The firing of a bullet in Battlefield™ V can achieve many things – more than one might think. Naturally, it’s a means to take down enemies. But a player can also fire to suppress, distract, set off explosives, or damage structures, all of which will shape the battlefield.



Then there’s firing at enemies behind cover. Destruction – big and small – is a Battlefield specialty, and this goes for cover, too, be it wooden doors, concrete walls, fences, vegetation, or the new Fortifications. But how much should a certain piece of cover be damaged when hit by a certain piece of ammunition? Designing all this relates to what we call Bullet Penetration – which is not only an immersive audio-visual effect, but also something directly impacting gameplay.



Rickard Antroia, Senior Game Designer on Battlefield V, knows the ins-and-outs of the topic more than anyone. We recently sat down for a Q&A with Rickard, who was happy to enlighten us.

What is Bullet Penetration?

Bullet Penetration allows bullets to go through thin materials and deal reduced damage to opponents on the other side. It's based on weapon categories and provides an additional dimension of damaging enemies – or flushing them out of cover.



How did you approach the concept of Bullet Penetration in Battlefield V?

Bullet Penetration builds upon our destruction design in Battlefield 1, where we saw that a lot of walls, houses, and other covers – “assets” to us developers – deteriorated quickly during combat and the battlefield was flattened. This made us reevaluate our destruction classes and how we built props and architecture. The goal was to increase the interaction between the player and the environment while reducing the sheer number of parts in our assets.



Line-of-fire covers had to deteriorate in stages or survive low-grade explosions and bullets. To avoid having transport vehicles and hand grenades level the playing field, covers were upgraded to resist these types of damage. The same went for Fortifications. These assets needed to be sturdy enough to give you decent cover, especially since it takes time and exposure to enemy bullets to build them.



Meanwhile, we have this opportunity in the Battlefield franchise to experience a full range of calibers and weapons. In previous titles, Bullet Penetration was a binary experience. A bullet either passed through or it didn’t, and the same behavior existed for almost all calibers. Looking at more distinction between weapons, we saw an opportunity to push players in and out of covers without removing everything in front of the soldier.



Need more ammo to tear down enemy cover? Learn how to adapt to the Attrition system in Battlefield V.

