After a pretty short downtime early this morning, Fortnite Season 5 is finally upon us, and just like Epic Games hinted at in their tweets from earlier this week, the game features a ton of different-themed items, including Vikings, Japanese cat masks, and more.

The first major change to the battle royale mode this season is the addition of a brand new Desert biome, as well as new locations like Paradise Palms and Lazy Links. In addition to that, teleporting rifts have appeared around the map, however, were they take you has yet to be determined.

Players also have a brand new vehicle to drive around in this season with the All Terrain Kart (ATK), which is essentially just a golf cart.

Of course, these aren’t the only changes made to the game, as a whole bunch of statistics has also been changed. You can check out the full list of patch notes, like always, at the end of the article.

Fortnite is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC, as well as iOS and Android devices.

BATTLE ROYALE

WEAPONS + ITEMS

• Shotguns will now indicate how many pellets hit, visible within the reticle.
• Adjusted shotgun spread patterns to be consistent with no random variation.
• Heavy Shotgun now fires 10 pellets rather than 5.
  • Maximum damage for the Heavy Shotgun remains unchanged.
• After firing a shotgun, another shotgun cannot be fired for a very short time.
• Reduced Hunting Rifle aim assist when targeting to match that of other Sniper Rifles with projectile bullets.
• Lowered the vehicle knockback strength on Grenade, Sticky Grenade, Grenade Launcher, and Rocket Launcher.
• Tac and Silenced SMG environmental damage now correctly matches player damage.
• Changed the damage drop-off profile for the Suppressed SMG to be the same as other SMGs.
  • Fall off starts at 24 meters from 28 meters.
  • Damage reduced to 80% at 35 meters from 85% at 47.5 meters.
  • Damage reduced to 65% at 50+ meters from 75% at 70+ meters.

GAMEPLAY

• All Terrain Kart (ATK)
  • The new All Terrain Kart (ATK) has room for your entire squad.
  • Get a speed boost after drifting.
  • The roof acts as a bounce pad.
  • Work together as rear passengers to leap over obstacles with the All Terrain Kart (ATK). Lean back and release at the same time for a higher jump.
    • Lean back by holding S on keyboards or holding back on the thumbstick for controllers.
• Map Updated
  • New Biome: Desert
  • New Location: Paradise Palms
  • New Location: Lazy Links
  • A few unnamed POIs have also appeared across the island.
  • Minimap Updated

• The center of Storm circles 7, 8, and 9 can now shift in random directions (instead of simply shrinking). As the storm closes in, it will move & shrink to the new location.
• Starting in Season 5, progressive challenges will no longer be restricted to a single season. You can now complete progressive challenges at your own pace.
• Progressive challenges are now completed by acquiring a fixed amount of XP and is no longer dependant on your season level.
• Gyro/motion controls have been added to the Nintendo Switch. Adjust these options in the Settings menu.
• Weekly challenges are now split into two sections, free and Battle Pass. The first 3 challenges will be available for free while the last 4 are only available if you own the Battle Pass. The threshold to unlock the weekly challenge reward will remain at 4.
• Down But Not Out players now have smaller collision. Previously their collision was at the standing height which blocked DBNO players from crawling under doors and blocked building collision in some cases.
  • Players that were crouching when knocked Down But Not Out will be returned to a crouching state upon revival.
• Emoting will now interrupt sprinting.
• You now earn XP for reviving teammates in 50v50 and Teams of 20 LTMs up to three times per match (30XP, 10XP, 10XP).
• Weapon reticle will now fade slightly when reloading, out of ammo, or changing weapons.
• The player camera can now see out of the water when walking in lakes.

Bug Fixes

• Launch Pads and Cozy Campfires now destroy overlapping small objects when placed.
• Reduced trigger volume for floor Damage Trap to better match visuals and prevent triggering when standing on ledges above.
• Supply Llamas now fall to the ground if the object they were standing on is destroyed.
• Autorun will no longer cancel if you let go of the stick and it slightly flicks backward while using a gamepad.
• Fixed issue where Autorun could be active while using a Shopping Cart.
• The first Storm circle will now consistently do 1 damage.
• Players will no longer get stuck in a doorway if they were standing in it when the door closed.
• Fixed an issue that prevented some weapon animations from playing.
• Autorun can no longer be activated while walking backward.
• Textures will now consistently appear correctly while in Edit Mode.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when logging out.

PERFORMANCE

• Improved performance of Shopping Carts on both the game client and server.

AUDIO

• Added unique ambient audio to the new desert biome. More unique ambient audio for the map will be coming in future updates!
• Lowered the volume of the Battle Pass Challenge success sound.
• UI audio has been redesigned, all button and interface sounds updated.

Bug Fixes

• Dual Pistol fire sound will no longer get cut off if you switch weapons immediately after firing.
• The True Love emotes audio will no longer overlap with itself if multiple players use it near each other.
• The funky electronic track to the Dance Moves emote on Mobile/Switch platforms has been re-enabled.

UI

• We now allow users to enable the same sound visualizer on all platforms that were created for mobile – however, while the visualizer is enabled, audible sound effects will be muted. Mobile platforms are unaffected by this change and will retain sound effects and the visualizer. You can find this new option under the Accessibility tab in the settings.
• Streamer mode no longer just says “Player###”, instead it now uses the player’s cosmetic character as their display name “Character[###]”. So instead of “Eliminated Player100” you may see, “Eliminated Rust Lord[100]”.  Anyone eliminating someone in streamer mode will now see Streamer[###].
• Added extra audio and visual fanfare to the Victory Royale end of match sequence.
• The “Dialogue Audio”, “Global Chat”, and “Auto Equip Better Weapons” options have been removed as they have no function in Battle Royale.
• Zooming in and out on the map is now twice as fast with the controller.
• The “Play Again” button will now allow players to preview pickaxe visual and sound effects in the Item Shop, Battle Pass, and Locker.
• New faster animation for displaying XP sources have been added to the end of match stats screen.

Bug Fixes

• Map markers will now re-appear if removed and added back to the exact same location.
• End of match stats now appears correctly on all platforms in their correct numeric format.
• Key bindings for weapon and structure sections in the HUD are now displayed properly.
• A typo was removed from the item description for the Victory Lap harvesting tool.
• Controller input will no longer fail when at the Main Menu.
• Fixed an inconsistency in the UI that was displayed when placing a trap in some cases.
• “Distance Traveled” is now reported correctly in the Match Stats screen.

ART + ANIMATION

Bug Fixes

• Revive animations are no longer skipped if the player was reloading when downed.
• Effects now appear properly when jumping with the Pot of Gold Harvesting Tool.
• Prevented sprays from affecting props used in emotes (e.g., the basketball from Baller).

REPLAY SYSTEM

• “Camera type” is now localized in the view settings header.

Bug Fixes

• Gamepads will no longer continuously rumble when a replay is paused.
• The Main Menu will no longer become unresponsive if the Friends List is opened while a replay is paused.
• Nameplates no longer block input on camera settings.
• Nameplates no longer disappear if the camera is directly above a player.
• The bottom portion of the nameplate will no longer become cut off.
• Nameplates on PS4 will now show team number & weapon.
• Weapon animations will now play in replays after scrubbing the timeline.
• Timeline markers no longer disappear on saved replays on PS4 and Xbox One.
• Shopping Cart visual and audio effects will no longer break in replays.
• The “Revive” and “Drive” prompt will no longer persist in replays if a player was eliminated while being revived or near a Shopping Cart.

MOBILE

• Autofire has been added as an option on mobile platforms. Enabling this causes the player’s weapon to automatically fire when the reticle is over an enemy that is within range.
• Players will be given the option to select their preferred fire mode after launching. All players can change their preferred fire mode by navigating to Options, Custom HUD Layout, then choosing the ‘Select Fire Mode’ option and confirming their selection.
  • Tap-to-fire.
  • A dedicated fire button.
  • Autofire.

Bug Fixes

• The Thermal Scoped AR now has the proper visual effects on all devices.
• Vehicle passengers can now detonate Remote Explosives.
• Entering build mode while holding the “fire” button will no longer adversely affect your ability to build in the future.
• Health and Shield numbers will no longer be displayed as your own while spectating.