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Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 is just hours away. Though Epic hasn’t publicly stated when Fortnite’s servers will be back up, some historical precedent and reasonable deductions give us a pretty clear window of time. The short answer: You won’t be waiting long. For a more detailed answer, keep reading. Here’s when you can play Fortnite again after scheduled downtime ends.
When will Fortnite servers be back up?
Fortnite is currently in scheduled downtime following the end of Chapter 4 Season 1. This means Chapter 4 Season 2 is just around the corner, and with it will come new weapons, a new look for the island, and a new battle pass, among other things. But none of that matters until the Fortnite servers are letting players back into the game. Epic likes to keep this a surprise, but history suggests Fortnite will be playable again sometime around 4 AM – 7 AM PT / 7 AM – 10 AM ET on December 10. This three-hour window is our best guess based on having covered many seasons of Fortnite by now, and as always, the actual time is subject to change for a number of reasons.
For one, downtime is needed to apply the game’s latest patch, and patches can be delayed. Even if Epic is shooting for the earliest possible time to launch Chapter 4 Season 2, things can get in the way of that plan. It’s also worth noting that most new Fortnite seasons as of late featured a queue system that slowed players’ ability to get into the game past the main menu. This is done so Epic can prevent server overload and usher players in at a steady but manageable rate. You should absolutely expect–and plan for–a queue when you first boot up Fortnite tomorrow. A new chapter launch is about as big as it gets in Fortnite, so it’s going to be a very busy day for Epic and all Fortnite players.
A ton has been revealed for Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 already, so while you wait for downtime to end, be sure to keep reading to learn about Fortnite Mega, the name of the new neon-lit and Japan-inspired season.
Fortnite and Attack on Titan crossover
Last week, leaks began flowing freely, with notable Fortnite leakers like Shiina tweeting that Chapter 4 Season 2 will be themed on futuristic Japan and feature Eren Yeager from the anime series Attack on Titan as the battle pass bonus skin. On top of that, rumor is we’ll get a new Attack on Titan-themed “waist grappler” mythic mobility device that will work similarly to the Spider-Man hands or Grappler.
According to Shiina, the Eren Yeager skin will be accompanied by the Scout Regime Salute emote, a Titan “Ice Fist” pickaxe and a weapon wrap on page 1 of the bonus rewards. They don’t know what page 2 contains.
Firemonkey, meanwhile, has claimed that Season 2 will add wall running, a wall kick move, a new Katana melee weapon, all of which sound at least pegged to the Attack on Titan collab if not specifically created because of it. As an aside, he also said in that same tweet that there will be 15 new augments–so it appears that system is here to stay. He didn’t mention whether these augments would live alongside the current ones from this season, or if the new augments would replace them.
The katana will have a dash attack and a slam attack, according to GMatrix, and it won’t be found in normal chests. These will likely work exactly like Fortnite’s current sword and hammer melee weapons, which have not yet been used in Battle Royale but which have been available in Creative for a couple seasons.
Will Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 include any major map changes?
Yes! FireMonkey has mentioned at least six new locations, either major named Places of Interest or smaller Landmarks. They’re codenamed Cyber Dragon, Dojo, Hot Springs, Loot Island, Neon City, and Zen Garden. That Loot Island, FireMonkey says, is an island floating in the sky that may be accessible via the Rift Gate at the Citadel (and likely other new Rift Gates located elsewhere).
If all six are indeed full POIs, then that means the map will probably look pretty darn different next season.
Will Fortnite finally get a first-person mode in Chapter 4 Season 2?
According to Shiina and Hypex, yes! They had no further details about it–like whether there will be a full-on separate first-person Battle Royale mode or, maybe more ideally, a toggle that you can use situationally, akin to aiming down the sights with a scoped weapon but without the need for a weapon.
What’s the title for Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2?
Epic has a couple new “Hashflags”–that’s when a Twitter hashtag is accompanied by an emoji, as brands love to do–for Chapter 4 Season 2. They’ve got #FortniteMEGA, #GoToMEGA, and #FortniteChapter4Season2. So it seems pretty likely that Chapter 4 Season 2 will be MEGA Season. And here’s the new battle bus key art that has already begun popping up in the Nintendo Switch UI.
On Tuesday, the official Fortnite account tweeted out the first official teaser for the season.
We got our second teaser not long after.
Both of these characters are battle pass skins, as you’ll see below.
What else do we know about Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2?
As for the story, the most obvious clues this week about the plot come from the fourth set of Oathbound story quests. During these quests, Rift Ward Stellan talks about how the Ageless Champion decided to build the Rift Gate near the Citadel at the behest of a “Shapeless Man” who was responsible for the chrome invasion that destroyed the last Fortnite island. Stellan is super worried about this Shapeless Man, who he describes as pursuing a “perfect order” of some kind–this is almost certainly Geno, founder of the Imagined Order, who fell into the Zero Point in Chapter 3 and has clearly evolved pretty significantly. And on top of that, the description of this Shapeless Man also fits that of The Nothing, who was responsible for the chrome invasion that destroyed the last battle royale island. My best guess: They’ve gotta be the same person.
This is a big development for the overarching plot of Fortnite. Since we defeated the IO back in Chapter 3 Season 2, the island’s long-term factions have been out of the picture aside from story quests involving The Scientist in Chapter 3 Season 3, and a pair of cutscenes with The Paradigm in Chapter 3 Season 4. Dialogue from the Bytes quests last season indicated The Nothing has some tie with The Last Reality, but since they and the IO were at war with each other in Chapter 2, it would be hard to believe he’s in league with them both. But that would make for a pretty good twist, right?
While there is still another batch of Oathbound quests before the end of the season, as it stands now this Rift Gate is open and active, and we were not able to turn it off because some unknown party is now controlling it and holding it open.
Aside from the IO and Last Reality, we have other old factions apparently in play in Chapter 4 Season 2: the Fox Clan and the Peace Syndicate. Fox Clan members have been in Fortnite forever–Drift, one of the most popular Fortnite skins ever, was added in the Chapter 1 Season 5 Battle Pass. And the popular Crew skin Vi also belonged to the Fox Clan.
But the Fox Clan, whose members are specifically known for having powers and abilities that harness Rifts (the name “Drift” is a pun), was not referenced as a group until Chapter 2 Season 5, when an unknown enemy nearly wiped them out before Drift, Vi, Catalyst and others brought the group back. It’s thought that the ghostly Kondor, hired by the IO, was that enemy, but the Fox Clan story trailed off and didn’t end up going anywhere–Epic could retcon their history however they want to.
The Peace Syndicate is a more recent group, first teased in Chapter 3 Season 2 during the war against IO and then the center focus of Season 3, aka the Vibin’ season. Evie from the Season 3 battle pass has been our face of the group–Twyn from the Chapter 3 Season 4 battle pass is also a Peace Syndicate member, as is Meowscles.
We don’t know what the Fox Clan or the Peace Syndicate have to do with all this just yet, or even if they’re good guys or bad ones in this situation–the Peace Syndicate in particular have had sinister undertones since the beginning. But both groups are referenced in the Oathbound quests, both groups are mentioned repeatedly in new text strings that were included with the 23.50 update, and the Fox Clan is the subject of one of those Rift events that are constantly teleporting in around the island.
What skins will be in the Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 battle pass?
The 23.50 update also added the new Cipher quests, and one of the rewards for these quests has revealed what is likely to be a battle pass skin. The reward in question is a spray called A Distant Roar, which is awarded for completing a number of Cipher quests. This spray shows a cool lizard man wearing a Thriller jacket–a character we’ve previously seen on a Fortnite outfit survey.
If Epic is teasing him in the game like this, you can pretty well expect to see him in your locker in the near future.
On Friday, Fortnite leakers HypeX and Shiina tweeted out what they claim is the full battle pass lineup. Eren Yeager was one of the five, as is the lizard man up above, and you can see the others below.
We had one other skin rumor this week: that we will be getting a new version of Drift. Shiina says the Drift skin is the one on the middle-right of the top row, and that it looks a lot more like Drift in the game.
Are any other collaborations planned for Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2?
The source that has fed Shiina and HypeX most, if not all, their info in this wave of leaks has told them of other collaborations for Season 2: Resident Evil, which will bring Claire Redfield and Leon S Kennedy skins to the item shop. Additionally, FireMonkey says there will be a new Star Wars-related event that will feature the return of the lightsaber mythic weapon as well as Force powers, which Fortnite has not had in its previous Star Wars events.
He also said there will be two new male skins in the Item Shop to go with this event. Could they be bringing Cal Kestus to the item shop to mark the launch of Jedi: Survivor? Or could we be getting more original trilogy folks? I’m looking at you, Chewbacca and Lando.
For now, that’s what we know. But we’re oh so close to Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 now that we should be seeing new hints and teases very soon.
