The best kills we've seen in Fortnite Battle Royale
In which home improvement and pumpkin rocket surfing are viable methods for murder.
Within a few weeks, the developers at Epic Games added pumpkin rockets you can hitch a ride on, launch pads that send you into the air for another short skydive, and bush transformation potions—yes, you can be a bush—to their Fortnite-flavored take on the battle royale genre. Layered over a complex fort-building system, Fortnite BR has since veered off into completely different direction than PUBG, opting for a weirder arcade arena that makes for plenty of funny ways to die. By pumpkin, karma, or pure luck, here are a few of our favorites so far.
*Plink*
I think about how I'm going to die all the time, down to the finely crunched statistic that I'll get hit by some errant baseball or clipped by a penny dropped from the Empire State Building. This clip keeps me up at night.
Making an entrance
Streamer CDNthe3rd and friends know exactly what the launch pad was made for, and it's not purely for subterfuge. This squad enters in style by playing a popular song and yelling while the song plays. It is important, when doing something competitive, to yell and whoop to signify to everyone that you are large and possibly about to also be in charge.
Yardwork
Too many unsightly bushes where corpses should be? This player can help.
Tree of life
One strategy for winning in battle royale games is to avoid battle as long as possible. An an advanced strategy is to pretend you are a tree, and that you in fact have no bearing one way or another on the big cartoon battle happening around you. The final strategic layer is to pretend you are a tree that is also a person with a gun, and to use it when only one person is left alive. Nature will eventually own us, as demonstrated in this cartoon simulation of reality.
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Fall from grace
Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky
With hideous ruin and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.
—an excerpt from Paradise Lost by John Milton
Dance deceiver
Dance is a feeling, y'know? It's your body moving in rhythm with the music, the steady thump of your heart, the gush of cartoon blood spurting in perfect unison with the beat—there's nothing quite like it.
Final countdown
One, two, three, four, five! Five cartoon corpses!
Jump, scare, spike
Home invasion movies wouldn't really work in the Fortnite universe.
Rocket racer
This player just wanted a nice view of the kill they were about to get.
Dome improvement
The building system is still too unwieldy for Fortnite Battle Royale, but in the meantime, it can produce nearly indecipherable moments like this one.
Trapped
You can run, but you can't hide, because line of sight doesn't matter with a trap building system designed for a completely different mode. Oh well, I like that it subverts the bathroom camping habits of PUBG.
Living (surfing) on a prayer (rocket)
This player was probably riding high after—er, during and after making this shot.
Bushwhacked
I think some players are forgetting that just because they've transformed into a bush, they aren't required to behave according to bush law, inanimate and brainless.
Eye of the storm
Ever wonder what happens when the big blue shield closes completely? Take a gander, just make sure to stay near the center.
Delay of game
This one hurts to watch. We've all been the other person at some point. That doesn't make it any less baffling to witness.
Threading the needle
This is one hell of a point-and-click! Between the electricity thing things! Damn.
Bounceback
Rockets and grenades in Fortnite are treated like physical objects, meaning they can bounce off one another—the kiss of death. Death things, kissing.
Point...point...and click
A classic highlight here—this player just knows how to point and click. We all nod and agree.
Towerfall
This is a metaphor for capitalism. And also how gravity works. Think about it.
Knights of kneeling
When approached by a clump of friendly bushes that offer you the sight (to also be a bush), the only rule is to not fire a grenade launcher at the center of the clump. It's the only damn rule.
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James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.
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