Why does Epic Games unvault items and how does it affect Fortnite?

Over the years, Fortnite has evolved from a PvE-oriented survival game into an ultimate battle royale shooter thanks to Epic Games revamping the game with each new season while keeping the core gameplay intact. Since the most common changes include fresh content, minor map and loot adjustments, and weapon overhauls, Fortnite has successfully kept the community curious and on their toes waiting for yet another thrilling change. 

Although all of these ingenious changes have done miracles for Fortnite and transformed both the game and meta, giving it a fresh look and bringing back players who grew tired of the current meta, unvaulted weapons, and items in general, without a doubt, has hit the sweet spot. 

Why does Epic Games unvault items?

Multiplayer games, especially PvP-oriented ones like Fortnite, usually have a large competitive community that continuously pushes the boundaries of the game by looking for the optimal strategies, weapons, and shortcuts. Although this increases both the skill floor and skill ceiling in competitive games, this, more often than not, results in stale metas and general dislike towards the game. With the intention to shake up the meta to its core, freshen up the game in general, and give new toys to the player base, developers regularly balance the game and introduce new items.

Since this is a recurring issue among PvP-oriented multiplayer games, Fortnite is no exception to this rule. The continuous vaulting and unvaulting of items has, however, drastically helped Epic keep Fortnite afloat since it gives the players a fresh perspective on the game and the opportunity to experiment and test limits. On top of that, unvaulted items can easily revolutionize the current meta giving the player base counterplay to specific items or strategies, and introducing or reintroducing game-changing strategies.

One of the best examples in recent times was the unvaulting of Port-a-Fort in Zero Build. Port-a-Fort, an exceptionally rare utility item that spawns a heavy-duty structure, completely took over the Zero Build meta, making it obligatory to carry one of these in your inventory. 

How do unvaulted items affect Fortnite’s meta?

Fortnite’s meta, just like every other meta, is extremely volatile and susceptible to changes, making it almost impossible to predict the aftermath of unvaulting or vaulting an item. Even though predicting the exact meta patterns is almost impossible, we can, to a degree, predict how certain items, such as Port-a-Fort in Zero Build, reshape the ongoing meta in its own image. But Fortnite’s player base has, over the years, proved to be unbelievably imaginative when it comes to originality and item utilization. Besides, Epic’s developers love and listen to Fortnite’s community, which largely gives the players the freedom to experiment and creatively put the unvaulted items to use. 

So, with all this in mind, we can safely say that each unvaulted item will definitely leave a mark on the current meta to an extent. In the end, the final impact of an unvaulted item can only be seen after Fortnite’s community puts it to the test, adopts it, and finally, sees its limits.