Fortnite melts down the Infinity Blade

Epic Games have melted down Infinity Blade twice in one week. First they scrapped Infinity Blade, their mobile action-RPG series, and now they've removed the Infinity Blade they added to Fortnite Battle Royale in homage to it. As I explained after Epic added it, Fortnite's Infinity Blade was overpowered to the point of ruining the game at all levels from pubs to Epic's $1 million Winter Royale tournament. They had planned balance tweaks to tone down the murdersword but nah, they've conceded that they straight "messed up" and should think harder before adding any more of these 'Mythic' items.

Fortnite's Infinity Blade was only one sword, always found in the same single spot atop an icy mountain and taking several seconds to pull from a stone, yet it changed the shape of every round - even for those who never saw it. Loads of players would head to that spot for a shot at lifting the sword, so players were spread thin across the rest of the map. The mass die-off at the start slowed the pace of a round's middle. And the sword itself was wildly powerful, cleaving through structures with a single blow, chopping players down quickly, and giving a powerful leap ability to close the distance (range being the main weakness of a sword) - on top of doubling the wielder's maximum health and shields.

Whether it was random pubmatch play or pr0s fighting for a hunk of $1 million, whoever grabbed the sword had a good chance to win and its existence changed the round for everyone else.

"We messed up and rolled out the Infinity Blade overpowered / without good counters, especially in the end game," Epic tweeted on Friday. "The Infinity Blade has been Vaulted and we are re-evaluating our approach to Mythic items."

Epic had originally planned to fix the Infinity Blade by removing its wielder's ability to gather resources and build, but that would be a bandage over a bazookahole. So for now they've 'Vaulted' it, removing it from the game to potentially return later, or not.

"The presence of Mythic items in gameplay is to provide an interaction a step above the Legendary item functionality and something you'll continue to see," Epic said on Thursday before deciding to melt down the Infinity Blade.

"To us, that means changing the way the game is played for those who interact with that item. The addition of items in this tier provide new and flavorful ways to interact with the map and generally shake up normal play across default modes."

So... perhaps look for more in the future. Only hopefully less wonked.

"Thanks for calling us out on this!" Epic concluded. You're welcome!

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