Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 4 Shock 'n Awesome live launch coverage: all new weapons, locations and mechanics in Battle Royale

We’re light on mobility this season

The previous season, Super, was rammed full of mobility items: we had the Bass Boost gloves, Shockwave Grenades, dash sprites, the Surf Cube, Myst Form, and a grappler. Most of them are cut for the start of Season 4, which might make both pressuring enemies and escaping fights more difficult.

Shockwave Grenades are staying and, I’d suggest, should be your go-to item. I’ll be hunting them down as soon as the servers go live.

The other main combat mobility for this season is the Crash Pad Jr, which bounces you a short distance. It’s less versatile than the Shockwave Grenades, but it’ll get you out of a sticky spot.

The only other mobility item is the launch pad, which fully sends you skywards and deploys your glider. It’s more for getting around the map than for combat.

The wild cards are the new boons and medallions, which you get from killing mini-boss Queen bugs. Two of the medallions—the Surge medallion and the Springleg medallion—will boost your movement, and levelling your Super Soldier Ranked boons via the O.X.R. ranks will eventually give you unlimited sprint. They could all be crucial when it comes to the final circle.

And it confirms to me that the Flowberry Fizz, which helps you jump higher, is going to be the meta healing item (and it combos brilliantly with the Crash Pad).

New OG season: Desert biome, a Viking village and Shockwave Grenades

It’s not just the main Battle Royale mode that’s getting an update: OG mode, which revisits Fortnite’s past, enters Chapter 1 Season 5 today.

The map is transforming, spawning a desert biome and rifts all over, as well as three new POIs: the town of Paradise Palms (pictured above), the Lazy Links golf course, and a Viking Village near Greasy Grove. Here's a full picture of the new map, via the official Fortnite X account.

But as always, it’s the old loot that the community is most nostalgic for. We’re getting five items added at launch: the compact SMG, the heavy sniper rifle (a one-shot headshot), the double barrel shotgun, the Rift-To-Go, and the Shockwave Grenade, which is arguably Fortnite’s best mobility item.

Later in the season, Epic will add the suppressed assault rifle, the Grappler, and the Port-A-Fortress.

And if you want to play OG in Expert mode—no bots, no skill-based matchmaking—you can do that in duos for build mode, or solo for Zero Build. While you're at it, read Morgan's Gripes Week piece on games that try to sneak bots into multiplayer matches. Well, this is awkward...

When will Fortnite servers be back online?

I don't know, but it shouldn't be long.

They went down at 2am ET/7am BST, so four hours ago as I write this. They are usually back online within five hours for new seasons, but rarely they've taken longer.

As soon as they're live I'll bring you everything I can from the new season.

Proximity chat in Battle Royale?

The servers are still down, but data-miners are hard at work uncovering gems. This morning, the X accounts Loolo_WRLD and @Wensoing posted that proximity chat will arrive in Battle Royale soon, based on files they've seen.

Epic hasn't confirmed this, and we don't have any more information for the moment—when exactly it will arrive or how it will work. I imagine that if it were added, it would be off by default. I don't think I could take someone taunting me with a 'Be Humble' emote AND insulting my skills out loud after they've gunned me down.

The full loot pool: Sentinel Pump stays, Bass Boost gloves go, Hammer AR returns

Here’s every weapon and item you can get at launch this season, via Osirion on X.

I’m glad the Sentinel Pump—forever my favourite shotgun—is staying. In the battle of the assault rifles, it’s the new O.X.R. Rifle against the fast-firing Fury AR and the Hammer AR, which has been unvaulted. The Hammer is always a strong pick, so I imagine I’ll be carrying that or the new one, depending on how that feels.

And the FlowBerry Fizz is back, too. It's the fun, floaty healing item that turns down gravity temporarily, and we're also getting an exotic version that gives you the Slap effect (infinite stamina).

5 biggest changes this season

If you haven’t been following the build-up for the new season, then here are the five biggest changes you need to know about.

Bugs have infested the map: You’ll find hives, nests and egg sacs dotted around, as well as three Queen bugs. Defeat them for a mythic weapon and a medallion.

Rank up for better weapons: Just like in the previous season, Super, there’s a rank system and you level up by killing bugs and other players. You start at O.X.R rank C, and every time you level up you’ll get a Drop Pod of loot, as well as a boon that grants new abilities. At rank A you can enter bunkers to get exotic weapons.

Boons: Each round you’ll earn boons that make you more powerful. One improves aiming down sights, one lets you sprint for longer, one increases magazine size for all weapons, one reveals future storm circles, and then one—the Super Soldier boon—is an all-rounder that improves as you rank up, eventually granting unlimited stamina, faster sprint, and reduced recoil.

New weapons: A new season means a new loot pool. We’re getting a minigun, a shotgun, an assault rifle (I’m intrigued to see if it has some kind of first-person scope or not), a powerful revolver, and a laser-guided rocket launcher.

Four new points of interest on the map: Shown in the image below. The Hive is insect central, O.X.R HQ has lots of NPCs and an armory where you can buy weapons, and Rangers’s Run has plenty of bugs and high-tier loot.

Watch the Chapter 6 Season 4 trailer

Fortnite Battle Royale Chapter 6 Season 4: Shock 'N Awesome | Launch Trailer - YouTube

Watch On

The season's trailer came out yesterday, giving us our first look at the new weapons in action. You can see the new assault rifle—and the battle pass Halo skin—at 0:40, the new three-headed minigun at 0:50, and the orbital airstrike at 1:10 (we don't know exactly how that will work yet).

Some of what you'll see above won't arrive until later in the season: the Power Rangers blaster and the Megazord who slays the Queen bug at the end of the trailer aren't here at launch.

Welcome to live coverage of the new Fortnite season

Morning everyone! I’m armed with a big flask of coffee and a good night of sleep, and for the next several hours I’ll be diving into Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 4 Shock ‘N Awesome, which launches today.

Servers are still down right now but they should be back before long. When they are, I’ll play as much as I can and post about it here—expect images of the new locations, video of the new weapons, and snap judgments about the season as a whole.

I’m excited by what I’ve seen so far. Epic has gone heavy on the PvE, which should help fill mid-round lulls, and I like that there are so many ways to get better loot: chests, hive sacs in bug nests, supply drops as you rank up, squashing mini-boss Queen bugs, and ransacking O.X.R. bunkers (O.X.R. is the big new faction this season).

The big question for me is, how good will the new O.X.R. Assault Rifle feel? Like most Fortnite players I lean heavily on my rifle and I’m wondering if it’ll supplant the reliable Hammer AR, which is unvaulted for this season, as my go-to.

Come back throughout the day for regular updates.