Fortnite’s Late Game Arena mode appears to be making a return, according to reliable leaker Hypex, who posted details on both the mode’s upcoming comeback and the full loot pool. No official date has been given out as of yet, but with the loot pool already surfacing this is clearly a close return.
What is Late Game Arena?
For those who haven’t played it before, Late Game Arena is one of the more competitively interesting modes Fortnite has released in the past. Instead of dropping from the Battle Bus and playing out a full match from scratch, the mode starts players off directly in the late game. Players spawn 100 meters above the island in a skydive state while the storm has already begun to close. After landing, players discover they have a pre-made custom loadout with 500 of each building material. It essentially compresses everything about Fortnite down to the part of the match that some players thrive for: the late game and final circle chaos.
When the mode originally released, it used the Hype points system that existed in Fortnite’s original ranked mode: Arena. For the return of this mode it’s expected that the now defunct Hype system will be changed to a modern Ranked tier system, with players being able to grind out for Unreal rank in the refreshed version of the mode. Previously, the mode ran in Solos and Trios offerings but with modern FNCS adopting a Duos format, it’s expected that the mode could focus on Solos and Duos this time.
The mode has come and gone primarily during Chapter 2 and 3 of Fortnite, with it being added in Update v17.40, being removed and re-added a few times, until fully being removed with the launch of Chapter 3: Season 4. This next revival of the mode will most likely continue that pattern, and given the fully leaked loot pool it sounds like Epic Games already has everything locked in for the return.
The Full Leaked Loot Pool
Hypex posted the complete loot pool the other day, and it had a decent amount of items included in it:
The post gets cut off in previous after the mention of Mobility items and Consumables, so here’s the full list:
- WEAPONS
- Nemesis AR
- Iron Pump Shotgun
- Pulse Rifle
- Twin Hammer Shotguns
- Combat Assault Rifle
- Chaos Reloader Shotgun
- Twin Mag SMG
- Thunder Burst SMG
- Super Shredder
- Vector 7 DMR
- MOBILITY
- Seven Power Gloves
- Skyline Deployer
- Launch Pad
- CONSUMABLES
- Overdrive Shockwaves
- Mini Shield
- Chug Splash
- Med Kit
- Spicy Fish
- Shield Potion
- FlowBerry Mist Grenade
- Slapperoni Pizza
- Flopper
- Slurpfish
- Pepper
The weapon selection is pretty well-rounded for a late game scenario. You’ve got your shot variety covered by three different choices, you’ve got a handful of Assault Rifles and Sub Machine Guns covered for different ranges, and even some long range options like the Vector 7 DMR covered. Depending on what loadout you get in a match, you should have a pretty good loadout right off the bat.
The mobility is honestly the more interesting part of this loot pool, as the Seven Power Gloves seems like an item that wouldn’t been seen as a competitive friendly item and something more for the casual players to mess around with but due to it not always seeming like a viable close range option I could see it being added not for the combat aspect but mainly to get around the map due to it being in the mobility section.
On the consumable side of things, the healing options are generous: You have Minis, Shield Potions, Chug Splashes, Med Kits, and multiple fish variants that allow for constant shield and health management. The FlowBerry Mist Grenade and Overdrive Shockwaves add some extra throwable utility that doubles as mobility buffs, allowing half of the consumables to double as mobility increasers during gameplay.
Once Late Game Arena is added to Fortnite we will update you if any more changes have been made to the mode from now to the official release. For those wanting something to play in the meantime, check out everything going on with Star Wars in Fortnite!
