Helicopters have made a big splash in Epic Games’ battle royale Fortnite since the Choppa vehicle type was added in an update earlier this year. Now, it seems the developers might be working on a way to counter the airborne menace, based on a datamined weapon that was leaked by content creator Ricky Owens, who goes by FireMonkey on social media.
The possible new Fortnite weapon has no official name, but its name within the game’s code is “MistyBop.” Owens determined through the datamine that it is a rocket launcher that can lock onto helicopters and award an achievement for destroying one. In fact, there also appear to be audio files hidden away that would play when the weapon locks onto a Choppa, and an alarm sound that would play when the missiles approach that flying vehicle.
While not inherently overpowered in their own right, the Choppa gives players a distinct advantage of flying above their opponents on Fortnite’s large map so they’re more likely to survive later into the game. However, a glitch utilizing the helicopters has been discovered that lets riders fly over 1,000 meters off the ground — well beyond the range of what grounded weapons could normally hit.
Much like any data leak, which is common with Fortnite items, in particular, the possible appearance of this MistyBop missile launcher should be taken with a grain of salt for now. It’s impossible to know whether the weapon code exists because it actually is a planned addition or because it was a half-developed, scrapped idea that was never cleared out.
However, it’s a credible theory to say Epic Games is looking to add anti-air tools to help players combat helicopters now that they’ve had some time to get used to the new vehicles. After a social media campaign started up yesterday proclaiming Fortnite has been worse in recent iterations, some players got #ThankYouEpicGames trending on Twitter to show appreciation for how the developers shake up their popular title.
As long as vehicles like helicopters exist in video games, there will be players looking to use the flying machines to their advantage — just look at the helicopter-based kills in Call of Duty: Warzone. Whether a counter to Choppas will be added into Fortnite as Owens has suggested will have to be seen in future updates.
Fortnite is available on Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One