Out Of This World (Literally) – Everything New In Fortnite Season 7


Moving away from the stone age and into the space age, Fortnite Chapter 2 – Season 7 brings an alien invasion to the island.

There’s a lot to unpack this season round, from all-new mechanics to evolving ones from last season. Let’s sky-dive right in and see what’s new.

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Map Changes

Right from your first drop, you can see that the map has changed rather significantly, mostly around the centre tower piece. Gone is the huge tower, exploded when the aliens first arrived in the story trailer. In its place is a huge purple crater, completely eradicating the verdant golden slopes that used to surround the area.

Other locations have also changed. Sweaty Sands has swapped names for Believer Beach, while Colossal Crops is now known as Corny Complex.

The biggest change of all in the sky. When you get a chance, look up to see a humongous Mothership hanging menacingly above the map. It’s a sight to behold, even for Fortnite which is used to throwing colossal events our way.

Credit: Epic Games

Flying Saucers

Those aliens have already descended upon the map in their flying saucers. A well-placed shot on one of the occupants can bring the UFOs down to earth. 

Should you like, you can pilot one of these vehicles yourself. There’s space for four players, so you can carry your entire squad with you. The UFOs have the ability to pick up items that aren’t fixed to the ground. Use the tractor beam to pick up players and vehicles and throw them around the map.

Credit: Epic Games

Weapons

It wouldn’t be a new season without some new weapons to go along with it, and these ones are super fancy with advanced alien technology.

The Railgun shoots a devasting bolt that takes a few seconds to charge up. What’s special about this gun is that it can shoot through walls. Be sure to track your enemies carefully and prepare for your opponents to call wallhacks.

The new Recon Scanner might help you in keeping your opponents in your sights. It operates in a similar fashion to the grenade launcher, shooting out a ball that can roll around the terrain. As it moves, it sends out sensor waves. Any enemies caught in the sensor waves will be marked for you to see, making it a perfect combo with the Railgun.

A Pulse Rifle has also been added, which functions just like a normal assault rifle but shoots fancy lasers instead of bullets. It does still use the same ammunition as a normal assault rifle, though.

The final weapon that’s added in Fortnite Season 7 is the Ray Gun. This is a super short-range, high damage weapon that beams a wicked laser out in front of you. You’ll need to be good at target tracking to get the most out of this weapon, but kills with it are super satisfying.

Credit: Epic Games

All of the weapons can be picked up in the Henchman Chests dotted around the Fortnite map.

New Quests

The way that quests work in Fortnite has been slightly changed with the new update. Quests accepted from payphones and via NPCs will now earn a new currency: Bars. These Bars persist between matches and can be spent on weapon upgrades at the various benches strewn across the map.

You can also spend Bars at vending machines to purchase new items to help you in your quest for a Victory Royale. As this currency persists between matches, it appears that you can spend some time farming quests without worrying about dying and save up for one mighty attempt at winning.

Credit: Epic Games

Battle Pass Changes

Battle pass tier unlocks have seen a significant overhaul. Gone are the days of unlocking each tier in a linear fashion, grinding to get to the level of your favourite item.

Now, you earn 5 Battle Stars every time that you level up in Fortnite. These stars can then be spent on unlocking the Battle Pass rewards in any order you desire. It’s a refreshing way of giving players some agency in the way that they unlock the content they’ve (essentially) already paid for. It’ll be interesting to see if other games, like Call of Duty, adopt this approach later down the line.

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Purchasing the Battle Pass also nets you the Kymera skin. It’s a baseline alien avatar that you can build up and personalise how you like. Extra outfits are obtained by spending Alien Artefacts which can be found dotted across the map. If you play enough Fortnite, you’ll pick up plenty of them in no time.

All of the above, and not to mention the inclusion of everyone favourite adult cartoon character Rick from ‘Rick and Morty’. While his 3D character model does look a little funky, it’s still entertaining to play as him while strutting about the planes of the Fortnite island. And, it fits in perfectly with the alien theme! Hopefully we see his companion Morty added at a later date.

Credit: Epic Games

What’s your favourite part of the Fortnite Season 7 update? Let us know across our social channels.

[Featured Image Credit: Epic Games]

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