How will Fortnite Chapter 2 end?
How do you go bigger than a universe-ending black hole?
Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 1 began with a big bang, or perhaps more accurately the opposite: a giant black hole. Now that we know Epic Games has even bigger shifts for the game planned than the usual season-to-season transitions, our imaginations have officially kicked into overdrive. Fortnite's always about upping the ante, so what strange and wondrous occasions will mark the end of Fortnite Chapter 2?
This is the latest in a series of big questions we'll be interrogating our writers with, so share your answers and suggestions for topics with us on Twitter.
With a cross-promotional, reality-bending apocalypse
Using history as a guideline, Fortnite Chapter 2 will end around two years from now, in October 2021, give or take. By then, I'm going to assume Epic's franchise will have its own cinematic universe, Netflix Original series, fast food franchise, baseball league, and maybe even an up-and-coming presidential candidate or two (PEELY 2024), so the stakes are high enough for it to do something big. The studio took the servers offline for two days to mark the end of Chapter 1, so why not go a step further and shut down entire power grids, setting the stage for a real life purge to determine who gets to try out Chapter 3 first via private invitation? Anything's possible when you're one of the most profitable and influential companies in the world, so I say Epic tests how far it can run with the power trip, and goes crazy. Alex Avard
With the biggest fight in Fortnite history
It's hard to work out where the storyline in this chapter is heading, but I'd love to see it end with everyone fighting an army. All those military bases (and the secret Vault) on the island aren't there for nothing and it would be a great twist on the format to have everyone fight a common enemy rather than each other for once. Epic have already sneakily tested the tech as well, Chapter 1 had rocks with millions of HP that players could collectively chip away at and the Fortnitemare events spawned in a small army of zombies to defeat. So, you know, just do that but on a bigger scale.
Seeing swarms of enemies sweeping down the hills and over the open farmland would no doubt be pretty spectacular. Gameplay wise, everyone has unlimited respawns and the total number of enemies left is displayed via some fancy UI or message in the sky. Make the battle last a few hours, even days, with some key events changing the map as it goes on and you've got something that might even get more coverage than turning the game off. James Jarvis
With Samuel L. motherf$*%ing Jackson
At the end of Fortnite Season 2, Samuel L. Jackson will stride out of the shadows and into the light. He'll then announce that he wants to talk to us about the Avengers Fortpex initiative. He had an idea where incredible Battle Royale shooters like Fortnite and Apex Legends come together to fight the battles we never could. Or, you know, form one super FPS*. Or something. Kinda similar to a superband? Like McBusted, I guess. Sorry, what was the question?
*As you can probably tell, I don't play Fortnite. So please don't yell at me. This definitely won't happen. As funny as it would be to see Pathfinder dressed up as a giant banana... Benjamin Abbott
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With a Vesuvian apocalypse
I must first issue a caveat that I've played Fortnite a total of three times, the third of which I got so ticked off by someone building a multi-story death box around me that I vowed never to play it again. Maybe Fortnite Season 2 ends with every single crossover character pouring through a Doctor Strange portal that you have to close before Thanos snaps his fingers, and if you can't manage to get to him and he snaps, then you're booted from the game until they start Chapter 3. Maybe Chapter 2 ends with a giant volcanic explosion that turns the entire map into a pixelated Pompeii, and everyone must watch a static screen with their character encased in ash for half a day. Anything to drive the internet wild again, right? Alyssa Mercante
With a return to the Good Old Days
Yes, Fortnite has only been a pop culture phenomenon for all of two years, but I think Chapter 2 might end with a soft reboot. People were already getting antsy for Tilted Towers to make a comeback when it was wiped off the map and I think by 2021 (or whenever Epic decides to roll over to a new iteration) there will be enough of a clamour for a vanilla map of sorts to be front and centre yet again. That or a giant goose destroys everything. That’s what the kids are into these days, right? Bradley Russell
With the crossover to end them all: Star Wars
There are plenty of reasons why Fortnite has become the biggest game in the world, but its mega crossover events surely have to be up there as some of the main ones. I'm not a regular player, but I'll dip my toes back in when the likes of the Avengers turn up in the game. So, how do you go bigger than Marvel's mightiest heroes? Simply put, you head to a galaxy far, far away. Imagine if Epic rejigged the map to give it a Star Wars feel, introducing TIE fighters and X-wings that could battle it out above, and chucked in a Sarlacc pit you could trick people into for good measure. It would be the crossover to end all crossovers. Ben Tyrer
With an even bigger black hole
I'm no astrophysicist, so I don't fully understand the qualities and limitations of black holes, but I reckon some black holes are bigger than others, right? Surely Epic could whip up a bigger, blacker hole to send off Fortnite Chapter 2. I mean, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The Fornite Chapter 1 finale got millions of people to watch a black screen for hours on end. This time, the screen will be even blacker. To quote the final boss of Ratchet: Deadlocked: "They'll be the best ratings *wheeze* I've ever had!" Austin Wood
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I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.