Fortnite Adds New Rust-Like Impossible Escape Mode, Here's How It Works

After lots of speculation and leaks, Fortnite's Impossible Escape limited-time mode (LTM) has arrived today, giving players a whole new way to play Epic's mega-popular free-to-play game. Impossible Escape appears to be what was previously referred to as Daybreak mode in leaks.

Impossible Escape plays a lot like Rust and other survival games, though Epic has separated PvP and PvE lobbies, so Fortnite players always opt into the version of the survival mode they prefer. In Impossible Escape, players awaken on a randomized edge of the Chapter 2 map separated from their group. Even players who jump into a Duos or Squads team will need to regroup with their teammates, or they can elect to go their separate ways and form a new squad.

There are a bevy of new icons to learn on the map, but with the exception of Guardian Towers, which are labeled with binocular icons, players won't see anything at first. Instead, the map is revealed as players explore. Climbing any Guardian Tower will reveal a larger portion of the map in one motion, a la a Ubisoft open-world game.

Players have three dawn/dusk cycles, totaling 30 minutes per round, to find a helicopter (Choppa in-game), repair it with four key parts, and survive the likely unavoidable conflict with enemies. NPCs guard the Choppas, and the Dusk cycles bring their own horrors, like wolfpacks, thick fog, and the purple ghouls players may remember from last Halloween's Fortnitemares event.

To discover the location of Choppa Parts, players will need to speak to Huntmasters, special NPCs only found in Impossible Escape, who give out Urgent Quests, like defeating raptors to collect a Raptor Claw. Once these quest items are returned to a Huntmaster, players will be given the location of a Choppa Part. It benefits players greatly to squad up when they find other players on the island, as intel gathered by anyone in a squad will be shared with the whole squad. Impossible Escape is not built for lone wolves.

Even after players have managed to find a Choppa, repair it with all four parts, and get their makeshift squad on board, they'll still need to find gas to fill it up and escape. Each Choppa has some gas to start, but not enough to make it to the airborne finish line that reveals itself once players have a working Choppa. As is the case with all weapons and items in Impossible Escape, gas is extremely rare, though players should of course start their search at gas stations.

Provided players can do all that within 30 minutes, they'll achieve the Impossible Escape and be greeted by the new win screen, "Escape Royale." All of this is made even harder in PvP where players will have to identify friends from foes at every interaction.

The LTM is currently scheduled to stick around for just one week, disappearing from the game on May 25, though this is an Epic-made LTM, which seems to suggest the developer has bigger plans for it. Players can even unlock a pair of cosmetics, a Loading Screen and an Umbrella, for winning a round of Impossible Escape PvE and PvP respectively.

While Impossible Escape is the biggest news of the week in Fortnite, players may also want to catch up on the Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point comic, now onto issue three of six. For the challenge-chasers, we've got the full leaked list of Fortnite Week 10 challenges too.