In Fortnite: Battle Royale the long-awaited Avengers mode Endgame has started. In it, you fight either for Thanos or the Avengers for the six Infinity Stones. Our Fortnite and Avengers fan Jürgen has played the new mode.
If you know me, you know that since Apex Legends and the rather disappointing 8th season for me Fortnite is currently not ranking high on my top list of games.
However, all of that changed with the new game mode Endgame!
The Basics of Endgame
This is how Endgame works: Even when I was writing the news about the patch notes for update 8.5, I thought, “Wow, the new mode sounds awesome!”
Because you fight in a 20vs20 format with respawns either as an Avengers team or Thanos’ Chituari army for six Infinity Stones that gradually appear on the map.
The Chituari have a total of 100 respawns and start fully equipped with a laser, an energy grenade launcher, and a jetpack. They cannot carry any additional equipment and cannot heal. However, they can harvest and build.
If the Chituari find a stone, the lucky finder becomes Thanos, who has the already known powers from last year.
The Avengers have unlimited respawns as long as the Chituari have not found all six Infinity Stones. The Avengers are regular Fortnite heroes. They start with two weapons and a treasure map. This leads to one of five special Avengers items:
- Iron Man’s Repulsor Gloves
- Hawkeye’s Bow
- Thor’s Stormbreaker Axe
- Captain America’s Vibranium Shield
Fortnite is Fun Again!
How does the new mode play out? In my first round of Endgame, I was assigned to the Avengers team. Fitting with the new Black Widow outfit that I had acquired earlier.
As soon as the round started, all Avengers ran around and grabbed cool weapons. Thanks to my treasure map, I found Thor’s mighty Stormbreaker Axe. It works similarly to the hated Infinity Sword from Season 7. You can deal damage in close combat and make huge jumps. You can also throw it and have it return to you.
However, my first kill was still a Chituari who was camping stupidly on the horizon and whom I shot with the assault rifle.
Once I was in the fray, the action really kicked off. An Infinity Stone appeared and a few Avengers defended it against a horde of Chituari. My team was not fully assembled as some were still looking for weapons.
This is how the two factions differ: The Chituari, who start completely equipped and cannot pick anything up, did not have this problem, so they always move focused towards the respective stone, which at least at the start of the game automatically leads to a Chituari overpopulation.
This is why the purple aliens also burst easily, because although their lasers are quite strong, they have little chance against powerful weapons like Hawkeye’s explosive arrows or Iron Man’s repulsors. Thus, the aliens always pay a high price when they confront well-fortified Avengers.
However, if Thanos is there, the tide turns quickly, as the Titan takes down careless Avengers. However, he is not invulnerable either, because unlike in 2018, there are now strong Avengers weapons against him.
A Delightful Chaos!
This is how a round of Endgame develops: With each stone that Team Thanos loses, the tide turns more in favor of the Chituari. Because for every stone, all Chituari gain 25 additional points of health and shield, and Thanos learns new tricks.
Therefore, every round of Endgame becomes more intense and exciting as it progresses.
The Chituari’s recipe for success is to limit their own losses until the last phase, while the Avengers are doing the opposite. They are usually superior individually and can also throw themselves at the enemy recklessly.
Until the “Endgame” at the end, because then their respawns suddenly disappear, and often an extremely close battle ignites between Thanos and his last Chituari and the remaining Avengers in a very confined space.
Conclusion: A Whole New Fortnite
This is why I like Endgame so much: I love the fast action of Fortnite, but I still don’t like building, and I would like various heroes like in Apex Legends. Endgame fulfills both desires for me, at least partially.
Because of the overwhelmingly powerful Avengers weapons and the Chituari with their grenades as well as Thanos’ superpowers, even mighty fortifications collapse like houses of cards. Of course, building is still useful, but by far not as relevant as in the regular modes.
And because of the different equipment of the two factions, each creates a unique gaming feeling:
- The Chituari must – especially at the beginning of the game – tactically proceed as a team and optimally utilize “their” Thanos to drive away the Avengers and capture the essential stones. Only then can they become stronger and win in the end.
- The Avengers, on the other hand, are initially a bunch of lone fighters who play differently depending on weapon selection and can effectively clear out the enemies. However, they are fighting a losing battle, because with every stone that is captured, the opponent grows stronger and their advantage fades.
This is how the new mode creates a unique tension that lasts from the first to the last second.
This is how Fortnite becomes fun for me again, and I hope that Epic will provide even more cool new modes in the future.
