Fortnite Season 7 update patch notes: “Invasion” theme, Aliens, Superman, Rick & Morty, UFOs

Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 7 has officially arrived and it’s set to be one of the biggest seasons we’ve had in quite some time ⁠— here are all the juicy details, including 17.00 patch notes, and more.

The release of any Fortnite season is one that brings all of the communities together, to take in the marvelous job Epic Games have done building up anticipation for each new season. This time around is no different, as we have had a ton of teasers posted in the lead-up to Season 7, along with multiple leaks about some of the content coming to the game.

Here’s everything we know about update 17.00, starting with all the details on Fortnite’s impending downtime, and the June 8 patch notes including map changes and new weapons.

Fortnite Season 7 start time & downtime

Downtime for the new season began at 2 AM EST (7 AM BST) on June 8, 2021. This was confirmed by the official FortniteStatus Twitter account.

After around two hours of downtime, the servers went live, meaning players can now hop right into Fortnite Season 7 whenever they want to.

Fortnite Season 7 story trailer

Alien takeover

Epic Games spent the final weeks of Season 6 teasing an alien takeover, with crop circles appearing on the Island and UFOs flying around the skies, abducting players, and transporting them to other locations.

Now, it appears the aliens are hovering over the Fortnite island in their Mothership. They have been collecting items from the island to analyze them, possibly to see what is exactly going on within the island.

• Read More: Superman crossover coming to Fortnite Season 7

Players can also now take control of the UFOs that were previously abducting them. They’ll be able to drive around in them, abduct other players, heal teammates, and also deal some serious damage to opponents.

Rick & Morty, Superman crossovers

Fortnite’s creators are well known for collaborating with modern-day brands and incorporating them within Fortnite at some point. This was evident during Season 4, as the entire Battle Pass and map was Marvel-themed, and they are continuing this movement.

With the arrival of the new Season 7 Battle Pass, it’s now been revealed that there are two major crossovers for players to unlock: iconic DC superhero Superman, and animated character Rick Sanchez from the hit series Rick & Morty.

With both Superman and Rick & Morty hailing from an extraterrestrial planet, it makes perfect sense with the alien takeover theme. You can see the full contents of the Fortnite Season 7 Battle Pass right here.

 

New weapons and vaulted weapons

There are four new alien-themed weapons for players to utilize in their quest for a Victory Royale in Fortnite Season 7. First is the Kymera Ray Gun, which fires a continuous beam of energy that can melt through both structures and enemy players.

Second, there’s the Recon Scanner Launcher, a handy tool that reveals nearby targets and chests. Next, there’s the Rail Gun Rifle is a deadly high-tech weapon that can be charged up to fire a single powerful shot.

Finally, players will be able to find a Pulse Rifle, which features two ways of shooting. When hip-fired, the Pulse Rifle is fully automatic, but when you ADS, the rifle features much slower shots.

As for the Primal and Makeshift weapons that made their debut in Fortnite Season 6, they’ve now been vaulted alongside the Infantry Rifle and the Revolver. You can see all vaulted and unvaulted weapons here.

Fortnite map changes

As with any new season of Fortnite, Season 7 brings with it a revitalized map for players to explore.

Gone are the orange Primal Biomes of Season 6, and instead they’ve been replaced by purple spots that must have something to do with the alien invasion taking place.

The Zero Point was destroyed in the season’s opening Story Trailer, leaving a mysterious pool of water at the center of the map. Colossal Crops is now Corny Complex, and Sweaty Sands is now Believer Beach.

While there aren’t any major changes to the Fortnite Island, it’s always exciting to see Epic change things up – and they’ve promised that the ‘battlefield’ will change as the season progresses.

Season 7 brings “upgraded” visuals

Epic Games are rolling out visual upgrades for Fortnite in 17.00.

These follow the changes made to Fortnite’s release for the new generation of consoles in 2020. According to Epic, both “Battle Royale and Creative modes benefit from improved Storm and cloud effects, as well as enhanced simulations for smoke and liquid.”

This means “cooler-looking explosion, fire, and Slurp effects.” There will also be improved postprocessing features such as bloom and lens flares and improved shadow quality.

Here are the system requirements for Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 7:

• Epic Quality Presets specifications
  • Nvidia GTX 1080, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, or equivalent GPU
  • 4 GB VRAM or higher
  • Intel Core i7-8700, AMD Ryzen 7 3700x, or equivalent
  • 16 GB RAM or higher
  • NVMe Solid State Drive
  • Windows 10 64-bit

• Recommended specifications
  • Nvidia GTX 960, AMD R9 280, or equivalent DX11 GPU
  • 2 GB VRAM
  • Core i5-7300U 3.5 GHz
  • 8 GB RAM
  • Windows 10 64-bit

• Minimum specifications
  • Intel HD 4000 on PC; Intel Iris Pro 5200
  • Core i3-3225 3.3 GHz
  • 4 GB RAM
  • Windows 7/8/10 64-bit

Fortnite Season 7 bug fixes

As usual, the Fortnite dev team will also ship a few bug fixes, as documented on the official Trello board. This patch only has a few solved issues, including for the battle royale, Save the World, and Creative mode.

Here are the full list of bug fixes coming in Fortnite v17.00:

General

• Shanty for a Squad Emote out of sync when joining already-singing players.
• Difficulty scrolling through player list in Voice Chat tab on controller.
• Unable to perform Last Forever Emote.

Battle Royale

• Unable to fish while inside certain vehicles.
• Several Pickaxes disabled in competitive.
• Taking damage through cars while in motion.
• Unable to craft Mechanical Bows or Primal Fire Bow in core modes after playing in competitive mode.

Creative

• Rounds not reporting correct placements.
• Unmanned vehicles destroy props when environment damage is turned off.
• Asset memory size not showing in pre-place mode on XL Islands.
• Boats only work with certain island templates.
• Barrier device not preventing players to build through them.
• Save Point device wrongly increasing saved score.
• Vehicle explosion not properly triggered with “Destroyed with Transmit” on.
• Player can encounter infinite loading screen when flying out of Island.
• Switching from one Island to another keeps previous Island’s settings.

Save The World

• Players with overloaded inventories may be unable to load into Ventures.
• Console players get mouse and keyboard prompts.
• The Weekly Supercharger Quest is only granting Hero Superchargers.
• Broken Pickaxe animations.
• Husks can deal damage to objectives through player-built structures

Mobile

• Nintendo Switch players unable to gift cosmetics, Bundles, or Battle Pass on controller.

So, there you have it; all the patch notes & changes for Fortnite’s Season 7 update. Make sure you check out our dedicated Fortnite page for the latest news, guides, and leaks.