Fortnite, originally released in 2017, has grown into one of the largest battle royale experiences in gaming. Free to play (and offering in-game microtransactions), it has become one of the more popular multiplayer shooter games available, giving rise to streamers such as Ninja. It has also become a large competitive scene, with the first Fortnite world championship taking place in 2019. It also has a complicated narrative.

When players drop into Fortnite, they are given some background about the story of the world, usually in the form of a cutscene explaining the current season. Though the vehicle of Fortnite is battle royale elimination, players can also carry out missions on the island that relate to the larger narrative and help it progress. For new players, the full history within the game can be complex and hard to follow.

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As is common for games in the battle royale genre, Fortnite is updated regularly, bringing in map changes, new weapons, unique characters and story continuation. Fortnite just began Chapter 2 Season 7, and each Fortnite season lasts an average of 11 weeks. If Chapter 2 mimics Chapter 1 with a total of 10 seasons, Fortnite is only three seasons away from a complete map reset. The in-game narrative has been a wild – at times unbelievable – ride over the past four years since the game’s launch, but here are all the major plot points that have happened in Fortnite so far.

Fortnite Chapter One: The Complete Narrative

At its launch, the story behind Fortnite’s premise was simple: an organization called IO created a battle royale island using Zero Point, a giant ball of energy that connected realities, allowing players to drop into the map and fight back the storm overtaking the island. One day, a meteor appeared in the sky, growing closer each day until it hit the island. While much of Fortnite’s island was destroyed or reshaped by the impact, many of the meteoric fragments contained special powers.

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It was later revealed the meteor shower allowed Fortnite’s villain Omega to escape, allowing him time to build up a lair and construct a rocket. Elsewhere, the Unknown Investigation Agency set up headquarters and began looking into the comet crash, unveiling an alien called the Visitor. In turn, the Visitor left to help Omega and his crew, assisting them in completing the rocket. When the rocket launched, it caused destruction everywhere and opening massive rifts in the sky.

The rifts transformed the map, sucking in objects from the Fortnite island and dropping out items from Earth. As the rift became a crack in the sky, it spewed lightning until it created a strange, purple runic cube. The cube summoned a floating island in Loot Lake, leading to the creation of several corrupted areas around the island. Eventually, the cube and floating island are destroyed, ushering in an iceberg that changed the map landscape once more.

Now covered in snow and ice, the island fell under attack from the Ice King, who was harnessing the remaining power of the cube to create an ice storm event. While this was happening, a prisoner escaped and transformed into the Fire King, defeating the Ice King and remaking part of the island into a jungle, including a volcano. The Unknown Investigation Agency returned, excavating a vault near the bottom of the volcano. When the Vault activated, it was revealed to be an entrance to the Inbetween, unvaulting the Drum Gun. This triggered the Unvaulting Event, where the volcano blew up, taking much of Fortnite’s island with it.

Following this event, several buildings on the map were replaced by futuristic versions of themselves, and the volcano was transformed into a pressure plant by the Unknown Investigation Agency. It was revealed the Vault had also been holding the Zero Point power source, which players on the island could now harness to recreate destroyed locations. This led to a one-eyed monster breaking free of Polar Peak, which terrorized various locations on the island in its attempt to capture the Zero Point. Ultimately, the beast was defeated, but Zero Point was left destabilized and exposed.

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Chapter 1 of Fortnite ended with Zero Point exploding, creating a break in time, ultimately resulting in Rift Zones throughout the map. The rocket from earlier seasons returned, colliding with Zero Point and causing a black hole, which pulled in the entire island. Without a map, Fortnite was unplayable for two days.

Fortnite Chapter Two: Full Story So Far

The black hole eventually rebirthed Fortnite’s island, kicking off the start of Chapter 2, and introduced two new organizations, E.G.O. and A.L.T.E.R., who were often in conflict with one another. E.G.O. became GHOST, joined by Midas, and A.L.T.E.R. became SHADOW, joined by Brutus. Midas creates a Doomsday Device with the hopes of controlling the Storm which, when activated, destroyed GHOST headquarters, the Agency. This led to a tsunami, flooding and reshaping the map once again.

The Fortnite character Midas is killed by a shark, turning him into a vengeful ghost, as the agencies GHOST and SHADOW found new locations on the map. Eventually, spaceships began to appear throughout the island, re-opening the rifts in the sky. Elsewhere, in another reality, Marvel Comics’ Thor is working with Galactus, eventually realizing Galactus was evil and needed to be destroyed. He brought several Marvel characters through the rift to the Fortnite map to aid in the fight against Galactus.

After landing on the map, however, all of the Marvel characters lost their memories and powers, sending them on a quest to regain their purpose. Each character took over a portion of the island, slowly regaining memories and preparing for battle. Galactus appeared in the sky and engages in a fight with the Marvel heroes. During the fight, Galactus is defeated, but the Zero Point is weakened and another rift is created.

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This introduces the character Agent Jones, an IO operative who must go to Zero Point and stabilize it. He travels to the Fortnite map, which has once again been altered, and hires several famed bounty hunters such as the Mandalorian, the Terminator, and Menace to cause chaos on the island and prevent anyone from leaving. As Zero Point continued to deteriorate, Agent Jones began to suspect the involvement of The Seven, a group of interdimensional characters throughout the Fortnite universe.

Agent Jones pursued The Seven, traveling through a reality portal to encounter the groups leader, called The Foundation. The two made a truce in order to work together to contain the damage pending from Zero Point’s collapse. The Spire then grew in the center of the map, encasing Zero Point, but not before the power source sent out a reality wave that transformed Fortnite’s map into a prehistoric zone. Areas of the island hit by the wave lost all technology, and had to reckon with primal beasts and weapons. Now, Fortnite is under threat of alien invasion. With a story that encompasses many characters and a constantly changing map, only the developers at Epic know where the narrative will go from here.

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About The Author


Brittany Spurlin
(182 Articles Published)

Brittany Spurlin is Senior Writer for Screen Rant’s Game Features. Previously, she was a news editor on VENN’s editorial team. With a screenwriting degree from Boston University, she loves engaging narratives – especially the nerdy ones. More often than not, she can be found playing The Elder Scrolls, Wild Rift, The Legend of Zelda and Stardew Valley.

Follow Brittany on Twitter @bsinitials

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