Fortnite's Battle Royale and Zero Build modes are finally getting a ranked mode almost six years since the game's original release, arriving with Fortnite Update 24.40.
Update: Fortnite's Ranked mode has been delayed, following a delay to update 24.40.
Epic Games has announced that Fortnite will finally be receiving a ranked mode as part of Fortnite Update 24.40, which is set to launch on Wednesday, May 17. Ranked will be available across both Battle Royale and Zero Build modes when Fortnite Ranked Season 0 arrives and runs for the remainder of Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2, with the first proper ranked season launching alongside Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 3, which is set to launch on Friday, June 9.
The announcement was made by Epic Games on it's Fortnite News website, and went in to some extra detail about what the ranked mode will entail. Players will fight their way through Bronze rank all the way up to the top of the mountain 'Unreal Rank' with players starting rank being determined by their previous match performance as well as their performance in their first Ranked match.
In the Fortnite Ranked Season 0 ruleset Solos, Duos, and Squads will be available for ranked play in Battle Royale mode, while players of the (far superior) Zero Build mode will be limited to Duos only. Epic Games hasn't confirmed if more modes will arrive with Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 3, but the wording implies that more options (such as Zero Build Solos and Squads) will likely be added later down the line.
Fortnite Ranked ranks
Now that ranks are involved, Epic Games has also announced some balance adjustments made to games in Fortnite Ranked Season 0 (much like how some of the events in the Compete tab have specific items disabled), however, these balance adjustments only seem to affect Battle Royale players as they all are based around reducing the amount of building materials available to players, these adjustments are as follows:
Material caps will be decreased from 999 to 500.
Harvesting rates will be slightly increased.
Players will drop 50 of each material when they are eliminated.
No such restrictions have been enabled for Zero Build, so no worries there.
There's 18 ranks in total to push your way through, these are as follows:
- Bronze 1
- Bronze 2
- Bronze 3
- Silver 1
- Silver 2
- Silver 3
- Gold 1
- Gold 2
- Gold 3
- Platinum 1
- Platinum 2
- Platinum 3
- Diamond 1
- Diamond 2
- Diamond 3
- Elite
- Champion
- Unreal
Players who reach Unreal will remain in that rank for the remainder of the season no matter what, you could go on a 15 game losing streak and still stay there without issue. Obviously you don't want to go on a losing streak, but it's a good badge of honour that can't be lost on a fluke. Not that It'll matter to me, I'll see you all in Bronze 1 tomorrow!
