When Close Encounters was first introduced in May, it was taken down shortly after because players complained about the number of sky bases. It seems like Epic are willing to give it another shot because the mode has been re-enabled today.
3..2..1, BLAST OFF!
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) September 20, 2018
The Close Encounters LTM is back! Invite your Squad and take flight today at 12 PM ET (1600 GMT). pic.twitter.com/e92XQgy6K7
If you didn’t experience Close Encounters when it was around before, the concept is simple. Players can only use shotguns and jetpacks. Of course, there’s a number of shotgun variants now including the Tactical, Pump, Heavy and Double Barrel so ideally, you’ll want one of each in your inventory plus a jetpack for maximum versatility.
The shotgun switching delay is still a thing in this mode. This means that if you try switching from one shotgun to another in the middle of a fight, you won’t be able to fire the second one for a few seconds. This is the first time the Double Barrel Shotgun will be available for this mode and it’s widely considered to be the best shotgun at the moment so we advise getting up close and personal to deal some damage.
If you don’t see the mode available right now in your game, it’s because it goes live at 10AM PT/12PM ET/5PM BST. Hang on a little while longer and you’ll be able to jump in. For today, it’s squads-only but Epic like to change that up frequently so in a few days, you may be able to play solo or duos.
In other Fortnite news, the cube finally did something! It rolled into Loot Lake and dissolved, turning the entirety of the lake purple and bouncy. Check out footage of the exact moment here. Also, Ninja predicted exactly what the cube would do in Tilted Towers over two weeks ago! He joked about it but it turns out, his prediction was completely true.
