"Fortnite" got teased by leakers for almost a month about the addition of the Reboot Van. It was finally officially announced by Epic Games in the latest Dev Update. As the name suggests, the Reboot Van feature will allow players to respawn their fallen squadmates, similar to the Respawn Beacon in "Apex Legends." Epic Games' community Manager, Nathan Mooney, announced in the latest Dev Update that the Reboot Vans and Reboot Cards will be coming to "Fortnite: Battle Royale" as part of patch v8.30.
How do the Reboot Vans work?
The Reboot Vans are vehicles that will be scattered all across the map at different points of interest and they will let players respawn their eliminated teammates.
The next update will also introduce new items called Reboot Cards. The Reboot Cards are items that will be dropped by the eliminated teammates and any surviving player can use it to revive the other squadmate. In order to respawn teammates using the Reboot Cards, players will have to activate it using a Reboot Van. The respawn will take some time before it is activated and it is a risky process as well.
Once activated, the Reboot Van will play a loud audio cue and a beacon will also set off, which will inform nearby players that a reboot is in progress. After the fallen teammates are respawned, the Reboot Van will not be able to reactivate Reboot Cards for a duration of time. Here's the Dev Update footage:
According to Nathan, the respawned teammates will not be carrying any of their looted items, so players will have to give them some weapons and items in order to get them back in the match.
The footage also shows that Reboot Cards will not take up any space in the inventory and will appear next to the materials tab.
Respawn in 'Fortnite' similar to 'Apex Legends'
"Fortnite" players who are familiar with "Apex Legend's" respawn feature will know how similar these both are. The only difference is that, in "Apex Legends", players can respawn teammates at a Respawn Beacon instead of a Van and that players need a Banner instead of Reboot Cards.
This is the second feature that Epic Games has copied from "Apex Legends" and integrated into "Fortnite: Battle Royale." Before this, the Ping system was the feature that was implemented in the game soon after the release of "Apex Legends." Although the Ping system's effect on the game was almost negligible, we're not sure how players are going to react to the Respawning in main Squad Modes of the game.
There's also a chance that "Fortnite" will add the Discovery outfit, currently called the "Ruin," in the next update. Players will probably get an unofficial first-look at the skin once the leakers inevitably data mine it after patch v8.30. We can also expect a major event to take place in the next couple of weeks.