Epic Games apparently removed passive XP gains from Fortnite‘s main Battle Royale and Zero Build modes on Thursday afternoon, in the midst of its Summer Road Trip event that will award a free Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 car body for gaining XP to complete a series of daily quests. Playing Battle Royale had awarded 550 XP per minute, or a little less than half a level per hour, just for existing in the game mode–but that’s no longer the case.
While this certainly is a bit of a nerf, it’s actually not typical for Battle Royale and Zero Build to give passive XP. In fact, passive XP was only just added to those modes at the beginning of the current season–before then, we lived without it. The change had made leveling the battle pass this season meaningfully faster.
Assuming the change will stick for a while, there are two fairly obvious potential reasons for the change. The Summer Road Trip event is one of them, since its quests simply require gaining XP to complete. You only need to gain eight total levels across these quests, so the lack of passive XP in BR probably won’t slow anyone down very much. Another possibility is that we’re approaching the end of Chapter 6 Season 4, and this change will make it a little tougher for folks who are just now getting started on the battle pass to catch up before the season ends on August 7.
When Chapter 6 Season 3 ends on August 7, it’ll also mark the end of the current seasons of Fortnite OG and Lego Fortnite. In other words, it’ll be a pretty eventful season launch. In fact, there’s even an end-of-season event ahead.
