The Mothership that was hovering ominously above the Fortnite Island throughout the entirety of Chapter 2 – Season 7 has finally been destroyed after the Operation: Sky Fire Live Event which took place on September 12th, 2021 thus concluding the alien invasion storyline. Unsurprisingly, Doctor Slone went ahead and betrayed everyone – leaving players trapped inside – after discovering that Kevin the Cube had officially returned and subsequently revealing that she had no intentions of saving anyone in order to prevent the malevolent geometric shape from reaching the Island once again.
We are fighting a war in which we are hopelessly outgunned. I won’t bring you home. Not if there is a chance that… thing… can make it back to the Island. Over… and out.
Doctor Slone | Fortnite: Chapter 2 – Season 7
Towards the conclusion of the event, players made their way to a storage facility within the Mothership and discovered that it was actually being powered by thousands of Kevin the Cube clones which activated prior to the explosion. Players had previously been working with Doctor Slone through a series of Legendary Quests in order to develop a countermeasure device capable of putting an end to their incursion. The resulting chaos sent everyone and everything plummeting towards the Island in a destructive spectacle and the war has now shifted to defending the Island against the Cubes and prevent it from falling into darkness.
Corruption is one of the primary themes of the Chapter 2 – Season 8 storyline with dozens of Kevin the Cube clones now scattered across the Island. The Cubes are an even bigger threat as they have no face or speech – only equipped with six sides of pure malice. Players have already reported movement from the Cubes, indicating that more corruption will likely make its way to neighboring locations as time goes on, which has sparked the immediate establishment of Turret Stations at different spots around the Island including Pleasant Park and Weeping Woods.
Astronaut J.B. Chimpanski is recruiting players to join the war effort by asking them to contribute all of their hard earned Bars to help fund the construction which will require an extensive amount of currency. The result will ensure that locations are fortified with players needing to band together and decide which weapons will be developed and which ones will be unvaulted. Speaking of unvaulted weapons, several beloved ones have already made their way back into the game including the Automatic Sniper Rifle and Harpoon Gun with the Charge Shotgun and Suppressed Assault Rifle able to be crafted using the Nuts & Bolts crafting ingredient.
The Cubes are not just spreading corruption throughout the Fortnite Island but also opening up portals to The Sideways – a monster infested reality that pulls players in if they get too close – that features a low-gravity zone and terrifying Cube Monsters which will attack in waves until the encounter has been cleared or until the player has left the area. Defeated enemies will drop a NEW crafting ingredient called Cube Monster Parts which can be used to upgrade Sideways weapons and power them up all the way to Mythic level status. Building is not possible in these areas which means that players will have to adapt their strategies and think twice before charging in without a decent loadout.
At the beginning of each match, one location on the Island will be converted into a Sideways Zone which are slightly different than a Sideways Anomaly encounter. For starters, Cube Monsters do not attack in waves and Sideways Chests have the potential of dropping unique weapons including the Sideways Rifle and Sideways Minigun which deal bonus damage after charging them up to their superpowered state; overheating will prove to be quite effective against opponents. Epic Games cleverly selected the name as a nod to the popular Netflix series Stranger Things which features a similar twisted dimension called The Upside Down.
Epic Games has also made some changes to Quests with the return of Punchcards which contain five Quests from various NPC characters around the Island and can be completed at any time without expiring. Players can team up with Dark Jonesy to uncover the secrets of the Kevolution facility or join forces with Charlotte to investigate the Imagined Order with more Quests becoming available over the next few weeks. Daily and Weekly Punchcards allow players to earn even more XP which will help level up their Battle Pass and unlock the murderous Marvel supervillain – Carnage – who appears as the Level 100 Outfit with all kinds of Symbiote goodness like the Maximum Carnage Loading Screen.
Rounding out the update is the reappearance of Slipstreams – anti-gravity tunnels which can transport players around a designated area for quick escapes or strategic advantages; players can find them around the wreckage of the downed Mothership. Shadow Stones have also returned and are scattered amongst the rubble with players able to consume them and become a shadow-apparition for a short period of time. Players should also keep a particularly close eye on the Blue Cube (Catty Corner) and Gold Cube (Holly Hedges) clones which will likely play an important part in the story.
Fortnite is available now on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 Pro, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, Windows PC, and Android devices.