Paladins: Battlegrounds Revealed, Hero-Shooter Battle Royale Free to All Players This Year

This morning at the HRX 2018 keynote presentation, Hi-Rez Studios announced that its hit free-to-play hero shooter Paladins will presenting its very own 100-player Battle Royale mode, called Battlegrounds. Paladins Battlegrounds will be rolling out this year, and will be free for all Paladins players. Check out the brand new trailer above!

No one saw this coming, and it's something we didn't know we wanted until we heard about it. With the Battle Royale craze reaching its apex, we wondered how the genre might be driven forward, and by whom. Paladins: Battlegrounds represents the very first hero-shooter battle royale game, and the fact that every player will be able to take advantage of their hero's unique abilities and work together with a team will shake things up in a serious, and seriously fun, way.

So here's how this is all going to go down: Players are going to spawn on a huge fantasy map over 300-times the size of a typical Paladins siege map. Players will ride out into the map in teams of four, scout over four dozen outposts for pickups, and track zeppelins which drop legendary gear. Over the course of the match each team's constituent players will become incredibly powerful, and as the fog of war contracts, the fighting will become more intense. Who will be the last team standing?

Paladins' executive producer Todd Howard thinks that Battlegrounds can offer a satisfying mashup of the battle royale hooks that we're used to, and more innovative, MMO style strategy. "Riding on a mount through this massive fantasy-themed map, looking for gear and cooperating with your team, Paladins: Battlegrounds delivers some of the feel of open-world MMO PvP but all within a 20-minute match."

So there you have it. It's the survivalist thrill of the battle royale games we already love, with pinch of teamwork, and a dash of insane hero-shooter super-powers. We'll be very eager to see how players adapt to this formula and see how it changes the overall meta of the genre. We'll be going hands on here at HRX, and we'll report back with our impressions. Stay tuned!