Fortnite’s Port-a-Fort challenge is a pain in the butt (correction)

One of the weekly challenges in the fourth season of Fortnite seems almost comically easy: All you have to do is use a Port-a-Fort. That’s it. Just find one and then use it during the match. Easy, right?

Nope. This challenge has proven to be a nightmare. Port-a-Fort grenades are “epic” weapons, which means they drop as purple objects and aren’t going to be common on the battlefield. You have about a 3.3 percent chance of drawing a Port-a-Fort grenade when you open a chest, Epic Games told Polygon, which means you may need to open a lot of chests before you find one.

Forget deploying the grenade; I have yet to even see one since the fourth season began, and I’m beginning to despair of finishing this particular challenge. This wouldn’t be a big deal — I’ve already completed five of the seven weekly challenges and have unlocked the reward — but the first Blockbuster challenge is to finish all of the first week challenges.

[Correction: As was pointed out in the comments, the weekly challenges stack. You don’t have to complete them all on a week-to-week basis. You have a lot more time to get lucky and get the Port-a-Fort than I had assumed from the wording on the challenges. I apologize for the error.]

The rest of the weekly challenges test either your skill or your determination. Using the pistol to get kills? That’s not hard, and it’s an excuse to practice your abilities with a pistol. The same with using sniper rifles to deal damage. You don’t even have to kill enemies in that case; you just have to deal damage. You can also choose to land in Haunted Hills and scramble for the chests in that area to complete the challenge to search seven chests. It’s not tricky, and you can grind it out quickly. These are all things that you have some control over, and may result in skills that directly help with the game itself.

But the Port-a-Fort challenge is different. Floor loot is determined at the beginning of each round in Fortnite, but Epic confirmed to us that the loot for chests is randomly assigned when you open them. You’re not grabbing what’s inside as much as you’re pulling the arm of a slot machine every time you open a chest. There’s nothing you can do to increase that 3.3 percent chance of getting a Port-a-Fort. You just gotta open chests until one pops up, and my luck has been abysmal in this area.

Epic Games via Polygon

The good news is that there are a lot of chests on the map, which means I have plenty of chances to be disappointed during each round. The online guides for this challenge are hilarious, often just stating that you need to find a Port-a-Fort chest and use it to fulfill the challenge. Thanks, y’all. Great SEO there. Really helpful.

But I can’t blame them too much. The only way to succeed in this challenge is to play as often as you can, and open as many chests as you can, until the numbers run your way and you get one of the rare grenades, then survive long enough to throw it. I’m actively nervous about finding one, only to be sniped in the head from afar before I have a chance to use it. I’m always on high alert to make sure I’m ready to throw it the moment it lands in my inventory.

I’m sure most of you had no problem with this challenge — almost no one else in the office shares my bad luck — but I feel stuck grinding for a reward that may never come. There is no way I can increase my chances of succeeding, I just need to keep playing and playing until it happens.

It could be days away, or I could find one in my next match. There’s no way of knowing, which is why this particular challenge feels so ... challenging. My actions or skill have nothing to do with whether I succeed or fail. It’s going to come down to luck, and there’s around a 96.7 percent chance each chest won’t have what I’m looking for.

Share your Port-a-Fort stories below. I’m curious if you share my pain or if you finished this challenge without any issue.