Epic Games Wants to Reshape How 'Fortnite: Battle Royale' Is Played

Developer Epic Games is well aware that Fortnite: Battle Royale is getting a little repetitive and stale, so the company wants to promote more diverse play styles. As a result, you can expect a Fortnite building nerf to shake things up.

On Thursday, Epic Games commented on the current state of Fortnite: Battle Royale’s meta in a blog post, noting that most encounters currently end in a “build-off.” Future updates will focus on “weapon balance and resource economy,” which probably means overused weapons like shotguns and rockets will get more nerfs, but so could building in general.

“We are going to continue to make changes to evolve the game to give players multiple ways to counter each other in combat,” the post reads, “and create more strategies to win the game.”

Epic Games understands that this is a source of frustration for players: “Currently, the superiority of shotguns, rockets, and uncapped building are such a dominant play style in the final circle that most other strategies are being drowned out.”

Pretty much the only way to achieve victory royale is by peppering enemies with rockets, out-building them, and finally overwhelming them with shotgun blasts while having the high ground.

Here’s the streamer Myth playing in a match to see what that looks like:

This is a great demonstration of the game’s meta. Myth builds structures with bewildering speed to disorient opponents while simultaneously trying to gain the high ground. Then, he’ll overwhelm them with a few shotgun blasts. In the event that he catches an enemy at a distance, he’ll pepper them with rockets and finish them off with the SCAR assault rifle. And if enemies are very far away, he’s got a sniper rifle.

Using this strategy, Myth wins this match with ease and then stretches as if he’s on the verge of a yawn. Are people starting to get bored with Fortnite: Battle Royale?

Fortnite remains very unpredictable, especially earlier in matches. That’s a huge reason why it’s so watchable. But you see the same strategies at the end of every match in the “last circle.” So you either die playing how you want, or you live long enough to do what everyone else is doing. It’s pretty much the only way to win consistently.

Epic Games probably realizes that players are going to get bored of this sooner or later, which is why they’re nerfing overused weapons, like the shotgun, while also promoting different play styles. The developer is also introducing different game modes in the near future.

Earlier this week, Epic Games nerfed rocket launchers and introduced a limited time “Final Fight” game mode that focuses more on teams of 20 surviving rather than killing each other. It’s a subtle difference that still has plenty of gunplay, but the new game mode does promote more defensive strategies.

And last week, data-mining showed that a “Score Royale” game mode was put into the game’s files as part of a recent update. In Score Royale, players would gain points for looting and for eliminating opponents, with victory going to whoever has the top score at the end of the match (rather than whoever can eliminate everyone else).

It’s tough to say exactly how Epic Games could potentially nerf building, its most unique mechanic, but they do mention adjusting “resource caps” which means that one day soon, players probably won’t be able to endlessly build during final encounters.

Big changes might be in store. Will they happen by the time Season 5 starts sometime around July 9?