In Fortnite, “Save the World” is becoming a troubled child. With Patch 5.2 came deep-rooted issues: crashes, bugs, and apparently a dupe exploit. Many are reminded of the old Diablo days. Epic has temporarily disabled the game’s chat.
These two major public bugs were known: Patch 5.2 came to Fortnite on August 7th. Since then, the “Save the World” mode, i.e. the PvE, has massive problems.
There’s not only a worm in there, but they have caught the plague:
- First, Fortnite crashed significantly more often than before
- Then, there were no rewards in missions with 4 players anymore
Both are catastrophic errors for a running game, even if Fortnite “Save the World” is still officially in Early Access.
While Epic has been working on these issues, reports have emerged over the past week that the actual plague in Fortnite lies elsewhere.
Dupe bug emerged: With Patch 5.2, a possible exploit came to Fortnite, allowing players to duplicate items. A so-called “dupe exploit.”
With the exploit, it was possible to copy an item. If you copied a stack of 200 items, you then had 400 items of that material.
This exploit was spread and discussed via YouTube. Videos there have around 500,000 views.
Epic confirms glitch: Some people banned
What does Epic say? This dupe exploit has been publicly confirmed by Epic. In the Reddit forum, a producer said last week:
„We know this week has been tough for us and for the Save the World community. […] You pointed out some ugly things to us.”
The producer further states that unfortunately, they had to ban some people. Epic warns against using this exploit.
What is being duplicated? Apparently, players have been duplicating rare materials on a large scale. In Fortnite, players need resources to craft weapons if they have the schematics for them.
Especially strong weapons require particularly rare and high-level resources.
For some players, farming resources and searching for weapons with perfect perks is the main occupation. They fear that such a dupe could sustainably harm Fortnite.
Bug under control? Even though Epic seems to have this bug under control, it is a concerning development that such errors can occur in a large game like Fortnite.
Moreover, there are increasing signs that further such “dupe exploits” could be in circulation. This threatens the stability and future of the game.
Because it is not guaranteed that the next dupe exploit will be made public and can be eliminated.
Problems like in the early days of Diablo
The problem with Fortnite “Save the World”: Anyway, “Save the World” has had significant issues with item management since the release, reminding one of the early days of online players: In the chat, one constantly reads about “scammers” who cheat others out of their weapons and items.
Scamming in Fortnite has become so widespread that people who want to trade often feel compelled to declare: “I am not a scammer!”
How to trade in Fortnite? In Fortnite, it is conditionally possible to trade items and resources with each other. But this does not operate through an orderly system like in World of Warcraft, but by “Put that on the ground, I will pick it up and give you mine” like in the worst days of Diablo.
In Diablo 2, a scam was almost legendary: the so-called “Stone of Jordan” scam. Even in Diablo, one had to trust a stranger and there were always people being scammed. Diablo 2 was also known for “dupe exploits.” This led to nothing holding value in certain modes.
This “scamming” has been causing trouble in Fortnite for months. At any time, one can follow the dramas in Fortnite’s chat when someone has been scammed again and is shouting their frustration about the injustice.
Epic reacts with a muzzle for all
First, chat disabled: Currently, Epic has disabled the normal chat and the founder chat in Fortnite: “Save the World” (via reddit). They are now working on this chat function, possibly to implement a new system there.
Epic says the old chat system did not achieve what they wanted. Whether Epic meant: “There was too much scamming via chat” is not entirely clear. However, it seems likely.
Note: For understandable reasons, we do not want to elaborate on how exactly items are duplicated or how others are scammed in Fortnite.
