The word on the street might be #RIPFortnite, but Epic’s world-dominating Battle Royale shooter might have a few more tricks up its sleeve. The much anticipated (and annoying delayed) Season 3 is set to begin in June, but dataminers have found animations that seem to hint that we might be going beneath those azure island waves fairly soon.
Fortnite leakers @SkinTrackerCom were all over the recent patch, extracting the animation data (labelled “Underwater Swimming”) and showing us what this might look like.
Example:
Will show more when everything else is done pic.twitter.com/MHlYkjGtVS
— Skin-Tracker (@SkinTrackerCom) April 21, 2020
Going underwater makes sense for Fortnite. We’ve already been up in the air in biplanes and most recently helicopters (and, of course, we begin every match way up in the Battle Bus), but have only ever been able to swim along the surface of the water. While I don’t know whether Epic would add a breath gauge or not, this may open the way to a whole new set of specialized underwater equipment: scuba gear, submarines and the harpoon gun might become a bit more useful.
On top of all that, it’d add another layer of complexity to the game. Being able to duck beneath the waves is a great way to break line of sight and combat will only become trickier to master when players can freely move in all three dimensions.
But, as with all leaks, don’t take the presence of these animations as cast-iron confirmation that underwater swimming is being added. That said, word is that the new ability will be officially unveiled at an event very soon. And wouldn’t you know it, Travis Scott’s live Pandemonium concert takes place over the next few days. What better way to make this concert something special than for players to submerge?
After all, up on the shore they work all day, under the sun they slave away. While we devotin’, full time to floatin’, under the sea!
