Fortnite servers are now up and running. Anyone can enter and start their battle for the highest possible rank.
Today’s Fortnite update introduced several new features, the most important of which are ranked games. Players can now compete for the highest possible rank among:
- Bronze,
- Silver,
- Gold,
- Platinum,
- Diamond,
- Elite,
- Champion,
- Unreal.
The season will last until the end of the 3rd season of the 4th chapter. For taking part in the games, one gets a special reward in the form of an emoticon.
When players join a ranking match, they can complete urgent ranking tasks to unlock seasonal cosmetic rewards. The final cosmetic prize of Season Zero is the Flame Bright emoticon.
What does your rank depend on?
How much the progress bar increases or recedes after a match will depend on the following factors:
- Your match placement
- How many eliminations you or your team got in the match
- Eliminations later in the match will count more than eliminations earlier in the match.
- The ranks of the players you or your team eliminated will be taken into account.
Teams will be treated as a single unit — all team members will gain and lose progress equally based on team eliminations and team placement calculated at the end of a match.
Your team’s rank will be determined by the highest-ranked player on the team. For example, if a team is made up of Gold I and Silver I players, they’ll matchmake as a Gold I team and play against similarly-ranked teams.
What’s new in Fortnite?
Today’s update, as announced, also removed one of the popular modes, namely Trios:
Please note that the Trios mode will be vaulted in Battle Royale and Zero Build in v24.40.
Epic has not yet released a description as such, but it looks like the focus has been maximized on these ranked games.
Balance changes
As mentioned above, we’ll be making the following balance changes in v24.40:
- Material caps will be decreased from 999 to 500.
- Harvesting rates will be slightly increased.
- Players will drop 50 of each material when they are eliminated.
Also, in case you missed it, we made the following balance changes in a hotfix on May 3 ET:
- Increased the damage of the Lock-On Pistol and Thunder Spears.
- Increased the Locked-On Pistol’s lock-on speed and fire rate between bursts.
- Thunder Spears now explode faster after pulling the fuse.
- The Forecast Reality Augment has been vaulted in tournaments.
Fixes
- Continuing to make improvements regarding some large rocks on the Battle Royale Island not providing as many materials as intended.
- Fixing an issue preventing players from being healed with Slurp Juice after being DBNO.
- Back Blings equipped with the Clone Trooper Outfit will no longer appear detached.
- The Clone Trooper Outfit’s head movement will no longer be static.
- Fixing an issue causing some Outfits to appear glossy.