‘Fortnite’ Chapter 7, Season 4 Start-Time, Battle Pass And More

What Time Does Season 3 End And Season 4 Begin?

Fortnite will start going down for maintenance the evening of Wednesday, August 19, and servers will officially go dark at 11 pm Pacific Time, which is 2 am Eastern Time on Thursday, August 20. Downtime will last around four hours, though this isn’t set in stone and servers could be back online earlier or later than the following times. This is just a rough estimate. Expect the game to be back up and running by Thursday morning one way or another, barring some catastrophe.

What To Expect In Chapter 7, Season 4 ‘Override’

First off, here’s the new Battle Pass:

The lineup includes K1TTYW1NS, Phantom, Grace Crowne, Geno, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mali, Wrixel, and Bastian. Phantom and Bastian are both very cool. I also like Grace Crowne and Mali.

Map Changes:

The Island has been “hacked” and partially rebooted around a giant central Spire. The expected new locations are:

• Geno’s HQ
• Green Hill Zone
• The Spire
• Temple
• Pac-Man Island

Green Hill Zone is the most substantial crossover location shown so far, bringing actual Sonic loops, rings and checkerboard terrain to the battle royale map. Calamari Canyon, Frosted Flats and Sinister Strip are reportedly leaving, while the rest of the Chapter 7 map largely should remain roughly unchanged.

New Gameplay:

The most interesting additions shown or strongly indicated are:

• Sonic Spin Dash Mythic: High-speed traversal that can run up walls and around Green Hill loops. You know, like how Sonic moves.
• Mega Man Mythic: An arm cannon with a chargeable attack.
• Tetrimino Junk Rift: Drops giant Tetris blocks onto an area, which could interact in interesting ways with a game at least partially about building.
• 8-Bit Shotgun: A pixelated close-range weapon which reminds me of the DOOM pixel shotgun that was released in Call of Duty a couple years ago.
• Masamune AR and Shingen SMG: Futuristic weapons shown being dual-wielded.
• New Sprites: Sonic, Tails, Jazz Jackrabbit, Klombo and several original Sprites. Tails appears to provide aerial mobility, while Sonic provides speed.
• Cartridge system: Players apparently insert cartridges into the Island’s central system, triggering match-wide modifiers that affect everybody—not merely the squad activating them.

It’ll be interesting to see what exactly these cartridges do and what kind of modifiers are added to a match, as this could genuinely impact the game in fun (or infuriating) ways.

The Story So Far

I admit, I’m behind on my Fortnite lore and don’t pay that much attention to the story beats as this is much more of a casual interest for me these days. But the story leading into Season 4 is basically more Zero Point shenanigans.

During the August 15 “Unstable” Story Moment, Doctor Slone attempted to stabilize the damaged Zero Point. Geno hacked the stabilizer, overwhelmed Slone’s controls and stole the Zero Point, leaving a game cartridge in its place. The new season’s premise is to override Geno’s system and take back the Island. But to what end? We’ll all still be stuck on the island forever, killing one another like some crazed Gilligan’s Island parody. (Now there’s a crossover for you, Epic Games).

Get your challenges done fast, young padawans. Fortnite will be down in a matter of hours.

Update: Epic has provided new details about Season 4. Read the initial patch notes below with more to come when full patch notes are available.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE NEW SEASONAL GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS:

Loot Hacks: Spend Sprite Dust to hack loot in your match, customizing what drops. Hacked items have a chance to drop from Chests when opened.

Match Overrides: Override Consoles appear in every match and let you rewrite the rules for the entire server, but you have to get there first. Your name displays around the console base, so the whole lobby knows who’s in control.

Cheat Codes: In match, Cheat Codes are hidden across the Island – tucked into POIs, sprayed on walls, glitching anywhere the system starts to crack. Enter the Cheat Code combination on the spot and a Sprite will pop out.

LINEUP OF NEW WEAPONS, ITEMS AND ABILITIES INSPIRED BY SOME OF THE GREATEST ICONS IN THE HISTORY OF GAMING – HERE ARE JUST A FEW HIGHLIGHTS:

Race through Green Hill Zone with Sonic Power Sneakers: Charge a grounded Spin Dash or perform an airborne Spin Attack

Tails Sprite: Hover with the Help of Tails!

Tetris Rift: Rift in Tetris pieces, culminating in the iconic 4-line Tetris clear doing a big AOE heal

1-Up Token: Respawn with your full inventory after you’ve been eliminated take your enemies offline with Mega Man’s legendary Mega Buster arm cannon.

SONIC AND CREW ARE CAPPING OFF SONIC’S 35TH ANNIVERSARY BY DROPPING INTO FORTNITE

Race through Green Hill Zone with Sonic Power Sneakers and pick up the Battle Pass to unlock his Outfit, the Tails Sidekick, and a stacked roster of original Outfits.

Here’s a special quote from Takashi Iizuka, Sonic Creative Officer, Sega of America Inc. on the collaboration:

“Sonic has always been about speed, excitement, and bringing people together, and we can think of no better partner than Epic Games to extend that legacy. From Sonic’s signature spin dash to the unmistakable setting of Green Hill Zone, we worked closely with Epic to bring the speed, movement, and energy of the franchise into Fortnite in an authentic way. Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow will each make their debut as Android versions in Fortnite, while Tails and Dr. Eggman will appear as their classic, non-Android selves. We hope fans enjoy all the new gameplay possibilities Sonic and crew are bringing to Fortnite this season.”

Stay tuned for more updates on Override.