After zero builds let players experience combat without any contraptions last year, Epic Games has announced Fortnite’s next major shakeup for matchmaking: ranked across multiple modes starting with this week’s v24.40 patch. The games made will be available to all.
Season Zero of Ranked Play will be available in both the standard Battle Royale and Zero Build modes, and will run until the end of Chapter 4 Season 3 later this summer. The time will allow the Fortnite team to “make any adjustments to those issues and concerns, working on additional features and overall improvements when it begins to follow the normal Battle Royale season schedule.”
Standard Battle Royale will allow ranks for Solo, Duo, and Squads, while Zero Build will only allow ranks for Duo in Season Zero. Ranks will also be different between Battle Royale and Zero Build, meaning players will be able to rank independently in one format without being affected by the other.
When Rank Mode is activated, a player’s rank will increase or decrease based on the following criteria:
- match placement
- Number of eliminations by both individual and team
- Eliminations later in the match will count more than eliminations earlier in the match.
- The rank of the removed opposing players will be taken into account.
- A team’s rank will be determined based on the highest ranked player on the team
- For example, a team with Gold 1 rank, two Silver 1 ranks and a Bronze 2 rank will be awarded Gold 1.
All players will start with the Bronze rank, and they will advance through the ranks in the following order: Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Elite, Champion, and Unreal. Each tier from Bronze to Diamond will have three ranks, while Elite, Champion and Unreal will have one rank each.
When a player reaches Unreal Rank, they remain there for the remainder of that season. However, they will also be given a number representing their position among all other Unreal Level players around the world, which they can also track on a special Unreal Leaderboard. If you don’t want to appear on the leaderboard, you will be able to hide yourself from the list through the privacy settings.
Lastly, this new mode will also have special cosmetic rewards available through Ranked Urgent Quests, which must be completed in a single match. The final reward for Ranked Season Zero is the Burnt Bright emote.
Fortnite now Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PC and mobile devices to download for free. Ranked Mode will be available with the implementation of the v24.40 patch, which is scheduled for this Tuesday, May 16th.
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