Game Theory - What The Heck Is Fortnite Slurp Juice?

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

Join Game Theory Host Tom as he breaks down what exactly Slurp Juice is in Fortnite and if something like it could exist in real life! *Credits:* Writers: Tom Robinson and Mike Keenan (The Pokémon Biologist) Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, Warak, Tyler Mascola, Alex "Sedge" Sedgwick, and Shannon (Bomb0i) Sound Designer: Yosi Berman

If there's one thing we all know about Fortnite, it's that they love their character crossover events. Usually we get typically strong, muscular heroes like Goku, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or John Wick. So I think we can all agree we were a little surprised when we saw this. Peter Griffin. What was even more surprising was his method on achieving this physique. A single jar of Slurp Juice. One of Fortnite's most iconic items. But the craziest part of all of this, the science might actually be...

Hello, internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that slurps down video games in the name of science. That's right, folks. After almost three years, game theory is hopping off that battle bus and dropping back into the world of Fortnite. And what dear theorist has forced me to return to this massive series after so long? Was it the ever-growing and convoluted law? Was it the seemingly infinite list of microtransactions? No, it was that in Chapter 5, Season 1, they added Peter freaking Griffin. And this Peter is putting the cut in cutaway gags. Now, this isn't without explanation. In the video announcing his addition to the game,

we see Peter at the doctor's office getting a physical from Fortnite's resident swell cat, Meowcels. Meowcals? How is that word pronounced? Oh no. Getting a physical from Fortnite's resident swole cat, Meowcels. Peter makes it quite clear that he's trying to get jacked, but he's not actually willing to put in any work.

So instead, Meowcles decides to give Peter a jar of something, and boom, instant muscles. What was in that jar that helped Peter go from Family Guy to Fitness, bro? None other than Fortnite's iconic Slurp Juice. This Slurpy goodness was a consumable item in Fortnite that used to heal quite a bit of health back in the day. It was created by Slurpco in the aptly named Slurpy Swamp. Over the years, Slurp Juice has been added and removed and added again, but it still remains one of Fortnite's most iconic and beloved items. But the only thing I could think of when I saw Peter down that juices,

could something like this actually exist? I mean, Slurp Juice seems to pack a pretty powerful punch. Not only does it heal all wounds, but it also can turn Peter Griffin into Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Could a juice help heal you and grow your muscles without you having to lift a finger? The answer, as it turns out, is an unequivocal yes. After hours of research, I think I may have discovered the secret ingredient that makes Slurp Juice so Slurpy. And it's something that you might find in your local pharmacy sooner than you'd think. Grab your Mason jars and juice presses, loyal theorists.

It's time to squeeze every bit of science out of this six-year-old item. To kickstart our Slurpy investigation, I of course turn to the game itself. Does it give us any indication of what Slurp Juice might be? It does, but not in the Battle Royale. Instead, the answer actually comes from the newest edition to the Fortnite family, Lego Fortnite. Lego Fortnite is an open world survival crafting game that converts everything into the lovable Lego brick style. Huh, I wonder how Mojang feels about that.

Anyway, because of that crafting, Lego Fortnite allows you to take raw ingredients and turn them into consumable items, including Slurp Juice, which only requires two simple ingredients. raspberries and slurp mushrooms. There you have it. Theory over, we figured out what slurp juice is. But obviously we're not done. Because while we have the ingredients, we need to see whether they would actually achieve what the game suggests. So it's time for some good old-fashioned food science.

For starters, raspberries are... Uh, what do you think you're doing? Oh, it's santi. What does it look like I'm doing? I'm about to explain the science of a video game item. What it looks like you're doing is trying to steal my thing. I'm the food theory guy. Ah! Tell you what? Why don't you tell the

audience about the nutritional value of raspberries and mushrooms and I'll chime in to talk about how it helps us solve our in-game mystery. You mean like, work together? I guess I could give that a try. Ahem. Raspberries are actually a great ingredient to have it in an athlete's juice. They're an excellent source of complex carbohydrates supplying your body with a sustained energy source. Raspberries also contain beta-carotene, which can improve eyesight. So with raspberries, a player can push for longer while also no scoping the competition.

Exactly. raspberries are also chalk full of antioxidants like vitamin C and E. You see, every time you breathe, your body produces what are known as free radicals. Free radicals end up damaging your DNA and tissues. Antioxidants are able to neutralize those free radicals. So if a person is running around an island trying to survive, they would produce a lot of free radicals, right? But the antioxidants and the raspberries would help to heal them from those effects, so to speak. Now you're cooking.

Mushrooms are another ingredient that athletes have been gravitating to lately. They're low in calories, they contain minerals like potassium and magnesium that help muscle function, and they're a pretty decent source of protein. If you're looking for a non-meat alternative for muscle growth, you could do a lot worse than mushrooms. Plenty of companies even sell mushroom powders you mix with your coffees, shakes, and of course, juices. One great example is the cortiseps fungus.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, isn't that what causes the zombie outbreak in The Last of Us? Well, yes, it does share the same name, but it doesn't quite work that way in real life. Cordyceps have been in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries, but more modern science research has shown that, Along with the muscle building properties, Corticeps can boost exercise performance and fight inflammation.

All in all, I think that having a raspberry and mushroom juice could end up being the perfect combination for a nice post-workout drink. Wow, I guess Fortnite really was onto something. Maybe this episode is just that simple. Wait, did you say post-workout? Yeah, I mean, you can drink all the nutritious stuff you want, but you're not going to gain any muscle mass or improve your fitness without working out at least a little bit.

But that's exactly what happens. Pierre rejects the 30-day and even the one-hour workout plan, which means while raspberries and mushrooms sound like a post-a, perfect fit. We need something that's going to work without having to exercise. So, all the research I just did was totally useless? Not useless. Actually, yeah, kind of. Okay, well, maybe he's just hallucinating? You can turn magic mushrooms into a psychedelic juice with a suspiciously light blue color that

looks just like slurp juice. Are you seriously suggesting that I go with, it was all a dream? I, uh, yeah, I guess you're right. Well, at least I got to do one of my other favorite things. Waste your time. Bye! According to the game, slurp juice contains, quote, 1% juice. And according to the FDA, juice is defined as the aqueous liquid expressed or extracted from one or more fruits or vegetables.

So, raspberries and mushrooms are likely part of this concoction, but what on earth is the other 99%? Well, one small detail you might have seen during chapter 2 are these tanker trucks around the map. These are filled with slurp juice. And most players just destroy them in order to get the healing effects of the slurp. But before you smash the truck to bits, If you pay close attention, you'd see this little placard on the side of the truck that says Radioactive Material. The idea that Slurpco would secretly be adding radioactive ingredients to their drinks does sound

like the kind of thing an evil corporation would do, especially as we're covering it here on this channel. But the funny thing is, there are actually some real-world examples of companies doing exactly this, making their products radioactive. No, I'm not kidding. In the early 20th century, radioactivity had only recently been discovered. We're still decades away from understanding the last. long-term health effects of radiation exposure. All people really knew is that it contained a whole

bunch of energy and that it glowed. So, naturally, companies started shoving radioactive elements like radium and thorium into anything they could think of, like makeup, toothpaste, and even suppositories. Then they marketed them as boosting energy, giving you a youthful glow and improving your performance. But as you can probably guess, that isn't what happened. One of the most documented examples of this radioactive craze was for a product called Radithor. It was an energy drink. that was basically radioactive radium mixed with, quote, triple distilled water. Oh good, wouldn't want any of those pesky impurities getting in my radioactive drink, now would we? But one man was a big fan, businessman and semi-professional golfer, Eben Byers.

In 1927, Byers hurt his arm after falling off a train bunk. His doctors ended up prescribing him Radathor. Oh, did I forget to mention, this stuff wasn't just an old-school gamer drink. It was literally being prescribed as medicine. Byers said it made him feel toned up and would go on to drink an hour. average of two to three bottles of Radithor a day for three years. Until, of course, it all came crashing down. Turns out, that toned up feeling was really his body falling apart, literally.

By 1931, he started to lose weight, his bones became brittle, his teeth fell out, holes started to form in his skull, and eventually most of his bottom jaw had to be removed. He died in 1932 of multiple cancers just five years after his first dose of Radithor. And then he had to be buried in a lead-lined coffin. Over three decades later, when his body was dug up for research, his corpse was still considered dangerously radioactive and likely will remain so forever. It was only after this and a few other tragedies that the FDA started cracking down and began regulating most radiation out of everyday products.

Radiation is dangerous stuff. And outside of niche medical applications like imaging and destroying cancer, radiation serves absolutely no medical benefit whatsoever. While it may be cool to think that the radioactive ingredients in Slurp Juice could turn Peter Griffin to The Incredible Hulk, radiation doesn't really work like it does in the comics. It's less Bruce Banner and more Evan Buyers. And actually, if you take a second look at those radioactive placards, you'll notice something. The lettering on those placards is old and worn.

It seems to me that these trucks used to contain radioactive material, but were bought and rebranded by Slurp Coe somewhere down the line, which is why you can see other lettering peeking out from underneath the big beautiful Slurp logo. And it makes sense. I mean, none of their products are actively advertising the radio. radioactive effects like the products from the 1900s. And if they were trying to be sneaky about it, you'd think they'd cover up the radioactive material sign on the side of their company trucks. That, tied with the lack of missing jaws from our battle royales, and I think we can definitively say that Slurp juice does not contain radioactive material.

Okay, so if the game is no help, what real world science is there that can help us to create this beautiful blue slurp? I guess the first question really is how and why do muscles actually get bigger. When you do any sort of strenuous activity, your brain sets off a casket, of metabolic processes across your body. It activates different genes to specifically protect you from the stresses of working out. For example, when you lift weights, your body starts funneling your blood towards the muscles and away from other parts of your body that aren't critical at that very moment, like your digestive system. After you're done pumping iron, you'll notice you feel a bit sore.

That's because you've depleted your body of its critical nutrients and worked your muscles so hard that you've technically damaged them. Your body then reacts by repairing the damaged muscles, but this time, making them even stronger than before. Over time, if you continue to work out that same muscle, it will eventually become jacked. So building muscle means you are also healing said muscles. Therefore, if we can focus on finding something that helps build muscle, we should get the healing factor thrown in as a two for one. My first instinct was performance-enhancing drugs, or PEDs. Drugs like anabolic steroids allow athletes to illegally get swall fast. They do this by mimicking naturally occurring hormones in our body like testosterone.

Testosterone increases the production of muscle proteins, hence muscle growth and increased strength. It's not all illegal though. Anabolic steroids can be used to help people recover from both muscle and bone injuries, strengthening them in the process. Plus, one of the side effects of steroid use is, quote, delusional feelings of being superhuman or invincible. And if you take a look at Peter Griffin, I think that fits the bell quite nicely, except when you then look at the other side effects.

One of the long-term side effects of using steroid is muscle tremors, which isn't something you really want when you need to aim accurately to take home the victory. But there are also some more visually obvious side effects. things like hair loss, severe acne, and damage to your liver and kidneys, which can lead to things like jaundice, making your skin turn yellow. That is not what we see of Peter. He looks like a Greek Adonis and our other Fortnite characters aren't looking bad either. And given how much these players are consuming during a game, it doesn't seem like these side effects are kicking in, which means it's likely not steroid use, which therefore means I have to keep looking. Naturally, I turn to the more natural option for bodybuilders.

Creatine. This is typically found in things like fish and red meat. Instead of mimicking hormones, creatine goes straight to your skeletal muscles and is comfortable. into creatine phosphate, which then helps with the creation of adenosine trifosate, an energy source for your cells. Basically, it allows you to exercise for longer, therefore helping you build muscle faster and helping to speed at the recovery of those muscles. Not to mention that it's currently being studied to see if it can potentially treat things like congestive heart failure, Parkinson's and fibromyalgia. So the healing factor is definitely there. Finally, creatine is typically sold in a powdered form, which makes it easy for Slurp Coe to sneak it into your juice.

It seems like we have a winner, especially with the lack of negative side effects. But it's still not a perfect fit. Both creatine and steroids run into the same problem we did earlier. Much like the nutritious juice that Sarty laid out for us, these things don't work without putting in some level of effort. And it was at this point that I was basically ready to give up. There just didn't seem to be any way to grow your muscles without putting in the work. Epic Games had specifically designed the most unscientific item possible. And so, my couch potato dreams were shattered and I was this close to binning the entire episode. That was until I found this. At the end of last year, a group of scientists led by Dr. Thomas P. Burris from the University of Florida

announced some promising results on an experimental new drug. This drug is part of a class of compounds called exercise mimatics. Basically, these are compounds that mimic the effect of exercise without having to exercise. How does it work? Well, earlier we mentioned that when you exercise, your body activates different genes. That happens because those genes have receptors that bind to different proteins. One of those receptors is known as an estrogen-related receptor, or ERR. Fun fact, has nothing to do with estrogen, the hormone.

the more you know, I guess. But when you exercise, your body releases a protein called PGC1 Alpha, and that binds to a lot of receptors in your body, including ERR, which then stimulates the production of skeletal muscle fibers. However, PGC1 Alpha isn't specifically meant for ERR. In fact, no protein is, which is where this new drug comes in. It was designed specifically to bind to those estrogen-related receptors in place of PGC-1-Alpha, activating the genes to produce skeletal muscle fibers and therefore tricking your body into thinking the muscles

are damaged and need repairing, and so building muscle, all without having to leave your chair. During trials on mice, they found that it was actually 50 times more effective than traditional training, with those given the new drug being able to run 50% further than those who weren't. Considering that a player needs to run for miles in a 20-minute game, that sounds like it would be pretty useful. You know what else the scientists found during the experiment? Outside of the increased muscles in healing properties? An increase in grip strength.

Which, when you remember that a player needs to paraglide all the way from the battle bus to the island, seems like a great. critical advantage. And what's great about all of this so far is that scientists haven't noticed any long-lasting negative side effects. It's also worth noting that the university doing these experiments is the same university that made another sports beverage innovation back in the 1960s. They created a sports drink that provided electrolytes and other nutrients to help aid the performance of their football team, the Gators. Of course, this drink would then go on to be known as Gatorade, famous for its bright colors, including blue, and if you take a look at the

original bottle, it does look an awful lot. Like slurp juice, doesn't it? But the absolute cherry on top of all of this is the drug's name. Yosie, drumroll, please. Come on, man, this is my first one. Like, can we maybe just put a bit of effort into this, please? I'll bring you chocolate from the UK. Please?

Thank you. The name of this drug is S-L-U-P-P-332. I mean, you see it right. Come on, it's basically one line away from just being called slurp. Editor, can we fix that in post? Thank you. So, there you have it. We have found the true recipe for Slurp Juice.

1% mushroom and raspberry juice, maybe a dash of blue coloring to make it feel like a healthy sports drink, and the rest is all SLU-P-P-332. An experimental drug designed to help you gain muscle without lifting a finger. Perfect for people like me stuck behind a desktable day writing theories. Of course, right now you can't just go out and buy Slup. It's still very much in the early testing phase. It needs to be trialed and refined before it ever gets into a person's body. Because while early results show that it doesn't have long-term side effects in mice,

Even that only looks at the effects after a month or so. Who's to say that taking the drug for longer or when it's trialled on humans doesn't cause some kind of unforeseen side effects? However, this clearly hasn't stopped Slurk Co from releasing the product anyway. That's why, unlike other juices that you find in the game like Slap Juice and Guzzle Juice, which come in more traditional consumer packaging like we see in our world, Slurp juice comes in an unlabeled Mason jar. It's the kind of jar you buy at a craft store, not the one you'd use to mass market a product. All those labels you see on food and medicines, that has to be there as part of the food and drug. administration's approval process to let you know what the side effects and health risks are for

anything you're consuming. But we don't know the side effects of slurp juice, which would be an immediate red flag for the FDA. And that is why it's given out in unlabeled mason jars. We're being told it's just raspberry and mushroom juice that will give you a little extra boost to keep fighting. When in reality, our players are a series of guinea pigs testing out a brand new experimental drug without any approval, completely ignorant to any potential slurpy side effects. And considering the fact that Slurp Juice has been removed from the game time and time again, my guess is they either got found out or those trials didn't go so well. Maybe I'll just stick to the gym. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory. Thanks for watching.