Epic Finally Reveals Why It Pulled Fortnite's Siphon Feature

Epic has finally explained why it removed siphoning from the non-competitive battle royale mode in Fortnite's version 8.20 update. According to the company, though many players have loudly complained about the change, the majority have benefited from the removal of the siphoning feature, which had caused 90% of players to reduce their engagement in the primary battle royale mode.Fortnite's siphoning feature enabled players to pull health and shield points every time they eliminated an enemy, helping them rapidly restore to continue battles. This eliminated the need to carry around shields and bandages and cut down on the amount of farming players had to do.

High-skill players loved this feature for the obvious reason: they're capable of getting a large number of kills and immediately gaining health/shield made things easier for them. That covers only 10-percent of players, though, according to Epic, which revealed in a statement this week that 90-percent of players were suffering due to siphon.

The 'unexpected consequence' of adding siphon to the main battle royale mode was, Epic says, a drop in engagement from the majority of Fortnite's players.

...players at large grew more frustrated with Fortnite play, feeling they had less of a chance due to encounters with high-skill players with full health and shields. Ultimately, Siphon increased engagement for the highest-skilled 10%, while the remaining 90% were more frustrated and played less.

This resulted in players increasingly abandoning battles in the primary game, in some cases choosing not to play that mode at all, for reasons of it being too intense. "The reduction in viable play styles in combination with this feedback," Epic explained, "was the basis of us removing the Siphon mechanic and the material changes from the core modes.