proximity

Just when you thought Fortnite already had too many battle royale modes, Epic Games goes and drops another one. The new mode, dubbed Delulu, is completely unlike any of the other battle royale variations because it does two things the others don’t: It has proximity voice chat, and encourages teaming mid-game with other players not in your group. But it’s also a mode where only one person comes out as the winner. Katniss and Peeta’s trick with the berries will not work here.

Delulu has been a blast so far, and matches feel vaguely like Epic mashed up its normal BR with its Party Royale mode–it’s a battle royale about socializing. You can use an emote specific to Delulu to join and exit other players’ parties on the fly. And since teaming is allowed in this mode, nothing prevents you from collaborating with even more players after you hit the max number for a party.

Since the social aspect is so crucial to the purpose of this mode, you’re required to have a mic, and have the in-game voice chat on and set to Everybody before you can even queue up for it. You can join a round with your friends, but everyone drops in alone, and you’ll eventually have to put them down if you want to win.

Delulu is Fortnite’s latest attempt to innovate with a new battle royale mode.

Right now, Delulu is live on the weekend only, which means it will be available from Friday morning until Monday morning–and it’s slated to return next Friday for the same span of time, too. And while it’s delightful, there’s a bit of a learning curve since there are some nuances to it that Fortnite itself will not explain to you, so we figured we’d take a moment to highlight three important things you should know as you drop into Fortnite Delulu.

There are no reboots in Delulu, but any play can resurrect any knocked player

No matter how you play it, Delulu is a solo mode that ends each round with just one winner. So when you’re dead, the round is over for you. There will be no rebooting you. However, Delulu players are always knocked before they die, and any other player can res you regardless of which team they’re on or if they’re even in a squad at all. It’s possible your foes will have mercy. It’s not unheard of.

The proximity chat effect applies to your squad, too

Nothing about the voice chat changes when you join a squad–you’ll still only be able to talk to each other when you’re in range of the proximity chat, unlike the way squad comms work in normal BR modes. You’ll want to keep that in mind when you find that your three teammates are all hanging out together out of your earshot–they might be planning to betray you.

Playing as a Delulu non-hostile actually works

While there are people who play Delulu the same way they would any other battle royale mode, most folks seem pretty willing to engage with the social aspect and just hang out. I’ve had games already where we had more than a dozen players roaming the countryside until the endgame forced us to turn on each other.

And, yes, I’ve had more than a few rounds that ended very abruptly after a group of sociopathic teens pretended to be chill, only to shoot me in the face when I let them get close, but I’ve had very few early deaths despite taking a pacifistic approach whenever I could. The whole thing is a lot less anxiety-inducing than I expected.

Don’t try to win in Delulu

While I understand that being the last person standing is the stated purpose of Delulu, this particular BR mode is best experienced with a “let’s see how this plays out” sort of view on things. It’s a rare situation where you can truly say that it’s more about the journey than the destination, and that’s because rounds of Delulu often play out in weird and unpredictable ways. In this mode, the most fun usually occurs from doing things completely differently than you would in the other battle royale modes.

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