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.
Here you can find out what specialists are already known and how the new system works. You can find more information about Battlefield 2042 in our overview:
Battlefield 2042: All info on release, maps, classes and more
All known Specialists
In order to save a few new announcements, DICE did not directly show all specialists. Officially, only five have been presented in more detail so far. But in fact we already know about a few more.
There will be ten for the release. In addition, the developers have already revealed that four more Specialists will be added in the first year after release.
Wikus “Casper” Van Daele
- Class: Recon
- Origin: 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. In addition, the drone can 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
- 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 use a defibrillator to help her mates to their feet. However, thanks to her special trait, revived pals are additionally fully healed instantly.
Pyotr “Boris” Guskovsky
- 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 it. This allows the gun to lock on to enemies faster and automatically mark the enemies it is firing at.
Webster McKay
- Class: Assault
- Origin: Canada
Primary Gadget: With his grapplegun, McKay can easily reach higher positions and move quickly. This way, the distance to enemies can be quickly reduced with the 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
- 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 away. The value can even be increased if “Irish” finishes off enemies and then collects their muntion packs.
The Wingsuit Man
- Class: ? ()
- Origin: ?
Primary Gadget: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s the wingsuit person! This character was already seen in the trailer, but was not explicitly announced as a specialist. In the run-up, however, the developers 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 man, except that he has a wingsuit. In the trailer he can 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 is the 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 choose from four different classes. Which classes they were, which abilities and weapons they were allowed to use and what their task was, has 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 probably 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 take care of 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. 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.
