About a month ago, a datamine of Fortnite Battle Royale's game files uncovered that Epic Games intended on including a new teammate respawn mechanic in its free-to-play multiplayer shooter at some point in the future. Now, it looks as if the studio has actually followed through with an update that has brought what it is calling "Reboot Vans" into the wildly successful multi-platform battle royale release.

For those wondering how Fortnite's Reboot Vans work, when a squad member is eliminated during the course of a match, they will drop a Reboot Card that remains active for the next 90 seconds after they are killed. The downed player's teammates must then collect the cards and bring them back to a Reboot Van, which has multiple locations on the map, to revive their fellow squad member.

While picking up a Reboot Card will basically be instantaneous, dropping it off at the Reboot Van will take about 10 seconds total, leaving the Fortnite players who are respawning their teammates open to attack. No matter who picked up the Reboot Card, any team member in a squad can respawn a downed player. Once a player is respawned, there's a cool down period for the Reboot Van that lasts about two minutes, making it unusable during that time.

Respawned players will be revived with full health, a common pistol, 36 light ammo, and 100 wood. Reboot Cards and Reboot Vans are going to be disabled in Fortnite Solos, Big Team Limited Time Modes, and any modes that already have respawns enabled.

Should the concept of Reboot Vans sound familiar to anyone, it's because Fortnite is mimicking a similar feature found in Apex Legends. As it so happens, the Reboot Van isn't the only feature Fortnite poached from Apex Legends, as Epic even added a ping system shortly after Respawn Entertainment's take on battle royale launched. With this being the case, it will be interesting to see if Fortnite includes any more features inspired by Apex Legends in the future.

Fortnite is available now in early access for Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.

Source: Fortnite – Twitter