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I Played Fortnite Nonviolently—Here’s How It Went
I’ve been playing Fortnite Battle Royale. It’s a video game in which 100 players run around an island shooting each other until only one player survives. There is a huge variety of things you can do, but as you might guess a lot of the game play focuses on shooting people.
I wondered if it might be possible to win without shooting people.
Earlier, of course, I didn’t have the skills to even consider trying. And it looks like I’m not the first person to ask this question. But eventually I decided to try, and I think I might be the first person to use such strict rules:
- No weapons in my possession
- No shields or health kits
- No building or harvesting
- No fighting of any kind
- Don’t even swing the pickaxe (the harvesting tool)
That’s right: I wouldn’t pick up potions or medical kits, wouldn’t build anything, and would wander the island without any weapons at all.
Round 1: Fight!
Or, actually, don’t fight. The strategy is to hide. If anyone attacks, you’re a goner. I went from shrubbery to shrubbery, hiding in each one. My plan was to get to the center of the circle as fast as possible and hope I could hide there too. I was able to outlast 98 of my 99 opponents just by hiding.
I didn’t have a rule against driving, by the way, so when I found myself under attack at one point I jumped in a vehicle and used it to shield myself from fire while I drove away.
By the end of the game, I was hiding behind a portable toilet as the circle shrank. The circle shows where the boundary of the deadly storm will soon be, so staying inside the circle is important.
If I’d been able to stay undetected, and if the circle had been centered on my location, I might have outlived my opponent. As it happened, they spotted me. I went into the portable toilet, knowing that some of those toilets magically transport you to a new location. It was my only chance!
