Tom Phillips
Guest
Fortnite has just wrapped up its latest explosive live event, detonating the Death Star looming over the Island and welcoming DC Comics hero Superman in the process.
Tonight's event, Death Star Sabotage, saw players infiltrate the Empire's fully operational battle station that has hovered menacingly over the Fortnite battle royale Island throughout its Star Wars mini-season. Happily, and perhaps unsurprisingly, players were able to stop the station's deadly space laser from obliterating the game's map — although not without causing a bit of damage in the process.
As destruction rained down, the event's closing moments saw Superman arrive — presumably to try and help with clean up duties during the game's incoming superhero-themed season, which begins in just a few hours' time.
Fortnite's big Star Wars event began in orbit around the game's battle royale Island, giving players a rare glimpse at the game's setting from outside its usual boundaries. Fortnite's setting exists as a bubble of reality floating through the multiverse (which handily allows any character from any franchise to turn up at any time!) and here, players were able to pilot X-Wings and TIE-Fighters to blow up orbiting Star Destroyers and engage in fun dogfights. In the continued absence of a Star Wars: Battlefront 3, this was a fun riff on its space battles to get things started.
The action then swiftly moved to within the Death Star itself, as Fortnite heroes Jonesy (Troy Baker) and Hope (Suzie Yeung) led players through the bowels of the station, initially disguised as Stormtroopers and their captives. Ultimately, players found themselves in an encounter with Star Wars' Emperor (was that the voice of Sheev Palpatine himself, Ian McDiarmid?), and able to escape the Death Star as it exploded.
In a nod to Fortnite's 2021 live event Operation Sky Fire (which also ended in a space station exploding above the game's Island), players were initially left to celebrate their victory — until the realisation that huge flaming chunks of said space station were now raining down on their battle royale home. And here, one of these chunks smashed straight into the glowing Rift Gate used to access the spirit realm by Fortnite's current antihero Daigo, unleashing its untold power.
The event's final moments see players back on the Island, mysterious energy now crackling around them. (Will this be the explanation for why superpowers now exist in the next battle royale season? Quite possibly.) Meanwhile, Superman is seen watching the Island from afar, as it is flooded by spirit realm energy. The suggestion here, of course, is that Superman will be swooping in to help.
If you weren't in-game at the time, you can watch a recording of the full Death Star Sabotage mission below:
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Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social