Fortnite Season 8: All you need to know

Fortnite: The Battle Royale season 8 has arrived and, like previous seasons of the online shooter, the game map and gameplay have changed considerably. Do not forget that the beginning of season 7 has brought a whole snowy area with the first flying vehicle of the game, the X-4 Stormwing. Season 8 brings us a giant volcano, a new water plan with the lazy lagoon, pirate camps, volcano vents and more.

If you are looking for the season 8, challenges of week 1, read our guide here. But it seems that the interface of the challenges has been completely redone. It sounds a lot cleaner and well organized – well done to Epic Games for the upgrade.

The first thing to know about Season 8, however, is the new locations on the map, located mainly in the northeast quadrant:

Ping your teammates as in Apex Legends

One of the coolest ideas of Respawn's rival game Apex Legends is the ability to press a button to ping your teammates. Epic Games was quick to understand the message and you can now do the same in Fortnite. Press a button and you can call the location of an enemy, where is the good loot and other fast communications between teams. This is a much appreciated feature in Apex Legends and it makes sense that Epic has decided to add it to this game.

The volcano arises

The volcano that was heating up and cooking Wailing Wood towards the end of season 7 broke out and rose high in the sky. This has given us a new set of mountains and hills all over this part of the map, with new places to explore and many volcano vents that you can use to shoot in the air. You can land on any of the volcano's small loot sites or dive directly into the beast's jaws.

Once inside the volcano, there is an automatic updraft. So, even if you loot a chest on one of the platforms above the lava, you can jump and return to skydiving mode to get around. If you open your paraglider, you can also use the updraft to get away from the volcano completely. There are a lot of people now because it's new, but there are a lot of chests out there, making it a good place to drop.

It is also important to know that lava will not kill you immediately. It's an inflatable surface that hurts you slightly, so you can bounce through a lava flow, but do not stay in it.

Lazy Lagoon: Thar be pirates

Lazy Links is no longer, and Lazy Lagoon has taken its place. There is a new water plan, a pirate ship with chests and new buildings appeared in the vicinity where you can land and prepare yourself.

In keeping with the theme of Season 8 of Piracy, there are pirate camps spread across the island. These are usually older buildings than the ones we visited before, but they have been refurbished and all carry a black pirate flag. They look a lot like the outposts of Season 7 (which are still on the island) in that they offer you a good place to land, away from the larger names.

New landing place: Sunny Steps

With bright colors and filled pyramids, the new location of the Sunny Steps will be overcrowded as visitors come to check it for the first time. As a coastal place named on the map, it will be an excellent starting point throughout the season.

Become a cannonball

New pirate cannons have been added to the map, mostly in the camps, but they are useful in many ways. You can shoot cannonballs at enemy structures for a powerful impact or you can climb, aim the barrel, and then shoot you in the air. You can also move them, so expect to see people pushing them onto the battlefield.

New season 8 battle passes

Like every season, Season 8 features a new set of emotes, backpacks, sprays and skins that you can unlock with Fortnite's tiered system. It costs 950 V-Bucks (a pack of 1000 costs $ 10, £ 8 or AU $ 15) and you can take weekly challenges to get to the next level of 100 levels. It's not an easy task to get to the end, but if you start early – and look at my challenge guides every week: here is season 8, week 1 – You should be able to control them quite easily.