Battlefield REDSEC Gauntlet: Nightfall Mode Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Gauntlet: Nightfall Mode Overview
  • Shedding Light on the Darkness
  • Round-By-Round - Running the Gauntlet in the Shadows
• Top Five Tips

When the lights go out, your advantage flips on.

Climb the ranks by eliminating the competition across Hagental Base in Gauntlet: Nightfall, enhanced with new darkness features where flashlights, thermal optics, and night vision goggles are your closest allies.

Here’s how you can step into the dark, push ahead and secure the win:

Gauntlet: Nightfall Mode Overview

Gauntlet: Nightfall features several changes from the traditional REDSEC Gauntlet match, ranging from squad sizes to the cutting the lights off completely across most of the map:

Before readying up for your first match, you need to make the decision to cut one member from your four-player squad, because Gauntlet: Nightfall is built for trios. This change and the decreased number of squads - six instead of eight - emphasizes streamlined  combat pacing across a set of three pre-determined missions within Hagental Base, Battlefield 6 Season 2’s brand-new map featured in this experience in lieu of Fort Lyndon.

Not only is Gauntlet: Nightfall based on the new map Hagental Base, it also plunges the underground facility into total darkness. 

Shedding Light on the Darkness

Under Nightfall, Hangetal Base blacks out completely in areas without natural light or fluorescent lights.

Soldiers have several paths to victory through the darkness: the most obvious choice is to use the new Night Vision Goggles, a Gadget available to all Classes. NVGs have a limited battery life - albeit, a slightly longer battery life in Gauntlet compared to the battery life of NVGs in the Battlefield 6 Nightfall Multiplayer experience - that recharges when not in use OR passively with the assistance of a Support squadmate’s Gadgets, like the Supply Bag. Furthermore, NVGs must be manually donned and doffed - including when spawning in initially or when respawning after a death - which can cost crucial time in an active combat situation.

Alternative to NVGs, there are several attachments that can help - or hinder - your nighttime operations. Chief among them are thermal optics; at the cost of additional attachment points and limited magnification options, you can use these to stare through the darkness down sights. The Recon Drone also has thermal vision built in, making it a potentially essential tool for the squad when scouting the base’s dark hallways.

Other attachments include the under - or over - barrel flashlights. At the significant risk of revealing your position, flashlights can illuminate darkened areas and blind soldiers equipped with NVGs. Another light-emitting attachment - or to be more specific, Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation - are the Lasers, although these have additional detriments rather than benefits: any Laser that indicates visibility to enemy players will expose your position, which is amplified in dark backdrops such as the ones throughout Hagental Base.

If you can master Gauntlet: Nightfall in REDSEC, then you are more than prepared to deploy into additional missions in Battlefield 6, which is free to try during the week of March 17 to March 24. The Battlefield 6 Multiplayer version of Nightfall includes a selection of Multiplayer modes on Hangental Base (and our guide for it, as well as the full Hagental Base map, can be found here).

Click here for more information on Battlefield 6, available on various digital platforms and physical stores.

Round-By-Round - Running the Gauntlet in the Shadows

Every Gauntlet: Nightfall match uses the same three mission rotation - Contract, Vendetta, and Heist - that test six teams of three soldiers on their teamwork, precision, and ability to use the darkness to their advantage.

Round 1 - Contract

If your tactics aren’t sound, then an opening round of Contract will humble you and your team quickly.

Contract is a pure deathmatch where a squad wipe means instant elimination. In Gauntlet: Nightfall, the Contract mission ends either when two squads are wiped or when time expires, at which point the top four teams advance to the next round.

Our advice? Lean into Nightfall’s tactical side: not every gunfight should be taken head-on, and be mindful of light sources - including your own - that can reveal a friendly or enemy position.

Round 2 - Vendetta

After successfully completing a Contract Mission, Round 2 pits four squads against each other in Vendetta, a similar deathmatch-style mission where an HVT is marked, but earns extra points for their squad.

Map knowledge is an unseen ally during a Vendetta Mission, as a squad with an HVT must decide whether to hold a defensive position with minimal chokepoints, or to maneuver around the map and avoid being cornered by multiple enemy squads. Whatever tactic your squad decides, Hagental Base provides more paths to victory with varying light sources and destructible structures. Specifically, its fragile walls can be blown open to create new routes towards the enemy or, if a squad is foolish enough to fall into a trap, be breached and cleared with a coordinated explosive and CQB weapon effort.

Final Round - Heist

The final Gauntlet mission, arguably the most objectively-focused of the trio, is the Capture the Flag-inspired Heist. 

Let alone adding the element of darkness to your toolkit, your tactics from a traditional Heist mission will be significantly altered due to having a smaller squad size. With one less member on your squad, mind the potential offensive or defensive gap left open when a squadmate is downed. 

A simple strategy is having one squad member focused on capturing the ** cache, another in between both caches in a “midfield” role, and one strictly defensive player. However, this baseline might shift often depending on the team being up or down a squadmate, how many points are on the board, and how the enemy team decides to shift themselves to either an aggressive or conservative strategy. 

Essentially, the best advice for Heist boils down to having fluid tactics. Every squad member prepared to attack, defend, or distract enemies based on what formation they rush out of their base in.

Top Five Battlefield REDSEC Gauntlet: Nightfall Mode Tips

1. DON’T BE AFRAID OF NIGHTFALL Use those NVGs, light-emitting attachments, and thermal optics to cut through the darkness and pick off enemies one-by-one.
2. SMALL, YET MIGHTY. With smaller squad sizes in Gauntlet: Nightfall, take advantage of rogue solo enemies roaming about and coordinate powerful co-operative attacks using your collective individual skills.
3. SLOW IT DOWN. The first mission, Contract, may be brutal for new players not used to the darkness mechanics. If you are struggling to qualify past this round, slow down, “play your life,” and stay close to your squadmates, or get ready to revive them.
4. SOME WALLS ARE JUST SUGGESTIONS. Especially in Vendetta, learn Hagental Base’s destructible walls to create new paths or surprise enemies who think they can hide from your squad.
5. EVERY SQUAD HAS A PLAN UNTIL THEY GET WIPED. Even if you get wiped in the first round and have to requeue, success is Gauntlet: Nightfall is determined by who can adapt the fastest to what other squads throw at them. Note how aggressive or conservative other squads are - whether during engagements or by using the killfeed in the top-right corner - and adjust your strategy accordingly.