Epic has snuck a Fortnite ping system into all the new Fortnite Season 8 stuff that lets you call out items and weapons to other people in your squad. It's a reworking of the World Marker system the game already had in place, and lacks any voice acting, but functionally it's now more or less identical to the much praised Apex Legends ping system.
It's not hard to see why: the ping system used in Apex Legends was one of the ideas that really caught people's attention when Respawn and EA's answer to the battle royale genre arrived. So it isn't surprising to see Fortnite copy it closely to to stay up to date with new mechanics its fans are likely to start asking about. The only surprise is just how fast Fortnite has been in improving its World Marker system to ape Apex Legends.
The question is how do you use the Fortnite ping system?
What does the Fortnite ping system do?
The Fortnite ping system calls out anything in the world with an audible (wait for it) ping, as well as an identifying icon and distance visible to other people on your team. There's no voice acting involved but it still lets you highlight things like chests, ammo, weapons and so on, as well as threats, in a way that squad members can easily identify.
In an ideal world it should help squads of randoms coordinate things better without having to use headsets and talk to each other. Whether that actually happens or not is another thing.
How do you use the Fortnite ping system?
The Fortnite ping system lives on the left D-pad button. When you press that it'll ping whatever you're looking at with a marker and distance. If you're not looking at a weapon or any sort of item then it'll mark the location on map under your crosshairs. A double tap on the other hand will indicate danger - a useful way to point out rival squads.
Check out our video below for all the biggest changes arriving with season 8:
