The Single Biggest Change ‘Fortnite’ Needs For The Season 12 Battle Pass

Epic Games needs to stop ruining a good thing.

Credit: Epic Games

Back when Fortnite’s Season X came out, Epic Games made some huge changes to the Battle Pass. It became much more unwieldy and complicated, with quasi-themed Mission Bundles replacing normal weekly challenges.

That, in and of itself, was essentially fine. But a bigger, more insidious change was also made: Epic started locking challenges out, forcing players to complete challenges in order to unlock more. So a bundle of nine challenges would have only three unlocked at the beginning and more would unlock as you completed those.

That might not sound like a big deal, but it goes against everything this game has stood for since the inception of the Battle Pass. Let me explain.

One of the great things about Fortnite’s challenges has always been variety. There are challenges for every type of player. These can include really simple things like searching chests or dancing at certain locations. Sometimes challenges are more like scavenger hunts or quirky tasks like playing songs on giant pianos. And many challenges are combat-related, tasking players with doing damage with a specific type of weapon or getting eliminations at Named Locations.

The great thing about this has always been the idea that you can complete whichever challenges you want in any order you want. You could also complete multiple challenges at once from every weekly and daily challenge available. Now, with so many locked challenges, that’s less doable. You also can find yourself stuck on certain challenges that may not be your strong point.

There is no sensible reason for these challenges to be locked.

Credit: Epic Games

It’s frustrating and, more than anything, a totally unnecessary change that makes no sense from a game design standpoint. It does nothing to benefit players and, if anything, makes the Battle Pass more grindy for no good reason.

In Season 12, it would be great to see this format revert back to how things used to be. By all means, keep the themed mission bundles. Those can be fun. Just don’t lock challenges behind completion. The only time that makes sense is in a multi-stage challenge.

For instance, the challenge where you had to find piano sheet music then go play it, then find another piece of sheet music and go play that on a different piano. Each stage was locked behind completion of the first stage, which makes perfect sense. It doesn’t make sense to just lock up totally unrelated challenges, however, and makes the whole experience more tedious.

Season 12 will arrive someday in the distant future once the never-ending Season 11 finally ends. We hope.

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