Fortnite has entered its latest era with the release of Season 8 Cubed on all platforms. The new season of content is game-changing once again, but this time with some serious nostalgia factor in bringing back the cube and monsters. However, it has also changed quests and made it difficult to do ones like the Fortnite complete a Sideways encounter. 

With the start of Season 8, there is a lot for players to check out, like the minor map changes that have happened on the island, the new battle pass that includes a ton of new cosmetic items to collect, the new gameplay mechanics, weapons, and so much more. 

However, one of the key changes in Season 8 is shaking up how the quests system works. For most of Chapter 2 and its predecessor, challenges have worked similarly, but that is changing with the new season. 

For the most part, the general formula has always been the same: each week, there are new quests, missions, challenges, whatever you want to call them, released for players to complete. The basic idea behind this is to go around the island to places you may not have visited otherwise. 

Or it might be to speak with NPCs that you may not have encountered otherwise or even complete gameplay objectives that are sorely missing from the core gameplay loop of trying to be the last player or team standing at the end of the battle royale match. 

This has been true for Chapters 1 and 2, with minor changes here and there to mix up the formula in minor ways. This included times when players had multiple stages to each quest or, most recently, the introduction of the legendary missions for you to complete. 

The legendary quests have been a staple for a while now, allowing players to have limited-time missions that give great rewards and expect a lot out of the player. The formula established by Season 7 seemed like a solid one that Epic Games would likely stick with (perhaps until the end of the Chapter).

However, that is not the case as Fortnite Season 8 is here. It has completely reinvented missions with a new way of handling them. Through this, we have new challenges like Fortnite complete a Sideways encounter and others that are confusing to figure out. Thankfully, that is where we come into play with everything you need to know about how challenges work this season. 

For starters, there is the fact that Fortnite is no longer employing the usual weekly challenges system that we have had up until this point. In its place is the new punch card system that has effectively flipped the script entirely on how players best can gain experience and level up. 

The punch card system is a system based on the NPCs that have been roaming around the island for several seasons now. They have actively been part of seasons, offering quests for players to do in the middle of matches, duels if you’re into that sort of gameplay, and even items to purchase using gold bars earned from the NPC mini-quests. 

However, the new punch card system emphasizes NPC characters that are unlike anything we have seen before. From now on, you will not just immediately have weekly challenges given to you, but you have to go out and activate them yourself before you can even do them. 

Doing so will grant you the ability to complete the usual quests and objectives that we are used to, like dancing at a certain location or dealing a certain amount of damage to enemies, and so on. It does add this extra step and layer to it, but it also adds in some lore and interaction that the game was sorely missing. 

After all, it is now the NPCs that give you the quests, offering them the chance to shine and give you a little backstory while you do the missions, like helping out the mushroom people by picking up various mushrooms that you find on the island. 

For the most part, many of the NPCs you find on the island will have a punch card associated with them. These cards will have multiple levels of quests that you can do in a chain for that particular NPC, with each stage along the way offering you some experience rewards and gold bars. 

Of course, some players may find that the confusing part about this whole situation is that you can see the punch cards in the lobby menus, but there is no way to activate the quests there. This is where the extra layer is thrown in there, along with some welcome player choice. 

To get quests to complete on your list, there are one of two steps that you must take. The first one is the standard one that you likely have already guessed by this point in time. Given that the NPCs are the ones who will send you out on the specific missions for their punch cards, they are where you want to go if you want to start a new quest chain. 

If you want to complete a mission for the new Season 8 battle pass character Fabio Sparkleman, you can visit this colorful, funny, and detailed new character at the Apres Ski lodge near Misty Meadows in the mountains.

At this rather isolated ski lodge landmark location, you will find his NPC character. You can speak with him to find the different options that he has. There will be options to buy items or disguises, and even accept an NPC quest from him. 

But, instead of the usual mini NPC quests that we have had in the past, this will start the punch card quest for Fabio that you can then do across five different stages, each with its rewards. And that is just one example of this, with many NPCs having their quest lines available at their respective locations. 

What makes this situation frustrating, though, is that you have to visit each NPC location on the island to take the quest from them. Thankfully, there is an easier way of taking NPC quests, though, and that has to do with the payphone. 

Epic was teasing us with the Dr. Slone legendary missions last season, but heading to any payphone, which seems to be even more in Season 8, will allow you to call NPCs. The ones that you can call are automatically chosen for you, but you do have several options each time. 

You can only pick one option at a particular payphone per match, but this is a great way to quickly get a quest without having to visit an NPC at their home location. 

In addition to the five-stage missions available at most NPCs this season, some weekly and daily missions are also available. What is important to note here is that they are completely unlike the weekly challenges that we are used to in Fortnite. 

They are streamlined missions that usually have to do with completing NPC quests for that day or week. Some of the missions might be something like “complete a mission,” which is it for the day. Doing just one mission will grant you the experience reward from that quest. 

These are automatically given to you each day and week, with the weekly ones usually being a bit more involved than the others. They might ask you to complete multiple missions in total for the week or even request that you do a quest for a particular character on the island. 

These are even randomly chosen, so not every player will have the same ones each day and week. The weekly and daily quests may not be super involved, but they are just another added layer to help players reach level 100 this season before it comes to an end. 

One of the most important parts of any season is reaching level 100 and making sure to have all rewards for the season unlocked before it is over. In Season 8, we have the Marvel supervillain Carnage waiting for us at the end of the 10th page of the pass, so we know that many players will want to reach him quickly. 

To do this in most other seasons, the best method is to play matches, do well, and complete all of your quests along the way. Season 8 is not much different, but with the new punch card system, getting experience and completing quests is a bit more confusing. 

From the moment you step into a battle royale match, it is highly recommended that you start picking up NPC quests. I find that most of them are pretty easy, so try to pick up as many as you can so that you can complete them as you go about surviving and winning in matches. 

However, there is a limit to the number of quest lines that you can do for NPCs simultaneously. You can have five active NPC quest lines simultaneously, so if you already have five and try to accept a new one from an NPC or the payphone, you will have to give it up or replace one of the older ones you have. 

In this case, the best thing to do is complete one of the quest lines you have. Then you can accept a new one as we do not recommend replacing the old ones unless you feel that it is a waste of time or too hard to accomplish. 

Almost every NPC quest line has five stages to it. It will not free up that slot until you have completed the fifth and final one. The great thing is, though, that your teammates can help you with the quest. You can earn gold bars together, so we highly recommend playing with friends all season long to maximize your experience rewards and reach level 100 in time. 

Now, we come to one of the most important quests that many players are searching for right now, and that is how to do the Fortnite complete a Sideways encounter mission. This is a pretty confusing mission for many reasons, starting with what the Sideways even is. 

The Sideways is a brand new location that is essentially the Upside Down from Stranger Things, but Fortnite edition. It is likely the origin place of the cube monsters that have returned to the game. Thankfully, the only place to find the cube monsters in Season 8 is by visiting the Sideways. 

There are two ways to visit the Sideways, starting with the one named location in each match with a massive orange circle over it. This is randomized from match to match, but this location has a permanent Sideways zone for players to go and fight the cube monsters. 

However, the alternative way is through the Sideways encounters; this Fortnite completes a Sideways encounter mission. It works because there are anomalies that will appear around the island that you can discover that are like mini-Sideways encounters. 

They will work similarly to how the cube monsters used to be with waves of enemies in random locations that you can fight, unlike the Sideways zone on the island that is endless until the end of the match. For this Fortnite complete a Sideways encounter mission, you need to do two waves of cube monsters and win. 

Unfortunately, the problem here of why you might be searching for a solution is that Epic Games has disabled the anomaly zones, for the time being, meaning that the main Sideways zone is the only place you can fight the cube monsters right now.

Because that is more of an endless location, it will not count for the wave-based quests in Fortnite right now, hence why you might be stuck at this time. Fortunately (or unfortunately), we need to wait until a fix for the Fortnite complete a Sideways encounter quest is issued, and then you will be able to do it.