Battlefield 4 Tips: EOD Bots and XP Boosts | The Bunker

On this week’s Battlefield blog, games journalist and Battlefield fan Guy Cocker takes a look at the brilliant but underused EOD Bot and how to effectively use XP boosts.

Hello and Happy New Year! While most of you will no doubt sadly be returning to real-world commitments following the holidays, hopefully you managed to get plenty of Battlefield 4 time in. If so, congratulations - hopefully your winter skirmishes were enjoyable AND successful!

This week’s blog will focus on one of the gadgets I’ve been using most recently, namely the Engineer’s EOD Bot. It was already a useful tool in Battlefield 3, but in BF4, the EOD is more stable, making it more friendly to new players than ever before. It can now also be used to capture flags in Conquest and Domination game modes, as well as in shallow water. Read on to find out more about one of the Engineer’s best unlocks, as well as what makes it just so entertaining to use.

I’ll also talk a little bit about using XP boosts, which are one of the perks of the Battlepacks that you unlock as you level up in the multiplayer part of the game. Sadly, too many of these XP boosts are wasted by players who don’t use them to the fullest potential. Find out my top tips below.

EOD Bot
A common theme of my Battlefield updates has been using equipment that you don’t see being used a lot yourself. The thinking here is simple - if you’re using a weapon or gadget that not many other people are using, then they’re less likely to know the ins and outs of that item, and therefore less effective at combating it.

The EOD Bot, or Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robot, is the latest gadget to fall into this category. It’s an Engineer tool that did feature in Battlefield 3, but in Battlefield 4, the main difference is that it’s a lot easier to control. While that makes it more newb-friendly than before, this time around the points needed to unlock the EOD are much higher - 85000 Engineer score, rather than 25000 Engineer score as before. Well, developer Dice had to keep things balanced somehow.

Once unlocked, though, the EOD Bot has a multitude of uses across the various game modes. In Rush, it can arm and disarm bombs. If you’re trying to get access to a bomb site and find yourself being shot at, try sending in an EOD bot. If the bot has similar troubles getting into the actual bomb area, at the very least it will distract the enemy, and potentially allow you to sneak in unnoticed. Either way, the EOD bot is much harder to hit than a soldier, and it’s far less painful losing one of them than your own life.

As well as being useful, the EOD Bot is also one of the most entertaining gadgets to use on the battlefield. If you’re feeling mischievous, use the EOD’s blowtorch tool on a team that’s trying to arm a bomb. Or, if you’re the team defending the bomb, leave the EOD unit next to or near the M-COM station. If it gets armed, you can switch to it immediately and disarm the bomb. In both situations, if you use the EOD effectively, the other team won’t know what’s hit them.

EOD bots can also repair friendly vehicles, so if you’re in a firefight and don’t want to risk getting killed, send the bot behind the tank and repair it from safety. Again, on the flipside, you can also use the EOD to blow up enemy vehicles. You’ll find it’s much easier to circumvent the opposing team using the EOD, then get in behind the tank, and use the blowtorch as an offensive weapon.

So there you have it: the EOD bot can arm and disarm bombs, kill people, and repair or destroy vehicles, all while you’re out of harm’s way. You can also leave it in a place where you think it might be useful later--just bear in mind that if you die, the EOD bot’s position gets reset as well. The EOD Bot is incredibly entertaining, so if you’ve not given it a go, get your engineer levelled up and give this unlock a try.

XP Boosts
Speaking of which, I see a lot of people in Battlefield 4 unlocking XP boosts via the game’s Battlepacks and not really using them effectively. If you’re not familiar with Battlepacks then get the lowdown here, but they’re basically awarded when you hit specific levels in the multiplayer game, and one of the perks includes an XP boost from 25 per cent to 200 per cent over the subsequent hour of gameplay.

It’s really important to remember that this XP boost applies to both vehicles and classes, so if you’re trying to reach a specific unlock, the boost period potentially allows you to get there much faster. I actually did this with the Attack Boat recently - with the XP boost, I was able to maximise the time I spent in one to unlock the good stuff, which in turn made me a lot stronger when the XP boost ended. I also did this with the Pistols, going into Conquest, Domination and Deathmatch games and using a high XP boost to level up the handguns really quickly.

So whatever you want to upgrade, use the XP boosts wisely, and you can find yourself unlocking those sweet upgrades much faster.

Conclusion
Hopefully this blog will have spurred you on to using the EOD Bot whenever you’re playing as the Engineer Class--not only are they effective in lots of different situations, they’re also a hoot to use, especially when you’re blowtorching an unsuspecting soldier who’s trying to arm a bomb. Get yourself levelled up as an Engineer and give them a try--I’d love to hear what you think.

As ever, I’m really keen to hear your experiences of playing Battlefield 4, and if you have any tips of your own, please let me and your fellow players know by commenting below or by tweeting me at @guycocker.

Thanks for reading, and see you again next week for more Battlefield 4 tips.