My History with Zero Builds (ZB)
Never really played it. It didn’t exist when I began playing Fortnite in December of 2018. For those unfamiliar with the game, it’s basically Fortnite without the Forts. Players can’t build in ZB game mode hence the name Zero Builds. I suspect the reason Fortnite introduced the ZB version in March of 2022 was that competitive shooter games don’t offer building modes and there’s many players that find building very difficult or just undesirable.
Last season was the first season I began streaming and made a lot of new Fortnite friends. I learned that some of them, have a preference for playing ZB and others only want to play in the ZB game mode. ZB has been a success because a lot of players prefer it. Kudos to Fortnite for introducing a game mode that satisfies the needs of a segment of their customer base!
Since I now have friends that preferred playing in Zero Builds, I play some in that game mode. I prefer builds, but enjoy playing ZB too. All good stuff! So far that is.
Ranked Fortnite Zero Builds
In the current season, Chapter 5 Season 4, I ranked up to Unreal in Builds super quickly. It took just 239 games. One of my fans suggested, “why not rank to Unreal in ZB?” I’m always up for a challenge so I figured, “Why not!”
I skyrocketed through ZB ranked as well. It took me a mere 121 games to get through all 17 levels (Bronze through Elite). I was on a blistering pace! Then the perfect storm hit.
Fortnite Ranked ZB Reload is Born
On September 24, 2024, just as I was rounding 3rd base heading for home on my quest for achieving Unreal in ZB, Fortnite introduced a brand new game mode; Ranked Zero Build Reload. This is a faster pace ranked game and has quickly become the most popular version of ranked that ZB players are playing. For example, this morning there are 38,100 people playing Ranked ZB Reload as opposed to the 14,600. This equates to almost 3 out of every 4 ZB players who are Ranked choosing to play in the new ZB Reload mode.
What’s the Problem?
Simply put, there’s not enough players now that are chasing Unreal in regular ZB to support the ranking algorithm in a fair manner. I’ll explain why.
The algorithm becomes stingier once hitting Champion level. Players only advance about half of what they would for a top finish than they did when they were Elite level. This was a challenge that made it a grind from Champion to Unreal, but not a real problem.
The problem is that the algorithm puts heavy weight on the ranking level of the player that eliminates you. Since most ZB ranked players are opting for Reload, there are not enough Champion and Unreal players to fill a regular Ranked ZB Champion lobby. This has resulted in my estimation of about half the Champion lobby being comprised of Elite and even Diamond level players. When a Champion player loses to a player below them, they suffer a big loss in ranking. For example, I had two 10th place finishes in Champion, one lost to an Elite player, the other to a Diamond player, and I lost 2% of my ranking both times. To further illustrate how hard it is, I had a game where I finished in 9th place and eliminated an Elite player who was the 10th player left in the game and I only went up 1%.
So since the algorithm seems to only allow a player to go up half the amount in Champion yet punishes them twice the amount for losing to players that should not be in their lobby, the algorithm no longer works.
What’s the Solution?
A potential solution would be to not punish a Champion player for losing to an Elite player. In my opinion, once a player reaches Elite level, they’re a pretty darned good player!
It’s Still Possible – Just not Worth it
I realize that even with the deck stacked against me, it’s possible to get there. So far, I played 100 Champion level ZB ranked games which has gotten me to 46% Champion. Since Fortnite gives a 20% head start at each level that means that I’ve progressed 26% in 100 games or about a quarter of a percent a game. This means that if I played another 207 games, I would hit Unreal.
Since the average Fortnite game takes about 20 minutes to play, that’s 4,140 minutes or 69 hours that I can be spending doing more enjoyable things. And I will!
