Playing random squads in Fortnite’s third season was akin to rolling a one-sided dice in terms of where everyone wanted to land. Despite all the drop options available and those that offered more dynamic gameplay, almost everyone I paired with had only one destination in mind: Tilted Towers.
Since its introduction, Tilted Towers has gone from the most exciting hotspot in Fortnite to its most polarising. As the biggest and most congested area on the map in terms of loot and players, getting out of Tilted demands as much as luck as it does skill: you can be the best player in the world, but if someone lands first or comes at you from a blindside, you’re done.
Tilted Towers also “tilted” the flow of matches in a way that Epic might not have anticipated. As it’s such a, well, clusterfuck with the density of players landing there, it meant that the one hundred players dwindled down dramatically within a matter of minutes to thirty or less. Matches became shorter, less dynamic, and far too predictable. If you wanted to survive until the final ten, all you had to do was drop anywhere other than Tilted.
And then the comet came along. While its (quite literal) impact was not as dramatic as expected, instead veering off to one of the map’s less enticing areas, it might have actually been for the best. People still flock to Tilted, but nowhere near the volume they once did, which makes Fortnite’s map feel more like a map and less like an insipid, constant chokepoint.
The arrival of season 4 also saw the arrival of the much prophesied comets to coincide with the superhero theme, which ultimately meant just different skins to wear while a young child one-pumps you. Rather than just one huge comet destroying and effectively redesigning a named place on the map, it hit several. The largest comet, however, made sure the map was never going to be the same again.
Dusty Depot was never a realistic primary landing spot for everyone. There were just a few chest opportunities, which, when coupled with the sparsity of nearby opportunities, meant that if you didn’t find a gun before anyone else, you would be greeting the lobby again pretty. The unnamed factory close to it was by, all accounts, a better landing spot, but for what Epic wanted to achieve with season 4, there had to be casualties.
The comet trashed Dusty Depot and left half of it intact with a crater forming beneath where the factory once stood. Dusty Divot was born, and the map for Fortnite reborn with it.
Although the frustration from some about Tilted’s lack of demise was understandable, Dusty biting the bullet instead made total sense. Tilted is located almost in the center of the map with Dusty lying to its east, so why not offer a “mirror image” of Tilted to entice people more towards the right side of the map?
It’s worked a charm for Epic. While the allure of Hop Rocks might have worn off somewhat since they were added to the game, you’ll still find plenty of players dropping in Divot to hop around like idiots and claim dominion of the map’s strangest spot. Much like Tilted, making your way towards Divot after taking a safer route is like walking a tightrope: the lunatics who landed there will be kitted to the extreme and thirsting for blood.
Dusty Divot also holds plenty of potential with the pulsating meteor at its center unlikely to stay dormant. The theories are no more than speculative right now, but what if its explosion caused an even greater knock-on effect, its “shrapnel” wreaking even more destruction and morphing the map into more of a scarred battleground? Or what if there’s another “boss” in there a la Thanos? And there’s even an outside bet that it could be dinosaurs. In a game featuring boogie bombs and non-ironic dabbing, that’s not as stupid as it might sound.
The impact of the (supposedly) extraterrestrial event also re-energised some of the map’s least inviting areas, too. The upper-right quadrant of the map was previously the ideal training ground for newcomers thanks to its proximity to Wailing Woods and its low-key nature. Not anymore. With the addition of Risky Reels and its utterly ridiculous amount of loot compared to its size, it’s one of the map’s most frenetic areas and has quickly become my go-to.
There are rumours that Epic will be looking to continually update the map for season 4. Another shower of comets seems unlikely, but there’s always the chance. For my money, however, they should continue to build around Dusty Divot with new spots until it’s eventually the same size as Tilted. Likewise, the movie studio construction at Moisty Mires will gradually turn the map’s worst spot into one of its best.
And then, when the map is a glowing beacon of variety and dynamic gameplay, they can finally nuke Tilted Towers and send it back to Hell.
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