Star Wars Battlefront II Han Solo Season Patch Notes Are Here, Extensive Changes to the Game

To coincide with the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story later this month, Star Wars Battlefront II just launched into its next big season of content releases and events. Titled the Han Solo Season, this Star Wars Battlefront II content update focuses on one of the most lovable rogues in the galaxy.

New additions to the game include Jabba’s Palace and new appearances to go along with the new stage. A new Hero Showdown mode makes its way to the game, pitting two-person teams against one another. Arcade now includes Starfighter Assault, which has been a long requested feature. New content isn’t all that’s coming though. A number of heroes are getting adjusted, both buffs and nerfs to make them more balanced across the board.

When DICE details changes made to the game, they also helpfully add reasons why those changes were made. In the patch notes below, you can read all about the adjustments and additions made, in addition to the commentary from the development team.

Star Wars Battlefront II – Han Solo Season Update Patch Notes

HAN SOLO SEASON ADDITIONS

Welcome to the start of the “”Han Solo Season””! To start things off we’re focusing on those closest to Han. Both friend and foe.

In this update we revisit the iconic location of Jabba’s Palace. inside Jabba’s Palace were some of Han’s friends in some of the most unique unique appearances in the Star Wars universe. Specifically Lando Calrissian in a Skiff Guard appearance and, as our first legendary Appearance, Leia Organa disguised as the bounty hunter Boussh – complete with the scrambled voice!

We’re also introducing a new permanent game mode where players will play as two Heroes against two Villains, where the winning team needs to change up their strategy to continue winning. We call it Hero Showdown!

On top of a new multiplayer mode, we have something for Arcade fans and fans of starfighter combat in general – Custom Arcade now has a mode for Starfighters! This provides the chance to try out the various starfighters whenever you want.

Lastly, we’ve introduced a few other improvements that we hope you enjoy; including the ability to Upgrade and Unlock Star Cards in the pre-round phase of a match and the addition of lore text to all of the Appearances!

HEROES AND VILLAINS

Captain Phasma

Captain Phasma’s STAFF STRIKES should be easier to hit and chain to an enemy. Since it’s easier to connect now, we needed to remove some advantages on the two first strikes. We will still be keeping the incentive to land all 3 strikes as each strike is more powerful than the previous one. We’ll monitor if it feels strong enough, but Captain Phasma should be much more enjoyable to play.

• Added the closing functionality to all Phasma’s staff strikes
• Reduced the damage of the first strike from 150 to 120
• Removing the push effect on the two first attacks
• Captain Phasma’s FIRST ORDER SENTRY DROID now progressively self-repairs after 6 seconds of not taking damage, instead of instantly repairing

Luke Skywalker

Lightsaber Attacks

Luke did not feel as in control of his lightsaber as he should since he has slightly slower swings than some other lightsaber users. We’ll look at improving the damage if the current buff doesn’t prove to be enough for him but we’d like to see the results of these changes.

• Reduced the cost of melee for Luke increasing his max amount of swings from full stamina from 8 to 10

Push

This is the first change to add different damage values for Heroes and other Units. It felt like Luke was the perfect Character to start with as both Push and Repulse were very weak against non-Hero enemies. The base damage of both abilities still needed to be improved for combat against opposing Heroes.

• Added non-Hero specific damage to Luke’s PUSH at 150
• Increased PUSH damage to Heroes from 65 to 90
• Added Non-Hero specific damage to REPULSE at 130
• Increased REPULSE damage to Heroes from 50 to 75

Dash

• Players can now move a few frames earlier after using the Dash ability

Leia Organa

Defender Alt-Fire

The Defender Pistol Alt-fire was too damaging for the short charge up time and getting hit by it from afar was very frustrating. This is a first pass on balancing; we’ll see how it changes her efficiency as we’d still like her to be a great ranged defensive character.

• Reduced the Defender Alt-fire damage from 175 to 145
• Reduced Leia’s Defender Alt-fire explosion radius from 2 to 1 meters
• Reduced Leia’s Defender Alt-fire targeting angle from 3.5 to 2 degrees
• Corrected text on Leia’s “Relentless Firing” Star Card that referred to bullets instead of blaster bolts
• Leia now receives the proper amount of health from the “For the Rebellion” Star Card
• Fixed an issue when the Defender didn’t play the fire animation as it fired

Emperor Palpatine

Health Regeneration

Palpatine’s sustainability was way too high with both his health regeneration and the Lightning Absorbtion Star Card. His health regeneration was higher than melee characters and for a range character (even if closer than blaster users) that let him not care much about taking damage.

• Reduced health regeneration from 300 to 250

Lightning Absorption Star Card

The health regeneration on the Lightning Absorbtion Star Card was too high. especially when hitting grouped-up troopers. With this change we want Emperor Palpatine players to care more about their positioning and rely less on easy regeneration.

• Reduced amount of health regenerated by the Lightning Absorption Star Card by 5 on all rarities

Dual Hand Lightning

Dual hand lightning had the same angle as the single hand one and it was way too easy to deal heavy damage on enemies without having to target them.

• Reduced the targeting angle from dual hand lightning from 14 to 10

Lando Calrissian

X8-NIGHT SNIPER

Pulling the trigger on the X8 was quite high for a light pistol, we reduced it to give the weapon a lighter feel on consoles.

• Reduced weight to pull the trigger of the X8-Night sniper from 70% to 50%

Han Solo

• Han Solo can no longer throw multiple Detonite Charges while being hit by a lightsaber

Iden Versio

• The Shield Sustain Star Card now activates for the proper amount of time
• Sound properly plays when dodging again

Lightsaber Heroes

Lightsaber Air Attacks

• Fixed an issue where lightsaber wielding heroes could damage a deflecting hero by attacking while airborne.

• Now lightsaber heroes get staggered when attacking a deflecting character while airborne.

Lightsaber Damage

With the short damage delay, lightsaber attacks felt better for the attacker but not for the player receiving the damage. We’ve increased that delay slightly in an attempt to get the best result for both players.

• Increased lightsaber damage delay from 0.06 to 0.09 seconds

CLASSES, SPECIAL UNITS, & VEHICLES

Dodge

We’re aware of the stuns locks from lightsabers and we wanted to make the dodge stronger without making it as strong as it was before.

With this change, we are first unifying the dodges. Some characters, like Yoda, didn’t have the same speed and distance for their dodge and that put them at a high disadvantage. All of the dodges for force users are now similar and all dodges for blaster users are the same.

The second part was to get away from stuns locks. To that effect, you are now unstaggerable and immune to melee damage from the start of the dodge (It was a few frames in from before). This is a shorter time than it was on release (it was the whole animation back then) but still enough to feel that you can avoid being damaged.

Please feedback on this change as we’re hoping it will improve the fighting experience while not lowering the lightsaber efficiency too much.

• Unified dodge lengths among Force using characters to 5.5 meters
• Unified dodge lengths among blaster wielding characters (Including Troopers) to 4.75 meters
• Dodge now makes characters unstaggerable from the first frame and for a longer time.
• Dodge now makes characters immune to Lightsaber, melee, or Phasma’s Staff Strikes damage while unstaggerable (first frames of the animation)

Stagger

There was a few frames in the animation that felt static and where it felt like the characters could start moving. As such we’ve allowed movement and dodge earlier in the staggered animation after hitting a blocking lightsaber.

Flame Trooper

• Fixed a visual issue with how the Flame Trooper’s Flame Grenade was exploding
• Using the FORTIFY ability will no longer disable idle animations

AT-ST

• Fixed an issue with the AT-ST having their lights on even when it was sunny

GAME MODES AND LOCATIONS

GALACTIC ASSAULT

• Fixed an issue where the player was able to use the LUIV beyond Phase 1 on Starkiller Base
• Fixed an issue where the Ion Grenade exploded in mid-air before reaching the AT-AT or MTT

ARCADE

• Removed a spawn location that was outside the combat area on Yavin 4

HEROES VS VILLAINS

• Fixed an issue where both factions spawned in the same spot on the Death Star
• Fixed an issue where Rebel Heroes spawned outside the combat area on the Death Star II

STARFIGHTER ASSAULT

• Defeated and rank-up text should no longer overlap in Starfighter Assault
• Fixed an issue where the camera got stuck after the player respawns as a Bomber

EWOK HUNT

• Fixed an issue where the shuttle did not touch down on the ground
• Fixed an issue with respawning if the player restarted while outside the combat area
• Fixed an issue where players wouldn’t respawn as an Ewok after being killed by a trap
• Fixed an issue where incendiary grenades would sometimes not light up the surrounding area
• Tweaked the flash light to make it easier to see pickups
• Fixed a visual artifact that occured while using the flash light
• Fixed an issue where the Enforcer’s Star Cards would appear when spawning as an Ewok
• Fixed an issue where Ewok Hunt timed challenges where not shown in the end of round screen
• The audio for “Enemy Down” is now properly localized in Ewok Hunt

Locations

• Fixed a lighting issue on Naboo
• Improved collision on Bespin
• Improved collision on Death Star II
• Improved collision handling in Kashyyyk
• Fixed visual artifacts on Endor
• Fixed a lighting issue on Crait
• Improved some visuals on Crait
• Improved collision detection on Crait
• Improved camera handling on Crait
• Improved collision detection for AI on Yavin 4

GENERAL CHANGES

Appearances

• When Luke is wearing his Hoth Appearance the weapon icon will now showcase the proper lightsaber
• Polished the Aqualish appearance
• Polished Kylo Ren’s “Scarred” appearance

Animation

• Polished Ewok animations
• Polished Twilek animations
• Polished Han Solo’s animations
• Polished Lando’s animations
• Polished Quarren’s animations

In-game Messaging

• Tweaked in-game messaging for elimination and assist messages to make them more distinct

Milestones & Challenges

• Fixed an issue with Trooper Milestone “Stay True” not tracking properly with usage of the “Hardened Infiltration” Star Card
• Darth Vader’s “All Too Easy” Milestone should now progress properly
• Fixed an issue where the Arcade Milestone “The Force is with You” remains stuck with the yellow check mark after completion
• Fixed an issue with the progress bar for the “EHDA YUHYI EEDEEZA” milestone
• Various challenge bug fixes

Crates

• Fixed an issue where the game would freeze if you had too many unopened Crates when launching the game
• Fixed an issue where the player could not see what was in the “Troopers Victory Crate”
• Fixed an issue with the Leia Organa’s “You Have Your Moments Emote Crate” not being retroactively granted after the Progression Update

MISC FIXES

• Fixed an issue in the end of round screen where the player is not informed that they have already reached the maximum Class Rank on a Class that they played in the previous round
• Tweaked the AT-AT’s Orbital Strike to make it easier to use
• Fixed a bug where no audio would play for a few seconds after skipping the intro logos
• Improvements to Ansel integration
• Fixed an issue with the Milestone tile in Home
• Fixed an issue where the confirmation button would have no description when highlighting the Milestone tile
• Fixed an issue in the end of round screen where it would appear you are rewarded with a Skill Point even if you had reached the max amount
• Various crash fixes
• Enabled LogiTech LED Extension

KNOWN ISSUES

Chewbacca’s Wounded Appearance has incorrect lore text

Recently a former employee of the social and community team at EA spoke out against the publisher, and insinuated that there was a big announcement coming soon for the game. While the alleged announcement seems negative in context–most fans are guessing EA will stop supporting the game–this latest update shows that support is alive and well for the time being. Are you excited to jump into the latest season with the latest Star Wars Battlefront II update?

[Source: EA DICE]