Lego Fortnite is sprucing up its survival with a laidback Cozy Mode and permadeath Expert Mode
New update arrives later this week.
Epic Games is readying a new Lego Fortnite update, set to arrive on 13th June, that'll expand the brick-based survival mode with two new difficulty settings catering to polar opposite tastes.
First up is Lego Fortnite's new Cozy Mode, designed to offer a laidback experience somewhere between the peril-free japes of Sandbox Mode and the standard-difficulty Survival Mode. Cozy Mode's default settings give players a smattering of combat to keep them on their toes, but with enemies set to easy and all survival meters - hunger, temperature, and stamina - disabled.
"Whether you're a beginner survivor or a builder who likes a little bit of thrill," Epic explains on its website, "Cozy mode's up your alley! Create a world and get greeted by Slumber, a friendly face who’ll guide you through your journey step-by-step."
At the other end of the spectrum, fearless players wanting to really ramp up the survival challenge also get a new option in Lego Fortnite's v30.10 update, this time in the form of a permadeath Expert Mode. Central to this brutal new offering are Storm-Wild enemies - new opponents that do more damage, have more health, and move faster than standard enemies - but Expert Mode gives the latter a boost, increasing their strength, too.
The big challenge, though, comes from that permadeath mechanic. If a player loses all their hearts, they'll be permanently eliminated from their world - but there's a way to avoid that devastating fate. Anyone carrying a Totem of Return upon death is revived in their bed with their backpack, whereupon the totem will be immediately destroyed.
Players brave enough to face Expert mode will have the chance to earn three new trophies - the Grasslands Trophy, Dry Valley Trophy, and Frostlands Trophy - each unlocking after defeating a biome specific Storm-Wild Brute then interacting with a Level 10 village.
And that's on top of the various Lego Fortnite improvements, adjustments, and bug fixes included in the new update. These range from clearer error messages - specifying low memory issues or instances when too many constructs are nearby - to swimming wolves and reduced skeleton spawns in villages. Full patch notes can be found on the Fortnite website.
Fortnite's latest season, the Mad-Max-inspired Chapter 5 Season 3, is currently underway, bringing with it a timely Fallout crossover and - according to data miners - an upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean crossover. The latter inclusion tallies with a previously leaked roadmap detailing Fortnite's plans for 2024 - a roadmap whose veracity has seemed increasingly likely since Fortnite's Billie Eilish crossover went live in April.