Battlefield 6 Season 1 roadmap: Free maps, modes, and weapons

Battlefield 6’s three-phase Season 1 roadmap is here. The official Season 1 roadmap for October, November, and December will deliver free content to BF6 players and has been neatly summarised in the post below from the official Battlefield X account. There’s a good amount to be excited about, too. 

Naturally, Battlefield 6 will want to hit the ground running ahead of the Holiday season, not to mention Black Ops 7’s November release. But while having future content ready to deploy for the coming months is necessary, there is one omission. We’ll highlight that below as we see what’s on offer, and consider what the roadmap means for BF6’s early prospects. 

Battlefield 6 Season 1, ‘Rogue Ops’, is scheduled to arrive on October 28, 2025. If that date sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the rumoured date for the arrival of BF6’s Battle Royale. That rumour is unsubstantiated, of course, but Rogue Ops does arrive with a new map called Blackwell Fields. 

That’s a name we’ve only seen in passing previously, courtesy of YouTuber TheGamerzTheory, in this YouTube Short that claims to show leaked footage from Blackwell Fields. We now officially know it’s a map that supports land and air vehicles and all combat sizes. Its setting is California’s Badlands, and it features a recommissioned American air base.

Could the oil fields of Blackwell link to the ‘oil pumps’ POI suggested on the leaked Battle Royale map? Tenuous, but the BF6 post-launch 2025 preview shows no sign of the Battle Royale mode for Phase 1. What is shown is the new mode ‘Strikepoint’. This is a 4v4 squad vs squad option, where you get one life each round and need to secure a key objective. 

As far as themes go, Season 1: Phase 2 is about the liberation of Southern California. Named ‘California Resistance’, Phase 2 features a map called Eastwood that, again, appears to have been previously leaked. This affluent suburb is connected to a golf course, which reminds us of the golf cart in the pool from the BR teaser.

The new mode available with Phase 2 is marked as a ‘Limited Time Mode’ and called Sabotage. Essentially, it’s an 8v8 mode where players need creativity and weapons to destroy sites around the map in a limited time. Here, the most detonations win. A little throwback to the sabotage gadget of 2015’s easily forgotten Battlefield Hardline? Maybe.

As with Phase 1, there’s no mention in Phase 2 of the Battle Royale mode, although many expect it to be available by November. We will say that this phase’s ‘battle pickups’ feature is something we’d expect of a BR. However, there are no extra details beyond “high-tech, powerful weaponry” and “limited in ammo”. Flamethrowers? Mortars? We’ll have to see.

Season 1 Phase 3, ‘Winter Offensive’, slides around in December, and will bring with it both a Limited Time Event, named Ice Lock, and a Limited Time Event Map named Ice Lock Empire State. The Empire State Map was featured in the BF6 Open Beta, and this wintry version is listed as a ‘visual update’. 

Nonetheless, the instructions are to “gear up, stay warm”, as Brooklyn slumps below freezing. Further details for the Ice Lock event are limited: Ice Lock is centred around a gameplay-modifying mechanic called ‘Freeze’, active in “specific circumstances”. Maybe it can limit movement or be a foil to the Battle Royale’s circle of fire. Err, stay inside?

What’s also interesting about Phase 3 is the lack of additional firepower, attachments, or vehicles listed (No snowmobiles? Boo). Winter Offensive will include the Ice Climbing Axe, though. This melee weapon will fill the knife/sledgehammer slot, and can also help players to “pick through delicate environmental pieces”. Tactical (ice) destruction, perhaps. 

For any game aiming to attract 100 million players, having a publicly available three-month roadmap of free content makes sense. Players will want to know what’s coming once they’ve spent $70 or $100, and this may help anyone who would otherwise wait and watch. The amount of free content being offered is pretty solid, too. 

Battlefield 6’s phased thematic approach is a nice way to offer a reassuring cadence, and EA states that the new maps, weapons, modes, and features can be added to “Community Experiences”. Reinforcing the customised Portal experience for gamers like this is an easy win in our book, giving BF fans as much choice as possible. 

Obviously, it’s excellent to see what Battlefield 6 will provide in free content until the end of 2025. However, we’re sure plenty of people (ourselves included) are very interested in the arrival of the Battle Royale mode, a huge elephant-shaped shadow in the room. Not to mention that Season 1’s Strikepoint and Sabotage are both small-scale modes.

While we know that larger-scale maps will be part of Battlefield 6, we don’t yet know if the developers will respond to feedback on larger Rush maps or on delivering alternative modes. Yes, it will be tricky to keep all BF6 players happy all the time, but a balance will need to be found. This roadmap is a good start, but the Battle Royale’s sheer scale feels absent so far.