The new chapter for Fortnite Battle Royale has just been released and so many changes have been made to the game, including many items and weapons being vaulted, a brand new map, new features and more!

What we like:

1. Fishing

Fishing in Fortnite is FUN and can lend you some sweet loot in the process! But in order to do so you would you’ll first need a fishing rod. If you’re with a squad, the easiest way to find enough fishing rods for everyone is to head towards the beach or lake-like locations on the map and look for barrels. They’ll typically hold three or four rods. You can also find individual fishing rods in chests or via floor spawns — both of which are random drops so neither is ideal if you want to fish.

Once you have your rod, you just need a body of water. Anywhere will do, but if you want the best rewards, look for points on the water where there’s a collection of bubbles — those signal a location where there’s a good catch. Cast out and you’ll catch one of at least four items: a bundle of materials, a random weapon, a Flopper (which heals you for 50 HP), or a Slurpfish (heals you for 50 HP or grants you 50 Shield when full health).

2. Hiding

Another new mechanic in Fortnite Chapter 2 gives you a few more options when it comes to sneaking around and remaining stealthy. Allowing you to hide in haystacks and dumpsters.

This one is nice and easy: to hide in haystacks and dumpsters simply walk over to them and follow the prompt as it appears. Basically, anything you can get inside of will bring up a button prompt (Square on PS4 or X on Xbox One). Simply hold the appropriate button and you’ll hop inside and hide, then press it again to hop back out.

Take note, though, while they make convenient hiding spots they don’t provide much in the way of protection; enemies can destroy the cover while you’re inside to reveal your whereabouts/location.

3. New Map!

The Fortnite new map is finally here. After ten entire seasons on the (sort of, but not really) same world, we’ve been transported to an entirely new, but still pretty colorful, battleground.

The thing is, opening your minimap immediately after downloading the new update to bask in the fresh glory of the Fortnite Chapter 2 season 1 map will be a little anticlimactic. This is because the entire map is greyed out with a few question marks indicating mysterious new named areas.

So you can’t see everything in minimap form straight away, but unraveling each new location step by step is rather exciting. But, if you just want to just skip straight to the good stuff, below is what the Fortnite new map looks like fully revealed.

As you can see below, the new map looks less busy than before. There’s an awful lot of greenery, which somewhat recalls the game’s very first world. You’ll also notice a couple of returning and familiar names when it comes to the main areas: Salty Springs, Pleasant Park, and Retail Row make their return.

5. Experience Points

Battle Pass progression has been entirely reworked this Season. You now advance your Battle Pass by completing challenges and earning in-game Medals! Earn daily medals and fill out your punch card to maximize your XP.
Instead of daily missions, you have medal objectives that reward you with XP as you complete them. Each card is worth 2000 XP, except for the fifth and tenth medals which are 4000 XP apiece.

When you complete a challenge that would earn you a medal — for example, outlast 50 enemies. That medal is added to your daily Punchcard. During that match, you have the chance to level up that medal from bronze, to silver, to gold. You then earn extra XP based on the level of the medal.

Every day you can add 10 medals to your Punchcard before it resets the following day.

What we miss:

1. Mobility

In addition to Fortnite’s recent changes in the map, they also took out a lot of mobility options for you to use. Fortnite used to have Mechs, Ballers, Quad Crashers, Shadow Bombs, Glider Redeploys and many more tools at your disposal in order to roam around the map.

The lack of mobility should cause players to focus more on the storm. In Chapter 1, the mobility options spread across the map and loot pool. As for now, players are limited to boats or river locations for mobility.

With all these mobility options removed, the storm becomes even more deadly. Players must be aware of the zone when landing on the outskirts. This forces more players to be less spread out — which causes more combat encounters so stand your guard!

2. Weapons

Usually, Epic release Patch Notes for every new update to go through all of the changes that have been made and what new features have been added but for today’s major update, there were no Patch Notes that were released by Epic Games. However, we’ve noticed some weapons that we really liked are missing.
Weapons like the Heavy Sniper Rifle, Silenced SMG, Flink Knock Pistol and many more.
We are confident that Epic will add more weapons in due time using updates (Chapter 2 Season 2 anyone?).

3. Utility Items

Just like with the weapons, Epic vaulted a lot of utility items as well. This doesn’t only impact combat but also, as previously mentioned, mobility. Utility items like the Launch Pad and the Bouncer can no longer be found in Fortnite’s new map. Plan your rotations carefully and be prepared to be running around the map a lot more now!

What we expect to see:

New modes:

If you’ve played in the recent update, you’ve probably noticed the seamless transition from the Chapter 2 opening cinematic to an actual match! We were absolutely stunned by this!
Based on Fortnite’s past events and cinematic videos, we believe that Epic can create a wonderful, Fortnite based game mode which doesn’t necessarily involve the current Battle Royale mechanics (just like how League of Legends released Teamfights Tactics for example).

New Gameplay Mechanics:

Chapter 2 introduced us to new mechanics such as new swimming abilities, fishing objectives and boats. There are also new ways to support your team, that includes new healing powers, the ability to carry teammates and celebration moves such as high fives.
While the new mechanics do provide an extra twist at the core-gameplay of Fortnite, Epic also took away a lot of them in the process as was previously mentioned.