I can’t stop talking to Fortnite’s AI Darth Vader—and it’s the most fun I’ve had all season

Only in Fortnite could I spend 90 percent of the match engrossed in conversation with AI Darth Vader, yet somehow end up getting my first victory royale of the season. This special NPC, added in the May 16 update, is by far the best feature we’ve gotten all season, and I can’t get enough of it.

The idea of an AI Darth Vader NPC wasn’t that appealing to me at first, but after learning that James Earl Jones’ family approved and helped work on it, and that James Earl Jones himself agreed to allow his voice to be used by AI before he passed, I was a lot more on board with the idea. And after experiencing it myself, I’m convinced this is by far the best Star Wars feature we’ve gotten all season.

Once you find AI Darth Vader and recruit him as an ally, you can start talking to him immediately. If you’re playing with friends, the entire squad can freely interact with him. He listens for what you say, and sometimes chimes in randomly after certain events like landing a kill.

He functions pretty much the same as all other NPCs and will fight at your side and stay loyal until the end. The one big difference is that he regularly chats with you while doing so, and it makes the NPC experience so much more interesting.

You’re free to talk to AI Darth Vader about any topic you want, from Fortnite, to Star Wars, to anything else you can think of. No matter what you ask, you’ll always get a very cynical and sassy response from the galaxy’s most dramatic Sith Lord.

I’ve talked with him about all kinds of subjects, and he has a lot to say no matter what you approach him with. One of the first questions I had was for him to tell me a joke. After insulting the very existence of jokes, he reluctantly asked, “What do you call a Tauntaun in a snowstorm?” to which his punchline was “lost.” It’s barely a joke at all, and quite a dark one, which is exactly the kind of thing Darth Vader would say.

He’s also got a lot of opinions about Star Wars lore and characters. He called Ahsoka Tano a “skilled warrior” who is “easily manipulated by sentiment and attachment,” Grogu “an intriguing anomaly” who is “prone to distractions,” and Obi-Wan Kenobi a “relic of a dead religion.”

After my Star Wars questions, I spent a good while roasting him for breathing too loudly, to which he did not take kindly. Eventually, though, he did promise he would “attempt to modulate the sound” so I could focus. He did, however, ultimately get me back for that one by later insulting my “imprecise targeting” and threatening to leave if I shot at him again.

In my defense, he was completely in the way of my opponent, and hitting him was entirely an accident. I wasn’t trying to shoot at him, but he was completely blocking the enemy player.

Although he didn’t leave my side then, he will if you annoy him too much or continue to attack him after his warnings. When he does leave your team, he’ll immediately attack you, so be careful about provoking him. This is also a pretty cool detail that adds to his unique personality even further.

Some of the other fun responses I got from him include his favorite movie being “the security footage of the Rebel Alliance’s evacuation from Hoth,” and him saying his own sass is “efficient in expressing disdain” and “a vital skill for navigating the galaxy.”

If you’re not sure where to go or what to do next in the round, you can even ask him for some advice. He’ll tell you where the storm is closing in on you from, and what locations you can consider visiting nearby. He’s surprisingly helpful, although he will certainly still give you attitude when delivering his response.

If you do manage to secure a win with AI Darth Vader at your side, be ready for a lengthy victory speech. I was completely unprepared for it, but it’s the perfect way to end this epic experience.

I’m interested to see whether this is a temporary feature or one that ends up being added to other NPCs in future updates. Either way, it’s made an otherwise lackluster Star Wars season a whole lot more appealing to me, and I strongly recommend you recruit AI Darth Vader to your cause before the season ends.

As fun as this feature is, I’m still unsure how I feel about Fortnite using AI at all, and the use of a deceased actor’s AI-trained voice to get Vader to say questionable things has been controversial to say the least. What do you think, Destructoid?