Fortnite removes building: Why is there no building and when will it come back?
Fortnite no longer supports building in its battle-royale mode, and the Overshield is added instead.
If you've booted up Fortnite since Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2 began, you've probably already noticed that building has been removed from Fortnite. You might be wondering why that has happened and when building will come back to the game.
After all, building has been one of the core pillars of Fortnite's gameplay experience since the game's launch, with players creating shelters and other helpful things in order to dominate the battle-royale game, overcome their opponents and work around whichever other distractions pop up (and with Fortnite rolling out seasonal updates on the regular, there's almost always something to hide yourself away from if you want to succeed).
This is all changing at the moment, though, with building officially being removed from Fortnite in the game's latest season. Keep on reading to learn what that's all about!
Has building been removed from Fortnite?
Yes, building has been removed from Fortnite! In a massive overhaul to the overall mechanics of the game, Epic Games has opted to take building out of the battle-royale mode. This is part of the new seasonal event, Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2: Resistance, which started at the weekend.
Epic confirmed the news with a blog post on the official Fortnite website, saying in no uncertain terms: "Building has been wiped out!"
Here's an important note: building has only been removed from the main battle-royale game, with the other Fortnite modes keeping the mechanic for now.
Epic stated in the same blog post: "Building is unaffected in competitive/Arena playlists as well as in Team Rumble and Creative Islands." So if you're desperate for building, try one of those modes instead! There's a new Doctor Who Fortnite creative map if you fancy something different.
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Why is there no building in Fortnite?
As for the reasons behind this change, it seems that Epic Games has removed building from Fortnite because the developers want to challenge the players with some new defence mechanics.
The official blog explained: "To help maintain cover, you now have an Overshield on top of your Shield and Health. The Overshield is your first line of defense: before your Shield and Health take a hit, it’s your Overshield that’ll crack. Your Overshield will still recover if it goes all the way down to 0."
This use of multiple shields on top of your Health bar isn't that dissimilar to how defence works in games like Apex Legends, so perhaps Epic is testing the waters to see if players are keen to adopt that kind of tactical shield play that is so popular in other titles.
When will building come back to Fortnite?
Although this hasn't been confirmed by an official source, it seems plausible that building could return to Fortnite on 3rd June 2022 or at some point close to that date.
The battle pass page on the Fortnite website confirms that the current battle pass, the one tied to Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2, will end on 3rd June – so that's when you'll likely see the next wave of big changes, which could include the return of building to Fortnite. Watch this space, basically, and try to master the Overshield in the meantime!
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Authors
Rob Leane is the Gaming Editor at Radio Times, overseeing our coverage of the biggest games on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, mobile and VR. Rob works across our website, social media accounts and video channels, as well as producing our weekly gaming newsletter. He has previously worked at Den of Geek, Stealth Optional and Dennis Publishing.
