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Fortnite’s overshield could be getting a buff

Fortnite’s overshield could be getting a buff, as Epic looks to enable the siphon which was added at the start of season 3, along with the reality tree

A Fortnite first-person mode seems to be in development

Fortnite’s overshield gives you a nice buffer, and essentially acts as an extra 50 hit points that recharge as long as you’re not in the midst of a firefight with other players, or someone like Darth Vader. Others might see it as kind of a drag, turning your opponents into bullet sponges, and making sniping almost worthless. But whether you love it or loathe it, it turns out the overshield could be getting stronger, thanks to a new buff potentially being added by Epic.

Longstanding Fortnite leaker HypeX tweeted out that although the siphon had been added to the overshield at the start of season 3, it hadn’t yet been enabled, leading to speculation that this might come from Epic in a future update. There’s a lot of potential in this kind of function, mostly because it rewards players who love getting stuck into a good firefight. But there are a few bigger reasons that buffing the overshield would alter the Fortnite landscape, and we don’t mean in a geographic sense.

For starters, recharging your overshield if you kill something means that players would be encouraged to play more aggressively. As long as you don’t take more than 50 points of damage, killing another player is basically free. It also means that players wouldn’t have to spend as long hiding and healing, which makes for more entertaining matches for those playing, but also those watching.

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It would also be a potentially useful buff when getting third-partied. If you’re in the midst of a firefight and find yourself taking hits from elsewhere, then being able to charge your overshield by finishing the first fight gives you a far better chance against the honourless third-party player. We’re just joking, of course. There’s no honour in Fortnite, only chaos.

Speaking of which, it looks like the Reality Tree isn’t close to done with messing up the map.