Electronic Arts' (EA) new entry in its beloved FPS franchise Battlefield 6 has been out for just under a month now, and what a month it's been for the title and its developer Battlefield Studios. The game instantly became a hit as soon as it released, blasting its way up the Steam charts, selling 7 million copies in three days, and holding top positions on the Steam Best Sellers list and player count charts for weeks.
Indeed, it's enjoyed a truly stunning launch performance, especially with Battlefield 6 Season 1 and the free-to-play battle royale Battlefield REDSEC further bolstering interest in the title in late October. But while the shooter has gotten plenty right with its overall gameplay design, gunplay, combined arms sandbox, and more, its community has been strongly critical of its progression systems.
The news came in a new "Reintroducing Bots to Verified Experiences" blog post on Thursday afternoon, with Battlefield Studios confirming that they're now available to have backfill standard Conquest, Breakthrough, and Rush Portal servers effective immediately. There are some limitations to their use, however, which I'll explain below.
With bot backfill enabled, a total of 12 bots will be supported on each of the three aforementioned modes, with a maximum of six per team. This will help games start faster; 20 players are needed, and these bots will count for 12 of them, so only eight real players need to connect. With bot backfill disabled, 20 real players would be needed to get a lobby going.
Kills against bots in Verified Experiences will grant significantly reduced XP (10%, to be specific), while defeating regular players will award you 100% XP as an official multiplayer match would. Notably, though, Challenges will remain completable even with bots present.
At the moment, having bots enabled has the side effect of preventing gains (or losses) to player stats like hours played, kill/death ratio, and total revives from gameplay on Portal servers. However, Battlefield Studios has confirmed that this is not intended, and is "actively being adjusted."
All in all, given that Battlefield 6 also just made its Challenges significantly less frustrating and has enforced reduced XP on Custom Experiences, I think this is actually a pretty great solution that allows those running servers with Verified Experiences to utilize bots without abusing their presence to set up bot XP farms that flood Portal matchmaking and its server browser.
Of course, you're going to have those angry about any availability of bots at all, that believe including them in a server shouldn't be an option. And on the flip side, there are those that want to be able to earn full progression by killing bots, even though doing so is far easier than defeating other players.
I'd argue Battlefield Studios has come up with a good middle-ground solution that will please the majority of players.
Ultimately, though, I think it's indisputable that bots do quite a lot of good in helping Portal servers get started up, and also that disincentivizing bot XP farms is good so that actual Portal experiences get visibility. Thus, I'd argue Battlefield Studios has come up with a good middle-ground solution that will please the majority of players.
Along with the massive nerf to Challenge difficulty, it's a major step in the right direction for the FPS — and with that awful IFV MR Missile exploit that was guaranteeing the destruction of aircraft disabled while it's being reworked too, the majority of Battlefield 6's biggest problems have now been dealt with.
Battlefield 6 itself is one of 2025's best shooters, and available across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 for $69.99. You can get it the Xbox version for just $59.39 at Loaded, though, thanks to an awesome deal.
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