It's time for a whole new season of shenanigans in Fortnite as the popular Battle Royale title enters season 5. Following Season 4's meteor strike, the story progressed throughout culminating in a rocket launch that tore rifts in the sky and started producing portals across the island.
Today, Season 5 launches and Epic Games has given us our first official information on what to expect.
Viking ships, desert outposts, and ancient statues have appeared across the island. Hop in an All Terrain Kart (ATK) with your squad and uncover all-new mysteries and locations that await.
The new season has also been preceded by Fortnite items, including Llamas and the Durr Burger sign appearing in real life locations around the world. The first big new change is the new desert biome with two new locations: Paradise Palms and Lazy Links. Other un-named POI have also been added to the island.
You'll be able to quickly get between these and other existing locations in the new All Terrain Kart, Fortnite's first vehicle capable of carrying a squad. It looks like a sort of off-road golf kart, which is no less than you'd expect from Fortnite.
You're also invited to step through a rift, with Epic promising "you're in for a wild ride." That's all we know until the servers come back up.
The new Battle Pass also launches with Season 5, and as ever it can only be purchased in-game and costs 950 V-Bucks. If you had the Season 4 Battle Pass you'll get some free levels on this one to kick start your progress, but there's also a change this time to how challenges are handled.
Starting in Season 5, progressive challenges will no longer be restricted to a single season. You can now complete progressive challenges at your own pace.
Progressive challenges are now completed by acquiring a fixed amount of XP and is no longer dependant on your season level.
As always with a Fortnite patch there are a bunch of fixes and performance improvements, with some changes too in weapon balancing. Shotgun spread is now consistent with no random variation, the suppressed SMG has been amended to fall in line with other SMGs and the hunting rifle aim assist has been reduced to match other sniper rifles.
You can, as ever, check out the full patch notes on the Epic Games blog while you wait for the game to come back online.
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