This week, Epic Video games rolled out a brand new sequence of quests (previously referred to as challenges) in Fortnite referred to as Cipher Quests. These are solely obtainable in-game for a restricted period of time (till Friday, March 10 when the occasion ends), however they’ve reignited a spark deep in my coronary heart. A deep, burning ardour for Fortnite challenges of seasons — and Chapters — previous.
You see, a superb few chapters in the past, again when Fortnite’s lore was in its very primitive phases and collaborations have been a mere risk, the weekly challenges we received felt actually thrilling. We had secret battle stars to trace down through coordinates hidden in a loading display screen. There have been challenges requiring us to trace down particular collectibles throughout the map, time trials to finish, and flaming hoops to leap via. They actually leaned into what makes Fortnite nicely… Fortnite. Its zany, eccentric, and tongue-in-cheek method to the Battle Royale style.
Alas, sooner or later a number of Chapters in the past, Epic opted to huddle all of those enjoyable challenges collectively and shove them in a darkish closet, by no means to see the sunshine of day once more. These days we get cookie-cutter quests that contain consuming particular gadgets, dealing harm with sure weapons, or racking up air time in a land car. Very not often will we get a problem that actually has you placing in your detective hat and trench coat and monitoring down cheeky gnomes or deciphering coordinates. Up till now, that’s.
You see, Fortnite’s Cipher Quests are available in two flavors — Unencrypted and Encrypted. The previous is, sadly, extra generic tosh we’ve seen time and time once more by this level: Spend Bars, Get Eliminations, Harm Opponents with the Infantry Rifle or Six Shooter, Acquire Shields… you get the thought. They’re not actually all that inspiring.
The Encrypted quests, although, are a wholly totally different kind of gravy. Merely put, you’re given half of a quest goal adopted by a string of numbers that you have to decipher. The code that these challenges are partly comprised of was initially teased by a Fortnite tweet that was ultimately solved by none apart from everybody’s favourite existential-crisis-inducing language mannequin, ChatGPT.
Whereas it’s not taken too lengthy for the Fortnite neighborhood to determine precisely how the cipher works — it’s not fairly a straight translation of 1=A, 26=Z, and so forth. — it has a minimum of added some intrigue and thriller to the mundane mechanic we’ve grown accustomed to over the previous few Chapters.
Whereas utilizing the Fortnite Cipher has been enjoyable to make use of and decide what we now have to do, the precise aims themselves haven’t been all that inspiring. The primary required you to work together with a desk in a sure location (Examine the Wall Beneath the Jap Constructing), one other tasked us with utilizing a sprig in a selected location and one other was interacting with a pc (Decrypt the Sign Beneath the Snowbank). None of that are precisely the wild treasure hunts we used to embark on, however hey, it a minimum of seems like Epic’s attempting one thing just a little bit new, and we will’t be mad at that.
Deep down, I do know the times of searching down secret Battle Stars are lengthy behind us. I do know I’ll most likely by no means emote at Forbidden Dance Signal areas, or find and dig up gnomes because of their moderately eerie laughing once more. In any case, the easy challenges we’ve received now have come about for a cause. To maintain the plenty who wish to grind out the Battle Move as quick as doable pleased, with minimal obstruction to making sure they get their cash’s value. However certainly, there’s a center floor to be discovered between boring and repetitive quest sorts, and collect-a-thons, and overly difficult or cryptic quests that may permit everybody to be pleased.
These Cipher Quests, regardless of how fleeting the occasion could also be, do give me some hope for the way forward for Fortnite’s quest system. With Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 because of arrive subsequent week, there’s hope that we might even see a change to weekly quests. C’mon Epic, convey the gnomes again, on the very least!