Fortnite Sword – Fortnite Teases New Weapon

If I was to sum the video up in one word, “swords” …or “sword”, rather. All this video really tells us is that the next big Fortnite content drop is going to be somehow related to swords, but I think there are a few reasonable speculations we can make based on the potential inclusion of a new melee weapon.

The most immediate idea that comes to mind is some sort of play on the Thanos limited game mode from Season 4. It was a well-received event in the past that created a lot of fun, unique situations in the game and Fortnite could be looking to capitalize on the same kind of situation again. We could see something to the effect of a single sword being embedded in the ground in the snowy region of the map, whether its spawn location is permanently set to one spot or dynamically changes every game. The players that pick up the sword could be granted increased mobility and health while only being able to use the sword for melee attacks, making it so they have to play carefully to avoid getting gunned down from afar.

A second limited game mode that could appear is one much like the previously described Thanos variant, but this more-so involves the setting of the teaser video. One person could be randomly selected in the pre-game lobby to have the sword for the match, while everyone else plays as a standard character. The sword-wielding player is spawned into the map on top of Polar Peak to allow a few moments of respite before the other players are dropped in from the battle bus. Once everyone has landed it becomes a 99 versus 1 situation with the 99 standard players working together to bring down the super-powered player with the sword.

Another plausible gameplay concept we could see is melee weapons being introduced into the standard Fortnite game mode. We’ve seen that Epic isn’t afraid to try new things with Fortnite, and HiRez’s Realm Royale showed that, when properly balanced, melee weapons and ranged weapons can both exist in a battle royale. In this situation it would be hard to imagine the melee weapons wouldn’t have more damage than a pickaxe, probably ranging somewhere from 30 to 150 damage based on the quality of the weapon itself. This implementation of melee weapons could provide an appealing risk-reward scenario for players that like to get up-close and personal with their opponents.

Infinitely less exciting, but still a very feasible option is the sword could be the first Legendary-quality harvesting tool. If this is the case, we would really like to see Epic Games create a separate harvesting character animation because the current one would look ridiculous with a sword in a character’s hands.

What exactly is in store for us with the new Fortnite sword? Who knows, but it will be interesting to see what Epic Games finally reveals they’re hinting at with this Fortnite teaser video.