Fortnite's Spawn Island Helicarrier May Soon Become A New POI
The helicarrier in Fortnite may soon be more than just spawn island, at least based on a couple of recent leaks from data miners. During the Fortnite x Marvel crossover this season, players spawn in the game from the helicarrier, which is where the Battle Bus is located. Some players have managed to get back to the island, revealing that it has a currently defunct vault. Building upon that teaser are the new leaks hinting at a future Point of Interest (POI).
Spawn island is, by definition, not a POI in Fortnite Battle Royale, though that has never stopped industrious players from managing to get back to the forbidden land. Many have speculated that the helicarrier that arrived with the Marvel team in Season 4 will eventually become a playable POI, the reason being the currently unusable vault located on the platform.
In a tweet yesterday, known Fortnite data miner HYPEX published a tweet claiming that the game has unused code for a new variety of henchmen seemingly belonging to the Marvel universe's SHIELD organization. As part of the battle royale island lore, the helicarrier is supposed to belong to the SHIELD organization, hinting at the potential future activation of this flying base as a legit POI.
There's an unreleased/unused henchmen codename called "SHIELD", as far as i know its that marvel organization and the helicarrier (spawn lobby ship) is supposed to be theirs..
— HYPEX (@HYPEX) September 29, 2020
That leak, on its own, wouldn't be enough to get players excited — one could argue that the season was originally meant to offer the helicarrier as a POI, but that changes were made and only the scraps of code remain. However, a second leak from another known data miner casts doubt on that speculation; in it, the leaker claims the helicarrier will soon move over the battle royale island.
at some point the helicarrier will appear above the island pic.twitter.com/OAyUiilqqw
— spedicey1 (@spedicey1) September 11, 2020
The leak from Spedicey1 from earlier this month includes a couple of renders of the helicarrier over the island — it's hard to tell, but it seems to be over Stark Industries. Combining the two leaks, it seems more likely than ever that the helicarrier will eventually become a playable location. Given how far we are into this crossover season, the change will likely happen soon (assuming it happens at all, of course).