I Survived Fortnite Absolute Doom and All I Got Was a Pink SMG

Alright, let’s be real: when Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 4 rolled out its Marvel Absolute Doom crossover, I did what any self-respecting casual player would do. I spent way too long trying to figure out which gun would let me roleplay as War Machine while still whiffing half my shots. Spoiler alert—it went about as well as a llama in a vending machine. Doctor Doom decided to park The Raft, the floating supervillain prison, right on the Island and flood the place with Doombots. Classic bad guy move. Meanwhile Jonesy, one of the original 8 Recruits, dusted off his hero cape and became Captain Jonesy, assembling Marvel heroes like a group project he’d inevitably carry.

The playable lineup had me grinning from ear to ear. Gwenpool, War Machine, and Shuri’s version of Black Panther were ready to rumble from the jump. Later in the season, the Fantastic Four and Fishpool—yes, Fishpool, the name alone is worth 950 V-Bucks—reportedly joined the fray. The X-Men also hovered around the story, but Epic kept their cards close to the chest about whether we’d actually play as them. Typical Marvel tease, honestly.

Now let’s talk loot, because that’s what really matters when a new season drops. The official Fortnite website listed a whole new arsenal, and several of these showed up in the trailer. Peelverine was out there spraying dual SMGs, and War Machine was soaring around like a very angry jetpack enthusiast.

💥 New Weapons That Made Me Feel Like a Superhero

Here’s the new weapon lineup:

• Dual Micro SMGs – Gwenpool offered a pink Mythic version, perfect for close-range chaos.

• Monarch Pistol – Doombots dropped a Mythic version, because even the bots have better loot than me.

• Sovereign Shotgun – Mysterio dropped a Mythic version and probably laughed at me through the smoke.

• War Machine’s Arsenal – Lasers and rockets, because why choose?

• War Machine’s Auto Turret – For those of us who think aiming is overrated.

• War Machine’s Hover Jets – Mobility with a side of dramatic entrances.

Most of these could be found in chests, and fallen opponents sometimes dropped modded versions with attachments. If you wanted to manually tinker, Mod Benches were still around to eat your gold and ruin your inventory management. Honestly, half the fun was deciding whether to keep the pink SMGs or the shiny shotgun.

🚫 Vaulted: Wrecked’s Wasteland Toys

Now for the heartbreaking part: the Wasteland toys from Chapter 5 Season 3’s Wrecked event got vaulted. That meant Nitro Cars went bye-bye, which personally stung because I loved pretending I was in a post-apocalyptic road movie until I crashed into a tree.

The full vault list included:

• Heavy Impact Sniper

• Magneto Power

• Combat Shotgun

• Megalo Don’s Nitro Fists

• Nitro Cars

• Thunder Burst SMG

• Tri-Beam Laser Rifle

• Oscar’s Frenzy Auto Shotgun

• Hand Cannon

• Conductor Hand Cannon

• Boom Bolt

• Ringmaster Scarr’s Boom Bolt

• Megalo Don’s Combat Shotgun

• The Machinist’s Combat Assault Rifle

• Cerberus’ Gatekeeper Shotgun

• Harbinger SMG

• Huntress DMR

• Enforcer AR

That’s a lot of stuff sent to the shadow realm. But hey, Fortnite giveth and Fortnite taketh away.

🔁 Unvaulted: Classic Marvel Goodies

Fortunately, some classic Marvel weapons returned from the vault to balance things out. Doctor Doom’s Arcane Gauntlets and Captain America’s Shield came back, which made me feel like a kid in a superhero candy store. Emma Frost, who sided with Doom in Absolute Doom, dropped a Mythic Striker Burst Rifle and made it moddable—because even villains love attachments, I guess.

The unvaulted list included:

• Doctor Doom’s Arcane Gauntlets

• Captain America’s Shield

• Striker Burst Rifle (Emma Frost’s Mythic version, now moddable)

• Striker Assault Rifle

• Combat Assault Rifle

• Ranger Pistol

• Hammer Pump Shotgun

• Gatekeeper Shotgun

• Hyper SMG

• Shockwave Grenade

⚖️ Balance Changes That Kept Me Honest

And because Epic loves a good balance patch, here’s how some of the returning favorites changed:

Weapon	Balance Changes
Captain America’s Shield	New shield-charge capability; blocks while sliding and jumping.
Doom’s Arcane Gauntlets	Added Iron Man’s Repulsor attack; increased repulsor speed and damage; can overheat; not in tournaments.
Striker Burst Rifle	Now moddable; increased fire rate; increased damage; decreased reload time.

Doom’s Arcane Gauntlets being left out of tournaments told me everything I needed to know: they were absolutely unhinged. I loved it.

At the end of the day, stopping Doctor Doom’s assault took a whole lot of firepower. The Island was crawling with Doombots, The Raft was basically a supervillain hostel, and the loot pool felt like a comic book fever dream. As a regular player, I didn’t master every new toy—I spent most of my time getting lasered out of the sky. But I looked cool doing it, and honestly, that’s the Fortnite way. See you on the Battle Bus, pal.