As the saying goes, competition breeds innovation and nowhere else is that truer than in the games industry. Despite managing to comfortably retain its crown as king of the battle royale following Apex Legends‘ launch, Fortnite fans have made note of several innovative features Respawn’s genre entry has introduced, most notably its lauded ping system. In lieu of that feature’s success, Epic has since introduced its own, albeit simpler, version as a means of providing alternative forms of communication, but that’s not the only component it seemingly plans to borrow.
The ability to respawn in any competitive multiplayer environment is hardly a novel idea, though, in Apex Legends‘ case, it’s the first battle royale to allow a second chance at life. Though there’s a strict set of rules that apply to the system – players must first secure the banner of a fallen comrade and carry it to one of several respawn beacons – its presence has proven to add a whole new layer of strategy to a largely homogenized genre and Epic has clearly seen the value in having it for its own game.
As part of a recent update to Fortnite Season 8, fans have noted the addition of several new mysterious vans scattered throughout Battle Island. Following several thorough data-mining sessions, evidence was discovered pointing to their future use as respawn terminals.
Despite the leaks, Epic has unsurprisingly remained tight-lipped on the subject, though further evidence found recently appears to suggest that the so-called respawn vans will soon go into active duty. Serial data miner Lucas7yoshi has unearthed a series of references to the mechanic, some of which appear to suggest that, in order to use any individual van, players will first be required to make a donation in the form of weapons or various materials.
See below for the full details:
Some stuff from the second chance/resurrection/respawn van
MatNumberToGive=100
AmmoNumberToGive=75
MatsToGive=Wood
AmmoToGive=Medium
WeaponToGive: =WID_Assault_Auto_Athena_C_Ore_T02 (COMMON)"Reboot Squad Members"
"Rebooting"
"Recharging"Blocks build near it.
— Lucas7yoshi_ // Fortnite BR Leaks & News (@lucas7yoshi_) March 30, 2019
As always, everything you see above should be taken with a generous dose of salt, though this would be far from the first time that whistleblowers have accurately outed unannounced features. Accurate or not though, what opinions do you hold of Fortnite introducing a respawn mechanic akin to Apex Legends‘ in the near future? Let us know in the usual place below.
