If the latest rumors are to be believed, Fortnite players may have a few big things to look forward to once Season 10 wraps up next month. According to dataminers who’ve been diving into the files of Fortnite’s recent updates, Epic Games may soon finally do something fans have been clamoring for all season. More than that, though, it may be soon unleash the biggest change to its battle royale gameplay in a long time: a brand new map.
Lucas7yoshi, a frequent source of Fortnite leaks, recently uncovered a number of files containing the names of several new points of interest potentially coming to the game. These include apparent new locations with names like Beachy Bluffs, Dirty Docks, Frenzy Farm, Lazy Lake, Slurpy Swamp, and Weeping Woods. No doubt few fans will be shocked by this. Fortnite is constantly updating its map, adding and removing areas in various ways, most recently via Rift Beacons. The thought of there being new locations is hardly noteworthy, but what might be is the fact that these locations are apparently labeled as “The End.”
What could that mean? No one knows for sure, but a lot of people are thinking this, as well as the Rift Beacons, are signaling the end of the map Fortnite fans have fought and built on for the last two years. It’s possible, they say, that Fortnite Season 10 could end with the mysterious Visitor behind the rifts pulling players into an alternate dimension, landing them on an alternate dimension version of the original map featuring remixed versions of the locales players know so well (Lazy Lake does sound a lot like Lazy Lagoon, after all).
If that happens, it’s also possible that players won’t have to deal with Season 10’s most troublesome addition, the BRUTE mech, in the alternate dimension. Another prominent dataminer, FortTory, claimed this week to have uncovered an image from the files of Fortnite’s 10.40 update. The image depicts what appears to be the BRUTE being corrupted with a virus that will cause it to explode. It seems that, after constant nerfs failed to make the the mech feel balanced, Epic is planning to just nerf it entirely in a way that should be cathartic for anyone who’s been swiftly eliminated by a long-range rocket salvo.
To say that players have been conflicted over the presence of the mech this season is a bit of an understatement. More than just being overpowered, players haven’t been happy with Epic’s main reason for why the mechs were staying in Fortnite: as a means of letting struggling players dominate more. That only soured people’s opinion of the mech further, as they’ve dismissed it as a cheap crutch to victory.
Many have been calling for Epic to vault the BRUTE from the game, and it looks like Epic may finally soon do just that, and in explosive fashion too. Also, since Fortnite will soon be getting skill-based matchmaking and AI bots, struggling players shouldn’t have to rely on overwhelming power to have a chance at winning anymore.
Fortnite is free-to-play on Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: SlashGear