DICE’s Broken Promise and the Removal of Portal AI XP
Unannounced XP Removal and Broken Commitment
DICE has recently reduced the XP gain from Portal AI mode twice without any clear notice to players — first cutting it down to just one-fourth of the original amount, and then completely removing it altogether.
This move blatantly breaks their original promise that “Portal mode will provide 100% XP and full weapon progression.”
As an ordinary player who has to work every day and doesn’t have much free time, the grind for weapon attachments in Battlefield 6 has completely ruined my gameplay experience.
Compared to Battlefield 2042 and other mainstream shooters that require unlocking attachments, this game’s grind is at least five times worse.
I just want to relax after work, use the weapons and attachments I like, and enjoy the large-scale battlefield atmosphere and fair competition — not be forced to fight fully geared players with half-finished weapons and become someone else’s “fun experience.”
I paid for the game to have fun, not to be farmed by others.
Grinding Doesn’t Keep Players Playing
The previous Battlefield titles — 1, 3, 4, and 5 — never had such complicated attachment systems, and I still played them happily for a long time.
This new attachment grind is so excessive that it completely kills my motivation to play.
Some people claim that if unlocking is made easier, players will stop playing — but that’s simply not true.
Back in the older titles, I played for years without needing any grind to enjoy myself.
The fun came from gameplay itself, not from endless unlocking.
Impact on PVE Players
This change has also seriously hurt players who prefer PVE gameplay.
One of the main reasons I bought this game was because of Portal mode — I thought I could relax by fighting AI when I didn’t feel like playing PVP.
But now that AI XP has been removed, that entire playstyle is gone.
If DICE can’t restore Portal AI XP, then at least give players the option to request a refund.
The Real Problem and How to Fix It
When DICE promised that Portal mode would provide full XP, they should have already expected that players would use AI modes to unlock weapons — after all, this already happened back in Battlefield 2042.
And it’s obvious that this game’s ridiculously high weapon grind was designed on the assumption that players would use Portal to farm XP.
Even so, DICE made no effort to implement proper rules or restrictions for Portal, which resulted in the servers being overcrowded.
The real problem isn’t that players were farming XP in Portal.
The real problem is DICE’s inaction.
Completely removing AI XP in one stroke is absolutely not the right way to fix it.
The real issues lie in the game’s extreme grind for weapon attachments, and the lack of limits on how long players can occupy servers.
The proper solutions should be:
- Drastically reduce the weapon attachment grind. Let casual players unlock all attachments in a reasonable time, and for those who enjoy grinding, add cosmetic rewards that don’t affect gameplay balance.
- Introduce sensible rules for Portal mode. Limit how long each player can occupy a server per day, or automatically close servers that have too few real players after one match. Approve high-quality modes to run without restrictions, and increase the total number of servers. Separate XP farming servers from normal Portal servers to avoid blocking regular gameplay.
- Allow XP gain in local servers. Let players who don’t want to grind through PVP unlock attachments freely in offline AI matches. Once everything is unlocked, the level doesn’t mean anything anyway — so instead of restricting players, just let them play how they want.
Although this might sound like a “conspiracy theory,” it’s hard to ignore the pattern.
DICE clearly knows what players are complaining about, yet refuses to fix it.
It’s hard not to suspect they’re preparing to sell attachment blueprints or XP boosters for money later.
If that’s really the case, then the Battlefield series might as well be dead.
