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If you thought Fortnite underwent some big changes, wait until you see the Save the World mode

It’s almost like a brand new game!

Fortnite season 8
Image: Josh Knowles / KnowTechie

Season 8 of Fortnite is here and by now you’ve already heard about some major changes to the world and the game itself. While Josiah covered a good bit of what is different this time around, there were a few things that an experienced try-hard like me was able to find in addition. We’ll talk more about that in a bit.

However, the real Fortnite, also known as Save the World, went through some drastic changes as well. In fact, I’d bet that these changes were far more earth-shattering than the battle royale portion of the title.

For a while now, Fortnite: Save the World has been languishing. In some ways, the game seemed like an understandable afterthought to Battle Royale, which as everyone knows is making money hand-over-fist. While changes and updates were slowly dribbled out with a little content to keep players busy each season, there was a lot that became stagnant. It seemed that many heroes were becoming re-skins of each other and you either had a good character or two or you didn’t.

Switching between those good characters was a pain because you would need to re-assign your two support units to maximize abilities. Everything was slow, bulky and unfun. Sometime before Xmas, Epic announced that they had plans for a hero rework which would individualize each and every hero and add a lot of variety to the game. Months went by and there wasn’t much, that is until season 8 landed and the hero rework with it.

More about Save the World and its hero rework

Now, I think that I may be getting ahead of myself for those of you that have no idea what Save the World is, so let’s take a quick step back to shed some light. In Fortnite: Save the World, you chose a hero from one of four different classes; ninjas, outlanders, constructors, and soldiers. Each hero class has their own strengths and weaknesses.

Fortnite season save the world changes

Image: Josh Knowles / KnowTechie

Ninjas are highly mobile attackers that have skills for relatively close range combat. Outlanders are build to support teams and farm up valuable resources while having access to unique gadgets. Constructors are really good at building things and keeping things out of their buildings. Finally, soldiers shoot things and are really good at shooting those things.

Players tackle mission after mission, fighting waves of zombies and saving civilians, all while learning more about the storm that has turned most of the population into the undead. The story is actually pretty good, the characters are fantastic, and it is a welcome departure from jumping on the battlebus and trying to kill everyone before they kill you.

As you now know what Save the World is, I can explain what the hero rework did and how it completely changes Save the World and why you may want to play it.

For the longest time, there was an issue with characters in Save the World and their variety. Most classes had two slight varieties with some bonuses on a targeted goals. Two soldiers may have different abilities and benefit from using particular weapons. The issue was that sometimes that variety would make a character really bad because of a lack of use from their skills or absurdly overpowered because that utilize everything that makes their class good.

In the hero rework, every character has their own unique special ability that sets them out from one another. A lot of these abilities actually changes in the rework altogether as well. For example, First Shot Rio excelled at shooting enemies in the head and gained bonuses for doing so. Now, First Shot Rio instead gets bonuses for the first 6 bullets in her gun every time she reloads. Obviously, anyone that has played games with stats like that already sees how you could spike First Shot Rio’s damage through the roof.

But wait, there’s more!

The hero rework also changed heroes in a way that I don’t think any Save the World player could imagine. You can now create Hero Loadouts, which are the hero you plan on using and five other heroes that you want to benefit from. Those extra heroes lend some version of their unique abilities. Using the right characters can make your playable heroes’ abilities stronger or give them particular benefits.

Fortnite season save the world changes

Image: Josh Knowles / KnowTechie

First Shot Rio can allow any other character to benefit from her unique ability with the first few shots of their weapon, which is weaker than her six, but still powerful. This now allows for players to be able to go through all of their available characters (rarity doesn’t matter to ability) and build out your character classes and ways that make their characters incredibly unique. For example, I built out a ninja, Snuggle Specialist Sarah, do deal massive damage with one of her abilities on a whim. As it turned out, it works amazing and the additional passives make her almost unkillable as well.

This is such a huge deal because there is no longer one or two heroes at the top of the mountain for each class. You can literally create a character specifically for your gameplay style and go to town from there. This creates layers upon layers for these characters and really makes anyone that is serious about Save the World find a reason to jump back in and go to town.

On top of the hero rework, Epic also drastically improved the XP you get for leveling everything up. This is allowing players that are well behind their friends to catch up much faster, so if you are worries about jumping into a game that is almost two years old, you can rest assured that your can catch up quickly and easily.

What about Battle Royale though?

Like I said before, Josiah gave a pretty succinct synopsis of what to expect with Fortnite Season 8, but some of the points definitely deserve more time. When you play Battle Royale, there is something called a battle pass that gives you targeted missions to complete each week. These missions give you experience and also unlock certain cosmetics as well. Unfortunately, for many people that just aren’t good at particular aspects of the game, sometimes those missions were almost impossible.

Fortnite season 8 changes

Image: Josh Knowles / KnowTechie

Now, you can share a mission with your squad, so any other player can help contribute to your mission’s completion. This also works with daily missions as well, which is really cool because it means that with the right friends, no one can hold you back from accomplishing this season’s special goals. This means you can spend more time trying to get that victory royale or having fun during special events.

The ping system is also far more robust that we initially thought. Players can not only ping areas on the map, they can also warn their teammates of oncoming threats. The ping ability lets players mark weapons and items on the battlefield, this almost eliminates all those times that your one teammate (we all have one) is stuck running around because they just can’t find your gear. The ping system allows Fortnite Battle Royale to allow for non-verbal communication, which is a huge selling point that people seem to love about Apex Legends.

I see you, Epic Games.

What do you think of the updates to Fortnite? Still playing? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Longtime games journalist and Florida resident. I'm a Guinness World Record holder, wordsmith extraordinaire, MOBA fan, devoted dad and husband. I'm here to spread the gospel of video games.

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