Fortnite Season 9 officially begins today with update v9.00. The new season brings new gameplay and new locations.
The newest gameplay is known as Slipstreams, which are tunnels of wind that carry players passively along the stream. While in this stream, players are able to move faster and can actively change direction. In order to increase velocity, players only need to make use of the directional input. For higher speeds, player can try bobbing up and down. At the end of the stream, players are launched based on their movement speed as well as the angle of the exit. Aside from players, vehicles and projectiles can enter the stream as well.
There are also air vents, which have strong gusts of air coming out of them. These environmental items are able to launch players across short distances and give immunity against fall damage.
Players who own a Battle Pass are allowed to access Fortbytes. These are a series of 100 collectible computer chips that can be found scattered across the map. Collecting all Fortbytes give players the chance to unlock rewards. A total of 18 Fortbytes are available for players to find on the first day of the season. After that, one new Fortbyte is made available each day. Fortbytes are available within the season and cannot be collected once Season 9 is over.
Another important gameplay update is that a player that becomes disconnected stays in the world for 60 seconds. During that time they continue to take damage and even count for elimination points.
For weapons and items, the changes include:
- Added Combat Shotgun
- Semi-Automatic
- Holds 10 Shells.
- Fires 9 pellets per shot for 73 / 77 / 81 base damage.
- Tight spread and fast fire rate.
- Headshot multiplier of 1.70x.
- Reloads 2 shells at a time.
- Available in Rare, Epic, and Legendary variants.
- Available from Floor, Chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines
- Semi-Automatic
- Adjusted Tactical Shotgun damage
- Base damage increased from 66/70/74 to 71/75/79
- Reduced Drum Gun availability from 16.732% to 7.155%
- Reduced Boom Bow availability from 1.292% to .755%
- Unvaulted Grenades
- Vaulted Clingers
- Vaulted Buried Treasure
- Vaulted Pump Shotgun
- Vaulted Poison Dart Trap
- Vaulted Scoped Revolver
- Vaulted Suppressed Assault Rifle
- Vaulted Thermal Assault Rifle
- Vaulted Balloons
Bug Fixes & Improvements include:
- Turbo building after gliding now works correctly.
- The stink bomb damage audio and effects were not playing if you damaged yourself.
- Fixed the Shadow bomb occasionally not making the player invisible on the Xbox One the first time it's used.
- Misplacement of Launch Pads in mid-air has been resolved.
- Pirate Cannon camera issues due to network latency have been resolved.
- The Reboot Card deposit sound effects no longer play in replay mode while the Van is on Cooldown.
- The Reboot Van card sound effects will no longer be heard when a squadmate disconnects.
A full list of the changes in update v9.00 is available here.
