Battlefield 6 Update Cracks Down on XP Farms to Clean Up Matchmaking and Revive Portal
Grinding less, leveling faster: EA and DICE are cutting the grind in their flagship FPS, rolling out changes that speed progression and put more rewards in players’ hands.
Battlefield 6 is finally taking a hammer to those cheesy XP farms. If you were stuck in the sloggy level grind and tempted by bot-filled Portal servers, EA and DICE are rolling out changes right now aimed at making actual, human-filled matches the norm again.
So what is changing, exactly?
Since launch, progression has felt slow enough that even daily players struggled to rank up. That pushed a lot of folks to Portal - the custom server sandbox - where bot-heavy setups turned into XP factories. EA and DICE say they have been working on two fronts: fixing the pace of XP and shutting down the bot-farm loopholes. The latter is now underway.
"We're in the process of deploying several backend updates aimed at improving community experiences and encouraging more player-filled servers."
"As part of this effort, we're implementing several backend changes to support healthier matchmaking and more enjoyable experiences in Portal. These updates will address unintended behaviors that allowed for XP farming or unbalanced gameplay."
Those lines came from the official Battlefield account on October 22, 2025, with a fuller breakdown promised for tomorrow, October 23.
The exact knobs and dials are not public yet, but you can safely expect tweaks that make Portal bot lobbies far less attractive and reduce the XP payouts from custom setups designed to cheese progression. The bit about unbalanced play also hints at broader matchmaking and ruleset changes to stop lopsided nonsense beyond just XP gains.
XP already got a bump
On the progression side, EA and DICE already increased per-match XP to make regular games feel more rewarding. Combined with the bot-farm crackdown, this should finally give consistent players the rank boosts they were looking for without having to hide out in XP exploit servers.
What to expect and when
- Backend updates are being deployed now (October 22, 2025) to prioritize player-filled servers and healthier matchmaking.
- A detailed update with specifics is slated for tomorrow, October 23.
- The focus includes fixing unintended behaviors that enabled XP farming and unbalanced gameplay, especially in Portal.
- Likely impact: tighter limits on bots and lowered XP payouts for custom farm setups, with broader balance changes possible. Final details arrive with the patch notes.
Meanwhile, a credits controversy
Separate from the gameplay fixes, the former Battlefield 6 campaign lead says he is "disappointed" that he and other developers "were not properly credited" in the final game after working "tirelessly for 1 to 2.5 years, building the foundation." It is an awkward behind-the-scenes note to land alongside these updates.
Bottom line: the XP grind should feel better, and the era of easy Portal farming looks like it is winding down. We will get the full picture when tomorrow's patch notes drop.