A never-ending battle in the center of everything.
The Loop is where Fortnite Battle Royale takes place and what explains every element of its gameplay.Combined with mechanics of respawning, shields, building and weapons, the Imagined Order (IO) has manufactured the worst prison from which only the best can escape: a battle to be the last one standing.
FIRST APPEARANCE: Chapter 1 Season X
LAST APPEARANCE: Chapter 3 Season 4
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The IO reverse-engineered the Loop by messing with the Zero Point’s natural defenses.
Every 22 minutes, the celestial object throws anyone near it back in time and space to protect its power. It also encases itself in an Island inside of its pocket universe: Reality Zero. Inside the Loop, it unleashes a deadly Storm upon the Island; every second spent inside it, your body is torn to shreds in a cloud of purple lightning.
To weaponize the Storm, the IO creates walls to hold it back — circles of the Storm that shrink closer and closer to bring the Loop’s fighters, called "Loopers", to battle; which are deployed on the Island via the Battle Bus.
WHY DO WE FIGHT?
Half natural, half artificial — but why even make the Loop? For the information gained by analyzing people at their worst; to sell to the IO’s senior partners, but most importantly, to feed into their greater purpose.
The IO wishes to create the perfect society by finding the best warriors and minds, and the Loop is the perfect test for them. To do so, they broadcast psychic signals to suppress your speech and memory, erasing any memories made after each Loop, as well as to amplify your instincts of survival.
Meanwhile, the department of Loop Observation watches the subjects’ progress as any promising candidates are taken to serve the IO forever. Another department, Acquisitions, suggests new subjects — called "assets" — to take from their Source Worlds and into the Loop.
HOW DO YOU ESCAPE?
Few have escaped the Island, as to do so, not only must you win the Loop, but also reach the Zero Point and attune it to your world.
Batman and others have managed this miracle, a feat that also recovers all memories from your past life, but most are left stranded on the peaceful Island — forced to make it their new home — with no memory of the home they came from.
Victory is made possible by emotional and physical memory, both left untouched by the IO's erasure of only conscious memory; composed by one's past.
If two Loopers fight often enough to build respect and honor across multiple Loops, or if an old flame of love is reignited with two Loopers from the same world, repressed emotions are powerful enough to unite people in battle. Any memos left behind — scribbles and scratches — also stay, so you can learn with each Loop.
HOW IS LIFE AFTER?
If the IO detects one winner at the center of the last circle, they will escape the Loop and be sent to a version of the Island free of battles. In this peaceful isolation, survivors recover their speech but only the memories made inside the Loop; nothing from before.
As part of the IO's tampering with time and space, whoever escapes the Loop has a Snapshot made of them — an identical copy used by the IO in perpetuity, meaning that no one ever truly leaves.
With their own technology operating under the Island, the IO also manages to hide the Loop’s battles in a different frequency than the actual Island.
The leader of the IO, Geno, once tested his own daughters by placing them inside the Loop and betting that they’d be the first to escape. They were not, and so he replaced them at home with their “better” Snapshots and left the other two behind — with no memory of their past; something they had to chase to get back.
These two would later become The Imagined and The Order, rebels that have reclaimed the IO's name for themselves as the only reminder of their past. They are members of The Seven — a team looking to free the Zero Point and the Loopers from the IO’s control. The twin sisters are the biggest cautionary tale about the dangers of the Loop and the chase for perfection that it brings.
FUN FACTS:
- A big part of the Loop’s mythology is told through comic books canon to Fortnite Battle Royale’s story: Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point and Batman/Fortnite: Foundation.
- The Zero Build mode is explained by the IO using a signal to prevent anyone from building during their war with the Seven.
- The Loop, and the bunkers teasing the IO’s presence beneath the Island, are heavily inspired by the TV Show Lost.
- Some of the most popular Outfits in the game have escaped the Loop and lived on the Island for many years, including Renegade Raider, Fishstick, and Eternal Voyager.