Challenges, New Map, Motorcycles And More

Fortnite launched a brand new chapter and season this morning. Chapter 4, Season 1 comes one year after the launch of Chapter 3, the game’s shortest so far. A whole bunch of new stuff is in the game now, so it’s a great time to dive in and play a bit even if you—like me—have taken a long break from the colorful Battle Royale.

Here’s everything new in Chapter 4, Season 1. We’ll start with . . .

The Trailers

That’s gameplay, here’s the cinematic trailer:

As you can see, new gameplay mechanics include drivable motorcycles and a suite of new weapons. The new guns include a Tac Pistol, a Red-Eye Assault Rifle that aims down sights, a couple new shotguns and two Legendary weapons.

The Shockwave Hammer is both a super powerful melee weapon and a new way to get around the map by bouncing. In the few matches I’ve played so far, I was able to level a few opponents with the hammer and escape the encroaching storm by bouncing ahead of it in the nick of time.

The Ex-Caliber rifle (a clever name for a gun that shoots magical swords) is the other new Legendary weapon. I haven’t used this as much as the hammer yet but it seems to pack a decent punch and you can shoot swords that stick into the ground before blowing up, making it a bit like a sticky grenade launcher—though the sword bomb blast radius appears to be pretty small.

The New Map

As you can see, there are nine new Points Of Interest. Remarkably, these are mostly new with no classic returning POIs like Tilted Towers, or Greasy Grove (though Frenzy Fields is basically Frenzy Farm). The new POIs are:

Autumn Biome — West / Northwest Map

• Breakwater Bay
• The Citadel
• Anvil Square
• Shattered Slabs

Summer Biome — South / Southeast Map

• Frenzy Fields
• Faulty Splits
• Slappy Shores

Winter Biome — North / Northeast Map

• Lonely Labs
• Brutal Bastion

A Medieval Map

There’s a very strong Medieval vibe to the map that I really like. I suppose we can thank the Season 1 ‘Secret’ skin, Geralt of Rivia, for that. Geralt is a mutant monster-hunter from The Witcher series of books / games / TV shows which are set in a fictional European-style fantasy world filled with magic and monsters. It looks like Geralt will have some of his magic—likely as emotes—in Fortnite:

The New Battle Pass

My colleague Paul Tassi has a breakdown of everything in the new Battle Pass right here. Paul also has a piece on the game’s upgraded Unreal Engine 5 visuals which do look really terrific.

Reality Augments

Another new game mechanic in Chapter 4, Season 1 is called Reality Augments. As you play, these become available. You’ll get two different options or the option to reroll each time a new Augment becomes available. These give you small perks that could help in a pinch and which you can, with a little luck, tailor to fit your loadout and playstyle. These Augments stack throughout the match.

Augments include:

• Light Fingers. Makes your weapons using Light Ammo reload faster.
• Mechanical Archer. Gives you a Mechanical Explosive Blow & Mechanical Shockwave Bow.
• Aerialist. Grants you Glider redeploy for the rest of the match.
• Supercharged. Your vehicles won’t consume fuel and they’ll have increased Health.
• Soaring Sprints. While sprinting, you’ll be able to jump much higher — and jump with lower gravity.

New Movement Mechanic: Hurdle

Sprint at obstacles like low fences or walls and instead of just running into them, now you’ll hurdle over.

Here’s what that looks like:

New Challenges

Several new types of challenges are available to start cracking out. There are your typical Weekly and Daily challenges (none of which are particularly interesting). Then there are the new Explorer Quests which are a bit more interesting. These include:

• Land on the new island
• Visit The Citadel, Anvil Square, and Shattered Slabs
• Search Oathbound Chests
• Collect a Shockwave Hammer and an Ex-Caliber Rifle in a single match
• Activate Augments
• Land at hot spots
• Eliminate opponents
• Hurdle over objects
• Reach 10 players remaining in a match

I’ve already earned one of the rewards. Complete three and you get this pretty sweet pickaxe sword:

Obviously there are lots of things we have yet to discover with the new season and new updates that will be released as the season progresses, but this covers the bases. If I find anything else that ought to be included in this post I’ll update it.

Read all about the Fractured live-event that ended Chapter 3 and kicked off Chapter 4 right here.