The American Dream, (called MERICA in the killfeed), is a hidden joke vehicle in Battlefield Hardline. It is a couch with four wheels underneath that can be driven by a player and can seat three other passengers. It is found on the map Dust Bowl during the Hotwire gamemode. It will randomly spawn at one of two locations at the start of the round, either at the house behind Hotwire objective E or the house behind objective D. The couch will only spawn once per match; after it is destroyed, it will not reappear for remainder of the round.
The American Dream is a fast land vehicle that is slightly slower than the Dirt Bike, possessing a very fast acceleration speed from a dead stop in both forward and reverse. It is also incredibly light; it will not take damage from crashing into map objects and will instead bounce off the object, and it is able to achieve significant airtime from ramp jumps (and subsequently achieve large Jump Bonus scores). In addition, the couch and its occupants are invisible on the minimap and cannot be Spotted on the minimap or with 3D spotting. Due to its speed and size, the vehicle is very good at Roadkilling enemy players as well as pursuing enemy Hotwired vehicles.
However, the couch offers no protection for its users, who are completely exposed to gunfire, and the vehicle is very vulnerable to explosives and vehicle collisions. It has no auto-repair functionality or Countermeasures and has a very slow repair rate with the Repair Tool, needing two active repair tools to achieve the same repair rate at as a Sedan. Because of these factors, it has very low survivability in an actual fight, and should only be used for hit and run attacks, if it is used at all.
The "driver" sits on the left-side (from the back) cushion of the couch with his hand on the armrest, the first passenger sits on the right-side cushion with his left leg resting on his right knee, the second sits on the headrest, and the third sits on the right armrest. Like other vehicles, the passengers are free to use their personal equipment while the driver remains unarmed, but the passengers can only aim 180 degrees in front of the vehicle. Notably, only the first passenger is able to repair the vehicle while in it; the other passengers cannot aim low enough to hit the vehicle with the Repair Tool.
The American Dream does not receive a speed boost or collision damage reduction from the Stunt Driver gadget. The Tracking Dart cannot mark the couch; it can still mark the passengers if they are hit, but they will remain unspotted on the minimap while they are in the vehicle.
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Trivia[]
- The American Dream was inspired by an actual drivable electric couch built by Hardline's Senior Development Director Paul Mathus. It was featured on an episode of the show "Battlebots".[1]
- Originally, the American Dream was too effective of a vehicle at the launch of the game. The couch possessed enough health and had a fast repair rate that allowed it to be reliably used by some players, and as a result its health and repair rate were drastically reduced with Hardline's 1.1 patch.[2]
- The vehicle's name is a reference to the stereotype of Americans being lazy and preferring to sit on their couch all day instead of working.
- The vehicle's name in the killfeed, MERICA, is a an eye-dialect spelling of "America" similar to the phrase "'Murica". The spelling and pronunciation is intended to refer to that used by the stereotypical southern American.
- The American Dream makes an appearance in Need for Speed: Payback, which is part of another franchise owned and published by Electronic Arts.[3]
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