8 Fortnite gameplay features that we miss and want to see back in Battle Royale

Part of what keeps Fortnite Battle Royale such a fresh, unique experience even after seven years of existence (and for many more to come, we’re sure) is that the developers at Epic are constantly updating the map – in particular the map’s constituents, such as interactive architecture, tamable and antagonistic wildlife and even dynamically shifting weather.

The double-edged sword of a constantly updated map and meta however is that certain features – fan favorites or not – eventually get vaulted in favor of new ones.

In this piece we’ll go over some of our favorite Fortnite gameplay features that we miss and want to see reintegrated into the game at some point.

Tornadoes

In real life, tornadoes are frightening, violent weather phenomena which can uproot trees, shred homes and buildings and destroy pretty much everything in their path.

In Fortnite, tornadoes are still frightening, violent and can suck up trees, rocks and buildings in their destructive path but your character can also jump directly into the whirling column of air, float around in the eye of the storm among chunks of debris and subvortices as the tornado twists about the map and then jump out and redeploy your glider after hitching a ride.

Logical or realistic? Not even close.

Fun as all hell? You bet your sweet skin.

One of the coolest occurrences with a tornado in-game for us didn’t even involve hitching a ride on one; instead, it was in witnessing a tornado, which whirled into a stretch of ocean on the coast of the Battle Royale island, suck a Loot Shark into its funnel-shaped death zone and then dump it out onto dry land where it flopped around on the ground like a stranded tuna.

However, tornadoes haven’t been seen in the game since Chapter 3, Season 2, right around the time that the IO Warships were added.

Now that it’s been a few years, tornadoes are one of our favorite Fortnite gameplay features that we miss and want to see back in the game. Let’s hope they add Loot Sharks back into the game right around the same time they do it too.

Oh, speaking of Loot Sharks…

Loot Sharks

Uh oh. You hear that ominous music playing that sounds a lot like the Jaws theme??

That means a Loot Shark is about to swim up some unsuspecting prey in Fortnite. While an enormous great white shark with glowing eyes, rows of razor-sharp teeth and 2000 hit points that can shatter builds with a single thrash is just as frightening as it sounds, there’s one catch to be had with Loot Sharks.

Or should that be “attempted catch?” Because if you throw down a fishing line in front of a Loot Shark and it takes the bait, it’ll cut through the water at breakneck speed, dragging you behind it the entire time like some cartilaginous jetski.

As counterintuitive as it sounds, I miss both the danger and fun that revolves around avoiding Loot Sharks near water in Fortnite and the startling amount of fun that can be had surfing behind it with a fishing pole attached to its head.

Klombo

While jetskiing via fishing pole line behind an enormous shark is a prime example of the kind of quirky fun that defines the Fortnite Battle Royale experience, wrangling a shark in-game isn’t always the most pleasant or facile experience.

A Klombo on the other hand? Klombos are the homies.

Klombos are giant, lumbering, quadrupedal dinosaurs that kind of resemble ankylosaurs, if ankylosaurs had big eyes and a cartoon-cute, tongue-wagging, puppy dog smile on their faces.

Players were able to feed Klombos with a found fruit called Klomberries, which would make them happy and provoke them into shooting out weapons, healing items or shield potions out of their blowholes. Klombos could also catapult players who climbed onto their backs into the air with a spout from their blowhole, not unlike the whales waterspouting Mario into the air in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Interestingly enough, although docile in appearance, Klombos could become enraged when attacked, turning red in anger like one of the Wigglers from Super Mario World, moving faster and rearing up on its hind legs to spit a ball of acid at its enemies. Notwithstanding, Klombos only took 1 damage at a time from all damage sources, making them impossible to kill.

But why would you want to kill a Klombo in the first place, you sick, twisted individual? Did you also drop the baby penguins off a cliff in front of the mother penguin in Super Mario 64?

And why so many references to Super Mario, you ask? No real reason except for the fact that as a friendly, lovable-looking dinosaur that you can climb on top of and use as a transport, Klombos could have been much more of a mainstay in Fortnite; they could’ve been a mascot as endearing to Fortnite fans as Peely or Fishstick or even a pet that could serve as a power-up like Yoshi in Mario.

Instead, Epic took Klombos out of the game after only a single season appearance in Chapter 3, Season 1, making it one of our favorite Fortnite gameplay features that we miss the most and want to see back in the game.

Raptors

Speaking of rideable dinosaurs that remind me of Yoshi from Mario, raptors are another form of wildlife we miss seeing around the Fortnite island this season.

While raptors were originally hostile wildlife (whose aggro range seemed to encompass half the map) who could chase you for persisting lengths, they became tamable in Chapter 4, Season 3.

As the fastest tamable wildlife in the game, there’s a true sense of breakneck speed when riding around on a raptor; hats off to the Epic developers in this regard as the animation which goes into the raptor’s elongated strides is top-notch. They’re agile too, capable of jumping onto ledges and above cliffsides that ordinary running or or clambering can’t accomplish.

Last Super Mario reference, we promise. Much like the aforementioned Yoshi, you can also use the raptors in Fortnite to prevent fall damage of, if you’re truly a heartless ghoul who deserves a special place in Hell, you can jump extra high while saddled on them and then subsequently jump off their backs at the very peak of said jump, discarding them like a bag of trash so that you can piggyback vault to your previously unreachable destination.

Presumably while flipping them the middle finger the whole time like the incorrigible scoundrel that you are.

Other wildlife

A wild boar in Fortnite/Epic Games

It’s not just Klombos and Raptors that we miss seeing in Fortnite right now. It’s all animals. In fact, as of this writing (Fortnite Chapter 5, Season 4) there’s zero wildlife present at all on the Battle Royale map – not even a measly chicken or frog. And we kind of miss ‘em.

Even these seemingly insignificant animals, like chickens pecking around the fence of a random house, frogs hopping around riverside or ravens landing on a highwire next to you at the top of a radio tower gifted the Fortnite island with a layer of liveliness and vitality that we miss now that they’re gone.

Tires

Bring back tires in Fortnite/Epic Games

While car tires might seem like the most boring item in any video game ever to miss, hear me out on this one. Or better yet, watch any of these videos from FNTireguy, whose gameplay, as his name suggests, hinges upon using only car tires as weapons.

Not assault rifles, shotguns or SMGs. Car tires.

Sure, you could probably use car tires for other things like buffing your vehicle for off-road capabilities or something like what they’re designed to be used for, but that wouldn’t be nearly as cool as what FNTireguy does.

Bring back tires in Fortnite and let FNTireguy cook, please.

Helicopters

Choppas are one of the Fortnite gameplay features we miss right now/Epic Games

“Get to da choppa!”

Helicopters, otherwise known as Choppas in Fortnite are vehicles which can seat five players (including the pilot), making it the ultimate group transport.

Although the standard Choppa doesn’t come equipped with weapons, players can easily aim and fire from platforms extending above the landing skids – it’s not the offensive advantage you’re looking for when hopping into a Choppa however – it’s the air superiority and freedom of movement. What the Choppa lacks in weaponry it more than enough makes up for in maneuverability, as it can easily move up, down and horizontally at a constant speed, which makes reaching the crest of hard-to-reach mountaintops or towering buildings that can be easily fortified after an expedient helipad landing.

Although the fact that the Choppa has been vaulted since Chapter 3, Season 3 certainly attributes to the fact that it’s one of our favorite Fortnite gameplay features that we miss the most, there’s nothing quite like hopping into a chopper with the squad, instantly lifting into the air and seeing where the rotors take you.

Reality Saplings

A Reality Sapling in Fortnite/Epic Games

Although Chapter 3, Season 3 of Fortnite is divisive among fans, with detractors citing a subpar Battle Pass rewards and boring landing spots/points of interest as the reason for its lacklusterness, one of the unique features that we miss from C3S3 were Reality Saplings.

Reality Saplings were a mechanic that allowed players to plant a seed in fertile ground (usually any spot on dry land that wasn’t already occupied by a building, tree, rock, wall, or in-game item). Once planted, the seed would flourish in the same exact spot from game to game until the player planted a new seed; the Reality Sapling would bear “fruit” in the form of Weapons, Healing Items and gold bars.

Rewards from the Reality Saplings would increase in rarity level by “weeding” the tree, which was available at least once every 24 hours in real world time; other players, like teammates could also weed the plant for you, amplifying the rewards from Common all the way to Mythic. After upgrading to Mythic and looting the tree, the tree would be destroyed, bear seeds and the process would repeat over again.

One of the most fun aspects of Reality Saplings was finding your own spot to plant a seed for your tree to sprout; wanted your tree in a hot spot point of interest so you could gain the upper hand against enemies as soon as you landed? You could do that. You could also place your tree in a more esoteric spot in the map, like inside a cave so that no one else could disturb the fruits of your labor.

Since Reality Saplings were tied to the Reality Tree, a dark, ominous tree placed in the center of the map by the season’s main antagonist, The Watcher, it’s unlikely we’ll see them again anytime soon (unless The Watcher makes a surprise return) but they’re still one of the Fortnite gameplay features that we miss.

Which Fortnite gameplay feature do you miss the most and want to see brought back to the game? Let us know in the comments.

Featured art: Tabor Hill