‘Fortnite: Battle Royale’ Blasting Off With Jet Packs Tuesday
Fortnite: Battle Royale players will have a new way to get around the map via an update scheduled for Tuesday morning. Epic Games is finally delivering the previously delayed jetpacks to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and mobile shooter.
Epic Games announced via Twitter and an in-game announcement that Jetpacks are coming in the 4.2 content update scheduled for release Tuesday, May 22 at 8 a.m. ET / 5 a.m. PT. Fortnite: Battle Royale‘s servers are not expected to have any downtime with this update, per the developer, but it is also unknown what else will be delivered as patch notes are not yet available.
Interestingly, the in-game announcement mentions Jet Packs will be part of the game for a limited time. It appears the item will be part of another new limited time mode similar to the current Solo Showdown LTM and the previous Infinity Gauntlet event.
Jetpacks were originally planned to be added to Fortnite: Battle Royale at the end of February. Unfortunately, Epic Games discovered a “last minute design issue” with the item and had to push it back it out of the release. It was replaced with the scope-less Hunting Rifle.
The Fortnite: Battle Royale developers have let it be known they have no plans to add vehicles to the game. However, the number of ways for players to traverse the map has steadily increased to include Launch Pads and Hop Rocks with the start of Season 4.
It’s not clear if Jetpacks will be limited availability items or will be available to all players. It is likely players won’t have unlimited flight, however, and will have to land at some point. Either way, the new item promises to open up the Battle Royale mode in an interesting new way.
Solo Showdown
Meanwhile, the Solo Showdown limited time mode came to a close earlier Monday at 10 a.m. ET. This was a competition in the Solo queue to see who can earn the most points out of 50 games with V-Bucks as the prize.
The official Fortnite blog shows the current standings as of Sunday evening with a fairly close competition around the top of the leaderboard. The player with the highest score will earn 50,000 V-Bucks, while second through fourth will earn 25,000 V-Bucks, fifth 50th will receive 13,500 V-Bucks, and the bottom 50 will be gifted 7,500 V-Bucks.
Giving away free in-game money via a competition is an attractive spin on Fortnite: Battle Royale and could hint at further competitive developments. Epic Games has already announced it is committing $100 million to eSports and other prize pools in the game.
