It has been nearly two years since Epic Games unleashed the Marvel-themed Absolute Doom season upon the Fortnite island, yet one of its most memorable glitches refuses to stay buried. Players equipping Shuri's Black Panther Claws are still reporting a bewildering bug that hurls them hundreds of meters into the air at random, breaking the flow of matches and leaving the community equal parts amused and exasperated. The issue, first documented shortly after Chapter 5 Season 4 went live in August 2024, persists with surprising resilience in 2026, surviving multiple map overhauls and weapon rebalances. While the competitive landscape has shifted wildly, the claws' volatile pounce ability remains a wildcard that no amount of skill can control.
The bug triggers when a player activates the claws' signature pounce, a forward leap designed to close gaps on enemies or escape danger. Instead of a controlled bound, the game occasionally teleports the player to the absolute map ceiling—right where the Battle Bus spawns at the start of each match. From there, the unlucky combatant plummets in a helpless freefall, their momentum arrested only by the island's surface far below. Fall damage mysteriously never occurs, a small mercy that prevents instant elimination, but the trip can last well over a minute. In a battle royale where seconds matter, such a forced hiatus is often a death sentence.
Community archives are littered with recordings of the phantom launch. One Reddit user captured their avatar vanishing from the ground and reappearing as a tiny speck against the sun, spinning uselessly while the storm circle tightened. Another player, known as GalickGunn, recalled a nail-biting duo match where they were the last team standing, only to be shot into the sky mid-fight. Their son finished the lone opponent and secured the Victory Royale while their character drifted back to earth. A different user, attempting a self-imposed "claws only" challenge, had their run ruined when the bug struck during a crucial engagement. Such moments turn the weapon into a gamble, eroding the trust players place in their loadout.
Technical speculation points to a server desynchronization error that Epic has never fully addressed. When the pounce command is executed under lag or packet loss, the server fails to update the player's coordinates rapidly enough. The system then defaults the position to 0,0,0—the origin point of the map, which happens to be the Battle Bus starting altitude. This theory aligns with the randomness of the occurrence; it strikes console and PC players alike, though it seems more prevalent on congested servers. Despite numerous patch notes detailing weapon adjustments and bug fixes, no specific mention of this glitch has ever appeared, suggesting either a low priority or a stubbornly deep-rooted code flaw.
The Black Panther Claws are not the only Marvel mythic to suffer from instability. Captain America's Shield once locked players into an infinite spin animation, and Doctor Doom's gauntlets launched splash damage through walls that could vaporize entire squads. However, the claws' bug has achieved a special notoriety simply by enduring. While other super-items were nerfed into niche roles or vaulted entirely, the claws remain in the loot pool through various seasonal integrations, each time bringing their chaotic quirk back into the spotlight. Even in 2026, with the collapse of reality sending fragments of old POIs into the current map, the claws appear as floor loot, tempting daredevils to roll the dice.
Professional players and streamers have learned to fear the pounce. In ranked lobbies, losing a minute to an involuntary skydive means forfeiting positioning, mats, and often the match itself. The bug has inadvertently created a new meta-gamble: do you pick up a weapon with excellent mobility and melee burst but risk a random trip to the stratosphere? Content creators have turned the bug into entertainment, hosting challenges to see who can get launched the farthest or survive the longest after being flung, but the underlying frustration is palpable. Each new season trailer that hints at Marvel returns is met with a wave of "fix the claws" memes.
The persistence of the issue raises questions about asset reuse. Dataminers suggest the claws' movement code was borrowed from earlier mobility items like the Shockwave Hammer or the Kinetic Blade, both of which had their own physics bugs. If the root cause lies in that shared foundation, patching the claws without breaking other items becomes a delicate operation, one that Epic may be reluctant to attempt for a non-competitive weapon. Whatever the reason, the player base has grown cynical. Forum threads that once demanded a hotfix now simply mark the anniversary of the bug's discovery, complete with fan art of sky-high Black Panthers.
In casual play, the bug occasionally blesses a player with a unique vantage point. Those rocketed upward can mark enemies, call out rotations, or witness entire build battles from above before gliding back into the fray. More often, though, it leads to an awkward drift straight into a full box of opponents. The sound of a squad laughing through voice chat as a teammate bemoans their fate has become a staple of the Fortnite experience. One could argue that such unpredictable moments are part of the game's charm, but charm wears thin when a bug outlives multiple storylines.
For a live-service game that prides itself on constant evolution, the Shuri claws bug stands as a monument to unfinished business. It has survived the transition from Chapter 5 to Chapter 7, outlasted the Mega City, the jungle, and the underground heists. As the year 2026 brings new marvels and fresh weapons, players continue to ask the same question: will the claws ever be fixed, or has their skyward glitch become as permanent as the loop itself? Until a developer explicitly states otherwise, the island's sky will remain cluttered with confused players clutching vibranium, praying their next pounce sticks to the ground.