Fortnite goes Ballistic with new first person mode

Fortnite Ballistic, the long-rumoured Fortnite first-person mode, launches into early access on December 11th with both Unranked and Ranked modes.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before—in Ballistic, two teams of five compete in a round-based mode without respawns. Attacking teams work to plant a ‘Rift Point Device’ at one of two sites and win if it successfully detonates or they eliminate the other team. The defenders win by either eliminating the attacking team or defusing the device. After six rounds, teams swap sides, and winning seven rounds is the magic number to secure a victory.

Between rounds players can use an in-match currency to purchase weapons or ‘flex gadgets’. From shield bubbles and proximity mines to the old-fashioned frag, these powerful tools have a massive impact on a round. During early access, Ballistic will have one map, Skyline 10, with a limited set of weapons and gadgets to be expanded in response to feedback. In unranked matches, Ballistic replaces leavers, but not in Ranked play.

You might have noticed Ballistic has a lot in common with other popular first-person shooters—namely Counter-Strike and Valorant, or the removed Apex Legends mode Arena. What Ballistic has that these games don’t, however, is the Fortnite ecosystem that will surround Ballistic. For the last year, Epic has been positioning Fortnite as a full-on platform, with LEGO Fortnite, Festival, and Rocket Racing a part of Epic’s line-up alongside Battle Royale. Ballistic will slot in alongside these, but also open up the first-person perspective for user-generated content.

I’ll be interested to see how Ballistic is received, especially given how entrenched players of Counter-Strike and Valorant are. Although, like all things Fortnite, the broad availability across almost all platforms is likely to work in its favour.

You won’t have to wait long to go Ballistic. The mode launches December 11th and will be available on everything that plays Fortnite.