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Classes in Battlefield 2042: All 10 Specialists and their Abilities
With Battlefield 2042, the series breaks with class tradition and introduces special Specialists. We explain who they are and what they can do
There will be ten Specialists at release. In addition, the developers have already revealed that four more Specialists will be added in the first year after release.
The final five Specialists in the release version were officially unveiled on 21 October 2021. In the same breath, DICE has announced what changes and improvements there will be after the open beta:
Emma Sundance Rosier
- Class: Assault
- Origin: France
- Primary Gadget: Sundance’s Smart Explosives function like normal grenades at first glance, but can be converted on the fly for various purposes (vehicle defence, fragmentation effect, EMP, etc.). They are also target-seeking!
- Property: With the wingsuit, Sundance can move from A to B quickly. This is especially useful in the tornado, where she can escape swiftly, making the dangers of the tornado her strength to some extent. She is also excellent at flanking enemies or attacking from behind.
Constantin Angel Anghel
- Class: Support
- Origin: Romania
- Primary Gadget: At the touch of a button, Angel requests a loadout box that is dropped by parachute. Fellow combatants (and he himself) can help themselves to it. Included are armour plates, ammunition and, if desired, prefabricated weapon presets with primary and secondary weapons as well as two gadgets.
- Property: As a trauma specialist, Angel can quickly revive his teammates with a defibrillator and replenish their armour at the same time. As a result, they can withstand more shots. The so-called IBA armour plates are otherwise an optional gadget that each specialist must equip and use manually.
Santiago Dozer Espinoza
- Class: Assault
- Origin: USA
- Primary Gadget: Espinoza relies on his SOB-8 Ballistic Shield in combat. He can use it to deflect bullets from enemy small arms, and ricochets can even score indirect kills at close range. He can also strike with the shield.
- Property: Espinoza is used to explosions, so he takes less damage from them. Grenades and nearby missiles are less dangerous for him than for other Specialists.
Ji-Soo Paik
Class: Recon
Origin: South Korea- Primary Gadget: With her EMG-X scanners, Ji-Soo Paik can see enemies entrenched behind cover through walls and objects for a short time. This allows her to detect campers, for example, or even enemies who attack from ambush. However, the battery only lasts for a very short time.
- Property: If you shoot at Ji-Soo Paik, you have to reckon with being uncovered. Because thanks to her Acquisition ability, enemies are automatically spotted as soon as they inflict damage on Paik. The radius obviously moves with the character.
Navin Rao
- Class: Recon
- Class: India
Primary Gadget: With his Cyber Warfare Suit, Navin Rao can disable enemy hardware and hack objects from enemies. He can also manipulate electronic devices on maps and, for example, raise or lower road bollards.
- Property..: As a tech specialist, Rao accesses a Trojan network and automatically tags enemies that are near his kills. Rao could therefore quickly become a danger for enemy squads The new class system in detail
Since Battlefield: Vietnam, players could only ever choose from four different classes. Which classes they were, which abilities and weapons they were allowed to use and what their task was, however, changed again and again over the years. At the core, however, there have always been four. With Battlefield 2042, we can choose from a total of 10 specialists right from the start.
Difference between Specialists and Classes
Classes as in previous Battlefields only exist as a category. This category no longer determines what weapons and abilities you have. Instead, it signals which role you best fulfil in a battle. Each class is then assigned its own specialists. Since there are 10 Specialists and 4 classes, not every class will get the same number of Specialists.
The classes (or categories) are based on the names from Battlefield 3 or 4, but do not necessarily fulfil the same tasks.
- Assault: This includes all specialists who are mobile and advance quickly. The classic assault soldier who fights on the front line.
- Support: The specialists support other units, either by helping them back on their feet or by supplying them with ammunition.
- Engineer: Engineers apparently rely on technical bells and whistles in combat, of which there will be quite a few in the futuristic Battlefield 2042.
- Recon: These soldiers tend to keep a low profile and handle reconnaissance or obstruct enemy communications.
Free choice of weapons
Another major innovation is the free loadout. Specialists have a predefined gadget and a fixed characteristic, but apart from that you are free to choose all pieces of equipment. So there are no longer weapon classes that are tied to individual classes or specialists.
In Battlefield 2042, you are therefore free to decide what distinguishes your soldier. For example, medics with sniper rifles or scouts with shotguns will also be possible. It is up to you to decide how well the weapons fit your role.
A side effect is that you no longer have to play a certain class to unlock a new weapon. If you need a better assault rifle, you can earn it with any specialist in any class.
Can you customise specialists?
DICE already announced that there will be cosmetic items for the characters. For example, players can put real money into their Battle Pass to unlock cosmetic items. However, how far these cosmetic customisations go is not yet known and has not been shown yet.
So we don’t know if Casper will always have the same face or if players will be able to choose his hairstyle or nose. In Battlefield 5, it was still possible to change the head of a class. But since the Specialists have names and thus a somewhat more fixed personality, this feature may be omitted. However, new clothes or weapon skins should be possible in any case.
Wikus “Casper” Van Daele
The first known Recon specialist in Battlefield 2042 is Casper. - Class: Recon
- Class: South Africa
- Primary Gadget: As a Recon, one of Casper’s tasks is to gather information about the enemy. His flying drone helps him with this. Players can control the reconnaissance drone themselves and use it to sight and mark enemies. It can also hover on the spot and then mark independently. The drone can also shoot EMP arrows.
- Feature: Casper has an intuitive feel for his surroundings. Players are shown on the minimap if an enemy is moving in the immediate vicinity. This prevents soldiers from sneaking up on Casper without a second thought.
Maria Falck
A German is also one of the first specialists in Battlefield 2042. The medic Maria. - Class: Support
- Origin: Germany
- Primary Gadget: The competent healer owns a S21 Syrette Pistol. This is not a weapon, but a medical device. With the pistol, Falck can both revive and heal fellow players – all from a safe distance.
- Property: Falck, like other specialists, can of course resort to a defibrillator to help her mates to their feet. But thanks to her special trait, resurrected pals are additionally fully healed immediately.
Pyotr “Boris” Guskovsky
The rough-and-tumble Pyotr hails from Russia and is the first known Engineer in Battlefield 2042. - Class: Engineer
- Origin: Russia
- Primary Gadget: Boris brings an automatic gun called SG 36 into the fray alongside his main weapon. Once the gun is up, it automatically targets enemy infantry and vehicles and opens fire. However, the gun can be disabled by EMP attacks.
- Property: As a gun operator, Boris can improve the abilities of his SG 36 as long as he is near them. This allows the gun to lock on to enemies faster and automatically mark the enemies it is firing at.
Webster McKay
Canadian Webster McKay can move around with a grappling hook. - Class: Assault
- Class: Canada
- Primary Gadget: With his grapplegun, McKay can easily reach higher positions and move quickly. This allows him to quickly reduce the distance to enemies with a grappling hook, but he can also use it to occupy unusual sniper positions.
- Property: As a special property, McKay can move faster than other specialists when aiming. This is also true when he is hanging from a zipline.
Kimble “Irish” Graves
Kimble Graves leads a splinter group of No-Pats and tries to protect defenceless people. - Class: Engineer
- Origin: USA
- Primary Gadgets: With his mobile DCS cover, Graves can protect himself and his teammates from fire. He can set up the wall anywhere and more than once. It lasts until it is destroyed. In addition, the former marine has the APS-36 guard system. This automatically neutralises grenades and rockets.
- Property: With his veteran ability, Gravs becomes hard to crack. He always spawns from the start with a low armour value that keeps damage out. The value can even be increased if “Irish” kills enemies and collects their munitions afterwards.
The Wingsuit Man
Not every specialist can equip a wingsuit. But which one can is still unknown. - Class: ? (Recon?)
- Class: ?
- Primary Gadget: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s the wingsuit man! This character was already seen in the trailer, but was not explicitly announced as a specialist. In the run-up, however, the developers have revealed that this is another special character and not something that every specialist can simply equip.
- Property: We don’t know anything else about the wingsuit person except that he has a wingsuit. In the trailer he is able to escape the tornado with it. Maybe that’s his special feature.
Other Specialists
More specialists have also been teased on the official Battlefield 2042 website. In general, the names come from the . This way DICE wants to explain the world of Battlefield 2042 to players.
- Constantin Anghel: This specialist is mentioned by name in the sixth part of Bechir’s travel diary. Nothing is known about his origin and class.
- Navin Rao: This is said to be an Indian hacker. This would suggest that Rao belongs to the Engineer class.
- Jo-Soo Paik: The Korean infiltrates a Korean tech giant called Daesong in Bechir’s report. This will be a clue that she belongs to the more stealthy Recon class.
The new class system in detail
- Since Battlefield: Vietnam, players could only ever choose from four different classes. Which classes they were, which abilities and weapons they were allowed to use and what their task was, however, changed again and again over the years. At the core, however, there have always been four. With Battlefield 2042, we can choose from a total of 10 specialists from the very beginning.
Difference between Specialists and Classes
Classes as in previous Battlefields now only exist as a category. This category no longer determines what weapons and abilities you have. Instead, it signals which role you best fulfil in a battle. Each class is then assigned its own specialists. Since there are 10 Specialists and 4 classes, not every class will get the same number of Specialists.
The classes (or categories) are based on the names from Battlefield 3 or 4, but do not necessarily fulfil the same tasks.
- Assault: This includes all specialists who are mobile and advance quickly. The classic assault soldier who fights on the front line.
- Support: The specialists support other units, either by helping them back on their feet or by supplying them with ammunition.
- Engineer: Engineers apparently rely on technical bells and whistles in combat, of which there will be quite a few in the futuristic Battlefield 2042.
- Recon: These soldiers tend to keep a low profile and handle reconnaissance or obstruct enemy communications.
Free choice of weapons
Another major innovation is the free loadout. Specialists have a predefined gadget and a fixed characteristic, but apart from that you are free to choose all pieces of equipment. So there are no longer weapon classes that are tied to individual classes or specialists.
In Battlefield 2042, you are therefore free to decide what distinguishes your soldier. For example, medics with sniper rifles or scouts with shotguns will also be possible. It is up to you to decide how well the weapons fit your role.
A side effect is that you no longer have to play a certain class to unlock a new weapon. If you need a better assault rifle, you can earn it with any specialist in any class.
Can you customise specialists?
DICE already announced that there will be cosmetic items for the characters. For example, players can put real money into their Battle Pass to unlock cosmetic items. However, how far these cosmetic customisations go is not yet known and has not been shown yet.
So we don’t know if Casper will always have the same face or if players will be able to choose his hairstyle or nose. In Battlefield 5, it was still possible to change the head of a class. But since the Specialists have names and thus a somewhat more fixed personality, this feature may be omitted. New clothes or weapon skins should, however, be possible in any case.
