Fortnite Season 5: Release Date, Battle Pass & What You Need To Know

It wouldn’t be Fortnite if season 5 wasn’t being teased down to every single detail. While it may lack the explosive nature of season 4’s climax, owing to a distinct lack of comets, there’s arguably more intrigue to be had with the upcoming season. Rather than just one or two places on the map being changed, it looks like the entire thing will be flipped on its head.

There’s a lot to digest leading up to Fortnite season 5 with Epic doing plenty of feeding. They’ve not given it all away just yet, but the dots are connecting to the crack having a huge impact on the game with many named locations currently feeling the effects of the rifts the rocket launch caused. RIP, Tomato Man head, we hardly knew ye.

Ahead of it being released, here’s everything you need to know about Fortnite season 5. Will it be as good as season 3, or will it be plagued with issues like 4? Only time will tell.

 

When is Fortnite season 5 out?

Fortnite season 5 begins on July 12th, 2018 after being pushed back by two days, presumably so Epic can swap out the potatoes in their server rooms. The downtime begins at 8am GMT. Here’s how that shakes out in your region:

East Coast US: 4am (EDT)
West Coast US: 1am (PDT)
UK: 9am (BST)
Europe: 10am (CEST)

If your timezone isn’t listed, check out how it converts with this handy site.

For big updates to the game, downtime can last anywhere from a single hour to a few. As it’s rumoured to be a substantial change, expect the game to be unplayable for longer than usual. Just as long as it doesn’t go offline for an entire day again, we should be good.

If you haven’t reached your max Battle Pass tier for season 4, now’s probably your last chance to do so. You will not be able to max out Omega come the 12th if you haven’t already, the same goes for all of the Blockbuster challenges. Don’t worry, The Visitor skin isn’t really worth it anyway.

 

Will Fortnite season 5 have a Battle Pass?

Unless Epic suddenly decide to stop enjoying having money then yes, yes it will. Up to this point, all Battle Passes have cost 950 V-Bucks, which you can buy with real money — the Battle Pass does also reward you with V-Bucks occasionally. If you’ve saved your V-Bucks or have been grinding through Save The World, you can just use them for the season 5 Battle Pass or splash real cash, which is about £8/$10.

 

What do you get with the Battle Pass?

Effectively paid cosmetic progression that’s been so successful that Rocket League and PUBG have emulated it with mixed results. Fortnite is free, but there’s big emphasis on skins, emotes; the works. With the Battle Pass for season 5 if it sticks to the same formula, you will be able to wade through a hundred different tiers of unlocks.

With each new tier, you will receive a new cosmetic item, whether that’s a banner, skin, or what have you. Typically, the first five tiers are unlocked as soon as you buy the Battle Pass with a couple of skins thrown into the mix as well. Last season saw the basic Carbide skin and also the supremely underrated Battlehawk, so expect the same this time out.

If you want to speed up your progression, you can use V-Bucks to upgrade tier-by-tier, but Epic sporadically release special deals to reach multiple levels at a discounted price.

 

Fortnite Season 5 Theories

Strap in, because we’re about to dive deep.

You’ve no doubt noticed at this point that a whole lot of weird stuff is going down on the Fortnite map. The explosion of The Visitor’s rocket was not only a sight to behold but also opened up rifts, starting off at Lonely Lodge. Over time, almost all named locations have “received” their own rift with players noticing that it’s removing certain assets, such as the Tomato Man’s head (RIP) and the sign at NOMS in Retail, amongst others.

In the real world, the one where you can’t make your enemies dance with grenades, these assets have been turning back up. The Durr Burger from Greasy Grove recently turned up in a desert.

Here’s a video for you. It’s definitely not photoshopped pic.twitter.com/8F2adJ29V5

— Sela Shiloni (@selashiloni) July 6, 2018

As well as that, new assets have started appearing on the Fortnite map, such as this old station wagon near Moisty Mire and also an anchor.

So this wagon appeared where the Moisty portal was.. pic.twitter.com/intuYqorbU

— ☣️Obama in Quarantine☣️ (@FortniteBRLeaks) July 8, 2018

https://twitter.com/Forttnite/status/1015343909709471749

This seems to suggest that Fortnite season 5 will revolve around ye olden times with different time periods in history being represented. The wagon hints at the Wild West and the anchor suggests we’ll be seeing pirates — could you imagine if you could go on a ship and sail around the water?

An ARG event also seems to confirm that C7, which is Greasy Grove on the map, seems to be in for a wholesale change of some kind.

https://twitter.com/FNBRLeaks/status/1016014327571189760

One of the biggest “leaks” ahead of season 5 is this huge info dump from somebody who is supposedly connected with Epic. It’s all to be taken with a pinch of salt, but it is not really that infeasible, even if introducing animals sounds like a pretty strange idea.

Hi Brayden

I’m a subscriber of yours, and while I was looking for new leaks on Twitter I found this. It describes what is going to happen in season 5 and tells us all the new locations (Credit: Fortnite Leaks) pic.twitter.com/Xhphj1draD

— Bob billy (@Bobbill48140776) July 3, 2018

Watch this all be wrong and we just get Dusty Depot back.

 

Are we excited for Fortnite season 5?

Of course. The only reason why we aren’t four times the size of IGN by now is because Fortnite takes up too much of our time. All of the gaming lot here at CV play it, so there’s a lot of expectation for season 5.

However, season 4 introduced some good things to the game, but just as many bad. The game’s performance really struggled over the course of the season, so Epic need to find some kind of consistency this time out. If that means limiting the amount of content updates, so be it.

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