Battlefield Studios has now set up the new, permanent Casual Breakthrough playlist in Battlefield 6, satisfying the long-standing request from the community for a more relaxed setting in which players can still earn the necessary experience and medals toward progression. The mode, very much available starting from the main menu, is set up to be described as “a more relaxing way to play while still earning progression and completing challenges”, being a very good option against the usually high-stress nature of all the standard 64-player matches.
Casual Breakthrough alters entirely the vibe for large numbers of player count, the firm traditions for its flagship modes. The teams are smaller on either side: a true 8 on side is supported by 16 programmable intelligent bots to fill the remaining slots. It’s presumed that this way, an 8v8 environment with AI buddies will behave in a less stressy way, putting all the opportunities in your favor to try some new loadouts, finish challenging Class challenges, or just regain familiarity with whatever mechanics in the game without being bothered by highly competitive lobby pressure all the time.
Very importantly, the mode offers full progression on weapon/leveling, profile rank, and seasonal Battle Pass so that the player has a somewhat controlled and predictable exit out of the high-pressure grinding of traditional multiplayer. However, the experience point systems are set in such a way as to actively discourage exploitation: wiping out any of the eight human opponents gets you full XP, whilst putting down any number of AI units gives you largely reduced XP. Clearly from this design choice is a carefully thought-out response to the backlash and uproar surrounding the earlier decision to impose heavy nerfing on XP earn rates within custom-made Portal experiences that players had so far used mainly for simplistic bot-farming.
At present, the experience is somewhat shallow, deployed solely on the Siege of Cairo and Empire State maps, a somewhat restricted rotation that may feel redundant with time. Yet, the studio has indicated that these two are the “initial” offering of maps, suggesting an expansion to come. Along with Casual Breakthrough, the community is awaiting other core game modes, like large-scale Conquest, to adopt some form of their own calm playlists. Much of the mode dissolving is highly contingent on whether the lowered XP for bots feels fair and if the map pool expands fast afterward to keep everyone entertained.
