Fortnite Season 9 is finally here, and as expected, there’s a whole lotta changes. Now Season 8’s volcano has stopped spewing lava and disrupting the map, we’re left with two new major locations. The first is Neo Tilted, a replacement for the much loved Tilted Towers. There’s also Mega Mall, a future-themed shopping arcade. Both of these feature the new slipstream channels which you can see on the screens here – those big posts with circular shapes on top. Slipstreams What are Slipstreams? Basically a new form of movement you can use to zip around the map. Jump into a Slipstream and the wind will you move across the map. You can change channels and experiment with bobbing up and down to gain and slow your speed. You’ll be launched out the end of a stream, and more interestingly, projectiles such as explosives and vehicles can also move through Slipstreams. You’ll also find air vents around the map, which can be used to boost players – don’t worry, you won’t take any fall damage from them. Fortbytes Season 9 introduces Fortbytes to Fortnite. Fortbytes are collectible computer chips that once found promise to unlock the secrets of Season 9. You’ll need to find all 100 of them, with the first 18 available today, and at least one new Fortbyte added to the map every day throughout the season. Fortbytes will only appear to those who own the Season 9 Battle Pass. Fortnite Season 9 battle Pass Speaking of which, here’s the lowdown on the Season 9 Battle Pass. As always, buying the Battle Pass automatically unlocks two new skins, with more unlocked as you rank up. The Season 9 Battle Pass costs 950 V-Bucks. Watch on YouTube Fortnite Battle Royale Season 9 Patch Notes 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<doc-sep>The ninth season of Fortnite is here, and it brings the battle royale game into a new sci-fi future. The biggest changes to the game are two locations: the destroyed Tilted Towers has been rebuilt as a futuristic cityscape called Neo Tilted, while Retail Row has turned into Mega Mall. The Neo Tilted structures are also available to build with in Fortnite’s creative mode. Other smaller changes to the island include some kind of power plant built around the volcano, a banana stand, and drone-like hovering platforms. Along with new locations, there’s a new form of transportation called the “slipstream,” which is essentially a wind tunnel that moves you quickly from one spot to the next. Developer Epic has added a new weapon called the “combat shotgun,” while removing a long list of items from the game, including the treasure map, balloons, and a slew of weapons. Check out all of the changes in the patch notes here. A new season also means a new battle pass, and here, the sci-fi trend continues with a number of unlockable items that include a Gundam-style suit and a robot cat. Also new are collectible computer chips called “fortbytes.” You have to collect 100 of the hidden items to complete certain challenges as well as “uncover the secrets of season 9,” according to Epic. Meanwhile, Epic has also added Arabic language support, and it says Middle East servers are in the works. “We’re still a few months from having services come online and hope to provide a more meaningful update on server support before then,” Epic says. The developer started teasing season 9 on Monday, hinting at the sci-fi aesthetic. Later teases included taglines like “the future is bright” and “the future is unknown.” The most overt tease came yesterday, with an image accompanied by the text “the future is tilted.” The new update arrives after a fairly eventful season 8. It kicked off in February and introduced a new adventure theme, complete with major additions to the Fortnite island like a volcano, pirate ship, and jungle area, along with a terrifying banana suit. (It also removed some notable features, including the short-lived airplanes.) There was also another Avengers crossover event, along with the very important option for players to pet the in-game dogs. More recently, developer Epic orchestrated another large-scale event that lasted a few weeks. It started when a strange alien rune floated its way across the island before the new volcano showed signs of erupting. Then, last weekend, a mysterious vault opened up, and players were able to collectively vote on which classic weapon to bring back. (They chose the drum gun.) After that, the volcano finally exploded, and it devastated two of Fortnite’s most iconic locations: Tilted Towers and Retail Row. As always, the start of a new season of Fortnite is just the beginning. So expect plenty of changes and updates as season 9 continues to roll out.<doc-sep>It’s almost here! After ten short weeks swashbuckling Season 8 is coming to an end, and the Fortnite Season 9 start time is close. Based on what we’ve seen last time around, and in every season since the Battle Pass began, here’s when you can expect the servers to be back online so you can enjoy the new stuff! Obviously, while a lot of this is based on countdown timers and other in-game items, for all its great features Fortnite isn’t known for its punctuality. This is all subject to change on the day, but this isn’t our first rodeo. Fortnite Season 9 Start Time Officially, Season 8 ends at 8am BST on May 9 2019 – which is 9am CEST, 3am Eastern, and midnight Pacific. Naturally, this means that the start time of Fortnite Season 9 will be after that. However, Fortnite tweeted out that the maintenance downtime for Season 9 will start at 8am UTC – which is 9am GMT, 10am CEST, 4am Eastern, and 1am Pacific. The Future approaches. Downtime for Season 9 begins tomorrow, May 9 at 4 AM ET(0800 UTC). — Fortnite (@FortniteGame) May 8, 2019 We wouldn’t expect everything to go live then either. There’s usually a lengthy downtime as all of the new content is added to the game. You can expect the patch notes about this time though. Generally, the downtime lasts between two and five hours. This means that we expect the Fortnite Season 9 start time to be around 11am to 2pm BST – which is 12pm to 3pm CEST, 6am to 9am Eastern, and 3am to 6am Pacific. For a sneak peek at what’s in store, a load of the new Season 9 Battle Pass items have leaked. When everything finally drops, there’s sure to be a whole host of new things to do and see, including weekly challenges, map changes, and skins to collect. There looks to be an interesting mix on the way with the new season. After the volcanic eruption and the unvaulting of the Drum Gun, the twitter teases have had a distinctly robotic vibe, with humanoid androids and characters that look like a mech pilots. Could this mean that the newly destroyed Tilted Towers and Retail Row could get a futuristic rebuild? And what’s going on with the dragons eggs at the centre of the volcano? Hopefully all will be revealed by lunchtime May 9!<doc-sep>Fortnite downtime news for Season 9 FREE for the biggest new releases, reviews and tech hacks SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up forfor the biggest new releases, reviews and tech hacks When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Fortnite Season 9 downtime has been confirmed for today, May 15 on all platforms. A new game update is being released today, with the downside being that servers will need to be offline for a short period. This will be the first major update and maintenance performed by Epic Games since the start of Season 9 last week. The good news is that we know when maintenance will begin and what roughly to expect in the patch notes. *Fortnite update 9.01 PATCH NOTES: Tactical Assault Rifle, Slipstream changes and MORE* FORTNITE DOWNTIME NEWS Fortnite downtime means that servers will be taken offline by Epic Games and a new update released. This will be the first major patch during Season 9 and means that the game will be inaccessible for a short period. Epic Games has not said how long maintenance will last today but we do know the time it will begin. The development team has now confirmed that Fortnite downtime for Update 9.01 will begin at 9am, BST, on May 15. “Get up close and personal when the v.9.01 update releases tomorrow, May 15. Downtime begins at 4 AM ET(0800UTC),” the Epic Games announcement explains. As hinted at in the message above, a new weapon is being released this week as part of the new update. And a new in-game news announcement has confirmed that the Tactical Assault Rifle will be that new weapon. The new teaser comes with the Fortnite description: “This robust and precise assault rifle is the ideal option for tight quarters.” Fortnite: Official season nine battle pass overview<doc-sep>
Last week’s volcanic eruption left Tilted Towers in ruins, but now Fortnite’s season 9 patch has arrived to usher in the future. Along with some high-tech rebuilds of fan-favorite locations, there is also a host of gameplay changes coming in this patch, including one of the biggest shotgun changes ever. Major Map Changes The first thing most players will notice when they hop into a game on patch v9.0 is just how different the map is now. Gone is Tilted Towers and in its place stands Neo Tilted, a futuristic city that’s less cramped than its modern day counterpart. Also new to the season 9 map is Mega Mall — which replaced the recently volcano-ed Retail Row — and the new Pressure Plant that’s been built on the volcano after its eruption. The new Slipstream is another map-related change, which gives players a brand-new mobility option. The stream is a fixed path of wind that players can hop into to be pushed to other places on the map. It runs in, roughly, a big circle around the center of the map and players can move around in it to adjust their speed, hopping out at any time. R.I.P. Pump Shotgun On the gameplay front, this patch is one of the biggest season openers in recent memory. Grenades are back in the game, while Clingers, Buried Treasure, Poison Dart Traps, Scoped Revolvers, Suppressed Assault Rifles, Thermal Assault Rifles, and Balloons have all been vaulted. Also vaulted, in a shocking turn, is Fortnite’s iconic Pump Shotgun. Arguably the weapon the game is most known for, the Pump is being replaced by a new shotgun called the Combat Shotgun. The Combat Shotgun only comes in Rare, Epic, and Legendary varieties, and will shoot faster, do less damage, and have a bigger magazine than the Pump. For a look at everything that’s coming with Fortnite’s season 9 update you can look at the full patch notes below. 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.