Battlefield 2042 players turned its official Zombies mode into an XP farm so EA removed it

Battlefield 2042 Hazard Zone — (Image credit: EA)

Battlefield 2042 removed an official Portal mode after it became an exploitable XP farm.

Developer Ripple Effect added Zombies mode to Battlefield Portal earlier this week, along with changes meant to reintroduce XP gains to player creations while still restricting the effectiveness of modes solely intended for farming. Being an officially sanctioned creation from the developers themselves, Zombies had no such restrictions.

Players soon discovered that the new, official mode could itself be turned into an extremely effective XP farm simply by climbing to areas the knife-wielding AI enemies couldn't reach. Players could then haul in the XP harvest by mowing down dozens of their hapless zombie foes in safety and comfort.

Got a nice orderly production line going here! 💀💀💀💀 #Battlefield2042XboxSeriesXS #XboxShare pic.twitter.com/mpB8zYCjwSJanuary 20, 2022

Ripple Effect senior design director Justin Wiebe apologized for the oversight on his personal Twitter account.

I’m not going to lie, this one shouldn’t have gotten through our review process. I think our desire to create a fun zombies mode clouded our ability to see such a simple thing like the impact it would have on progression. I’m very sorry for the hardship this has caused. https://t.co/01MXOdWGN5January 21, 2022

In a followup message earlier today, Wiebe confirmed that Ripple Effect had pulled down the offending mode and replaced it with a gun game creation: "Hopefully we can fix it in the future and keep it in alignment with standard game progression. We’ve also tightened our review process to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Thanks for your patience and understanding."

EA is promising further improvements to come next month in Battlefield 2042 patch 3.3, chief among which will be a more detailed scoreboard and overall improvements to gameplay performance. Meanwhile, a new rumor points toward the possibility that all or part of Battlefield 2042 may go free-to-play in response to the futuristic shooter's persistent troubles since launch.