Battlefield 2042 players are now excited about the color blue

A soldier of Battlefield 2042 with his back turned
(Image credit: DICE)

Battlefield 2042’s latest weekly mission has caused quite a stir in the game’s community by rewarding players with a blue weapon skin.

In light of Battlefield 2042’s delayed first season of DLC, ailing player count, and loss of content, some fans of the multiplayer shooter have become excited over a blue gun. The latest weekly mission reward, the Farstrike legendary weapon skin for the SWS-10 sniper rifle is essentially a paint job that adds a bluish hue to several of the gun’s components.

One player exclaimed their excitement about the skin in a Reddit thread: “new weekly mission gives a decent blue skin!”, they declared, ecstatic at the prospect, rallying others to jump in and show their excitement for the reward, too.

The cosmetic's particularly noteworthy because it isn't just any weapon skin – it’s a blue weapon skin. Over the past few months, Battlefield 2042’s weekly mission rewards have almost exclusively awarded players white weapon cosmetics. That monochrome palette has been a source of frustration for many players who want to spruce up their specialists with more interesting colors. This blue skin can let them do just that.

new_weekly_mission_gives_a_decent_blue_skin from r/battlefield2042

Some Redditors weren’t so keen on the cosmetic, however, and reacted less enthusiastically. They pointed out that expanded gun color palettes will do little to address the game’s more serious problems, including its falling player count, nor provide any functional gameplay expansions, such as new maps, vehicles, or weapons.

Others struggled to tell whether their fellow players’ excitement over the skin was sincere. “Can’t tell if this is a sh*tpost or legit excitement for a colorful pew pew,” said one, understandably confused, Redditor.

Anything to get excited about

An armoured car driving along a dirt road in Battlefield 2042

(Image credit: DICE)

Although the weapon skin itself might be rather banal, more interesting is the reaction it's gained from the Battlefield 2042 community. In the wake of the game’s persistent glitches and slow rollout of additional features, its remaining players are excited over the smallest of content updates.

It’s left the game in a strange position. The kind of updates that would be par for the course in other multiplayer shooters are able to spur genuine enthusiasm among Battlefield 2042’s community. A single blue gun skin wouldn’t ordinarily be cause for much celebration, but for a game as starved for content as this one is, players are happy for the variety.

Things look to be on the up, though. Its most recent 4.0 update introduced over 400 bug fixes, addressing some of the more serious glitches. It also rolled out additional gameplay features long been demanded by the community, including voice chat and a new weapon attachments system.

The patch has revitalized some interest in the game, with its peak concurrent player count rising to 3,650 earlier this week. It hasn’t reached that since early February. If Dice can continue rolling out substantive technical improvements and content updates, Battlefield 2042’s player count may strengthen further.

Callum Bains
Gaming News Writer

Callum is TechRadar Gaming’s News Writer. You’ll find him whipping up stories about all the latest happenings in the gaming world, as well as penning the odd feature and review. Before coming to TechRadar, he wrote freelance for various sites, including Clash, The Telegraph, and Gamesindustry.biz, and worked as a Staff Writer at Wargamer. Strategy games and RPGs are his bread and butter, but he’ll eat anything that spins a captivating narrative. He also loves tabletop games, and will happily chew your ear off about TTRPGs and board games.