Everything You Need to Know About Battlefield 6 Progression, Ranks and Unlocks

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Progression Changes Since Launch Day
• Ranking Up - The Basics of  Earning XP
• Onboarding Ranks - Rank 1-50 Unlock Table
• After Rank 50
• Assignment Unlocks
• Weapon and Vehicle Progression and Mastery
• Badges, Accolades, and Dog Tags

Recently Updated for Season 2

Progression is the journey to Career Rank 50, to some. For others, progression is defined as unlocking every Loadout item, both for infantry and for all vehicles.

And for those who consider progression as the climb beyond proficiency, then mastery is not only about Career Ranks in the thousands, but also earning all Badges and Accolade Dog Tags.

Battlefield 6’s Multiplayer - and the free-to-play REDSEC - includes a robust progression system for unlocking loadout hardware and in-game bragging rights. All Multiplayer experiences, as well as Verified Community Experiences in Portal, grant full XP towards this progression system, with XP Boosts available throughout various challenges and other opportunities to come.

Being promoted is an achievement worth cheering about (for some), which is why our developers tuned the Progression system since launch. Here is what you need to know about these changes, as well as the general experience of ranking up through the Career Ranks, unlocking all functional items, gaining Weapon Mastery, and chasing a complete Badge collection:

Progression Changes Since Launch Day

When Battlefield 6 and REDSEC launched in October 2025, our intention was to create a Progression journey that encouraged experimentation with all game modes, Classes, and Hardware. That is still the case today, albeit with more options for you to experience the Battlefield the way you want to, whether that’s in All-Out Warfare Multiplayer modes or Battle Royale.

Our progression system was also originally developed to reward consistent play over multiple seasons. However, we've made changes based on feedback from our passionate community.

In summary, the most significant changes from Season 2 onward are the following:

Passive Hardware XP Earn Rate

Using a weapon - or a vehicle - during a Battlefield 6 / REDSEC match grants a small amount of passive Hardware XP. This specific change puts the XP earning rates of modes like Battle Royale on par with that of traditional Multiplayer experiences, as well as makes the levelling journey for all weapons and vehicles significantly quicker with a combination of time-based and skill-based Hardware XP earning opportunities.

Tweaks to Match Completion, REDSEC Mode Win Bonuses

Post-launch, we identified a pattern of match completion rates and, from Season 2 onwards, are better rewarding honorable play with increases to Career XP match completion bonuses. Additionally in REDSEC, we reworked win bonus Career XP in Gauntlet and Battle Royale modes, as well as rewarding more XP for time played in a match.

Quicker Weapon Mastery Journey

We have reduced the Hardware XP requirements for ranking up Weapons and Vehicles. For Sidearms specifically, we adjusted these values so that the effort is more proportional to time spent using these Secondary Weapons compared to Primary Weapons and Vehicles.

Added Career, Battle Pass XP Boosts in Early Career Onboarding Ranks

We added multiple 15 Minute XP Boosts - which double XP earn rate - for Career and Battle Pass XP within Ranks 3-22. More details can be found in the Onboarding Ranks section.

Challenge Rework

Across all challenges, we listened to community feedback and changed our approach for more accessible ways to unlock Loadout Items, gain XP or XP Boosts, and earn Battle Pass points.

Battle Pass

Lastly, we introduced a Battle Pass system each Season for players to unlock over 100 Tiers of content, with some Tiers being free without Battle Pass purchase. Since launch, we changed our approach on Battle Pass progress rate to quicken Battle Pass XP earn rate. More intel about the Battle Pass can be found here - expect another breakdown of the Battle Pass system, as well as Battlefield Pro, before the end of the season.

Future of Progression

As we develop the future of Battlefield, we are taking the lessons learned from Battlefield 6 and REDSEC while also continuously listening to community feedback and using in-game progression data to ensure a rewarding experience for all players.

Ranking Up - The Basics of Earning XP

There are three kinds of XP:

• CAREER XP - Progresses your Career Rank; functional content is unlocked through Career Rank 1-50, additional Customization Items are unlocked in Ranks 51-100… And beyond that is for pure pride up to “Colonel” status.
• HARDWARE XP - Progresses Hardware Rank with Primary Weapons, Secondary Weapons, and Vehicles. Hardware Rank unlocks new functional additions to Hardware - e.g. weapon attachments, vehicle equipment - as well as other content like Camouflages and, in the case of weapons, special Weapon Packages.
• BATTLE PASS XP - EARNED IN TANDEM WITH CAREER XP AT A 1:1 RATIO. Progresses your Battle Pass for that season by unlocking Battle Pass Points (Points can also be earned straight up via Challenges).

Put simply, these are some of the main actions - outside of Challenges -  that reward XP across Battlefield 6 Multiplayer, REDSEC Battle Royale and Gauntlet, and Verified Portal Experiences:

• KILLS - Rewards Career and Battle Pass XP, as well as Hardware XP for the specific weapon or vehicle you used to earn the kill.
• ASSISTS - Rewards Career and Battle Pass XP, as well as Hardware XP for the specific weapon or vehicle you used to earn the assist. An assist can include being the driver - or passenger - of a vehicle that earns a kill.
• REVIVE - Rewards Career and Battle Pass XP.
• SQUAD SPAWN - Rewards Career and Battle Pass XP.
• SPOTTING AN ENEMY - Rewards Career and Battle Pass XP.
• CLASS-BASED ACTIONS - Rewards Career and Battle Pass XP; examples include:
  • ASSAULT: Squad spawn on Spawn Beacon.
  • ENGINEER: Repairing vehicles.
  • SUPPORT: Resupplying squadmates or teammates.
  • RECON: Baiting an enemy to hit a Sniper Decoy successfully.
• OBJECTIVE COMPLETION - Rewards Career and Battle Pass XP
• MATCH COMPLETION BONUS - Rewards a flat bonus for Career, Weapon, and Battle Pass XP depending on time in match and result (e.g. Placement in Battle Royale or Gauntlet, Win or Loss in a team based game mode). IN CUSTOM PORTAL MODES WITH EXTREMELY LIMITED EXCEPTIONS, THIS BONUS IS SET TO AN INCREASED PERCENTAGE TO ACCOUNT FOR NO XP EARNED FOR THE ABOVE ACTIONS.

In addition to the above, there are also Challenges that reward a set amount of XP. More on those later.

The “Onboarding Ranks” - Complete Unlock List From Rank 1 Through 50

Everyone starts their Career Rank journey at Rank 1, which includes access to all four classes and a basic loadout hardware assortment, including a weapon from each Signature Weapon category. Increase your Career Rank by simply playing Battlefield 6 Multiplayer, REDSEC Battle Royale or Gauntlet, or a Verified Portal Community Experiences: earning kills and assists, repairing vehicles, capturing objectives and completing matches are just some of the many ways to earn Career XP.

At every level from Rank 2 to Rank 50, you will unlock a new piece of functional hardware (or a loadout slot). Some rank thresholds also unlock a customization item for your soldier or player card  or a new set of assignments.

All functional unlockables can be found when making a loadout; hover over locked weapons to see their rank or challenge unlock requirement. With that said, you can refer to this cheat sheet for more information about the hardware and cosmetic rewards you’ll unlock while ranking up your Career Rank:

The M4A1 Carbine Rifle, a trusty Primary Weapon shown in action above, is unlocked at Rank 2.

The LMR27 Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) is unlocked at Career Rank 16

The AK-205 Carbine Rife, is unlocked at Career Rank 22

The EOD BOT, an Engineer Gadget, is unlocked at Career Rank 40

The KV-9 SMG, is unlocked at Career Rank 45

Beyond Career Rank 50

Functional unlocks end at Career Rank 50 - beyond that are the first steps into Battlefield 6 mastery.

First are what we call the advanced ranks: every two levels from Rank 52 to Rank 100, you will unlock a new cosmetic item. These include weapon charms and stickers, vehicle decals, playercard titles, backgrounds and icons, and even a few melee weapon skins to flaunt.

Rank 100 is only the beginning: you will continue to increase your Career Ranks into the thousands.

However, Career Rank is only one of three mastery branches:

Unlockable Hardware Through Assignments

The Deploy Beacon, an unlockable Assault Class Gadget through its dedicated Class Assignment.

At Career Ranks 20 and 23, the Class and Weapon Assignments become available to complete. The following is a list of all hardware unlockables found within these two assignments, with exact challenge information for each assignment, as well as details on additional unlockables, available in game:

Class Assignments

ASSAULT - Deploy Beacon and Incendiary Round Shotgun Gadgets, Frontliner Training Path and Loadout Slot

ENGINEER - Vehicle Supply Crate and Aim Guided Launcher Gadgets, Combat Engineer Training Path, and Loadout Slot

SUPPORT - Smoke Grenade Launcher, Incendiary Airburst Launcher and Supply Pouch Gadgets, Fire Support Training Path and Loadout Slot

RECON - Demolition Charge and Tracer Dart Gadgets, Spec Ops Training Path, and Loadout Slot

Weapon Assignments

The SWC-10, one of the dozen weapons available at launch that is unlockable through a Challenge.

ASSAULT RIFLE - KORD 6P67, NVO-228E, L85AE

CARBINE RIFLE - QBZ-192, SG 553R

SMG - SWC-10, SL9

LMG - KTS100 MK8, M240L

SHOTGUN - 18.5KS-K

DMR - SVDM

SNIPER RIFLE - MRAD

Seasonal Assignments

Since Season 1 of Battlefield 6 and REDSEC, we introduced new Hardware - Weapons and Class Gadgets, for example - that can be unlocked in the following ways:

BATTLE PASS UNLOCKS - As Free Tiers in a Seasonal Battle Pass, this is the fastest way to unlock new Hardware at the start of a season.

BONUS PATH UNLOCKS - As Free Tiers in a Seasonal Bonus Path, this is the fastest way to unlock new Hardware released during a season.

SEASONAL ASSIGNMENTS - A specific challenge - or set of challenges - to unlock new Hardware (or even smaller Hardware additions, such as weapon attachments across multiple weapons).

SEASONAL CATCH-UP CHALLENGES - If you missed a Battle Pass or Bonus Path, the Seasonal Catch-Up Challenges allow you to unlock that Hardware via challenge.

Weapon and Vehicle Progression

In addition to Career Rank XP, there is also Hardware Mastery XP, a progression system specifically for the weapons and vehicles of Battlefield 6. Like Career XP, performing in-game actions, such as kills, rewards Hardware XP for the specific weapon or vehicle you are using, as each weapon and vehicle has their own Hardware XP path with its own functional and cosmetic unlocks.

Hardware XP is also earned passively when using a weapon or a vehicle in a match, however this XP gain isn’t as much as performing in-game actions with that Hardware piece.

For example, simply holding a M4A1 Carbine earns a small amount of Hardware XP for the M4A1. However, earning a kill with a M4A1 Carbine grants a significant amount of Hardware XP specifically for the M4A1, as well as Career Rank XP. The same applies for a vehicle: merely sitting in a Main Battle Tank grants some Hardware XP over time, but if you want to rank up that Hardware faster - and also earn more Career XP - you’ll have to deal damage and earn some eliminations with it.

Weapon Progression Unlocks

Ranking up a weapon unlocks additional attachments for that weapon. Outside of melee tools (sorry, no bipods on knives… yet), each weapon has its own list of attachment unlocks, which are shown when customizing that weapon using attachment points.

During each weapon’s progression journey, you will also unlock Weapon Packages, a pre-built weapon configuration with a unique design and a prearranged attachment set-up, as well as camouflages, cosmetic weapon skins that can be applied to any Primary or Secondary Weapon.

Vehicle Progression Unlocks and Mastery

Ranking up a vehicle unlocks additional equipment for that vehicle, such as on-vehicle weapons and gadgets. Similar to an infantry loadout, every vehicle with customizable equipment can be edited in the loadout menu (before selecting a Multiplayer experience and finding a match).

During each vehicle’s progression journey, you will also unlock Skins (unique to each vehicle type) and Camouflages (which can be applied to all customizable vehicles).

Completing the Mastery Journey - Badges and Accolade Dog Tags

Again, Career Rank is just one level of Battlefield 6 mastery: on your player profile, there is a section for the number of Badges earned, or Total Badge Rating, as well as the number of Dog Tags earned.

Total Badge Rating - The Ultimate Bragging Right

Collect multiple badges across Weapon, Vehicle and Class Mastery journeys to increase your Total Badge Rating. 

All Hardware is associated with the following “metal” tiers of Badges:

• HARDWARE RANK 10 - Bronze
• HARDWARE RANK 20 - Silver
• HARDWARE RANK 30 - Gold
• HARDWARE RANK 40 - Platinum
• HARDWARE RANK 50 - Elite (Red and Black)

At the start of Battlefield 6, there are 212 total Weapon and Vehicle Badges. There is also one additional set of Badges for each Class, unlocked through their two Class Assignments.

Mastery of Total Badge Rating requires all 228 badges, but more will come with each Season…

Accolade Dog Tags

Dog Tags are both an accessory and a point of pride in two parts: temporary, when it is lost during combat due a takedown, and permanently, as an achievement of your Accolades.

Accolade Dog Tags are earned by completing in-game Accolades; these are similar to Badges in previous Battlefield games and reward Career Rank XP when earned. Each Dog Tag may require accomplishing an Accolade more than once.

Accolade Dog Tags are either Metal, Bronze or Gold depending on both the difficulty of the Accolade as well as the number of times it must be done. Here are three examples of each Accolade Dog Tag tier or, in the case of the Gold tier, all three of its Accolade Dog Tags:

METAL:

Spearhead - Earn 3 Spearhead Accolades. (Be the first in your squad to kill an enemy in any mode.)

Gunslinger - Earn 8 Gunslinger Accolades. (Kill two enemies within four seconds using different weapons.)

Corpsman - Earn 8 Corpsman Accolades. (Revive 15 teammates in a match using the Defibrillator as Support.)

BRONZE:

Recon Expert - Earn 30 Recon Expert Accolades. (Earn 3000 Score in a life as Recon.)

Crusher  - Earn 20 Crusher Accolades. (Kill an enemy with falling debris from destruction you caused.)

Smokescreen - Earn 5 Smokescreen Accolades. (Revive five teammates in a life while concealed in smoke as Support.)

GOLD:

Marauder - Earn 150 Marauder Accolades. (Kill an enemy within eight seconds of killing a fourth. Earn repeatedly with additional kills.)

Flight Dispatcher - Earn 25 Flight Dispatcher Accolades. (Kill an enemy pilot without destroying their aircraft.)

And one last one that is best left to those who know their Battlefield community history.

There are also several “Other” Dog Tags; these also count towards your profile Dog Tag number. This is where you will find the Phantom Edition Dog Tag “Operative,” as well as what you earned by participating in our Open Beta or joining us in the Road to Battlefield 6. However, there are two additional Dog Tags that can be earned:

Dead Center - Pick up all Collectibles in Always Faithful (Campaign Mission, 3 Total)

Winner Take All - Pick up all Collectibles in all Missions (30 Total)

This is Your War - Jump into Battlefield Today

The ultimate all-out war is here - rally the squad and join the fight today. 

Battlefield 6 is available in both the standard edition (MSRP USD$69.99) and the Phantom Edition (MSRP USD$99.99)*. The Phantom Edition includes the BF Pro Token, Phantom Squad Soldier Skins, Weapon Packages, Deluxe XP Boost, and more, in addition to the full game download of Battlefield 6. 

*Offers may vary or change.  See retailer site for details.