Yes, Fortnite Has Bots Now And No, They Aren't Very Good

Update: Amidst all the excitement surrounding the black hole and the launch of Fortnite: Chapter 2, you might have forgotten that Epic told us last month that it was adding bots to the game. After opening up Fortnite: Battle Royale for the first time after installing the Chapter 2 update, you'll be thrown right into a match, but unlike usual, you won't jump out of the battle bus. Otherwise things play out much like you'd expect, albeit on a new map with boats and other new features. However, you might find the competition to be a bit easier than usual, and it seems as if this is because this first match is comprised either entirely or mostly of bots, rather than human players. It's unclear exactly how and when you're playing against bots, but you can read more about what Epic shared about them last month below.

Original story: The popular battle royale game Fortnite is introducing AI bots. As part of the upcoming Season 11, Epic Games will introduce bots with the aim of helping newcomers learn the ropes, rather than throwing them into matches filled entirely with other real-life players. This will come after a newly introduced improvement to matchmaking to ensure players are better paired with comparably skilled opponents.

Fortnite's bots will behave similarly to humans, Epic said in a blog post. These bots will populate matches in all playlists except Competitive. Over time, the game will recognize when a player's skill improves, and in turn, the number of bots in your match will decrease. Currently, Fortnite matches are populated 100 percent by other humans, so this is one of Fortnite's biggest changes ever.

Epic says the new bots system will evolve over time as the studio iterates and updates the feature, though no specific plans were divulged.

The bots will operate alongside the new matchmaking system that Epic is rolling out in the just-released 10.40 update. Due to the fact that the "range of player skill has grown considerably" since release, Epic is making changes to the "matchmaking logic" for Fortnite's core modes to help match players of similar skill together.

"You will be more likely to match with players of similar skill, and as you get better, so should your opponents," Epic said in a blog post explaining the changes. "We will slowly roll this out to all regions across Battle Royale core modes as we test and monitor how it performs. We're excited to get this out for everyone to play with and will continue to update the system."

Fortnite is currently in the midst of a Batman-themed event to celebrate the character's 80th anniversary. For more on that, check out GameSpot's guide to all the Fortnite Bat Signal locations.