[GameSpot] - Fortnite Season 8 Betrays The Game's Usually Great Battle Pass, But A Fix Is Coming

[343iBot]

Fortnite popularized the now-ubiquitous battle pass and has long been seen as one of the games that gets it right, but Season 8's new challenge and XP system seem to slow progress to a crawl, and Fortnite fans aren't thrilled so far. While the mysterious cubes' migration patterns keep players invested on a story level, players who want to quickly and consistently tier-up in the Season 8 battle pass are finding it harder than usual. Season 8 is a grind so far, and players are waiting for a fix.

Check the Fortnite Twitter and Subreddit and you'll see dozens of comments under every post where players are begging for more XP. Some players are calling it the worst XP system Fortnite has ever implemented. I haven't been playing since the earliest days, so I can't speak to the entire timeline, but I agree it's the slowest, grindiest leveling system implemented in Fortnite Chapter 2.

The problem with Fortnite's Season 8 XP system is that there aren't enough challenges to chase for the players who dedicate many hours a day to the game. Past seasons have included milestone challenges, which rewarded thousands of XP for players who crossed certain benchmarks throughout the season. These would often revolve around things you'd inevitably do anyway, like recording headshots and eliminations, but also simple things that you might miss if not for the XP on offer, such as lighting campfires or burning down structures.

Seriously this is the worst XP system we've had..
VALK_MAIN_420 pic.twitter.com/bg63xwb7Ea

— Fortnite News (@FortniteINTEL) September 15, 2021

These milestone challenges would reward players at several intervals. For example, in Season 7, you'd get 12,000 XP for lighting three, 15, 50, 100, and 150 campfires cumulatively across the season. There were dozens of milestone challenges, which ensured basically everything you did was attached to a challenge and you were almost always on the cusp of hitting another milestone in one category or another. But Season 8 removes milestones entirely, and while there have been seasons without them before, the issue doesn't end there.

Season 8 also reworks NPCs, giving each character on the island five challenges in a lightly story-driven questline all of their own. On launch day of Fortnite Season 8, this felt thrilling. There was so much to do, it seemed. But by the end of even just the first day, many of the more committed players, like me, had already completed all 15 questlines available and were left waiting for an update. More NPCs were promised, but here in Week 2, just one was added. That means only five new quests came to the game this week, as compared to the 12 or so players are used to from recent seasons.

Even worse, those five don't reward nearly as much XP as weekly challenges normally would. The new Wrath quests in Week 2 dole out 80,000 XP in total. Compare that to a typical week from last season which would equate to nearly 400,000 XP and it's obvious there is a sudden and surprising dearth of XP gains to be had in Season 8. Players quickly flocked to Impostors mode to make up the difference in XP, but Epic then halved XP gains in that mode too.

Worst XP system we've had in the game?

What are your thoughts?

HantizX pic.twitter.com/o7u7dOA33q

— Fortnite News (@FortniteINTEL) September 21, 2021

I love the attention to story, and giving each character their own questline helps flesh them out beyond a surface level of just being a cool-looking skin, which for so long was the standard in Fortnite. Epic began to ramp up the narrative focus like never before in Season 7, and that's a change I hope is permanent. But Season 7 also rewarded players with enough XP to level up a few times each season, typing weekly quests to Doctor Slone's alien war story in inventive ways that were easier to follow. Season 8 sees even more story, but merely a fraction of the XP, and I don't really understand why.

My best guess is Epic wants players to stay invested for the long haul. Last season I hit tier 244, which is 44 levels after the last battle pass reward was unlocked. I'm likely in a minority of players who keep playing long after everything is unlocked, so the Season 8 XP slowdown seems designed to keep other players from hitting the top battle pass tier well before the end of the season. I can understand that approach, but even then I wonder what math Epic has referred to that instructed the Fortnite team to shave off over 300,000 weekly challenge XP from players' schedules. It seems like there's a happy medium that is being ignored, and I'm not the only one who has noticed.

The community outcry has been noticed by Epic, who this week announced it will be making adjustments to improve XP gains. The developer has promised more details on the changes that are coming to battle royale next week, though it's unclear if that means those changes will go into effect on the same day.

We've noticed that XP gained in Battle Royale this season isn't where we'd like it to be and are making a variety of improvements.
We'll update everyone on 9/28 with the changes we're making. Thanks for playing Season 8! pic.twitter.com/OP2xWgnVpV

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) September 21, 2021

Fortnite popularized the battle pass four years ago and has long been seen as one of the shining exemplars of the system, giving players fun rewards that they can earn by playing only consistently, not breathlessly. Its tier 100 rewards always seemed within reach. This season betrays that model by demanding players grind out challenges a little at a time, often waiting several days between new tiers.

On one hand, it's odd the season even launched with a system so poor, but Epic loves to tinker and tends to adjust on the fly, so I suppose as long as the forthcoming update rectifies the issues with XP grinds, all will be quickly forgotten by the Fortnite community. I think Epic has earned the trust of players to quickly fix an issue, even if this one was a unique unforced error after years of blazing the battle pass trail.

View the full article