Fortnite Player Uses Bot Lobbies To Reach An Absurd Level

After 82 straight days of near-constant play, one Fortnite player has done something no one else has claimed before, as far as they know: reaching level 7,000 without cheating. The player, known as Terns on X and Canada in-game, documented the climb throughout the season, posting the milestone on social media this week.

The achievement, however, doesn’t mean much tangible at all. Fortnite caps meaningful rewards around level 200, and higher levels don’t grant extra items, bonuses, or skill advantages. The main payoff is appearing on a leaderboard and having something to brag about–though even that isn’t respectable. Terns also admitted that most of their progress came from playing against bots rather than real players.

“I mostly played Reload this season to get my levels,” they told GameSpot. “I used ‘bot lobbies,’ which are an Epic-supported thing, where every enemy in your game is an AI player and it is easier to kill.”

Terns’ post was met with ridicule across social media, with many users questioning how anyone could dedicate that much time to anything, let alone a single season of Fortnite.

“That’s honestly pathetic,” one commenter wrote. “Playing nearly three months with no sleep just to say no one has played as much Fortnite as you … this is just grinding the same thing for weeks making your brain go numb so a bunch of 12-year-olds can go ‘woah.'”

According to Terns, the upper ranks of Fortnite’s leveling leaderboards are often dominated by players who use exploits to boost their stats.

“Others are cheating to grind, and it’s mostly the same few people every time,” they said. “There are teams and clans of glitchers who cheat and try to ruin leaderboards and the integrity of grinding every season.”

Epic Games occasionally patches these exploits, but Terns says cheaters quickly adapt. Their drive came from a small Discord community of like-minded players who talk about leveling up for hours on end.

“I’m mainly motivated by talking to other grinders in my own Discord server,” they said. “We often sit in voice chats together, laughing and discussing XP all day.”

We’re fastly approaching the 10-year anniversary of the launch of Fortnite battle royale and Epic’s creation is still gripping players like Terns. It helps that the gaming supergiant continues to update the game with content like a new Simpsons-themed season.

Terns has been playing Fortnite since Chapter 1 Season 9 and has spent years grinding for levels. After hundreds of hours and nearly sleepless nights, they’ve reached a level that few players–or anyone else–should pursue again.