Battlefield 6 Season 4: Tidal Strike arrives with a free trial week
Tidal Strike is live in Battlefield 6 and REDSEC, with a free trial until 22 September, the Phantom Program operation and the Deep Six Collection Event.
EA has launched Season 4: Tidal Strike in Battlefield 6 and Battlefield REDSEC, adding a limited-time operation, a month-long collection event and a free trial that runs alongside a Double XP Weekend.
The free trial opens the game to new players from 15 to 22 September. It offers a selection of maps, modes and events, including the Deep Six Event Playlist with its Contracts, Casual Breakthrough, and verified Portal experiences. The maps on offer are Wake Island, Tsuru Reef, Cairo Bazaar and Hagental Base, with Conquest and Escalation battles tied to the collection event.
Phantom Program sends squads hunting through Fort Lyndon
Also live from 15 September is the Phantom Program, a limited-time Battlefield REDSEC operation built around exploration as much as gunplay. Fort Lyndon's security network has been compromised, and squads are tasked with hunting down hidden intelligence and access-code fragments scattered across the map. EA says successful deployments earn XP, weapon packages and other rewards as the wider mystery unfolds.
Deep Six runs until 12 October
The Deep Six Collection Event spans 15 September to 12 October across both games. Players fill out a collection by completing contracts and gathering intel devices, with the Royal Navy Dive Knife waiting at the end of the track. The melee weapon is modelled on equipment originally issued to Royal Navy divers for work in difficult maritime conditions.
Portal grows, and Top Gun stays longer
Tidal Strike expands Portal with King of the Hill and Domination added as Verified Modes, letting creators build around both. Carrier Strike and Fighter Sweep, the two Top Gun modes introduced earlier in Season 4, have been extended to the end of the season after player feedback. The technical side of the update ships as Game Update 1.4.3.0.
Our opinion
A free week is the most interesting thing here, because Battlefield's problem has never been the shooting. It has been convincing people to install a second shooter when they already have one. Handing over Wake Island, Tsuru Reef, Cairo Bazaar and Hagental Base with Conquest attached is a sensible taster, and pairing it with Double XP removes the usual complaint that a trial is a slog against levelled opponents.
The Phantom Program is the bigger gamble. Sending players to comb Fort Lyndon for access-code fragments asks a community raised on scoreboards to slow down and read the room, and it will be judged on whether the hunt feels like an operation or a scavenger list. Extending Top Gun through the season suggests EA has learned to stop retiring modes the moment players settle into them.