Hey Fortnite friends,

Let’s take a look into the development process and some things that are ongoing and currently in the works for Save the World.

Player Reporting

Save the World is great with others, but a few bad eggs can hurt the experience. We recently implemented v1 of our true Player Reporting feature to give you the ability to responsibly flag improper conduct.

Reports are coming in and we’re analyzing the types of behaviors that are major problems for the community. Starting next week, you’ll receive an in-game message when we take action against one of the players you reported. That way you’ll know the system is working and that you are contributing to make Fortnite a better place to play.

Not every report will generate a penalty, and the reporting system is geared toward serial offenders. Penalties will range from warnings to escalating bans up to a permanent ban.

We’ll continue to refine this feature with your help.

Canny Valley

We are happy to announce that the Canny Valley campaign, as well as a new biome, are landing in the near future!

We’ll deliver the first act of Canny Valley shortly after v5.0. Canny Valley will take you through the Arid parts of the Fortnite world, with many new and unique places to explore.

The story will answer many questions - was Dr. Vinderman a hero or a villain? What happened to him? Who is “the real Ray”, and where is she? What really is the Storm, and why did it happen? You’ll also see Lars and his band, “Steel Wool”, Dennis, Penny and all the other characters you love, along with iconic locations and enemies.

Heroes & Schematics

Do you enjoy min-maxing on your way to defeating the storm? We’ve introduced new features that make it easier for you to zero in on particular rewards or configurations, and we have more on the way.

Collection Book Research and Recruitment

We’re adding in an extension to the Collection Book that will empower you to directly acquire specific heroes and schematics.

Had your eye on a particular Constructor? Now you can spend Flux and Training Manuals to recruit them with a new menu option on the Collection Book slot representing that hero. There will be some exceptions (such as Founder’s weapons, event items, etc.), but the majority of heroes, weapon schematics, and trap schematics will be eligible for research, and it doesn’t matter if you already have the item or not. You’ll receive a new level 1 copy of the item, and schematics will start with a random set of valid perks. We’re hoping this feature will come online in the v4.5 update.

Collection Book Unslotting

In update 4.5 we’re also planning to provide a mechanism to unslot items from the Collection Book for a nominal fee of 20 V-Bucks to deter exploitive behavior. When an item is removed from the book, the Collection Book XP it granted is removed too. This will not, however, result in you losing levels or rewards you have already earned. You’ll just have to “pay back” this lost XP before the book will continue advancing. Items removed from the book will be restored at level, and with all their perks intact.

Controls

Builder Pro

We’ve gotten a lot of requests for the Builder Pro control scheme in Save the World and we’re happy to say it’s on the way. We’re aiming for it to land in the 4.5 update.

Mode-specific Keybindings

After some of the more recent keybinding changes, we also saw a fair amount of requests for the ability to separate out Save the World and Battle Royale keyboard key bindings. We’re targeting 4.5 for this addition.

Mission and Enemy Variety

We’ve had a lot of requests for increased variety in both missions and enemy types and we continue to prototype in this area. We’ll have more to share in the future, but you can look forward to at least two brand-new enemy types in the next few months. In the short-term, a more powerful variant of the Shielder will be coming very soon, followed by his new friend the Zapper!

Challenge the Horde

In v5.0 we’re going to re-introduce “Challenge the Horde”.

What is Challenge the Horde?

It’s a mode focused on getting into combat quickly - drop into a map with a pre-built base and battle against waves of enemies, but with limited time to craft weapons, build structures, and lay traps. Challenge the Horde will be the focus of our v5.0 event, and the primary source of event tickets.

The mode will come with several improvements:

Reworked Difficulty Progression

Horde hexes will now unlock based on both Campaign progress and completing previous tiers of Horde combat. This lets you jump into Horde at a difficulty you feel is appropriate, and then push up into higher difficulties of Horde without having to further advance your campaign.

Reworked Combat

Playing a full set of 10 waves was a significant time investment last time around, so we’re looking to shorten the number and length of waves. The Horde map itself is also getting reworked, featuring the new Arid biome, and we’re bringing the four bases closer together.

Mini-Bosses

We want to integrate Mini-Bosses this time around - Mini-Bosses will start spawning in during higher difficulty encounters at a randomized rate. We also wanted to reduce the randomness of the waves as a whole so you’ll be better prepared before the next wave starts.

New Rewards

We’re adding better rewards! These rewards consist of gold, event tickets, and perk materials and the amount awarded has been increased since the last event.

Fortnite’s First Birthday

We’re approaching Fortnite’s first birthday since entering early access! More details to come soon, but you can expect a special anniversary Llama with some nostalgic goodies. Save room for cake!

Conclusion

We have a lot of exciting things in store for Save the World this year, including many we’ve not covered yet. We’ll be working to bring mission and enemy variety, such as the new Super Shielder enemy, as well as refining the core game experience. The game and player base continues to grow, far exceeding our initial expectations back when we started this crazy journey, and we can’t wait for the adventure ahead!

-STW Dev team