A new Fortnite: Battle Royale season is coming this Thursday, May 9. After what happened during The Unvaulting event, with the return of the Drum Gun and the destruction of Retail Row and Tilted Towers, players are eager to see everything that’s coming with this update. They won’t have to wait too long, though. Fortnite’s season nine update will be pushed live at 3am CT, Epic Games has confirmed. That’s when server downtime should start and players should be able to see the full patch notes of season nine on Epic Games’ website. Please note that Epic has yet to announce the official release time. We’ve converted the estimated start time of season nine to the time zone of a few regions in the table below. Region Update Time North America West (Pacific Time) 1am North America East (Eastern Time) 4am Brazil 5am United Kingdom 9am South Africa, Egypt 10am India 1:30pm Singapore 4pm South Korea, Japan 5pm Australia (Eastern Time) 6pm New Zealand 8pm Players will probably be able to jump into the game and test changes for themselves roughly two hours after the update has been deployed. Maintenance for new seasons usually takes longer than mid-season updates, so players should expect the servers to be closed for at least two hours. After season nine starts, Epic will probably keeping its usual schedule of weekly game updates on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, with occasional Content Updates on Thursdays. Epic has yet to announce if there will be any changes to this schedule after the community showed frustration toward the company’s reportedly intense working conditions and up to 100-hour workweeks to meet content demands. Regardless of future updates, that’s when Fortnite’s season nine should be released on May 9.<doc-sep>The new season of play for mobile, console, and computer hit "Fortnite" introduces the Neo Tilted and Mega Mall locations, a short-range airborne flight system called Slipstream, and will last 12 weeks instead of the usual 10, extending Season 9 over the remainder of the Fortnite World Cup and its Finals. After the events of Season 8 finally razed iconic and strategic "Fortnite" location Tilted Towers, a new and shiny Neo Tilted has risen in its place, with a slick Mega Mall shopping complex standing where Retail Row once was. Likewise, Loot Lake has been drained and a Pressure Plant snakes out of the volcano. In addition, there's a new airborne transportation system called Slipstream and a network of enormous bladeless fans that encompasses a good portion of the "Fortnite" map. There are also some separate Air Vent jumps, several Sky Islands dotted around the "Fortnite" island, and a multi-stage Slipstream challenge unlocking day by day over the course of Season 9. The features' clean, futuristic aesthetic recalls Japanese animé as well as fellow team game "Overwatch." With a new season of "Fortnite" comes the Season 9 Battle Pass, which brings 100 tiers worth of challenges, boosts, and unlockable costumes, item decals, and other cosmetics. Its Sentinel and Rox outfits are available upon purchase, with the Vendetta suit, a full body armor cosmetic with a Japanese mythological influence, a reward for those that reach Tier 100. The Battle Pass remains at 950 V-Bucks -- an amount equivalent to around $9.49 USD -- while Season 9's Battle Bundle boosts players to Battle Pass tier 25 and bestows a third instant-access outfit, the cinematic trailer's Bunker Jonesy. Priced at 4,700 V-Bucks ($44.95), the Battle Bundle is almost five times that of a standard Battle Pass, marked down to 2,800 V-Bucks instead ($22.97 or 3 times a Battle Pass) for the time being. The Battle Pass also includes a new set of season-long missions called Fortbyte. Players search for 100 oversized microchips scattered throughout the "Fortnite" island, unlocking more rewards and storyline clues along the way. Finally, Season 9 returns to the 12-week, 3-month format of Season 7. Since its October 2017 debut, "Fortnite" seasons have lasted around 10 weeks, but Season 10 starts on August 1, 2019. That takes Season 9 to the end of the Fortnite World Cup, whose qualifiers conclude on June 16, with a weekend of World Cup Finals running July 26-28.<doc-sep>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>Season 8 is drawing to a close in Fortnite and we’re finally getting some clues for what we can expect in Season 9. The volcano erupted in the Unvaulting Event and Tilted Towers is now gone. Retail Row’s parking lot is also in shambles and there’s a big crack in the surface of the map near Polar Peak. Other areas of the map were hit by flying boulders, so more changes could be on the way. The Overtime challenges are live and will run for the remainder of Season 8, which ends this week. The first Season 9 teaser has dropped, with a sci-fi character who looks a lot like Cayde-6. More will appear over the course of the next few days, so we’ll keep you updated on all things Fortnite. Fortnite Season 9 rumours Fortnite Season 9 start time Season 9 will begin on May 9, as confirmed by the latest teaser.There will likely be some downtime for a few hours and based off previous Seasons the downtime will likely begin at 9 am BST/ 4 am EDT/ 1 am PDT. Fortnite Unvaulting event The volcano has now erupted and Tilted Towers, Retail Row and Polar Peak have all been seriously damaged by it. Players were able to cast their vote and choose which weapon they wanted to see appear again in Fortnite, and the Drum Gun is back. The dragon eggs still haven’t hatched yet, and given that Game of Thrones’ final season is well underway, we may see them hatch over the next week or so. A volcanic eruption would be another means of melting the map quickly and we might be able to see the full castle that’s currently buried at Polar Peak, as well as giving the baby dragons a blast of heat to help them hatch. The latest teaser hints at a sci-fi theme at last, and another teaser will likely drop today, so keep your eyes peeled. There’s also the rumour that Season 9 will have Battle Pass gifting, meaning that you could give your friend a Battle Pass if you felt so inclined. Fortnite Season 8 Weekly challenges You can also check out where to find the Fortnite Season 8 hidden Battle Stars and Banners here and the Overtime challenge list here.<doc-sep>
Fortnite: Battle Royale's Season 9 has officially begun 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 to the way you play Fortnite in Season 9. Newly-added Slipstream tunnels will zip you around the island at high speed, letting you hop between locations quickly. Vehicles and projectiles can enter the Slipstreams too, just in case it wasn't chaotic enough. These Slipstreams can be found in the two new named map areas: Neo Tilted and Mega Mall. (Another new area--John Wick's house--has also been added to the map and lines up with datamined details suggesting a John Wick event and LTM are coming soon.) 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. On the weapon side, the Combat Shotgun has been added. It's semi-automatic and holds 10 shells at a time, and it reloads two shells at once. There are Rare, Epic, and Legendary versions, and you'll find them as floor loot as well as in chests, supply drops, and vending machines. A variety of other weapons have had their damage or availability adjusted, and a bunch of items have been added to the Vault (meaning you won't find them in the game for now). Those include buried treasure, the pump shotgun, balloons, clingers, and the poison dart trap. 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.