Swimming

Swimming is a game mechanic in Fortnite: Battle Royale. It was introduced in Chapter 2: Season 1 and allows players to move across water at increased speeds.

Functionality
When a player enters a deep enough body of water, they begin swimming. Swimming is a method of traversing water. When in water, players can move in any direction, as well as Jump in order to gain vertical distance. Players cannot swim down into the water, and will always float on top unless forced underneath by a ramp or vehicle.

A swimming player can repeatedly chain several forward jumps in order to dive. Diving will increase the player's move speed significantly, and is faster than Sprinting. Players can also swim at full speed in order to remain fast, but will not be as fast as a repeated dive. Swimming backwards is as slow as backpedaling on land.

Players who are swimming can still do all of the same functions as a player on land such as but not limited to: Healing, Interacting, Reviving, Shooting, Building etc.

Players who land in water will immediately start swimming. This will negate all fall damage, no matter the height or depth of the water.

If a player is forced underwater for approximately 10 seconds, they will begin drowning. At first, this will deal 5 damage in increments of 1 damage per tick, then the player will lose 5 health/shield per tick, until they are knocked or eliminated.

Strategy Guide

 * Swimming is an effective way to traverse great distances. Players who are swimming downstream will also gain much further distance than someone on calm water. Swimming upstream is negligible in terms of speed, and is slower than walking on land.
 * Consuming a gravity affecting item, such as a Hop Flopper will allow the player to dive for longer distances. This combined with launching items such as Bouncers can result in insane distance covered.
 * Speed altering items such as Spicy Fish will only increase swim speed, and not diving speed.
 * Players who are up high can land in water to negate all fall damage taken.
 * Knocked players will float in water, and can use a downstream river to float to safety at a decent pace.

Chapter 2: Season 1

 * Update v11.00: Added Swimming and Drowning to the game.

Trivia

 * Prior to Chapter 2: Season 1, Water would either be only deep enough to reach the player's upper thighs, or instantly kill a player who touched it (if it was on the edge of the map). As such, Swimming was not possible, and all locations on the edge of the map were on high cliffs.
 * Consuming a Hop Flopper, whilst equipped with Iron Man's Repulsor Gauntlets and diving onto a ramp with a Crash Pad placed on it would give the player so much height and speed that they could launch across the entirety of the map.