In Fortnite a grave has appeared at a spot where a popular NPC is usually found. Players are now wondering what has happened there and are paying tribute to the supposedly dead character.
What NPC is this? Bushranger has been in the game since Chapter 2: Season 1 as one of the many skins in Fortnite. On the island, the friendly, living tree can also be found as an NPC with whom you can interact.
Bushranger is one of the most popular NPCs in the game. In 2019, he won the Community Choice against Rustler and Wake Rider. While he doesn’t really know how he ended up on the island, he enjoys being there.
Recently, Bushranger tried to make friends with the aliens that appeared in Season 7. He adopted an egg that you were supposed to help take care of. He was usually found near Risky Reels.
What happened to Bushranger? Where Bushranger usually waits for players, a fresh grave with a shovel beside it and flowers on top has been standing since July 29. When you approach the grave, calm music plays in the background.
Players are now fearing that something has happened to the friendly tree:
“Come on, stop messing with us! Please?”
This is how players are reacting: In the community, players are puzzled about what happened to Bushranger and whether the grave could really be his. Some players hope that “only” the hatched alien baby is buried there.
Others see the Imagined Order behind it, which effectively controls the island. They suspect that Bushranger’s efforts to befriend the aliens were unwelcome: “IO killed Bushranger because he adopted a parasite egg. IO viewed him as an alien sympathizer” (via reddit.com).
In any case, many players visit his grave and mourn him with emotes or small tributes. One player even depicted Bushranger with an alien as a tribute to the living tree:
Is Bushranger really dead? Whether it is really Bushranger’s grave has not yet been confirmed. However, a leak suggests that the grave is connected to the NPC in the data (via Twitter.com). But even if it is, that doesn’t mean the popular tree will stay dead for good.
The “Loop,” which resets time in Fortnite, could bring Bushranger back – unless, of course, the organization itself eliminated him. However, players suspect that Bushranger will meet the same fate as the popular Marvel tree Groot.
Groot simply returned as a baby sapling after his death. Players now hope that Bushranger could simply grow as a new, small tree on the grave – and maybe even become a baby cosmetic.
It is unusual for Fortnite to kill an NPC in the middle of an ongoing season, especially one so popular. The current Season 7 is expected to run until September 12, and such changes usually happen during a larger event at the season change.
Perhaps the grave and Bushranger’s disappearance also have something to do with the mysterious countdown that has appeared in Fortnite.
