Fortnite Battle Royale adds a new 'Battle Pass' for season two

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The second season of Fortnite Battle Royale is now underway, with a new Battle Pass that provides immediate access to cosmetic loot is now available for purchase. The pass goes for 950 Vbucks and is tiered, meaning that it will unlock some items immediately, but must be leveled up for others.

Epic estimates that it can "typically" take 75-150 hours of play to get it all, which is an awful lot of Fortniteing—fortunately the second season runs until February 20, so you've got time to squeeze it all in. If that doesn't sound like your idea of fun but you still want the stuff, you can opt to purchase levels, also with Vbucks.

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The new 1.11 update also heralds a new "Survive the Holidays" event for the Save the World sandbox mode with a new quest and holiday-themed heroes, weapons, and a special event store. Players who take part in the event will earn Snowflake Tickets which can be used to purchase Holiday Survival Llamas, and there will be "secret holiday-themed activities" to dive into as well.

A new "global inventory" option enables inventory access from the main menu, without having to actually jump into a mission, which sounds like a pretty big plus, and a crafting option for the front-end backpack is on the way as well. The Survive the Storm mode has been updated and is now available in three and seven-day versions, and of course there are some new weapons up for grabs, including a Snowball Launcher that's available as a quest reward.

And it wouldn't be a proper holiday update without some appropriately-themed heroes and guns, so here they are:

Sarah Claus: Alchemist - Gradually regenerates health through melee combat while wearing down enemies with corrosion.
Blitzen BASE Kyle: Warden - Heals himself during melee combat, has Hardware weapon boosts, and has a BASE that regenerates the health of allies who stand inside it.
Snow Stalker Jonesy: Demolisher - Specializes in fighting crowds of enemies with explosive shells and grenades that regenerate more quickly in combat.
Fragment Flurry Jess: Reclaimer - Fragment specialist with an energy beam equipped TEDDY who can charge their abilities by defeating enemies in combat.

New firearms include Ralph's Revenge, a low-damage sniper rifle with a massive headshot multiplier (it'll shoot your eye out), another one that deals water damage called Frostbite, and the Snowball Launcher, a quest reward that fires area-effect snowballs.

All told, it's a hefty update, with plenty of other additions and fixes on tap for both the Battle Royale and Save the World modes. The full patch notes are available at epicgames.com.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.