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Last Updated: 05-07-2018

Ranked, Unranked and Official servers

We have noticed a lot of confusion in the community about ranked and official servers. Hopefully this topic can take some of this confusion away.

 

Ranked and unranked servers

In Battlefield 4 there are two types of servers available for everyone to play on: ranked and unranked. On ranked servers, the points you gather in a game will contribute to your soldier progression.

EA describes Unranked servers as follows:

"Unranked servers use settings that are considered to drastically change how the game is played. Therefore no soldier progression is awarded on unranked servers."

 

What does this mean?

  • Playing on Unranked servers does not rank up your soldier;
  • Unranked servers can heavily customize the gameplay experience.

 

How can I recognize an Unranked server?

Unranked servers are shown with this icon:

 

So ranked has two meanings?

Yes. Below a simple schematic:

 

Official servers

EA describes Official servers as follows:

"Official servers have strict default settings that are tailored for new players. E.g. an official server that hosts the Defuse game mode must have the max-player-limit set to 10 players."

 

What does this mean?

  • Server owners of Official servers can not kick, ban or move players;
  • 3rd party anti-cheat plugins* will not kick, ban or move players;
  • Server owners have limited capabilities of customizing their server;
  • Gametime** can access Official servers.

Official servers are considered ranked as in "contributing to soldier progression".

 

How can I recognize an Official server?

Official servers are shown with this icon:

 

Ranked servers

EA describes Ranked servers as follows:

"Ranked servers can use settings that are slightly different than default servers. E.g. a ranked server that hosts the Defuse game mode can have the max-player-limit set to 6 players."

 

What does this mean:

  • Server owners of Ranked servers can kick, ban and move players;
  • 3rd party anti-cheat plugins* will be able to kick, ban and move players;
  • Server owners have more freedom of customizing their server (for example pistol only servers);
  • Gametime** can not access Ranked servers.

Ranked servers are also considered ranked as in "contributing to soldier progression". 

 

How can I recognize a Ranked server?

Ranked servers are shown in the server browser with this icon:

 

* 3rd party anti-cheats: BF4DB, GGC-Stream, PBBans, 247Fairplay, ACI.

** Gametime is a free 168h trail for BF4, often abused by cheaters. Gametime users can only access Official servers.

 

Sources:

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