Fortnite Season 9 has officially begun, and that means plenty of new content is dropping in the battle royale game. This season has several reasons to get excited–there’s a new Battle Pass, some map changes, and more challenges to tackle–but perhaps some of the cooler things this time around are the new skins. For what’s the point of winning a fierce round of battle royale if you can’t do it in style?

Of course, it’s not going to be easy, as Season 9 will have you work hard to earn its new skins and styles. If you’re not familiar with the process for unlocking new skins, here’s a quick overview: Every player is given a Battle Pass when they start playing Fortnite and, as part of that, there are tiers and cosmetic unlocks tied to those tiers. By completing challenges you unlock Battle Stars, which level up the pass and push it through the tiers, unlocking the skins and other goodies as you go along.

However, there’s also a premium Battle Pass that can only be acquired by spending 950 V-Bucks on it. This premium pass not only has exclusive cosmetic unlocks, but also exclusive weekly challenges, which means those that have one can unlock more and unlock it faster. If you decide to purchase one, you’ll get the Sentinel and Rox skins immediately, and they’re pretty cool. Rox, in particular, is a really nice outfit as it evolves over time. However, for the remaining skins, you’ll have to put in the work and earn them. You can take a look at all the new skins, and also the styles that alter them slightly, in the gallery below.

Fortnite Season 9 takes players to the future, specifically in Tilted Towers and Retail Row, which were destroyed during the climax of Season 8 and then remade for Season 9 as Neo Tilted and Mega Mall.

But that’s not all that’s new in the season, as developer Epic Games has also introduced an interesting new transportation system: Slipstreams. You can read about that, as well as all the other various changes, tweaks, and new additions included in the update by reading the Fortnite Season 9 patch notes.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-season-9s-new-battle-pass-means-new-skins/1100-6466769/

Season 9 of Fortnite didn’t come in quietly. In fact, as players who attended the Unvaulting event will attest to, it was quite an explosive transition into the new season. After jumping into the mysterious vault at the center of Loot Lake and then freeing the Tommy Gun, players were launched back into the sky above the island. There they watched as the volcano that appeared early in Season 8 erupted, destroying Tilted Towers. This was the setup for Season 9 and, now that it’s begun, we finally have a look at what’s changed.

Season 9 has a futuristic theme and, if you watch the trailer, you’ll know that a few new areas have appeared to support this theme. The first is Neo Tilted, which replaces the Tilted Towers of old and has a very vibrant, city of the future vibe to it. There’s neon lighting, floodlights piercing the sky with pearlescent beams, and a blimp floating about. There’s also Slipstreams tunnels, which players can leap into and ride wind currents to quickly move around the map. Check it out in the image below.

Another area that has appeared in the wake of the volcano’s eruption is the Mega Mall, which replaces Retail Row. The Mall looks to be a little bigger than Retail Row and, like Neo Tilted, there is a Slipstream tunnel that snakes around it. All the stores you’d expect to see in a mall are present and accounted for, there’s restaurants, toy stores, arcades, and more. Alongside the Slipstream, there are various air vents located around the Mega Mall, which are handy for getting around the larger space. Take a look at the Mega Mall in the image below.

Naturally, there are various other small tweaks to the map, but these two locations are the biggest changes. We expect players will be visiting them regularly, as Epic likes to tie new locations closely to weekly challenges. This season, there’s an extra set of challenges focused on finding Fortbytes, a new pickup that will reveal the secrets of the season. You can learn more about Fortbytes here.

A new Battle Pass is also available, which means there’s new unlocks to be had. If you’re not familiar with how all that works, head over to our Fortnite Season 9 Battle Pass guide, where we explain what a Battle Pass is, how you can get one, what you’ll get for having one, and more.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-season-9s-map-changes-neo-tilted-mega-mal/1100-6466768/

Mark it on your calendar, Fortnite Season 9 began on May 9, and brought with it a whole bunch of new things for players to obsess about–10 weeks from now, you’ll be getting all nostalgic about this moment, probably. Fortnite developer Epic Games has detailed the major patch that is ushering in all the exciting changes to game and, as with previous seasons, there are significant changes to the map, fresh gameplay opportunities, and much more. Obviously, there’s a new Battle Pass too, and below you’ll find a breakdown of all the key details, including pricing information, what you’ll get as part of it, and how to make the most of the Battle Pass.

What Is The Fortnite Battle Pass?

The Battle Pass is effectively what allows players unlock new items that can be used to customize their character. These include skins, emotes, wraps, gliders, and back bling–basically, it’s all the rad stuff you see players wearing and think, “Dang, that’s cool, I want that.” These items are earned by playing Fortnite–taking out enemy players, scoring Victory Royales, completing the weekly challenges, and generally having a good time in Fortnite. While doing this, you’ll accrue Battle Stars, which in turn level up the Battle Pass and unlock cosmetic items attached to the levels.

As with previous Battle Passes, there are over 100 levels to upgrade through. For Season 9, when you buy the Battle Pass, you’ll automatically get two skins: Sentinel and Rox, which you can see images of below. Rox is a progressive skins, which means it can be leveled up to evolve into new styles styles.

How Do Battle Pass Challenges Work?

Thankfully, you’re not required to have a Battle Pass to enjoy playing Fortnite. This is because, by default, everyone is able to unlock a limited number of cosmetics. This is because everyone starts off with what is a free, baseline level of the Battle Pass. With this version, however, it takes considerably longer to level up the Battle Pass and unlock cosmetics, and many of the coolest items are exclusive to paid Battle Pass owners. Weekly challenges are the quickest way to level up a Battle Pass, and while free players will have some challenges to do, there’s a portion of the weekly challenges that are exclusive to those that have spent V-Bucks on a Battle Pass. More challenges to do means more Battle Stars can be earned, which in turn results in the Battle Pass leveling up quicker.

How Much Does A Battle Pass Cost?

The Battle Pass costs 950 V-Bucks from the in-game store. V-Bucks is a Fortnite-specific currency that you can purchase with real money. 1,000 V-Bucks go for about $10 in the US. Alternatively, you can purchase the Battle Bundle, which is 40% off and gives you the Battle Pass with 25 tiers unlocked, as well as the Bunker Jonesy skin. This bundle is priced at 2,800 V-Bucks.

Season 9 Battle Bundle Contents

Battle Bundle is available now through August 1 and instantly grants players with items “valued at over 10,000 V-Bucks. These include:

• Rox Progressive Outfit
• Sentinel Outfit
• Bunker Jonesy Outfit
• Sentinel Wrap
• Ripe Rippers Harvesting Tool
• Turbo Spin Glider
• Ripe Wrap
• 300 B-Bucks
• 1 Music Track
• 70% Bonus Season Match XP
• 20% Bonus Season Friend Match XP

What Are The Rewards?

When you purchase a Battle Pass, you’ll immediately receive a few skins including the Sentinel and Rox. However, beyond that there are futuristic wraps, which chance the visual style of whatever they’re applied to, mechanized pets, emotes, back bling, sprays, and more. The ultimate goal, however, is a progressive outfit that unlocks at tier 100. This skin is called “Vendetta” and you can see an image of it above. It’s also worth noting that if you owned a Season 8 pass, you’ll start Season 9 with a 30% personal XP boost.

What’s New In Season 9?

The Battle Pass might seem like a lot of work, and it certainly is–requiring hours of dedicated play, but it also worthwhile if you’re an avid Fortnite fan. But how does Season 9 mix things up from a gameplay standpoint, you may be asking? Well, the biggest change that we’ve seen in Week 1 of Season 9 is the new Slipstreams. These are new ways to get around the map quickly and, since you can either hop in yourself to be carried around the island, lob projectiles in, or drive small vehicles through, there’s sure to be plenty of opportunity to make mischief. There is gameplay depth to using Splistreams too, as you can build speed and influences trajectory, so you’ll need to spend a bit of time getting familiar with how they work. You can read more about what’s new in the Season 9 patch notes.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-season-9-battle-pass-guide-free-skins-pri/1100-6466765/

Fortnite Season 9 officially begins today and developer Epic Games has released lengthy patch notes detailing everything that is being added, tweaked, and changed to the wildly popular battle royale title. Naturally, there’s a new Battle Pass complete with a whole load of fresh rewards to unlock, but there’s also some big difference too the way you play Fortnite in Season 9.

One of the changes comes in the form of Slipstreams, which are wind tunnels that will carry players around the map much quicker. Numerous tubes have appeared around the Fortnite island, and players can hop in to quickly travel around. Interestingly, projectiles and vehicles can also enter the Slipstream, which is sure to cause some mayhem.

There are also new Air Vents around the map, and these fire gusts of air that players can use to launch themselves short distances. Despite how high you’re sent into the air, players will not receive fall damage. Finally, there’s Fortbytes, a new collectible that is exclusive to Battle Pass owners. There are 100 in Season 9 and, once all of them are found by a player, they will decrypt the secrets of Season 9.

Check out the full patch notes for Fortnite Season 9’s Battle Royale mode below. You can head over to the official Fortnite website to see what’s new with the Creative and Save The World modes.

Weapons + Items

• Added Combat Shotgun
  • Semi-Automatic
    • Holds 10 Shells.
    • Fires 9 pellets per shot for 73 / 77 / 81 base damage.
    • Tight spread and fast fire rate.
    • Headshot multiplier of 1.70x.
    • Reloads 2 shells at a time.
  • Available in Rare, Epic, and Legendary variants.
  • Available from Floor, Chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines
• Adjusted Tactical Shotgun damage
  • Base damage increased from 66/70/74 to 71/75/79
• Reduced Drum Gun availability from 16.732% to 7.155%
• Reduced Boom Bow availability from 1.292% to .755%
• Unvaulted Grenades
• Vaulted Clingers
• Vaulted Buried Treasure
• Vaulted Pump Shotgun
• Vaulted Poison Dart Trap
• Vaulted Scoped Revolver
• Vaulted Suppressed Assault Rifle
• Vaulted Thermal Assault Rifle
• Vaulted Balloons

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Turbo building after gliding now works correctly.
• The stink bomb damage audio and effects were not playing if you damaged yourself.
• Fixed the Shadow bomb occasionally not making the player invisible on the Xbox One the first time it’s used.
• Misplacement of Launch Pads in mid-air has been resolved.
• Pirate Cannon camera issues due to network latency have been resolved.
• The Reboot Card deposit sound effects no longer play in replay mode while the Van is on Cooldown.
• The Reboot Van card sound effects will no longer be heard when a squadmate disconnects.

Gameplay

• Slipstreams
  • These tunnels of wind passively carry players down the stream.
    • Players can move faster and change direction when actively trying to move down the Stream.
    • Use directional input to gain extra velocity. Experiment with bobbing up and down for higher speeds.
  • Players are launched when exiting the tube based on their movement speed and exit angle.
  • Projectiles and Vehicles can also enter the Slipstream.
• Air Vents
  • The powerful gusts of air from these environmental items can launch players short distances and grant immunity to fall damage.
• Fortbytes
  • Fortbytes are a series of 100 collectible computer chips available to Battle Pass owners. As you collect Fortbytes, you’ll decrypt a mysterious image. Collect them all to unlock rewards and uncover the secrets of Season 9.
  • On the first day of Season 9, there are 18 Fortbytes available to find. At least 1 new Fortbyte will be unlocked each day. Check the Challenges Tab for detailed information on which Fortbytes are currently available and when the others unlock.
  • Fortbytes cannot be collected after Season 9 ends.
• Disconnected players will stay in the world for 60 seconds. They still take damage and count for elimination points.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Resolved an issue with the UI showing health gains incorrectly if the player canceled the consumable close to completion time.
• PS4 controller lighting not always matching your pin color when in Squads.
• Players not able to use Hold to Swap if they previously picked an item up normally
• Adjusted turbo building to be more forgiving under poor network conditions
• Fixed cases of jittery movement under certain conditions.

Limited Time Mode Rotation:

• Trios: Classic Battle Royale with Three-Person Squads.
• Solid Gold: Fight to the finish using Legendary weapons!
• One Shot: Low Gravity. Every player has 50 health. Sniper weapons are the only weapon, Bandages are the only healing item. Jump high and aim well!

Events

• Players who have already qualified to be in the World Cup will be marked with a World Cup badge on the event leaderboards
• Leaderboards now have a button to sort games by the number of top leaderboard players in them. This will help identify the most critical active games from a leaderboard standing view.
• The in-game HUD now has different icons for points for Arena matches and weekend tournament matches.

Performance

• Improved frame rate on Nintendo Switch, particularly when large numbers of characters are onscreen.
• Addressed some cases of invisible characters after skydiving.

Audio

• Better tactical audio when inside player-built structures:
  • Enemy Pickaxe impact within ~one building tile radius has new, louder sound.
  • Wallbreak by enemy close/behind player much clearer/louder.
• Explosion audio improvements- shorter, higher dynamic range sounds that will make explosion audio clearer and punchier.

UI

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• “Swap” text appearing in the pickup UI will no longer appear when picking up more resources than the player can carry.
• The initial storm warning timer was incorrectly showing as 0.
• Spectators and replay watchers can now report users.
• Fixed party invites not showing up in the UI if the user logged out and back in again.

Spectating

• Spectating a player’s match will now automatically follow that player.

Mobile

• Auto fire will now trigger on vehicles.
• Added option for increasing elimination feed line count in the HUD Layout Tool.
• Dragging/Dropping from the quickbar is now allowed while jumping.
• The location of the boost button on Android for the X-Stormwing has been moved to avoid triggering the Home button.
• Squad formation is now accessible.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• The delay with interacting when using the quickbar slots has been resolved.
• Weapon icons now correctly display icons on the quickbar.
• Fixed sliders that were broken in the Dead Zone tab of the Controller Options.
• Auto fire adjustments:
  • Semi-automatic weapons now fire correctly.
  • Increased acquisition delay for shotguns.
• Dynamite trajectory indicator is now correctly displayed during use.
• Ziplines can no longer be ridden past their endpoints.
• Autorun no longer takes more than two taps to initiate after jumping from Battle Bus.
• Cooldown Timer visual for boost buttons on vehicles is now displayed correctly.
• The camera no longer shakes when entering the X-Stormwing.
• Left virtual thumbstick no longer becomes invisible when holding left or right and pressing the fire button.
• The Harvest Tool UI button in HUD layout is no longer invisible.
• The stair railing in Pleasant Park no longer clips through the door.
• Variant numbers partially hidden in the preview screen by the “X” button.
• The Dream cosmetic is now correctly displaying:
  • The butterfly
  • Eye glow effect
• Widow’s Bite pickaxe visual effect issue has been resolved.
• The Cooldown ring timer showing briefly when switching seats in Cannon.
• Interact Icon is no longer missing with certain consumables.
• Input Blocked text will no longer appear when opening the inventory.
• The Item Shop arrows now display correctly on iPhone XS Max.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-season-9-patch-notes-slipstreams-fortbyte/1100-6466763/