Ranked mode is for both Battle Royale and Zero Build.

The ranked option will be available in Fortnite v24.40.

The start of the new ranked mode in Fortnite will be the start of Season Zero. Season Zero lasts until the end of Chapter 4 Season 3.

Your starting Battle Royale rank and Zero Build rank are based on your past performance and your performance in your first ranked match.

For both Battle Royale and Zero Build, you’ll only need to play 1 ranked match to find out your rank.

Ranked will start off with the following game modes supported:

Battle Royale:

• Solo
• Duo
• Squads

Zero Build:

• Duos

You’ll have separate ranks for Battle Royale and Zero Build.

Ranked will be a separate option from the standard modes, and players will be matched against opponents of a similar rank.

There will be a leaderboard and exclusive rewards for the ranked mode. Fortnite is making some balance changes to prepare for the new mode.

Read on to learn more about the new Fortnite ranked mode.

What are the different ranks?

The ranks span across the following (from lowest to highest):

• Bronze
• Silver
• Gold
• Platinum
• Diamond
• Elite
• Champion
• Unreal

Bronze to Diamond will have 3 ranks (III, II, and I). But Elite, Champion, and Unreal have only one.

So you would advance from Bronze III, to Bronze II, to Bronze I, and then to Silver III, and so on.

Once you reach Elite, you’ll be competing against other highly-skilled players. And you’ll have the chance to advance to Champion and finally to Unreal.

If you reach Unreal, then you’ll stay in Unreal for the entire ranked season. So you can’t go back to previous ranks for the rest of that season, no matter how poorly you play.

Players in Unreal will be given a number to show their rank against other Unreal players across the world.

You can see your Unreal position in Battle Royale and Zero Build on the Fortnite ranked leaderboard.

How does ranking up work?

If you have ranked mode enabled, then you’ll see your current rank.

You’ll also see a progress bar showing how close you are to advancing to the next rank or returning to the previous rank.

How much the progress bar changes after a match depends on the following:

• Your match placements
• The number of eliminations you (or your team) got in the match

Note that eliminations later in the match will count more than eliminations earlier in the match.

Also, the ranks of the players you or your team eliminated will be taken into account.

So if you’re a Diamond I player and you eliminate a Silver II player, then this will count less than eliminating a higher rank player.

Teams are treated as a single entity.

In other words, all the players in a team gain or lose progress equally, based on the team placements and eliminations.

How does ranked matchmaking work?

If you’re playing solos, then the matchmaking is simple. You’ll be matched against opponents of a similar rank to you.

But it’s a bit more complicated in duos or squads.

For duos or squads, your team will have a party rank. 

Your party rank is equivalent to the rank of your highest-ranked teammate, and then your team is matched against teams with a similar party rank.

For example, if you had a squad made up of the following players’ ranks:

• Silver I
• Silver II
• Gold II
• Gold I

Then your team’s rank is determined by the highest-ranked player, which is Gold I in the above example.

So this team would matchmake as a Gold I team, and match against similarly ranked teams.

The difference between ranked and non-ranked games

You have the option to turn ranked on or off.

If you have ranked turned on, then you’ll be placed against other players that have ranked enabled. You’ll also be able to progress through the ranks, as explained above.

The following balance changes will also be made for the ranked mode:

• Material caps decreased from 999 to 500
• Harvesting rates slightly increased
• Players will drop 50 of each material when they are eliminated

You can expect all the loot and other gameplay features in the normal game mode.

Ranked mode rewards

The new ranked mode comes with exclusive rewards.

You’ll be given a “Ranked Urgent Quest”.

When you complete Ranked Urgent Quests, you’ll unlock seasonal rewards.

A new Ranked Urgent Quest is given every match, and progress doesn’t carry over between matches.

The final cosmetic reward for the first season of Fortnite ranked (Season Zero) is the Burn Bright Emote.

When you activate this emote, it will show off your current rank color (Bronze, Silver, Gold, and so on).

What ranked means for Arena and Fortnite competitive

Now that Fortnite has officially added a ranked mode, Arena will be discontinued.

The remaining tournaments for the season will not have a rank requirement, except for the Console Champions Cup. Players will need to reach Platinum I or higher to be eligible to compete in the Console Champions Cup on May 23.

But in the next season, your rank will be an eligibility factor for Fortnite official tournaments, hosted by Epic Games themselves.

The specific rank requirements for a given tournament will be listed in the official rules.

Conclusion

A ranked mode in Fortnite is a long-awaited addition for competitive players.

The ranked mode will provide a competitive environment for you to test your skills and climb the ranks.

I’m super excited that Fortnite is finally adding a ranked system.

Of course, Fortnite already had the Arena mode, but this never felt progressive or exciting enough.

Now that Fortnite has a serious ranked mode similar to other competitive games, it makes me want to play and get better and climb the ranks.

For sure this is going to be interesting, and it’s definitely going to have its problems at first.

But it’s going to be interesting to see how this impacts Fortnite’s popularity in the long term.

Are you going to be playing the new Fortnite ranked mode?

The post Fortnite Ranked Mode: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Kr4m.

With the Reboot a Friend program you can earn rewards when you play Fortnite with an old friend.

Currently, Reboot a Friend is in beta and you can only reboot friends that haven’t played Fortnite for 30 days or more.

The Reboot a Friend beta is available from December 14, 2020 at 3 am ET until January 4, 2021 at 3 am ET.

How to reboot a friend

First, head over to the Reboot a Friend website.

From here, you’ll see the big yellow let’s reboot a friend button. Click this and sign in to your account.

Now you’ll see a list of the eligible friends that you can reboot. Select one of your friends to reboot.

Note that you can only reboot one friend at a time.

Once you’ve selected a friend to reboot, you have an option to swap to another player. You can swap to any player, as long as you haven’t already rebooted them.

When you swap you will keep everything you already unlocked, but you will lose the games played progress and will have to start again, and you cannot go back to a previously rebooted player.

What are the rewards for rebooting a friend?

When you play matches with the friend you rebooted, you can unlock different tiers of rewards. Both you and your friend will receive the same rewards.

You get rewards at 1, 5, 10, and 20 matches played.

Here are the rewards you can unlock in the Reboot a Friend beta:

• 1 match: Reboot Emoticon
• 5 matches: Key Change lobby track
• 10 matches: Twin Talons pickaxe
• 20 matches: Holofoil wrap

Rewards will be issued to all winners within 7 days.

You can find the full Reboot a Friend rules here.

Conclusion

Epic Games are always looking for new ways to get and keep users playing Fortnite.

Usually, that means new skins in the Item Shop, crossovers with relevant things in pop culture, or the latest subscription offer in Fortnite Crew.

But the Reboot a Friend program is the first time I’ve seen a game encourage and reward players for bringing back friends that used to play.

This makes a lot of sense, right?

As you know, Fortnite has changed a lot since it was first released. So if you started playing back in Chapter 1, for example, then you’ll know that the game is completely different now.

Heck, even this latest season is totally different from last season because there has been a ton of changes.

You see, Fortnite is consistently evolving. So if you have some friends you haven’t played with for weeks, months, or even years, then now is the perfect time to bring them back because you both can get rewards with the Reboot a Friend program.

You could also rediscover the reason you and that particular friend used to play together so much.

The Fortnite team knows that if they can just get you or an old player to just stick around for a few games, then maybe you’ll get the Battle Pass, and maybe you’ll stick around for longer to play more games and spend more money.

Epic Games sure know how to make this game compelling.

Anyway, I hope that the new Reboot a Friend will allow you and many others to reunite with an old friend that you haven’t played with for a long time.

So make sure you have some fun together and get some Victory Royales!

The post Fortnite’s Reboot a Friend: Get Rewards for Bringing Back Friends appeared first on Kr4m.

Fortnite Crew is a subscription offer for $11.99 each month.

Here’s what you get when you sign up for Fortnite Crew:

• A new monthly Crew Pack – An exclusive outfit bundle that only Fortnite Crew members get. Each month’s Crew Pack features a new outfit plus at least one matching accessory like a Glider, Pickaxe, or Emote.
• The Battle Pass included for the full season – You will get full access to the current seasons’ Battle Pass, and receive access to future Battle Passes with your active subscription
• 1,000 V-Bucks every month – Each month you’ll receive 1,000 V-Bucks each month, which you can spend as you please in the Fortnite Item Shop

In the December 2020 Fortnite Crew Pack members of the Crew will get the new Glaxia outfit and style, plus cosmetic llamacorn pickaxe and fractured world back bling.

Fortnite Crew is a recurring $11.99 subscription fee that’s charged monthly until you cancel it. You can cancel your subscription to Fortnite Crew at any time.

Is Fortnite Crew worth it?

Now let’s consider the value you get when you subscribe to Fortnite Crew.

As you know, you’ll get 1,000 V-Bucks each month. Currently, 1,000 V-Bucks are priced at $7.99.

You’ll also get access to the Battle Pass each season. The Battle Pass costs 950 V-Bucks. Converted to a dollar amount, we can say this is worth $7.59.

As each Fortnite Season lasts roughly 12 weeks (or 3 months), we can say the Battle Pass costs roughly $2.50 a month.

So you’re getting $10.49 worth of value from a Fortnite Crew subscription, considering only the 1,000 V-Bucks and access to the Battle Pass each season.

But you also get access to the monthly Crew Pack, which is an exclusive outfit bundle. I imagine if the outfits from the Crew Pack were to hit the item store, then they would cost around 2,000 V-Bucks.

You get a lot of value from a Fortnite Crew subscription. If you’re someone that often buys V-Bucks, gets the Battle Pass each Season, and likes exclusive skins, then Fortnite Crew is definitely worth it.

To maximize the value you get from a Fortnite Crew subscription, consider only subscribing once each season. Doing this will get you access to the Battle Pass for the season, an additional 1,000 V-Bucks, and the Crew Pack.

According to the Fortnite Crew terms and conditions, if you cancel your subscription, you can continue to access the current Fortnite Season Battle Pass for the duration of that Season. You will also keep the Subscription Content you received in each month you were subscribed.

So if you get Fortnite Crew once a Season, you’re effectively getting 1,950 V-Bucks (worth $15.58) and an exclusive outfit bundle for just $11.99. Now that’s good value.

And if you’ve already bought the Battle Pass for the current season, when you join Fortnite Crew you’ll get 950 V-Bucks returned to your account.

How to buy Fortnite Crew

You can join Fortnite Crew directly from the Fortnite Item Shop.

Click the Item Shop tab at the top, scroll down until you see Fortnite Crew, and click join now.

You can also join Fortnite Crew from the Battle Pass screen.

Remember that Fortnite Crew is a recurring subscription fee and you’ll be charged monthly until you cancel it.

How to cancel Fortnite Crew

As you know, you can cancel your Fortnite Crew subscription at any time.

When you cancel, your membership will still be active until the end of your current billing period.

And you will still have access to the Battle Pass, V-Bucks, and Crew Packs that you had during your membership.

The process of cancelling your Fortnite Crew subscription depends on which platform you use.

Here’s how to cancel Fortnite Crew for each platform:

PC or Android

To cancel a subscription purchased on PC or Android, follow these steps:

1. Go to www.epicgames.com/account
2. Sign in to your Epic Games account
3. Select Subscriptions to the right
4. Select the Cog icon to the top right of your subscription
5. Select Cancel Subscription
6. Follow the prompts to cancel

Playstation

To cancel a subscription purchased on a Playstation, follow these steps:

1. Go to store.playstation.com
2. Sign in to your Playstation Network account
3. Click on Subscriptions Management
4. Select Turn Off Auto Renew

Xbox

To cancel a subscription purchased on an Xbox, follow these steps:

1. Go to account.microsoft.com/account
2. Sign in to your Microsoft account
3. Select Services & Subscriptions at the top of the page
4. Select Manage next to your subscription listing
5. Select Cancel Subscription to the right
6. Follow the prompts to cancel

Nintendo Switch

To cancel a subscription purchased on a Nintendo Switch, follow these steps:

1. Click the Home button on your Switch
2. Open the Eshop
3. Select your account icon in the top right of the screen
4. Select your Subscriptions
5. Locate your Fortnite Crew subscription in the list and select Turn Off Automatic Renewal
6. Follow the prompts to cancel

Samsung

To cancel a subscription purchased on a Samsung phone, follow these steps:

1. On your phone, navigate to the Galaxy Store
2. Tap to open the Menu
3. Tap on Subscriptions
4. Select Fortnite from the app list
5. Tap on Cancel

Conclusion

Fortnite Crew is the first recurring monthly subscription service that we’ve seen in the game.

It makes a lot of sense, too. At least from a perspective of making money.

You see, by getting players to commit to a monthly fee, then they’re more likely to continue to play the game.

And they may be more inclined to spend those additional 1,000 V-Bucks from the Fortnite Crew subscription, and the ones gained from the Battle Pass.

So I expect Fortnite Crew will boost the revenue for Fortnite even more.

Of course, Fortnite is a free to play game and you’re under no obligation to buy it (or anything for that matter).

But as we’ve seen, Fortnite Crew is actually really good value, especially if you only get it once a Season.

Are you going to be subscribing to Fortnite Crew?

Leave a comment below!

The post Fortnite Crew: The New Subscription Offer for $11.99 a Month appeared first on Kr4m.

And now we have the first official box fight tournament.

So we can find out who is the best box fighter in Fortnite.

The tournament starts this Wednesday, October 28, as part of the Wild Wednesday tournament format.

In the tournament, you will compete 1-on-1 against Fortnite players in your region.

It will take place take place on the “Island of Dreams” Creative map (9005-6737-3429).

This custom map was designed by HassanFTN and Shride as part of the Princess Castle Creative contest that was announced on Fortnite Battle Royale’s 3rd birthday.

To be eligible to compete in the box fight tournament, you must meet all the requirements outlined in the official rules, including age and country restrictions, and have reached the Open League (Division II) in Arena before the tournament begins.

Prizes

Fortnite hasn’t mentioned anything specific about the prizes for this box fight tournament.

But because it’s a part of the Wild Wednesday tournament, that was revealed in the competitive update for Chapter 2 Season 4, we can assume it has the same prizes.

So here are the prize breakdowns for each region:

Europe

• 1st    $1,800
• 2nd    $1,600
• 3rd    $1,400
• 4th    $1,200
• 5th    $1,000
• 6th    $800
• 7th    $600
• 8th    $500
• 9th    $400
• 10th    $300
• 11th-20th    $200

NA East

• 1st    $1,500
• 2nd    $1,200
• 3rd    $900
• 4th    $700
• 5th    $500
• 6th    $400
• 7th    $350
• 8th    $300
• 9th    $250
• 10th    $200

NA West

• 1st    $500
• 2nd    $400
• 3rd    $350
• 4th    $300
• 5th    $275
• 6th    $250
• 7th    $225
• 8th    $200

Brazil

• 1st    $500
• 2nd    $400
• 3rd    $350
• 4th    $300
• 5th    $275
• 6th    $250
• 7th    $225
• 8th    $200

Asia

• 1st    $300
• 2nd    $250
• 3rd    $200

OCE

• 1st    $300
• 2nd    $250
• 3rd    $200

Middle East

• 1st    $300
• 2nd    $250
• 3rd    $200

Conclusion

I love that Fortnite is hosting a box fight tournaments.

Since box fighting is such an integral part of the game, it’s going to be really interesting to see which players emerge as the best in each region.

I also hope that box fights get its own permanent slot in the battle royale playlists, so you can jump into a game from the main screen just as easily as you would a solo, duo, or squad game.

You see, box fighting is similar to zone wars in that it’s essential to practice if you want to become a better player. But since there isn’t a dedicated playlist, it can be difficult to find a game with suitably skilled opponents.

Anyway, this tournament is going to be the first time we see an LTM for box fights. And even if you don’t consider yourself the most skilled Fortnite player in the world, I encourage you to take part in the tournament.

Sure, you may not win. But at least it’s going to be some good and efficient practice and you’ll be able to develop your skills in an important aspect of the game.

Taking part in a tournament and competing against players that are better than you is one of the best ways to improve, so get out there and test yourself.

Best of luck to you if you are competing in this tournament! Let me know how you get on.

The post Fortnite Announce First Official Box Fight Tournament appeared first on Kr4m.

So you can see Fortnite in a new light.

But what exactly is ray tracing?

Ray tracing makes visuals and lighting effects appear more realistic by delivering improved reflections, shadows, ambient occlusion, and global illumination.

• Ray-traced reflections – This setting adds accurate reflections to water and other reflective surfaces in Fortnite so you can see details reflected throughout the game
• Ray-traced shadows – An upgrade to Fortnite’s shadows to allow you to see the finer details. Ray-traced shadows dynamically update as the time of day and lighting in-game changes
• Ray-traced ambient occlusion – When objects and surfaces meet, the light is occluded (blocked) and this creates shadows. Ray tracing makes ambient occlusion shadowing more accurate
• Ray-traced global illumination – Adds additional bounced light that is otherwise impossible to simulate in Fortnite

Ray tracing requirements

Not just any PC can enable ray tracing in Fortnite.

Your system needs to meet the following minimum system requirements.

• DirectX 12
• CPU with 4 cores or more
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 or higher (use updated drivers, 450.00 and higher are supported)
• Windows 10 version 1903 (May 2019 update, build number 18362 or newer)

And here are the recommended system requirements.

• DirectX 12
• CPU with 8 cores or more
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 or higher (use updated drivers, 450.00 and higher are supported)
• Windows 10 version 1903 (May 2019 update, build number 18362 or newer)

So even if you meet the minimum system requirements and can enable ray tracing in Fortnite, you may struggle to get a decent frame rate.

The recommended system requirements include powerful and expensive components that most players cannot afford.

How to turn on ray tracing in Fortnite

If your system meets the requirements, follow these steps to turn on ray tracing.

1. Update to the latest version of Windows 10
2. Install the latest Nvidia GeForce drivers
3. Open your Fortnite settings
4. Scroll down to advanced settings and change the DirectX version to DirectX 12
5. Turn on the Ray Tracing option and the other available effects

Fortnite Creative ray tracing map

Nvidia has put together a special map in Creative mode to showcase the possibilities of ray tracing in Fortnite, RTX Treasure Run. Explore a grand RTX museum highlighting four ray traced effects as you search for hidden treasures.

Here’s the map code for RTX Treasure Run: 9189-0518-5408

In addition to the map, Nvidia are hosting a contest and you could win an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 or 3080 graphics card.

To enter the contest, share your gameplay or an RTX screenshot on social media and tag @NvidiaGeForce with the hashtags #FortniteRTX and #UltimatePlay for a chance to win an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 or 3080 graphics card.

All entries must be received no later than October 17th at 5:00PM Pacific Daylight Time.

The full set of rules are here.

Should you use Ray Tracing in Fortnite?

Now that we have covered what ray tracing is and how to enable it, let’s talk about whether you should even use it.

If you’re a competitive Fortnite player and you want the highest frames per second possible, then you will NOT want to use ray tracing.

You see, turning on ray tracing will dramatically reduce your FPS, even if you have a very powerful PC. For example, when Bugha was showcasing ray tracing on the RTX treasure run map, his FPS was dropping to less than 100.

Sure, 100 FPS isn’t bad. But you have to consider that Bugha has a dream PC build with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and an Intel Core i9-10900K. And he was playing in a demo map, not a real game.

Chances are your PC isn’t as good as Bugha’s so you will get even lower FPS if you turn on ray tracing in Fortnite.

Listen, even if you’re a casual Fortnite player, your FPS matters a lot because Fortnite is a fast-paced shooter game. More frames leads to smoother animations and reduced system latency, which can enable you to actually play better.

You’ll want to have at least a steady 60 FPS (ideally more if you have a higher refresh monitor) when you play Fortnite. Otherwise, your game can begin to look choppy.

With that being said, if you only care about having the best possible graphics setting and you have a PC that meets the recommended system requirements, then you may want to use ray tracing in Fortnite.

But I think most players are going to want to keep it off to get better FPS.

Conclusion

Ray tracing is an interesting feature that adds a new dimension of realism to the visuals in Fortnite.

However, I’m not going to use ray tracing. Instead, I’m going to keep my settings on low to maximize my FPS.

I use a high refresh monitor and I want to get the most FPS. I don’t really mind how my game looks, as long as the graphics are of reasonable quality.

Also, my current PC barely meets the minimum system requirements. I use an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card and an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 CPU. So my performance suffers too much when I use ray tracing.

But if you have an awesome set up consisting of a powerful graphics card, the best CPU, and you can consistently get 60 FPS when using ray tracing, then go ahead and turn it on.

I’ll admit, Fortnite does look really nice with ray tracing enabled.

Are you going to be enabling ray tracing in Fortnite?

Let me know in the comments below!

The post What is Ray Tracing in Fortnite? appeared first on Kr4m.

Of course, a birthday means there’s a celebration.

So Fortnite is throwing the 3rd Birthday Bash for Battle Royale.

The Birthday Bash features challenges, exclusive rewards, a new prefab for Creative mode, and an emote for just logging in.

Read on for more details.

Birthday challenges

The birthday challenges are available between September 26 and October 1.

So make sure you complete them before time runs out to unlock the rewards, or you’ll miss out.

Here are the 4 birthday challenges:

• Play 10 matches – Reward: The Big Three spray
• Dance in front of 10 different Birthday Cakes – Reward: Cakey weapon wrap
• Outlast 500 opponents – Reward: Cupcake emoticon
• Gain 50 health or shield from Birthday Cake – Reward: 80,000 season XP

You see, the birthday challenges are very straight forward and easy to complete. You can complete all the challenges within 10 games.

But the dance in front of 10 different birthday cakes challenge could be difficult if you don’t know where to look.

Here are the 10 named locations to find birthday cakes to dance in front of:

1. Lazy Lake
2. Retail Row
3. Dirty Docks
4. Doom’s Domain
5. Sweaty Sands
6. Salty Springs
7. Holly Hedges
8. Weeping Woods
9. Slurpy Swamp
10. Misty Meadows

Now that you know the locations, the birthday cakes will be easy to find because they are large and surrounded by balloons.

When you complete all 4 birthday challenges, you’ll unlock the Cake back bling.

Free emote

Just for logging into Fortnite between September 26 and October 1, you’ll receive the Take the Cake Emote.

The Princess Castle

Fortnite didn’t want to leave its Creative warriors out of the party. So a new set of prefabs and props are available for you to create with, the Princess Castle set.

Submit a creation using the Princess Castle set by October 6, 2020, for a chance to be featured in the first official Box Fight tournament as part of an upcoming Wild Wednesday tournament.

Read this post for submission guidelines and contest rules.

The winner’s support a creator code will be clearly presented during the Box Fight tournament. And the winner’s submission will be announced on Fortnite’s social channels, so you will get exposure to an audience of millions.

You can follow the official Fortnite Competitive Twitter account to get updates on the tournament.

Conclusion

I find it hard to believe that its been 3 years since the release of Fortnite Battle Royale.

The game has certainly changed a lot in those 3 years.

Even the dates that Fortnite is holding the birthday events has changed.

Confusingly, Fortnite Save the World was first released on July 25, 2017. And historically Fortnite has planned its birthday events around this date.

For example, Fortnite’s 1st birthday celebration started on July 24, 2018, and Fortnite’s 2nd birthday celebration started on July 25, 2019.

But 2020 is the first year that Fortnite has celebrated its birthday using the initial release of Battle Royale 26 September 2017 for the date.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the Birthday Bash and make sure you log in before October 1 to complete all the challenges and get your rewards!

The post Fortnite Battle Royale’s 3rd Birthday Bash appeared first on Kr4m.

There’s a new leaderboard, upcoming tournaments, rule clarifications, and more.

In this post, we’re going to unpack everything from the latest blog post by the Fortnite competitive team.

Hype leaderboard

As you know, when you play Arena mode in Fortnite, you earn Hype. And the more Hype you earn, the further you progress in the arena divisions and leagues.

But did you know that Fortnite has built a global Hype leaderboard that updates in real-time?

The leaderboard consists of the top 100 Fortnite players based on Hype earned, so you can track your favorite player and even spot some rising stars.

I hope this new leaderboard encourages more players to grind Arena mode to earn Hype and advance up the rankings.

I think the Arena and Hype system still needs some work, but a leaderboard is certainly a step in the right direction.

Upcoming tournaments

Fortnite is making adjustments to the tournament offerings to keep things fresh. They are also working on a plan so that third-party tournaments (such as Dreamhack) don’t overlap with other major tournaments.

Here is the schedule for the Fortnite tournaments so far:

• Season 4 Hype Cup: September 6
• September Dreamhack Online Open (NA-West): September 12 – September 13
• Hype Nite: September 13
• Paradox’s Platform Solo Cash Cups: Every Monday from September 14 – September 21
• Castor’s Contender Trios Cash Cups: Every Tuesday from September 15 – September 22
• Chopper’s Champion Trios Cash Cups: Every Tuesday from September 15 – September 22
• Wild Wednesdays: Every Wednesday from September 16 – September 23
• Hype Nite: Every Sunday from September 20 – September 27
• September Dreamhack Online Open (NA-East): September 17 – September 18
• September Dreamhack Online Open (Europe): September 19 – September 20
• FNCS Warmup: September 25 – September 27

Wild Wednesdays will be prized LTM tournaments that change each week.

Fortnite also plan to add more tournaments and third party events that are not listed here.

Wildcard match

The Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) returns for trios in Chapter 2 Season 4.

For this season, the final ground of each weekly qualifier will feature the same 33-team group playing over two days.

But for the grand finals, Fortnite is introducing a new wildcard match to determine the last qualifying team from the group stage.

This wildcard match is going to be an intense high-stakes match, which should make for an epic viewing experience.

Here are the FNCS dates:

• FNCS Week 1: October 9 – October 11
• FNCS Week 2: October 16 – October 18
• FNCS Week 3: October 23 – October 25
• FNCS Finals: October 29 – November 1

More details about the FNCS will be shared at a later date.

Rule clarification

Following from an earlier competitive integrity update, there are a few rules and updates to be clarified.

Here we will be summarizing the 5 key rules: collusion, smurfing, 3rd party software, clout farming, and technical issues.

1. Collusion

Collusion is working together with the same opponent. For example, working together against a 3rd player or 3rd team.

Fortnite is taking a firmer stance when evidence is found linking opponents as working together.

Some forms of collusion are:

• Staged engagements
• Pickaxe swinging (or other forms of signalling)
• Sharing loot or leaving items for other players
• Intentionally feeding eliminations

Fortnite also wanted to clarify what isn’t collusion:

• Dropping in the same location each match
• Announcing a drop spot on social media
• Choosing to not engage in combat
• Coaching using in-game replay tools

Of course, collusion is a tricky rule to monitor to enforce. Fortunately, the entire Fortnite community have come together to help take down anyone that works together and threatens the integrity of the game.

2. Smurfing or illegal restarts

Smurfing is not allowed in most prized competitions.

Fortnite have split the current definition of smurfing into two parts:

• Traditional smurfing: Playing on an alternate account that has a lower Arena Rank than your main account in order to participate in tournaments or events for lower Arena Ranks. This type of smurfing is not allowed in any official tournaments.
• Illegal restart: Playing on an alternate account and main account in the same tournament window. This type of smurfing is not allowed in any official tournaments unless otherwise stated.

Smurfing is a pretty common occurrence in other online games. For example, in League of Legends a player may create a new account to try to climb the ladder while learning a new role or character.

But when it comes to Fortnite tournaments, smurfing is not allowed.

3. 3rd party software

3rd party aim assist software is not allowed.

If you’re found using any form of 3rd party software to help improve your gameplay, then you will be removed from Fortnite competitions and issued a competitive ban.

I think this is a pretty obvious rule, but an important one for Fortnite to restate with all the claims of soft aim in the community.

4. Clout farming

Fortnite are now taking action against anyone who falsely promotes themselves as a banned or cheating player.

The reason for this is that false information gets in the way of a real investigation, and it goes against the spirit of the game.

I find it funny that Fortnite has actually added a rule to prevent clout farming. Clearly, they are paying attention to what players are saying on places like Twitter.

5. Technical issues

In Season 4, Fortnite are modifying a rule involving technical issues.

Previously, there was a hard rule of not restarting or making matches null when a sever crashes.

But due to the nature and scale of Fortnite competitive, they are going to improve this rule to include any matches that use scheduled matchmaking. Like the FNCS Finals, for example.

This rule adjustment should give the competitive team more flexibility to make the best decision based on varying factors.

Conclusion

In general, I like the direction that Fortnite is going in regards to the competitive scene.

Setting clear rules and boundaries is a necessity for the long-term health of any game, and I just hope that players will actually read the updates and stick to the rules so there are no unnecessary bans.

Fortnite isn’t an easy game to balance because you have to cater to both the very casual and the highly competitive and skilled gamers. The Fortnite competitive team has their work cut out for them.

If you want to read the whole post by the Fortnite competitive team, the full post is available here.

You can also stay up to date by following @FNCompetitive on Twitter.

The post New Fortnite Competitive Updates for Chapter 2 Season 4 appeared first on Kr4m.

The bug has been occurring since the start of Chapter 2 Season 4.

It’s a frustrating bug as it makes finding fish very difficult.

The fishing spots disappearing bug seems to only be affecting PC players that have the effects setting set to low.

You can fix the fishing spots disappearing bug by increasing your effects setting to high.

You could also try increasing your effects setting to medium, but I have found setting effects to high works more reliably.

As you know, fishing is really important in Season 4 because of all the new fish, and the fact that you can get higher rarity fish easier by shooting the boat rockets at fishing spots.

So it’s crucial that you’re able to clearly see the fishing spots, otherwise, you don’t know where to get fish.

Look, increasing your effects setting is going to change the general appearance of things in Fortnite by adding more detail to certain objects and interactions. It could also reduce your performance and lower your frames per second (FPS) since there’s more stress on your graphics card.

Of course, high FPS is important and can make you better at Fortnite. But I believe that the slight drop in FPS in return for the ability to see fishing spots is definitely worth it, especially when you consider how important fish are in this season.

If you’re concerned about low FPS in Fortnite, then check out this comprehensive guide to increasing your FPS in Fortnite.

Fortnite is aware of the fishing spots disappearing bug and they’ve addressed it on their Trello board. I expect the bug to be fixed soon, and most likely in the next patch.

So raising your effects setting is a temporary solution until a permanent fix is rolled out.

Console players are not having this problem since the settings on consoles are fixed.

The post How to Fix Fishing Spots Disappearing Bug in Fortnite Season 4 appeared first on Kr4m.

And that certain skins and back bling could lower your FPS.

This made me curious.

Does the skin you use affect your FPS?

If this is true, then it would mean that skins do grant a competitive advantage because we know higher FPS makes you better at Fortnite.

So I did some tests in an empty Creative map using low settings and unlimited FPS.

I used FRAPS for taking the benchmarks so I could see the average FPS, 1% low FPS, and 0.1% low FPS. Each test was recorded 3 times to increase the reliability of the data.

The following skins were used for the tests:

• The default skin with no back bling and the default pickaxe – this is a barebones combination that would apparently give me the best FPS
• Snorkel Ops with the Deep Dive back bling and Tide Axes pickaxe – this is my main skin combination and I wanted to find out if using it was making my FPS lower
• Ice King with Fusion Orb back bling and Guiding Glow pickaxe – this is a fairly big and detailed skin with an animated back bling and pickaxe to test the lower FPS theory
• Stage 5 Calamity with Frozen Shroud back bling and Fusion Scythe pickaxe – this is a skin with animation effects and a bulky cape and a pickaxe with animations as another test for the lower FPS theory

Here’s a table of the results:

You can see that the default skin does get the highest average FPS.

And the Calamity skin combination had by far the lowest FPS. Using the Calamity skin combination made my average FPS drop by more than 140 in comparison to the default skin.

Also, the 1% low and 0.1% low FPS were significantly less.

These results honestly shocked me and I couldn’t believe them.

So I went and did the tests again.

But I had the same results each time.

Why does your skin affect your FPS?

The theory is that the FPS loss with certain skins may have something to do with the way animations are rendered with Unreal Engine’s Chaos Physics System.

So skins with a lot of visuals could lower your FPS because there are more animations to render. But simple skins (like the default skin) can give you better FPS.

I was interested to find out what would happen to my FPS when using higher settings.

So I tested the default skin against the Calamity skin combination again. But this time using all Epic settings.

I knew that using higher settings would reduce my FPS, and I thought it would have a greater impact on the Calamity skin because of the animations.

Here are the results when the tests were run using Epic settings:

You can see that this time the average FPS, 1% low FPS, and 0.1% low FPS are almost the same. This was surprising and made me even more confused.

Why does using low settings have a greater impact on the FPS difference between skins than high settings?

Conclusion

The fact is that the skin you use in Fortnite can significantly affect your FPS and this discovery is still mindblowing to me.

I’ll admit, when I first saw the Tweet, I thought it was bait to get more impressions.

But it turns out that your skin choice in Fortnite really does matter more than for just aesthetic reasons or to create more space on your screen.

Now I don’t know if it’s the skins themselves, or if it’s the combination of back bling and pickaxe that is causing the change in FPS.

Unfortunately, there are literally millions of different outfit combinations and it would take me forever to test everything.

But we know for sure that using certain skin combinations can dramatically lower your FPS.

So the best thing you can do to protect your FPS is to only use basic skins, back bling, and pickaxes. If you want to be extra safe, then use the default skin with no back bling and the default pickaxe.

If you have a particular skin combination that you main, then I would suggest benchmarking it against the default skin in a Creative map like I’ve done in this post.

And if there’s no noticeable FPS decrease, then you can continue using your skin. But if there is a noticeable FPS difference, then maybe you should find a new skin.

I hope that Epic Games are aware of this problem and find a solution to this. It’s unacceptable that certain skin combinations can drop your FPS so drastically and put you at a disadvantage.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about this. I hope you’ve found this helpful and it makes you more carefully consider your skin choice in Fortnite.

If you want to learn other ways to improve your FPS, then read this guide to increasing your FPS in Fortnite now.

The post Using the Default Skin Gives You the Best FPS in Fortnite appeared first on Kr4m.

In this update, the submachine gun was heavily nerfed.

But the rapid fire SMG didn’t change.

Now the rapid fire SMG was already strong. But with the regular submachine gun nerfed, the rapid fire SMG is the best close-range weapon in Fortnite.

In this post, we’re going to compare the stats of the rapid fire SMG with the regular submachine gun, shotguns, and Jules’ drum gun so you can see why the rapid fire SMG is overpowered in Fortnite Season 3.

The submachine gun nerf

Submachine guns have been strong since the start of Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 3.

But it’s not that submachine guns were directly buffed. Rather, shotguns were made weaker and this was an indirect buff to submachine guns.

Clearly Epic Games knew there was an imbalance between submachine guns and shotguns, particularly at the lower rarities. So that’s why in the v13.20 update there was a heavy nerf to submachine guns.

• Each rarity of the submachine gun had its base damage reduced by 1
• Common, uncommon, and rare submachine guns had their fire rate reduced from 12 to 10
• Epic and Legendary submachine guns had their magazine size reduced from 40 to 35
• Reload times reduced for the Epic and Legendary submachine guns to compensate for the damage and magazine size nerf and for the reload times to make more sense

Here’s a comparison of the submachine guns stats before and after v13.20:

You can see that the damage per second (DPS) of the Common, Uncommon, and Rare submachine guns have been reduced by about 21%.

The DPS of the Epic and Legendary submachine guns have also been reduced by about 5%, which isn’t as drastic as the DPS nerf of the lower rarities.

But it was the magazine size nerf that really hurt the Epic and Legendary submachine gun.

And now the stats of the submachine gun are more logical and balanced.

But what about the rapid fire SMG?

Why the rapid fire SMG is now the best weapon

The rapid fire SMG was already a good choice for close-quarters combat in Fortnite, particularly at the higher rarities.

But it was difficult to get a high rarity rapid fire SMG because you can only get them from eliminating henchmen and from henchmen chests.

You can sidegrade the submachine gun to a rapid fire SMG, but there was a bug preventing you from sidegrading Epic and Legendary submachine guns to a rapid fire SMG. This bug was fixed in v13.20.

Also, in v13.20, the upgrade bench was added as an item you can get from chests. So you can deploy your own workbench to allow for easier upgrading and sidegrading.

In other words, it’s going to be much easier to get a rapid fire SMG now that the sidegrading bug is fixed and we have deployable workbenches.

Now here’s a comparison of the regular submachine gun (after v13.20) and the rapid fire SMG that clearly shows the power difference:

You can see that at all rarities the rapid fire SMG is much stronger than the submachine gun.

On average, the rapid fire SMG does 25% more DPS than the standard submachine gun. And the relative amount of DPS difference increases at higher rarities.

It is clear from this comparison that the rapid fire SMG is superior to the submachine gun.

Of course, the rapid fire SMG has a smaller magazine size, but the high DPS and low reload time more than makes up for this.

Now let’s look at the rapid fire SMG in comparison to Jules’ drum gun:

Technically, Jules’ drum gun is an assault rifle. But because of its high fire rate, it feels like an SMG.

You can see that even an uncommon rapid fire SMG does more DPS than Jules’ drum gun, which is a Mythic weapon.

Obviously, Jules’ drum gun has a much higher magazine size. But this is a mythic weapon and I would still use a rapid fire SMG over it.

Rapid fire SMG vs shotguns

Shotguns were seriously nerfed from the start of Chapter 2 Season 3.

A lot of player’s favorite shotgun, the pump shotgun, was vaulted. And in its place, we got the charge shotgun.

Players are still figuring out how to get the best use from the charge shotgun, but it’s clearly not as powerful as the pump shotgun.

Of course, we still have the tactical shotgun. But the damage of the tactical shotgun was decreased at the start of Season 3 to make it more balanced with the charge shotgun.

The headshot multiplier of shotguns (both the charge and tactical) was reduced from 2.0x to 1.5x, as well. Submachine guns have a headshot multiplier of 1.75x.

Here’s how the rapid fire SMG compares with the tactical shotgun as of v13.20:

You can see that the DPS of the tactical shotgun is really quite pitiful, and it’s almost half of the rapid fire SMG at all rarities.

And here’s how the rapid fire SMG compares with the charge shotgun (since the charge shotgun does damage based on how much you charge it, I’ve included both the base and charged damage for a fair comparison):

Again, the DPS of the rapid fire SMG absolutely dwarfs the charge shotgun at all rarities, regardless of how much it’s charged.

Of course, the charge shotgun is meant to be a burst weapon rather than a sustained damage weapon.

But because of how tricky it is to use the charge shotgun due to its unique mechanics, you’re less likely to land a full damage shot.

Conclusion

It’s clear that the rapid fire SMG is the king of close-ranged weapons in Fortnite season 3.

The damage combined with a super-fast fire rate means it has the highest DPS of any weapon right now.

In fact, the fire rate is so fast that you can even sneak in bullets through players that are turbo building, especially if that player has high ping.

But it’s unlikely that the rapid fire SMG will remain this strong.

Listen, Epic Games are definitely going to nerf the rapid fire SMG as more players discover that it’s overpowered. I expect they will nerf the damage so it’s more in line with the submachine gun.

The reason they haven’t nerfed it yet is that hardly anyone uses the rapid fire SMG, so it flew under Epic Games’ radar. The rapid fire SMG is truly a sleeper weapon, even though big names like SypherPK have been saying how good it is.

So make sure you use and abuse the rapid fire SMG in your games to get the best chance of winning.

There’s no reason you should use the standard submachine gun following the nerf in v13.20, and you should sidegrade it as soon as you can for the superior rapid fire SMG.

Have fun!

The post Why the Rapid Fire SMG Is the Best Weapon in Fortnite Season 3 appeared first on Kr4m.