Everything we know about Fortnite Season 5

© Epic Games via Polygon

By Petrana Radulovic, Polygon

The new season is just around the corner — what’s changing in the game?

Fornite season four is wrapping up next week. With June’s rocket launch and the resulting mysterious rifts appearing across the sky, anticipation for season five is high. But what’s up with those rifts? What new changes are coming in v5.0?

Here’s everything we know about Fortnite season five.

When is Season 5 happening?

Just one day after the end of season four. To be more exact: July 12 at 4 a.m. ET. It will last for ten weeks and end on Sept. 20. As usual, the servers will be shut down for maintenance prior to the start of the season. After an hour or two, players will be able to download the new patch, v5.0, and see what changes have been made. The weekly challenges will go live an hour after the patch.

As per usual, all previous challenges will be wiped when season five begins, so use the remaining time to complete any lingering challenges to unlock items.

So, what’s up with the rifts?

June 30’s rocket launch opened a series of mysterious blue rifts across the game’s map. There’s a main one that spreads across the sky — although it has since split into two main parts — but a bunch of smaller ones have been appearing on the map itself. Players have noticed that they’re getting bigger and that they don’t show up in the replay tool. There’s plenty of theories about what exactly these rifts are: Wormholes? Portals? Aliens? Time travel?

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© Epic Games via Polygon   Fortnite - rift in the sky

The giant rift in the sky.

Any map changes?

The rocket launch exploded above Moisty Mire, so players suspect that major map changes might happen in that location. But don’t rule out other areas of the map just yet.

How much is the Battle Pass for this season?

Unless there’s been drastic changes, the Battle Pass will be the usual 950 V-Bucks or $9.99 in real-life money. The Season 4 Battle Pass also unlocked two skins when it was purchased, so it’s likely that Season 5’s will come with instant rewards as well.

WhileFortnite is free to download and the free version of the season’s Battle Pass gives you limited goodies, full entry to each season’s events — which includes weekly challenges and 100 tiers of rewards to unlock — requires purchasing the full Battle Pass.

What is the theme?

There’s no official confirmation, but it’s been widely speculated that the theme of season five is time travel. Fortnite’s creative director recently tweeted a phrase from time-traveling sci-fi comedy Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and some dataminers have uncovered Wild West themed assets. Additionally, the trailer for Playground Mode shows scenes from different time periods. While it looks like the in-universe justification is the characters shooting a movie, time travel could very well factor into that storyline.

Any updates specific to Save the World?

For Save the World, the Canny Valley campaign will launch its first act shortly after the new patch update. This will also unveil a new biome and players will get to explore the arid areas of the Fortnite world. More story details will be unveiled and important questions will be answered. For more details on the Canny Valley campaign.

Additionally, Save the World is reintroducing the Challenge the Horde mode which throws players directly into the action in a pre-built fort and gives them limited time to prepare traps and weapons before zombies arrive.

More information on both these features can be found at Epic’s site.

Will new skins be available?

The official Fortnite twitter tweeted an image of a mysterious mask appearing from one of the rifts, which appears to be a Japanese kitsune. The mask is likely one of the new skins available through Battle Pass. This nod to feudal Japan could also point to the widely-speculated time travel theme.

Additional skins have not yet been revealed.

What’s up with the disappearing and appearing items?

Fans may have noticed several in-game items disappear from the Fortnite world. Some of these items have started showing up in the real world. The first item spotted was the Durr Burger, which wound up in the desert near Los Angeles. Agents in Fortnite-style police cars started showing up near the burger, handing out cards with a single phone number on it. If you call the number, you hear the sound of a rift opening.

Additionally, the ever famous Fortnite llamas have started appearing all across Europe. 

Within the game, items from different eras in time have started popping in through the rifts. 

All of these items are creating massive fan speculation and hype for just what Season 5 has in store.