Fortnite Mothership Experiment Guide: What Do the Orbs Do?

After being taken to the Alien Mothership, Fortnite players are being subjected to an experiment in a strange location. This experiment is a competitive minigame where players can compete against other abductees for loot, and the Mothership Vault contains some of the best gear in the game. The minigame can be confusing at first, but it’s actually quite simple once you get the hang of it. Here’s everything you need to know about the Fortnite Mothership experiment minigame.

What is the Mothership Experiment in Fortnite?

The goal of the experiment minigame is to collect gold Vault Orbs scattered throughout the arena. It sounds simple, but there are other players competing against you trying to collect the same orbs. You also only have a limited amount of time before you’re kicked out. You can extend the timer by collecting the small Time Orbs in the environment, but they only add five seconds to the clock.

The experiment minigame ends when either the timer runs out of you collect five Vault Orbs and reach the maximum Vault Tier. Vault Orbs will spawn slowly as long as there are still players in the arena, and they’re marked with a golden beam of light. The arena is a low-gravity environment and you can double jump using the provided jetpack, so you have plenty of mobilty.

Be careful though, because everyone is equipped with a nonlethal blaster that knocks people back with a concussive blast. Basically, there’s low gravity and everyone has a shockwave grenade launcher. Falling to your death doesn’t have any penalty because you just respawn, but it will cost you precious time.

Once the experiment minigame is over, you’ll be taken to the Mothership Vault. This room is lined with chests, but you’ll only have a short period of time to open them. The rewards are also dependent on how many Vault Orbs you collected before the time ran out. If you collected five, then you’ll receive Legendary gear from the chests. If you only got four, then you’ll get Epic gear. Basically, the more Vault Orbs you pick up, the better gear you’ll get in the Vault.

Fortnite is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices.