The fourth chapter has begun in Fortnite, bringing a new Battle Pass, map changes–and a special surprise in its latest trailers.
Where are we dropping this chapter? Fortnite Chapter 4 just launched yesterday, offering players the chance to check out all the upgrades and changes from Chapter 3’s Fractured event. Visual upgrades with Unreal Engine 5.1 was also added to give players a graphical boost for those with higher-end GPUs. Epic Games have already dropped a cinematic and gameplay trailer, teasing big things coming in this chapter along with their regular blog details.
The first noteworthy addition this chapter was that a new island has been formed. Here is a list of some places players will encounter for the first time:
- The Citadel
- Anvil Square
- Brutal Bastion
- Frenzy Fields
Adding to location changes, “Kinetic Ore” is a new item found in the Shattered Slabs mining facility that could be used to strategically attack opponents with physics sorcery. Traversing these new areas across the map, a new two-wheel vehicle is being added: the Trail Thrasher. Players can ride these motorbikes to perform tricks and shoot as they ride around the battle royale landscapes.
More Augmented Abilities have been added as well! The longer players survive the more Reality Augments they can collect. During match intervals, players will be given a randomly-generated choice of two Reality Augments, which will last players until the end of the match. Here are some examples of Reality Augments:
- 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.
Building on changing the gameplay in Fortnite as a whole, players can now sprint at obstacles and essentially parkour or hurdle over them. It looked to be as smooth as some of the mobility Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone players have felt before—but I would argue this will be cooler, sliding around and shooting people as Venom or Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher…oh, spoiler alert!
Fortnite has been famously known for bringing over new IP’s into their game, so here is breakdown of characters confirmed to be in Chapter 4 Season 1’s Battle Pass:
- Selene
- Doom Slayer aka Doom Guy
- The Ageless
- Massai
- Dusty
- Nezumi
- Helsie, Part of The High Stakes Club with Joni the Red
- Geralt of Rivia (but later in the season)
One of the characters that made me lose my mind, but was not listed as a confirmed character was Izuku “Deku” Midoriya from the world-famous, hit-anime series, My Hero Academia. It teased him using some of his iconic One-For-All powers in the Fortnite Chapter 4 gameplay trailer. Nothing was said about when he would be available to use. Fortnite had last collaborated with Naruto and Dragon Ball Super on the anime docket of IP’s.
Weapons! Fortnite players love their weapons, and one of the new ones include the Shockwave Hammer. The Shockwave Hammer can deal damage to enemies and knock them back—also, great for launching players themselves and their teammates in and out of gunfire. It was sort of like the way Nora from the web animated series, RWBY used it. Here is the list of other new weapons players can utilize this chapter:
- Ex-Caliber Rifle
- Thunder Shotgun
- Maven Auto Shotgun
- Red-Eye Assault Rifle
- Twin Mag SMG
- Tactical Pistol
Just as important as weapons are healing items. Here is a list of new healing provisions:
- Slap Berries — Eat one for not only Effective Health, but also short-term unlimited Energy regen to stay sprinting longer.
- Slap Juice — Slap Juice grants more Effective Health than a Slap Berry, and also a longer temporary Energy regen.
- Sky Jellies — If you come in contact with these floating creatures, you’ll experience a bounce effect…and have some Effective Health restored!
Last but not least, the visual upgrades players can feast their eyes on…if you have the right GPU. Epic Games wrote a separate Fortnite blog on the new integration of Unreal Engine 5.1’s newest, innovative features in Battle Royale for players on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and cloud gaming.
These next-gen features included Nanite, Lumen, Virtual Shadow Maps, and Temporal Super Resolution. Basically, things like the finest details in the architecture of buildings, reflections in the water, shadows and achieving high frame rates were all things afflicted with striking visual upgrades. Ideally, those with a RTX 2080 or equivalent (or higher) GPU would be able to experience these additional visual boosts to its fullest. Check out the Fortnite FAQ and blog to see if your PC could run it.
