Fortnite Adds New Customizable Battle Royale Modes

If there's one thing Fortnite is known for, it's the Battle Royale mode. A bunch of folks gather on a flying bus, they drop onto an island, and then they duke it out while building junk until just one person (or squad) is left standing. That's the basic premises of what makes a Fortnite game at this point. But Fortnite's classic Battle Royale mode just got a shot in the arm thanks to the introduction of Battle Lab, a new way to play the game with a bunch of tweaks and customizations.

More specifically, Battle Lab allows folks to change the rules of a traditional Battle Royale game in a new playlist. Examples given by Epic Games include using limited-time mode loot pools, fiddling with Bot Grenades, or even setting fall damage and gravity variables. There's sure to be certain modes that'll become more popular than others if custom playlists in previous video games are any indication, but right now it's more of a "let's see what's even possible" sort of event.

Here's the full Battle Royale-relevant patch notes, straight from Epic Games:

Introducing Battle Lab:

• Jump into your own Battle Royale island and set the rules! Select from favorite LTM loot pools, set up combat scenarios with the new Bot Grenades, and create your own mode by setting options like gravity and fall damage.
• Fill your game with up to 15 friends on your own island, or matchmake with default options in a public Battle Lab.

New home for Playground:

• Looking for Playground? We've incorporated Playground under Creative. Play Creative maps with others by queuing for Creative and choosing "Play" instead of "Create."

We have temporarily disabled the DirectX 12 beta. Thank you for participating — we've gained valuable information. We're going to make some improvements and re-open the doors in early 2020.

Bug fixes:

Continued to make improvements regarding FPS drops and hitching on mobile devices.

The Fire/Build button on mobile devices is no longer unavailable when the Glider Redeploy button is shown.

Resolved an issue involving players being unable to exit the HUD Layout Tool on mobile devices.

Resolved an issue involving being able to see the Edit option on enemy walls.

The "Eliminations without aiming down sights" Dive! Challenge is now tracking progress properly.

Resolved an issue involving the "Join Party" option through "Joinable Parties" not working on controller.

The Item Shop countdown timer no longer appears out of sync for different players.
Resolved stability issues.

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What do you think of the new Battle Lab? Have you had a chance to give it a go yet? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!

Fortnite is currently available on just about everything imaginable, including PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the video game right here.