Fortnite is removing vehicles, vehicle items, and Nitro Fists from Ranked Battle Royale and Zero Build until July 18, and many players are hoping this long-requested change will become permanent.
Players have wanted Fortnite to have separate loot pools for Ranked and normal Battle Royale for a long while now, which makes sense! Ranked play is inherently more competitive and should be more reliant on player skill, so you'd expect it not to have all of the same items as more casual modes. It's for the same reason that Super Smash Bros. lets you pick which items you want available in matches or turn them off entirely; you can't say it's a fair fight when one player is lucky enough to have a golden hammer drop right next to them.
Anyway, back to Fortnite. In addition to separate loot pools, the All Sweat Summer event also makes characters no longer hireable, although hostile characters and bosses, along with their medallions, will still be there.
During All Sweat Summer, Ranked Battle Royale and Zero Build will be switching things up a bit! From July 4 to July 18:- Vehicles and vehicle items are disabled, including Boss Cars.- Nitro Fists are also disabled.- Characters are no longer Hireable, but hostile Characters… pic.twitter.com/nLBFutgq7uJuly 4, 2024
Although the event is active now and cars have indeed been removed from Ranked play, Epic has acknowledged a goof-up that somehow allowed Nitro Fists to slip through the cracks. "We are looking into this and will provide an update as soon as we have one," the company said in a Twitter update.
As for the change to separate loot pools generally, it seems like pretty much everyone is happy and hopes for this to become a permanent thing.
"100% ranked deserves to be a separate experience without the gimmicks and everyone can co exist, this is all [competitive] players have ever wanted, not to control the landscape but to have a space in the game," reads a popular response from LibertyInAgony.
"This is a huge step in the right direction," echoed myMcLarenP1. "This is what every comp player wanted at the beginning of this season. However, I’m not sure if this will boost Ranked significantly as Reload still has a better lootpool and is sweatier."
"One of the biggest W changes in YEARS, hopefully it leads into them adding Siphon to Ranked, and Ranked will finally be good after all this time," said DepressiveMiki.
Right now, it seems like the plan is to revert the change when the event ends on July 18, but it's certainly telling that Epic said, "We’re very closely monitoring your feedback." As many are speculating online, the company could very well be treating this like a test run to see if it's popular, and depending on the feedback, it could consider making it a permanent change in the future.
Looking to burn some rubber? Check out our Fortnite sports cars guide for a run-down on where to find them and what you can do with them.
