I think one of those pretty fantastic achievements the Fortnite community has pulled off. One billion bug splats? No, this is no fever dream. The Swarm event did bring out those creepy crawlies, and now there is one big virtual mess on the pavement; or a windshield smear, as Epic so poetically put it in their celebratory tweet.
Presumably in appreciation for all this…bug murder…O.X.R. is preparing a special Back Bling, which will be gifted to EVERY Fortnite player for FREE in a very near update. It’s cool, isn’t it? A little memento for your bug extermination efforts. The tweet, naturally, went viral, and the replies to it really are something else.
Players, naturally, are half hype and half asking for stuff. Some are just happy about free cosmetics, like Hot Chicken dropping a ton of heart emotes. Classic. Then, you have the others asking to finally get an event for once from Liran Playz. That sentiment was echoed by many more, who wanted PvE modes and actual content alongside distracting bug-mashing.
Now we’ve got a large volume of requests pouring in, which, lately, come to be expected every time Epic posts anything. People want specific skins to come back, be it either to “bring back bonjamin for me” or to “bring back holo twister ar!” Another one of the players puts forth some ideas for a Halo and Call of Duty collab mode, which honestly would be madness and great.
Those are amongst other speculations as to what the Back Bling might be. That conversation began with Patrick Kirchner jokingly stating, “Imagine if it’s a plush bug. 🤣,” which would be kind of funny and simultaneously lowkey terrifying to wear after you spent a couple of weeks vaporizing a billion of its cousins. Another user, cozyalyssa_, just straight-up asked if the image she posted was the free Back Bling. Gotta get that intel front-row, I guess.
But really, the whole tea is in the community effort. “Of course we have squashed that many. The majority, if not all, of us have made it our personal missions to eradicate every bug because of the theory that they have eaten our Sprites,” gushes one reply. This kind of lore-driven community effort is what makes Fortnite, well, Fortnite. Players came together for a common cause even if that cause was, basically, insect genocide on a grand scale.
The sheer scale of the number of bugs is quite wild-an imaginary billion of anything. But the players are simply walking around the island probably grooving to some tunes, squashing bugs for the greater good. What a sight to behold for a motivated player base when given a straightforward grindable objective. Even if some players called it “pure bot lobbies” while another user reciprocated, it’s an officially recognised triumph by Epic, so it counts.
What’s next, though? Well, Sykov is already throwing down, commenting, “Well? Let’s make it ten billion!” Uh-oh, the grind might not quite be over yet. Might there be even more rewards beyond that milestone? One can only speculate! Epic really has turned out to be a master at keeping the live-service train moving forward at full speed, while soliciting entertainment options and goodies to the players along the way.
Keep your eyes peeled for that Back Bling in your locker in a future update! A free one will be your thanks for your efforts in the great bug war of Chapter 5. It’s a neat acknowledgment of a community-wide achievement-a badge of honor for every player who participated in assisting Graves to turn The Swarm into a mere vague memory. And, if you’ll excuse me, I think I hear some bugs spawning somewhere. Gotta go help get that number up to two billion.
