Star Wars Battlefront update makes the partner system way more worthwhile

DICE has given Star Wars Battlefront its usual DLC-adjacent update alongside the Bespin expansion, and there's never been a better time to practice the buddy system. Among many other changes, DICE has given Star Wars Battlefront's two-person squad alternative a bunch of improvements to make it easier to use and way more useful.

First and most significantly, sticking close to your partner will now reduce all the cooldowns for your Star Cards. This means your little duo will be tossing out grenades and cycler rounds like a couple of sci-fi Rambos, as long as you don't get separated: you'll now see a check mark over your partner's head if you're close enough to receive the boost, an exclamation mark if you're too far away, or a cross if they're dead (they can't give you bonuses if they're dead).

But punishing the bastard who took away your Star Card boost will be much easier, since the enemy who killed your partner will be briefly outlined in red on your screen. Before the patch you couldn't spawn on a partner if there was an enemy within 20 meters, but that distance has now been reduced to 2 meters, so your partner be able to rejoin you closer to the action. And if it still doesn't work, a message will now pop up explaining why you can't spawn on your buddy: they're "in danger", "in a vehicle", "dead", etc.

And just in case you lose your partner in the middle of a match, Battlefront will now alert you when the bond is broken and automatically try to assign you a new one. For all the other Star Wars Battlefront tweaks, check out the official patch notes.

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Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.