"Spits in the face of players": Fortnite Chapter 4 XP system has fans outraged, here's why

Fortnite Chapter 4 started on a good note. Players have been in love with this phase of the storyline ever since it went live on December 4, 2022. It introduced a brand new island, new mechanics, breathtaking graphics thanks to Unreal Engine 5.1, and last but not least, an outstanding Battle Pass with amazing UI changes.

Sadly, this honeymoon phase has been short-lived and players are unhappy with certain changes that have been made to the game. Although it's taken a week for players to notice, they have finally realized that the weekly challenges only last for a set period of time. Here's what Reddit user SauceySaucePan had to say:

"This update (v23.10) confirms the death of season-long weekly quests. You have one week to complete your weekly challenges for each week, or they go away, and you miss out on a lot of XP. I think I speak for a good chunk of the community when I say this is a horrible change that completely spits in the face of the consumer/player."

Leakers did mention the same when Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 1 (v23.00) went live, but most assumed that it was only applicable for the first week. After that, things would revert to normal. However, to most users' sheer horror, this new change will be implemented throughout the season.

---

Epic Games is leveraging the "Fear of Missing Out" to get players to play more each week

Quests and challenges that come out every week will now have to be completed within a certain timeframe. This won't be an issue if this change is limited to seasonal in-game events such as Fortnitemares or Winterfest 2022, but it has been applied across the board.

To make matters worse, the XP value for each challenge/quest has been severely reduced. While the developers have added in more of them to compensate for this fact, this only increases the amount of grind that players have to go through to earn experience points.

With a few challenges having multiple stages, things will become extremely repetitive for players. Imagine having to perform stunts/tricks with a Trail Thrasher (dirt bike) to earn 150,000 points for just 16,000 XP. That's just one stage out of five. In the later ones, the required points increase substantially while the XP gain remains the same.

If players have more time to complete the challenge, it won't be a problem, but since it's only valid for a week, this leaves many with two options: Complete the challenge or forgo and lose out on experience points. With XP already in short supply, this adds to the woes faced by players. Sauce SaucePan had this to add to their statement:

"A lot of people I know and play with, including myself, do not have the time to grind out all of the weekly challenges every week on the week of. This change furthers the amount of FOMO already in the game from the battle pass system and is a lazy predatory change to keep people playing more each week."

To make matters even worse, Milestones have also been nerfed this season. There are only 10 in total, with each giving players 6,000 XP for every stage completed. Although there are bonus XP rewards every five stages, it doesn't help much in the grand scheme of things.

Considering that challenges/quests have always been the main way for players to level up during the season, Milestones are just footnotes in-game. Nevertheless, having them nerfed as well hasn't helped the player base. While most Milestones are easy enough to complete, they fail to compensate for the overall reduction in XP.

The community is also annoyed by the fact that Epic Games removed the "Thank The Bus Driver" Milestone from the game. Other Milestones related to Fishing or purchasing items/weapons from Vending Machines have also been removed. More than the XP factor, these Milestones were classic in nature and provided nostalgic value.

That said, there's a possibility that Epic Games might add more Milestones to Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 1 overtime. However, given the grind, players will have to focus on them in every match to earn 6,000 XP by completing stages. This once again brings the situation back to square one. Here's what a few fans had to say:

As seen from the comments, fans are not thrilled that they now have to spend an outrageous amount of time completing weekly challenges/quests. Adding to the fact that these are now time-bound, it's a recipe for disaster in the making. With the grind being this tedious, many fans are reportedly regretting buying the Battle Pass.

If more users catch wind of this fiasco, many of those just joining the Fortnite family will opt out of buying the Battle Pass altogether. While the number of players who skip buying on buying it will be inconsequential for the most part in terms of monetary loss, it will fuel resentment within the community.

---

Will Epic Games rework these flaws in Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 1?

With the Fortnite Winterfest update v23.10 being the last one this year, no changes are likely to be implemented until 2023. With the Epic Games team going for their winter break, the current XP system is not going away anytime soon. On that note, it's unknown if Epic Games will change the system once their break is over.

The need to capitalize on in-game playtime is understandable from a business perspective. However, gatekeeping players is not the way to do it. Having them grind out quests/challenges for minuscule amounts of XP is not going to bode well in the long run. The community will push back hard.

Indeed, some players have reached level 100 by now, but that does not apply to everyone. Rather than making the game playable to those with limited time on hand, it will cater more to those who have an abundance of it. Eventually, this will lead to a fall within the overall player base as most users will simply give up playing altogether. Here's what a few users have to say:

It's truly bizarre as to why Epic Games made these changes. Some users are speculating that this was done intentionally to get players to buy levels using V-Bucks in-game. This generally wouldn't be the case this early in the season, but with challenges being time-bound, this puts pressure on the player to reach seasonal level 200.

With all that said and done, this truly is a disappointing change from Epic Games. Reworking a system in Fortnite that was perfect to start with is a no-brainer. The same was done for Save The World's XP for the Battle Pass in Chapter 3 Season 4. The playerbase, or what's left of it anyway, has been forced to accept things as they are.

Hopefully, this does not end up becoming the norm for the Battle Royale mode as well. If Fortnite is to go on for years to come, as Donald Mustard envisioned, better decisions have to be made to make things more sustainable for the players.

Trying to maximize traffic and metrics by gatekeeping the community and adding time-bound challenges is not going to help achieve that. If anything, Epic Games' own video, "Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite - #FreeFortnite," seems more relatable now than ever before.