Mortar Strike

The Mortar Strike is a 'gadget' usable in the Bad Company series. It is the Bad Company series' equivalent to Battlefield 2's Artillery strike.

Battlefield: Bad Company

In Battlefield: Bad Company, the mortar strike takes the appearance of a GPS. The player will push a small, dark green button to start transmitting the coordinates. This causes 120mm mortar shells to fall from the sky which are mainly effective against soft targets. The mortar strike is available to the support class.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the Mortar Strike takes the appearance of a laser designator used by the Recon class in the Battlefield: Bad Company. Similar to Battlefield: Bad Company, eight 120mm mortar shells will fall from the sky. Unlike Bad Company, mortars are effective against hard targets too, although the duration of the strike is shorter. The mortar strike is available to the Recon class.

In multiplayer, the Mortar Strike is the second unlockable for the Recon class, and if selected, it replaces the C4 normally available to the class. In order to use the Mortar Strike, pull out the laser designator binoculars to lock onto the target and hold down the fire button for three seconds. A few seconds later, the bombardment will arrive, injuring and destroying nearby enemy units.

This is typically useful on smaller areas with close M-COM stations such as Isla Inocentes, as the player has a very high probability of killing some enemies. On a map with a good area for campers such as the Pit in Port Valdez, there are usually multiple players there so there is a good chance of killing people and destroying the base too in one well placed mortar strike. The mortar strike is most effective when called on an objective that has just been armed to catch any enemies trying to defuse it.

The Mortar Strike does have a delay between marking the target and the mortars landing, so mobile targets must be led lest they escape the bombardment.

Tips

• Mortars are fairly effective at destroying objective buildings, but require that a shell actually hit a section of wall. With enough mortar bombardment, a building will collapse and destroy any M-COM stations inside.
• When targeted at a multistory building, some mortar shells will detonate in the lower floors as if they have a delayed detonation.
• Be very careful when hiding in a bush and using the mortar strike. It is easy to accidentally "target" a leaf from the bush that is in the player's field of vision, causing the mortar strike to fall directly on the player's position.
• Occasionally, while a bombardment occurs, the smoke from a shell will go through a building or cover, even though the floors above are solid and the shell detonated earlier.

Trivia

• Flynn, and sometimes the announcer of the mortar strike, will say he's "Sending in some '60 Mike Mikes." This is wrong as the shells are 120mm, not 60mm.
• The gadget emblem for the binoculars looks slightly like an old man-portable mortar.

Gallery

<gallery widths="120"> File:BFBC_MORTAR_STRIKE_EFFECT.jpg|A Mortar Strike hits Preston's Cafe on Acta Non Verba on Conquest mode in Battlefield: Bad Company