Fortnite's New Battle Pass System Is An Over-Complicated Illusion of Choice


Fortnite and I have a love-hate relationship.

For years I avoided Epic's free-to-play Battle Royale like the plague, certain it was just a fad.

My kids played it and tried to get me to play a few times.

I failed miserably.

Then, something changed.

Around the time Fornite Chapter 2, Season 5 came out; I really got into it.

I loved completing quests to earn XP and raise my Battle Pass levels.

I loved unlocking new rewards and seeing my favorite characters from the Alien, Predator, and Terminator franchises in the game.

I loved the Butter Barn song.

They've got the best dang slurp on the whole dang map.

Season 6 brought me just as much joy, crafting primal weapons, going through The Spire quests, and finally stopping Raz and unlocking his awesome Glyph Master skin.

Then came Season 7 and a new Battle Pass system.

I hate it.

Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 7's Battle Pass Updates

LOCKED: The new Battle Pass gives players the illusion of choice
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LOCKED: The new Battle Pass gives players the illusion of choice

At first glance, Fortnite's new Battle Pass system looks really cool.

Each Battle Pass level gained earns players Battle Pass Stars that can be used to purchase items from the Battle Pass shop.

Awesome, right?

Do you want Rick from Rick and Morty?

Just save up enough Battle Pass Stars to purchase him.

Oh, wait.

You can't.

Not until you are at least Level 90 in the Battle Pass or have collected X amount of rewards from lower tiers.

You see, Fortnite's new Battle Pass system gives players the illusion of choice is a complicated system that is completely unnecessary when its previous system worked perfectly well.

Reaching Level 100 will still give players all the cosmetic items in the Battle Pass.

The only REAL choice players have the order in which they unlock items every 10 levels.

Theoretically, players can jump tiers if they have enough unlocked, but figuring out a good order to do so is more than your average Fortnite player will probably do.

Also, as you can see in the image above, certain items like skin styles cannot be unlocked until the base item is unlocked.

This makes perfect sense, though it adds a bit to the confusion of the whole system.

Why even show that Battlesuit Slone is 8 Stars until players Dr. Slone is unlocked?

In the past, players would have been rewarded Dr. Slone at X level, say Level 75, and then rewarded the Battlesuit Slone style somewhere in the '80s.

It was simple, straightforward, and not really in need of an overhaul.

Change for the Sake of Change

Coke II logo
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COKE II: "I like old Coke better than New Coke because it's old, and so am I."

Does anyone remember New Coke?

How about Coke II?

I mean, Coke II was just a renamed New Coke, but both failed terribly because Coca-Cola decided to change Coke for the sake of change.

Fortnite has undergone some fantastic changes over the years.

The past few Seasons have had some wonderful mechanical changes and updates that have added to the experience of playing the game.

Unfortunately, the new Battle Pass system is not one of those changes.

It almost feels like the new system was changed so that Epic could say that Fortnite had a new Battle Pass system.

"This new system allows you to CHOOSE your rewards, except not really!"

I'm sure I'll get some hate for my opinion here, but seriously, I love many of the changes in Fortnite.

This is not one of them.

PS: Most of the new Battle Pass skins are lame, too.

For more articles like this, take a look at our Fortnite and Features page.