It seems like only today (literally) I was praising Epic for their phenominal PR stunts and brilliant rebooting of the ever popular Fortnite. Unfortunately, everything the light touches casts a shadow. Despite its monolithic appeal, Fortnite is no exception.
In my gushing article about Fortnite Chapter 2 (here), I briefly touched upon the Battle Pass, and how the Punch Card system helps alieviate the grind said Pass brings to the game. Heck, Epic themselves are using the marketing slogan “More Fun, Less Grind” to draw people into investing. Eagle eyed, and significantly more intellegent, gamers have uncovered the truth. Needless to say, people are far from happy.
“More Fun, Less Grind” seems like a pretty simple concept, but even simple concepts can be made complicated once a company decides they want to make literally all the money. Let’s break this down shall we?
To achieve 1 level in Fortnite you are required to accrue 80,000 experience. A Battle Pass contains 100 levels, therefore simple mathematics would dictate that a player will need to earn 8,000,000 experience. I hear you screaming “Toast, those are just numbers!” Calm your baps, I am getting to the part where I explain the numbers.
Every week for 9 weeks you will be given challenges. There are 10 per week and each rewards you with a whopping 14,000 exp, or 140,000 per week, or 1,260,000 over the full 9 weeks. In addition, you nab yourself 24,000 exp for completing your daily Punchcard which will net you a maximum of 1,296,000 over the course of the entire Battle Pass.
Now with all of those pesky numbers out of the way, that leaves us with 5,444,000 exp we need to earn to hit level 100. A generous estimate for exp earning per match is around 5000. This means you would need to play approximately 1088 games of Fortnite to reach level 100 over the course of 2 months. Whilst completing every Punchcard and completing every challenge.
If Epic are trying to promote “More Fun, Less Grind”, they need to reduce the grind! The game is undoubtedly fun, but when only half of your slogan is applicable, it’s no wonder people are getting annoyed. Of course you can always pay real MONEY to speed up the process. So I guess there is less grind if you pay them for the privilege. Hopefully they re-balance the whole Battle Pass, otherwise it is unlikely anyone outside the dedicated elite will be able max the bloody thing.
How is your grind going? Have you managed to make a dent in that 8,000,000 target? Let me know in the comments below.
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