Fortnite Improves Useful Battle Royale Feature
Highlights
Fortnite has made the Upgrade Bench more affordable for players by decreasing the cost of upgrades, making it worth using. The first chapter of Fortnite was more rudimentary compared to the features and mechanics available in the game now, and most players wouldn’t want to go back to that state. While some gameplay additions, like various mobility options and weapon upgrades, have been successful, others, like Upgrade Benches, were poorly executed and had high costs that made them unappealing to use.
After realizing that the Upgrade Bench required too many gold bars per upgrade, Fortnite tweaked it slightly and made it much more affordable for its players. When Fortnite’s battle royale launched, not even half of the features and mechanics that fans can find in-game nowadays were made available. Many gamers feel quite nostalgic about the first Fortnite chapter, but there are many useful features that they would have to live without if they ever went back to the state of the game back in 2017. Even though various vaulted items played a special role in the game’s lifetime and helped it rise to success, the first chapter was quite rudimentary compared to what Fortnite is today.
The truth is that, in the last couple of years, Epic Games added tons of significant elements to the game, and most players wouldn’t be able to return to it without them being present. Back then, there were barely any mobility items besides launch pads, shopping carts, and impulse grenades, and that is not nearly enough to comfortably loot a location without having to worry about the Storm Circle. Gamers caused an uproar due to the lack of mobility items in Chapter 4 Season 3, and it still had tons of more options compared to Fortnite’s early days. With time, Epic added various vehicles, vines, ziplines, Slap Juice, and sprinting – undeniably great additions.
Unfortunately, not all gameplay additions have been as successful as these. Upgrade Benches were great in theory, as they allowed gamers to improve their weapons’ rarity in exchange for gold bars. However, this idea was poorly executed as it was simply too costly for it to be worth doing, so barely any players ever used them unless they had a quest that required them to do so. Thankfully, with the launch of Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 4, Epic Games decreased the gold required to upgrade weapons at the Upgrade Bench. It did this sneakily, as they didn’t even mention it in the patch notes.
Players had to pay 500 gold bars in order to upgrade an Epic rarity weapon at an Upgrade Bench in Chapter 4 Season 2, and now it costs half that amount. It can be difficult to earn gold bars in Fortnite, so not everyone is willing to use the Upgrade Bench and spend their resources on a weapon that will only last them one match.
Some gamers pointed out that this might not be intentional, and Epic Games might’ve simply forgotten to deactivate the Bargain Bin week discount on items purchased with gold. However, other purchasable wares, such as the items sold by Chapter 4 Season 4 NPCs, cost the same as before; this indicates that it might not be an error but a permanent change.
Fortnite is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.