Epic Games made a pretty critical change in Fortnite’s Chapter 3 Season 2 update wherein it turned off building completely while giving players more mobility and defenses to compensate for the change. Building has been preserved in the game’s competitive scene with the feature unaffected there, but for everyone else, that core part of the Fortnite experience is absent for an unknown amount of time. New discoveries, however, have suggested that Epic Games may in fact keep the no-build mode around in some capacity after this first run is over.
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We have Fortnite dataminer and news-sharer HYPEX to thank for that information after the Twitter user shared some discoveries online regarding the absence of building in Fortnite. Apparently, Epic Games has instated within Fortnite “separate no-building modes,” HYPEX said, which can be enabled at anytime after this event ends. That would mean that the no-building mode wouldn’t be kept as the sole Fortnite experience – which wouldn’t make much sense anyway because it’d mean ditching building entirely – but could instead be turned back on again should Epic Games deem it time to bring back a limited-time no-build mode in the future.
Another bit of evidence pointing to a future of no-build modes appearing off and on again in Fortnite comes from the loading screen tips present between matches. HYPEX said that these tips have apparently been adjusted to distinguish between modes which do have building and modes which don’t, a change which would only be necessary if Epic Games was planning on keeping the no-build mode around at least in some capacity in the future.
Whether these alternate Fortnite modes without building do come back in the future and how often that happens remains to be seen, but the change has been a pretty divisive one to be sure. Some players have flocked back to the game after hearing that matches rely much more heavily on shooter experience as opposed to builds while others have lamented the fact that such a core part of Fortnite has been removed even for a little while. The new Overshield mechanic that gives players an extra layer of protection over their normal shield and health amounts has evened out the experience a bit, however, so we’ll almost certainly see that feature returning in the future in various ways.