Since its debut in 2017, Fortnite Battle Royale has grown to become one of the most popular games in the world. It's easily one of the biggest third-person shooters out there right now, and soon it will offer players another perspective.
Epic Games announced that a new first-person experience is launching next week. Called "Ballistic," this new mode is launching in Early Access on December 11th with Ranked and Unranked playlists.
"Ballistic is an adrenaline-filled, round-based 5v5 competitive game mode where strategy, tactical teamwork, and individual prowess are essential for victory," Epic explained.
Ballistic's early access launch will feature the Skyline 10 map, a starting set of weapons, and a limited number of items. Post-launch adjustments will be made based on player feedback. Like Fortnite's other game modes, players can expect new maps, weapons, and features to be added.
Ballistic will support many of the cosmetics from Fortnite, including Outfits, Back Blings, Kicks, Wraps, Sprays, and Emotes. Pickaxes, Contrails, Instruments, Vehicles, and Jam Tracks are no supported, which makes sense since this is a no-build mode and there's no jumping from the Battle Bus.
Ballistic will dive players into two teams at the start of the match: attackers and defenders. Attackers must plant a reality-tearing Rift Point Device at one of two sites on the map, while defenders must try and stop them. There are no respawns, and the round ends if the Rift Point Device explodes or either team is fully eliminated. Players will swap sides after six rounds, and the game ends when either team has won seven rounds total.
Every player begins the match with a Ranger Pistol and 800 Credits. Credits, which can be earned by scoring eliminations and planting the Rift Point Device, can be spent at the beginning of every round to purchase additional items or weapons. If you survive the round, you keep all of your gear and shields. You can also drop weapons, smoke grenades, and flashbangs for your teammates and pick them up from eliminated players.
Simply planting the Rift Point Device will not result in a win as it takes 45 seconds to detonate, so you'll want to make sure you successfully defend it. You'll also want to make sure you get away from the blast radius as you can get eliminated from the blast and lose any gear you have.
Both Unranked and Ranked modes are supported. Unranked is a more casual experience for those who just want to experience the action and fun of Fortnite in the first-person. You can leave the match at any moment and it will add another player as a backfill with no penalty.
Ranked is a more competitive environment. If you leave mid-match, you will receive a ranked penalty and will no be able to join another match for a period of time. If you get disconnected from a match, you have a three-minute grace period to to rejoin before the penalty is applied.
At this point, Epic Games has not said anything about bringing the first-person perspective to Fortnite's standard battle royale game mode.