8 essential Star Wars Battlefront 2 tips to know before you play

Having a set of Star Wars Battlefront 2 tips to hand will help you on your way to achieving victories, especially as a great deal has changed since its initial launch in 2017. This means it's worth catching up on some advice to improve your multiplayer performance, even if you spent time with Star Wars Battlefront 2 when it first came out. There are plenty of familiar characters and settings to encounter, but the multiplayer mechanics used are somewhat different to your regular online shooters, so if you need to know how to level up faster, survive longer, and unlock those important Star Cards, then follow our Star Wars Battlefront 2 tips and save the galaxy.

1. Know how to level up effectively

Now, this seems super obvious, but please stick with me, as your character doesn’t automatically level up and unlock new Star Cards across the board. Sure, you gain ranks, but that doesn’t automatically give you access to everything. Instead, you'll only level up the classes, vehicles, and Heroes you've used in the match, unlocking new Star Cards for purchase if you've made sufficient progress in the corresponding areas. If there's a particular class that favours your playstyle, then focus on using that to level up quicker and unlock more perks to combine with it.

When it comes to levelling up, keep an eye out for Double and Triple XP days as these can really help you ascend quickly. Combined with Co-op mode, where you only have to defeat AI enemies while taking on objectives, you can rack up massive amounts of experience fast, while also giving you the opportunity to practice the moves and abilities of your chosen Hero characters.

2. Know how Star Cards work

The Mandalorian Corvus

(Image credit: EA/DICE)

Although they were once tied to loot crates, Star Cards are now unlocked by earning experience points for individual classes, vehicles, and Heroes. Every time you level one up, you'll receive a Skill Point that can either be used to purchase an unlocked Star Card, or upgrade an owned Star Card to the next tier – there are four in total, running from Common to Uncommon, Rare, then Epic – which makes its effects more powerful.

There are two different types of Star Cards, with Boost Cards providing a passive increase to one of your stats, while Ability Cards replace one of the abilities for your chosen class with another weapon or gadget. Ability Cards are only available for trooper classes, as vehicles and Heroes are limited to just Boost Cards. Remember that you can only use Skill Points you've earned for a specific class, vehicle, or Hero to purchase Skills Cards for them.

3. The best Star Cards

So, what are the best Star Cards? That really depends on how you want to play, but some are better than others. The best Boost Cards are ones that build up your Battle Points quicker, or that grant quicker ability cooldowns. Health boosts aren’t as effective here, as you’re meant to die and respawn quickly, so it’s all about doing as much damage and grabbing points while you’re still alive. 

Ability Cards? The Assault’s shotgun is essential for each match, and anything that enhances the Officer’s turret is great too. Buffs for the Heavy’s shield are worth taking, and abilities that grant short range damage for Scouts (like enhanced pistols or trip mines) will balance your loadout well. 

What about Hero Cards? Again, it’s anything that buffs your aggressive abilities (with the exception of Leia). See our Star Wars Battlefront 2 Hero guide for a full breakdown.

4.  Hidden controls in Starfighters

The way Starfighters work in Battlefront 2 isn’t always obvious, and there are some killer tricks waiting to be used. Did you know you can look behind you to see who is chasing you? Just hold Left on the d-pad. Similarly, you can break missile locks by either putting debris between you and a missile or - and this actually works - you wait until the last second, and pull up while slowing to a near stop. The old Top Gun trick. You can also enter first-person mode by pressing down on the d-pad, but it’s more fiddly than playing in third-person. And if you’re into it, you can invert the Y-axis in settings too.

5. Spend your Battle Points wisely

It can be tempting to just splash all your Battle Points on a Kylo Ren rampage during any given game of Galactic Conquest. However, that may not be the best use of your points. Generally speaking, Yoda is the best Jedi character, and Kylo Ren the toughest Sith. When you’re on the ‘indoor’ part of any level, where players are cramped in corridors, you’ll win big with either of these. In open combat, go for Lando and Bossk. Lando’s Lucky Shot will bag you loads of kills, and Bossk’s Predator mode, where he sees in heat-vision AND fires grenades, can cause massive damage. Vehicles? Don’t bother flying during Galactic Assault as it’s a bit pointless. Take the prequel tanks out for a spin, and any AT-STs you can. Special classes that offer Heavy Weapons are handy in smaller modes like Strike and Blast, but don’t bring much in larger-scale battles. Oh, and in Starfighter Assault - the Falcon is great for soaking up damage, and Darth Maul’s tie interceptor is brilliant for dealing damage.

6. To aim or not to aim?

Ok, Battlefront 2 doesn’t actually call for too much aiming, as blasters are accurate over distance and have fairly generous hit-zones. In other words, you don’t have to be that accurate to score hits on enemies, and while aiming offers more control for hitting distant targets… you may as well be firing from the hip where you can. Especially with hero characters like Han and Boba Fett. If you’re a first-person shooter regular it can feel a little counter-intuitive to hipfire, but Battlefront 2 (while not as generous as the original) does encourage it. As such, the Scout class often feels like the least effective, which is a good thing, as sniping can often ruin the idea of team play. Battlefront 2 just wants everyone to get stuck in.

7. Play as a team

This one is so important. When you spawn in with your squad, stick with them. If you get Battle Points for doing the same thing as they are (like playing the objective, or making kills) then your tally is doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled depending on how many members of your squad are taking part. So, if you’re doing Starfighter Assault and you all attack an objective together - as a four - you’ll get quadruple the points. This means you’ll be able to unlock special vehicles and heroes quicker, which also means you have more chance of winning. So, absolutely don’t lonewolf Battlefront 2.

8. Push / Unleash is your friend

You may see Yoda’s Unleash move (and other hero equivalents like Luke's Push) as pointless, but it’s secretly the key to winning any match of Hero Hunt. See, Hero characters are tough, and they can regen health. They’re even tougher when bunched together, but that actually makes them more susceptible to your push moves. I lost count of the number of quick kills I got playing Hero Hunt on maps like Kamino and Theed because I used Yoda’s push to knock enemies off the side of the map. Instant kills on tough targets? Yes please.

Andy Hartup