Some changes are being administered to the Hazard Zone mode for Battlefield 2042 that will affect XP gain and Data Drive collection for players. It’s a temporary adjustment that is being issued by DICE due to unusual player activity within the game mode. The changes come nearly two weeks after Battlefield 2042 broke its own launch record with over 101,000 concurrent players.

Hazard Zone is one of the multiplayer modes that players can choose from in Battlefield 2042; All-Out Warfare and Battlefield Portal are the other modes. It differentiates itself from the other multiplayer modes by implementing PvPvE elements to coincide with its search-and-extract gameplay elements. Squad tactics are imperative in Battlefield 2042‘s Hazard Zone with its inclusion of AI-based enemies and opposing squads, as everyone aims to obtain data drives to earn some dark market credits. While it may be one of Battlefield 2042‘s game modes, it seems there’s some strange business going on involving player activity.

Without much explanation, the Battlefield 2042 developers have temporarily reduced the amount of attainable XP when playing Hazard Zone. XP gain is decreased when players collect Data Drives, revive teammates, and receive revives from teammates. These are the only changes that are being temporarily applied to Battlefield 2042.

While DICE hasn’t commented on the changes to Hazard Zone, users on Reddit widely speculate on the approach to nerfing the XP gain in Hazard Zone. The Twitter post states that the adjustments are being administered “due to unusual player activity” in Hazard Zone, with some users noting the exploits that players might possibly be utilizing. Some assume that it’s a result of boosting, which is when players take advantage of a game’s mechanics to unfairly attain XP or some sort of gameplay benefit. “I heard that two teams would join a HZ lobby and then kill and revive each other and collect drives dropped by the downed player. They will repeat this process over and over,” wrote one user, which would confirm the massive amounts of XP that players in Hazard Zone are obtaining.

The changes come at a time when Battlefield 2042‘s popularity saw a significant rise in player count around when Season 6: Dark Creations launched on October 10. During this period, the game’s presence on Steam was reaching thousands of users, accumulating to 81,842 total players at one point during a free-to-play weekend. It was also when Steam was offering an 84% sale for the game, which contributed to the massive player count during the week when Season 6 was released.

Hazard Zone is only being temporarily adjusted for Battlefield 2042. DICE will provide further details on the change at a later date. In the meantime, Hazard Zone players will have to resort to the other game modes. There’s still tons of content to explore in Season 6 of Battlefield 2042.