“ | Prove your skill in this competitive mode! During each match, you'll earn Hype by either achieving high placements or eliminating opponents. As you gain Hype, you'll compete against tougher opponents with similar skill level.
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- — In-Game Description
Arena was (Before Update v24.40) the main competitive gamemode in Fortnite: Battle Royale that could have been played in Solo, Duos, or Trios. A Zero Build Trios mode was available for a limited time from July 12, 2022 to August 30, 2022. In this mode, you'd receive points called "Hype" for placement or eliminations. Hype determined your League in Arena. Having a certain amount of points could’ve enabled you to compete in tournaments and cash cups.
There were many items that are in the main gamemode of Fortnite: Battle Royale that were not in Arena. Examples are Grenades and the Rocket Launcher. To see the list of items that were not in Arena, see Unavailable Items/Mechanics (Competitive).
On May 15th, 2023, Arena was removed and replaced by Ranked in Update v24.40.
Arena Details[]
Currently Active Playlists[]
Arena was available in Solo, Duos and Trios. Squads were not available.
SOLO | |
---|---|
DUOS | |
TRIOS | |
TRIOS (Zero Build) |
Rules[]
All Arena playlists and Tournaments (excluding Zero Build modes) followed the rule-set of Battle Royale:
- 100 Players, all of which dropped from the Battle Bus.
- Competitive Loot Pool.
- Standard Gravity.
- Standard HP rules.
- Respawns were disabled.
- Building enabled.
- Overshield disabled.
- Siphon enabled.
- Storm Surge enabled.
- Glider Redeploy was disabled.
- Reboot Vans were enabled. (Unusable in Solos)
- Skill Based Matchmaking was enabled. (Based on Hype points)
- Bars were enabled, but Bars does not carry over.
- Competitive Storm Circle intervals, half in-half out Storm in Phase 5, full moving in Phase 6-9.
- Players went into a downed-but-not-out state when they lost all their HP. (Duos, Trios, Squads)
Features[]
Siphon[]
In regular Battle Royale, if you wanted to get Victory Royales, always fighting people might not be the best way to win. However, in Arena, siphon was enabled. Siphon allows players to regenerates 50 health and/or shield after getting an elimination. In team game modes, if a player were to knock an opponent, they need to fully eliminate the knocked player to get the siphon. When used correctly, it could’ve greatly helped your performance in Arena.
The Storm[]
The Storm was more dangerous in Arena, especially as the game progressed. While the first storm took 30 seconds longer to close than standard Battle Royale matches, all other phases were the same and in Arena the later storm circles were known as "moving" zones.
- The 5th zone's circle formed half outside and half inside, often regarded to as the "partial" zone.
- The 6th to 9th storm circles formed outside of the current Storm circle, instead of inside it. These are most commonly known as moving zones.
- The 7th to 9th storm circles do not have any wait time before starting to move/shrink. Players must always be alert and moving.
These later storm phases dealt 8-10 damage per second, which could’ve quickly eliminated an unsuspecting player.
Storm Surge[]
Storm Surge is a mechanic which encourages players to fight and deal damage. If there are a certain number of players alive during a certain storm phase, Storm Surge will activate. There will be a warning the zone before it actually activates, and when it does, it will periodically deal 25 damage every 5 seconds to certain players. In a team based match, Storm Surge damage instantly eliminates a player with less than 25 effective health even if teammates are alive (does not cause a knockdown state).
The players that will be damaged by storm surge depends on how much damage they have dealt. If you are below a certain damage threshold, you will take storm surge damage once it activities. When there is a storm surge warning or when it is active, there will be a UI on the right side of a player's screen telling them whether they are below or above the Storm Surge threshold.
Storm Surge has a chance of activating in any game, but it only normally happens in stacked arena, tournament, or custom games where more players stay alive for longer. For it to activate, there needs to be more than the number of players in each Storm phase defined below:
Storm Phase | Player Count |
---|---|
0 | 100 |
1 | 100 |
2 | >64 |
3 | >54 |
4 | >44 |
5 | >40 |
All Phases after 5 | >30 |
Bus Fare[]
Bus Fare was a mechanic exclusive to Arena and its Hype system. Bus Fare did not allow players to play endless arena matches without losing anything. In Divisions 1-3, there is 0 bus fare, meaning that if you play a match and do not gain any hype points from placement or elimination, your overall hype will stay the same. However, in division 4, there was a bus fare of 30. meaning every match you play in division 4, you lose 10 points. In Division 5, it's 20 points. Division 6 is 30 points. Division 7 is 50 points, and every division after increases by 10. See the Hype Scoring Format for the bus fare amounts of each division.
Note that bus fare is, fittingly, applied when the player enters the Battle Bus. A player can exit the match in Spawn Island without incurring any penalty.
If you reached a Division threshold, and lost points due to bus fare, you would be de-ranked down one division and would take the amount of bus fare any other player in the lower division took.
Strategy[]
- While cosmetics do not provide a significant competitive advantage, many competitive players prefer to play with mostly female outfits as the character model appears to be smaller and takes up a smaller portion of the player's screen.
- Back Blings are rare in a competitive cosmetic loadout.
- W-Key (Fight every player you see) if you are trying to improve your skill in fighting. Play for placement if trying to gain hype points.
- When W-keying, be aware of third-parties (outside players that may interrupt a fight) and handle them accordingly. Fighting on the edge of zone instead of fighting mid-map may give you better results if trying to avoid third-parties.
- As players prefer to W-Key in Arena, Storm Surge should not activate.
- Farming in Arena gives you more materials than farming in regular game modes (40%).
- In addition to the boosted farming rate, eliminated opponents drop an additional 50 materials of each type in addition to the materials they had before being eliminated, commonly referred to as "siphon mats".
- Arena can be good practice for fighting.
- To practice stacked and chaotic late games (more realistic to high-elo tournament matches), custom lobbies (known as scrimmages or "scrims") or the now removed Late Game Arena may be more useful.
- Often, jumping straight into Arena games is not a wise move. Lower divisions may provide easier opponents, but higher divisions are often littered with professional, high-tier, mechanically-skilled players.
- Use Creative to improve your aim, building, editing, box fighting, build fighting, and other aspects of competitive Fortnite to prepare for Arena. Third-party training software in aim and reaction are also a benefit.
Hype Scoring Format[]
The following scoring format was introduced in v21.10 and is the format currently being used.
League | Open | Contender | Champion | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Divison | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Bus Fare | 0 | -30 | -40 | -50 | -60 | -70 | ||||
Victory Royale | 50 | |||||||||
Reach Top 2 | 25 | |||||||||
Reach Top 3 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 4 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 5 | 20 | |||||||||
Reach Top 10 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 20 | 15 | |||||||||
Reach Top 25 | 15 | |||||||||
Reach Top 30 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 40 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 50 | 10 | 0 | ||||||||
Each Elimination | 15 | 10 | 5 |
League | Open | Contender | Champion | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Divison | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Bus Fare | 0 | -30 | -40 | -50 | -60 | -70 | ||||
Victory Royale | 50 | |||||||||
Reach Top 2 | 25 | |||||||||
Reach Top 3 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 4 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 5 | 20 | |||||||||
Reach Top 10 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 12 | 15 | |||||||||
Reach Top 15 | 15 | |||||||||
Reach Top 17 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 20 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 25 | 10 | 0 | ||||||||
Each Elimination | 15 | 5 |
League | Open | Contender | Champion | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Divison | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Bus Fare | 0 | -30 | -40 | -50 | -60 | -70 | ||||
Victory Royale | 50 | |||||||||
Reach Top 2 | 25 | |||||||||
Reach Top 3 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 4 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 5 | 20 | |||||||||
Reach Top 6 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 7 | 15 | |||||||||
Reach Top 8 | 15 | |||||||||
Reach Top 9 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 10 | 10 | |||||||||
Reach Top 15 | 10 | 0 | ||||||||
Each Elimination | 10 | 5 |
Rankings[]
League | Division | Hype Points |
---|---|---|
Open | 1 | 0 - 399 |
2 | 400 - 799 | |
3 | 800 - 1,199 | |
4 | 1,200 - 1,999 | |
Contender | 5 | 2,000 - 2,999 |
6 | 3,000 - 4,999 | |
7 | 5,000 - 7,499 | |
Champion | 8 | 7,500 - 9,999 |
9 | 10,000 - 14,999 | |
10 | 15,000 + |
Trivia[]
- Arena was first added in Season 8, before the point system was revamped in Season X, Chapter 2: Season 7, Chapter 2: Season 8, and Chapter 3: Season 3.
- The Arena format has gone through more frequent changes in recent seasons as a result of increased criticism by the competitive community, where professionals want a complete overhaul of the game mode, citing that Arena is not a real ranked, competitive gamemode when compared to other successful games.
- As of Update v16.00, Arena Boxfights is now available to players. However, as of now, this does not affect players arena points.
- As of Update v18.00, duos, trios, and squads are now automatically filled if joined with an incomplete lobby. This was reverted when Hype was reset for that season.
- Prior to Update v18.10, it was not possible to de-rank because of bus fare greater than points earned in the game. For example, if you reach the Division 6 threshold, and lose points due to bus fare, you will still be in Division 6 and will take the amount of bus fare any other Division 6 player takes.
- Zero Build Arena was added as a limited time gamemode, offering the same hype system as regular Arena but hype points do not transfer over.