Players have had a week to discover new changes such as the floating island. Which will have the biggest impact?

Fortnite developer Epic Games certainly lived up to its name with the launch of season six. Arriving last Thursday, the latest instalment of the Battle Royale juggernaut saw a great chunk of land being ripped from Loot Lake and re-forming as a floating sky island supported by the purple interdimensional cube that’s been hovering over the map for weeks.

But that wasn’t the only major change to either the map or the weird mythology that seems to underpin everything that happens in the game. These are the key new places to explore and features to play with.

The floating island (of course)

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The floating Fortnite island. Photograph: Fortnite

Originally stationed over Loot Lake in the centre of the map, but now seemingly embarking on a tour of the island, this large new expanse of land hovers hundreds of metres in the sky and can be reached by jumping into an uplifting vortex beneath it. For a couple of days, this was the place to land, temporarily replacing Tilted Towers, which meant it was basically carnage. While it’s still busy, you can at least land and explore for a few seconds before getting into a gunfight.

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This is easily the highest point in the map, so it’s going to be useful for scoping out the landscape and finding out where other players are; it’s also a good place to leg it to if you need to get away from a fight. The fact that it’s gradually moving will keep shifting its tactical importance, and it’ll become a handy sniping platform when it rests near higher elevations.

For now, the novelty of landing on such a high, condensed feature, or floating up to it from the ground below marks it out as the key scenic feature.

The bunker complex

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Part of the bunker now discovered beneath the Wailing Woods maze, complete with Dusty Depot painting. Photograph: Fortnite

For the last few seasons there’s been a weird bunker entrance hidden in Wailing Woods, and although a few players have managed to glitch their way in, it’s been one of the island’s most enduring mysteries. Until now. Dig your way through the base of the building in the middle of the maze and you gain access to a huge underground research base, complete with the same kind of metal corridors we see in the abandoned facility in the woods near Dusty Divot, as well as interesting little easter eggs (a picture of the original Dusty Depot on one office wall) and a testing chamber with its own rift.

Was this the site of some big science experiment? From the arrival of the comment to the launch of the rocket at the end of season four, we’ve known that Fortnite Battle Royale has an arcane narrative involving alien visitors and sinister characters such as Omen and Omega, and it feels like this chamber is part of that story. What’s more, there are a bunch of as-yet blocked-off tunnel exits, leading in different directions.

Elsewhere in Wailing Woods, there are several new cabins, which also have access to an underground tunnel network, but again, the passageways are currently closed. It seems Epic Games has a whole subterranean play space worked out for the game.

The nerfing of the weapons

Season six hasn’t added much in terms of the combat arsenal, but what it has done is nerfed or removed some key items. The double shotgun now does much less damage, taking 40 health points on a body shot, which places it well behind the heavy shotgun in terms of brutal force. The impulse grenade, suppressed SMG, remote mines and light-machine gun are also gone, a major streamlining of the game’s more specialised armoury. This is going to place the emphasis back on assault rifles, and especially the SCAR, but it’s not clear yet how it’s going to affect the pace of the action – and the distance of engagements – especially at the end or in high-encounter areas like Tilted Towers. Could be that we’ll see a more considered approach, with fewer close-distance shootouts.

The end of bouncing

One surprising removal is the bouncer pad, which allowed players to eject high into the air and then parachute safely to Earth. Easier to find and more adaptable than the launch pad, these were a common feature of end-game strategies, helping you to get safely down from tall constructions, or to swoop into safe zones at the last second. This may cut down on the number of finales that are dominated by players with super-fast vertical-building skills.

Shadow Cubes and cornfields

Facebook Twitter Pinterest One of the fully grown cornfields, which provide handy cover and a few surprises. Photograph: Fortnite

The Fortnite map now has several corrupted zones, which are eerie scorched sites marked with unexplained runes, which no doubt have some connection to the island’s mythology. More importantly though, these zones are scattered with Shadow Cubes, this season’s answer to Hop Rocks. These useful artefacts turn your character into an opaque ghost-like figure, able to move faster and to zoom through walls. You can’t shoot anyone while in this state, but when you stand still, you’re effectively invisible, allowing for some sneaky camping action.

Right now, the cubes have been removed as they were causing glitches in the game, but when they’re back, they’re going to be a useful part of the stealth game, especially if the storm closes in around a corrupted zone where they’re plentiful. On the subject of stealth, a couple of farm areas including Fatal Fields now have fully grown cornfields that also provide excellent cover – and the odd treasure chest.

The haunted castle

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The newly built gothic castle, seen from a safe distance. Photograph: Fortnite

This large gothic building has materialised on an elevated point just south of Haunted Hills. Right now, it’s a mildly intriguing diversion filled with spooky stone corridors, shadowy chambers and empty coffins (as well as quite a few items), but as the theme of season six is “Darkness Rising” this prominent horror-themed locale could well become key hotspot as the weeks progress – especially for Halloween, of course.

Verdict: Season six has a good range of aesthetic, tactical and architectural changes, with the floating island being the most significant landscape alteration since the arrival of Paradise Palms. There are some genuinely funny new skins (the amazing Giddy Up being the sartorial star), too, and it’s going to be interesting to see how players use the new underground areas – and if Epic starts linking these together via a network of tunnels, creating some pretty claustrophobic new combat scenarios.

It seems as though Epic is trying to make subtle changes to the tactical game, moving players towards exploration, traversal and considered mid-range engagements, rather than legging it into Tilted Towers with an SMG whenever possible. As for the mythology and backstory about alien visitors and bizarre experiments, the places to go are definitely the new haunted mansion and the previously rather overlooked but now rather intriguing Wailing Woods …

If the designers can keep coming up with new mysteries, fresh modes and fun extras like the spiky stadium mini-game in Playground mode, we’re in for another compelling few months.