It was only a matter of time before non-FPS games started getting into the Battle Royale genre, and what better game to test the waters than the skill-intensive "arena brawler" Battlerite. Since you can't exactly transplant Battlerite's gameplay into a Battle Royale setting and expect it to work, you shouldn't be surprised to hear that developer Stunlock Studios is planning a whole bunch of changes.

"For now, all players are going to start with their M1 and Ultimate abilities (your energy meter will be empty). So you won’t be completely bare when you first drop onto the island," reads the developer update. "From there, the rest of your Champion’s toolkit will need to be scavenged. It is possible for an ability to drop more than once, so even if you’re searching in places you know other players have been it’s possible to still find abilities you’re missing. Though it would be really challenging, it is possible to win the game with an incomplete toolkit!"

"Besides finding abilities, you can also find equipment and consumable items. Equipment items increase certain stats, your movement speed, your health points, etc. They’re static and cannot be upgraded, but come in different tiers of strength and effectiveness. Consumables are items that can be activated for use, such as healing potions or shield potions. There are fun and powerful items that can be used, and they change up the traditional gameplay significantly. We’ll have another Dev Update in the near future that will go more in depth about both Equipment and Consumable items."

I'm not sure whether we'll be able to take abilities from other Champions, but either way it's certainly an interesting idea as far as loot is concerned. The one problem, as you might imagine, is that the lack of abilities will make the whole battlerite (or talent) system a bit underwhelming. In order to solve this problem Stunlock Studios will be giving you a chance to find additional battlerites for your Champion on the map, which should not only allow you to break the standard limit, but also help fill out any holes in your Champion's build.

Enemy Champions will drop loot when slain, including the aforementioned abilities

"Champions begin with 50% less max health than in Arena. Health can be increased beyond the initial starting maximum by finding certain items during gameplay," continues the developer update. "[The Map] is going to be big! Besides being big and having various locations to explore and search, there will also be weather effects that the art team has done an amazing job putting together."

"Environmental hazards were discussed during the initial planning of Royale, but optimizing, scaling up the experience, and keeping the core gameplay intact was deemed a priority. It’s an idea that can still be played with, however, and has not been completely abandoned, and we don’t know if this will make it into the first version of Royale."

I must admit, I'm quite curious to see how all of this will play out in-game. There seems to be an absolute ton of items and power-ups to collect, many of which have the potential be even stronger than top-tier weapons in Fortnite or PUBG, so I am also slightly worried that the luckiest player will quickly be able to snowball into an untouchable position. That said, Battlerite was and still is a game of skill, so even if you're lacking a few abilities I suppose you'll always have the option to outplay your opponent and steal all of their toys.

But enough speculation from me. If you're interested in learning more about the Battle Royale game mode, or just Battlerite itself, you should head on over to the official website.