Fortnite Battle Royale's new event mode is the sniper duel you've always wanted/dreaded

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A photo illustration showing a crosshair on a Fortnite character's head.

Few things are more divisive in shooter games than sniping. You either love taking a perfect shot from all the way across the map, or you hate getting your noggin popped by somebody you never even see. Depending on which camp you're in, Fortnite Battle Royale's latest limited-time mode is either long-range bliss or an intensive form of exposure therapy: welcome to Sniper Shootout.

Pick this mode and you'll be dropped into a nightmare world where sniper rifles (bolt-action or semi-automatic) and revolvers are the only guns. Can you tell I'm awful with both of those weapon types? Consumable items like the new health-and-shield-maxing Chug Jug still spawn as normal so you can heal back up after some bastard on a mountain peak roughly two states away misjudges their shot and just puts a hole in your chest instead of your head.

Yes, I'm salty, but I'm also going to keep playing this mode because I desperately need sniping practice for shooter games in general (Fortnite Battle Royale is free, so you might consider doing the same even if you haven't tried it yet). I'm getting a feel for bullet drop, now I just need to work on leading my targets so I can hit people who aren't standing still as they scroll through build mode. Speaking of building, the lack of explosive weapons and need for good vantage points make Sniper Shootout a very fort-friendly mode, too. As long as I don't shoot you.

Like all of Fortnite Battle Royale's limited-time modes, Sniper Shootout is playable only in squad mode. You can disable the automatic team-filling option if you don't have any buddies to play with and you're tired of being matched up with teammates who never try to revive you even if you're holding your guts in right next to them (yep, still salty over here). You'll be at a disadvantage against squads that actually work together, but at least you won't have to wait for your character to bleed out to make sure you get your rightfully earned challenge progress.

Sniper Shootout will end on Friday, February 2. Make sure you check out all the neat new spots on the updated Fortnite Battle Royale map while you're building towers everywhere.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.