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Fortnite: Battle Royale: Season 4 Just Made Some Crazy Changes and I in Love with it


Fortnite has become this huge juggernaut in the gaming industry ever since Epic released their Battle Royale mode in late September. The Battle Pass implementation gave the player a progression system that gamify the Battle Royale mode, of which PUBG does not have. Having something to accomplish in-between gathering and fighting during each match creates a sense of accomplishment. In a game where there is a 100-player free-for-all fight, your chances of winning are low, allowing the Battle Pass rewards gives the player this satisfaction of accomplishment even if you lose.

Over the past month, Epic has been teasing and creating ARGs in-game for the lead up to Season 4. Hearing about the meteors crashing down on Tilted Towers was cool but I didn’t think anything of it, as I thought it to be a cosmetic choice. But after seeing the video where Titled Towers got hit with small meteors during a match made me believe that the rumored Superhero themed Season Pass might be true. Long and behold the Season Pass was themed around superheroes, just in-time as people were still on a high with Avengers: Infinity War

The Battle Pass has a similar progression system as past Battle Passes but Epic has also added a new additional challenge to the Battle Pass that will upgrade your tier 1 superhero suit. These challenges are tied with how many tiers you’ve earned. Every 10 tiers will reward you with a piece of armor for your suit. This addition is a welcome one, it doesn’t mess with the Battle Pass progression in anyway and hope that they approve upon the upgrading system.

All the talk before the release of Season 4 was that Tilted Towers was going to get hit with a meteor. A lot of players, including me was sold that this will happen, part of my faith came from the developers as they wanted to change Titled Towers because of its central area and the number of players that land there. But after the update the most affected area on the map was Dusty Depot, now known as Dusty Divot. When looking at the map, where Dust Depot would’ve been, now has a huge crater at the center of it. Once I landed, there was something that completely changed the scope of the game for me, ultimately the reason It got me so excited about Fortnite and its future.


There in the crater of Dusty Divot were crystals of light, picking them up I felt a power surging through, but had no idea what it did. After running around, I finally jumped, and it took me 20 feet forward, I was shocked and smiling the whole match. It didn’t matter that I died, I was having so much fun discovering this new mechanic. Thinking this was the only area that had “Hop Rocks” was kind of wasteful but going in a second time and landing in a different area I saw some of the crystals in a smaller crater. Knowing this, I can’t wait for the amazing compilation of Hop Rocks kills.

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These “Hop Rocks” are the kind of weird mechanic that I want to see from a Battle Royale genre as they don’t differ much from each other, as of recently we’ve seen innovation in this genre with H1Z1’s Auto Royale – instead of solo and walking, you’re in a group with only cars to travel. Another example is Radical Heights the Battle Royale game from the makers of Lawbreakers has an 80s aesthetic that has a currency progression where you can bring extra cash into a new game.

These are completely different Battle Royale games, and that’s what we need, more developers trying new things in this space. Failing and succeeding are part of innovation, finally seeing a different take on this genre made me see of how far this genre can go then just a free-for-all third person shooter. 

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