After a June 28th hotfix to make some changes to Emperor Palpatine, it appears the Sith lord has gone missing from the game, likely due to chain lightning shenanigans.
Palpatine is one of the playable heroes in the game, along with characters like Rey, Luke, Darth Maul, and more. The Emperor differs a little in that he has the ability to shoot lightning from his hands, much like in the movies. Earlier this year, it appears he was able to actually use that power to shoot enemies through the wall, which is moderately broken. This was eventually nerfed and patched as developers have slowly toyed with ways to make him good again, but not broken good.
The June 28 patch was intended to help the lightning’s targeting. Surprisingly, it broke everything again. As a result, it seems like EA and DICE have just completely pulled the character this time until they can fix it. Today, DICE’s community engagement head Ben Walke explained what’s happening on the game’s forums.
“We plan to execute our Kill Switch (KS) for [Emperor Palpatine],” Walke wrote. “This means he will be removed from the game. He will be disabled until a hotfix can be deployed. We don’t take this decision lightly, but we feel it is in the best interest for everyone until a fix can be deployed.”
It is unclear when Palpatine will return, but perhaps there is no better analogy for Star Wars than the vacuum of an all-powerful Emperor suddenly disappearing and leaving a vacuum.