Epic Games has once more found a new theme and style for Fortnite battle royale in its latest season. As expected from the release date announcement and teaser, the new season of Fortnite is known as Fortnite Season 7 Invasion and includes the arrival of extraterrestrial creatures on the island. 

Fortnite Season 7 Invasion is a jam-packed season that feels like a step up from the pretty underwhelming Season 6 Primal (in my opinion) as it has more of the content that we expect from a brand new season. It has several new locations for players to explore, both named ones and landmark places. 

It does retain a small part of what made the last season good while introducing its own set of unique new content. Invasion embraces the alien theme, bringing in some crazy new gameplay mechanics and ideas, plus some new weapons to boot. 

If that is not enough, there is a new vehicle to check out in the game that will be weird and meta-changing in its way but could end up being controversial. Not to mention the fact that there are new skins and battle pass items to collect in the new season. 

The battle pass is different this time around, following a new format that will probably be well-received by the community overall. It still includes the general releases of new character skins, with a couple of familiar characters joining Fortnite for the first time. Since Epic Games still does not make patch notes anymore, here is everything that you need to know about Fortnite Season 7 Invasion.

First and foremost, there is a brand new way of handling the battle pass this season. The Season 7 battle pass is unlike any that we have ever had before in that it is more flexible than past ones. Until this point, you have known how the battle pass is going to work and has remained that way. 

Essentially, you would gain experience to level up your battle pass and gain new rewards for basically every tier of the experience until you reach tier 100, where the bulk of the content ends. Instead of following a set line of items like in that case, it is freer this time around. 

How it works is that there are 10 pages of the Fortnite Season 7 Invasion battle pass in total. There are 10 or so items on each page that you can find there, making up a little over 100 battle pass items that you can collect in total during your journey in this new season. 

How it works is that you will unlock battle pass stars like in past seasons when you level up. But, instead of needing 10 battle pass stars to go to the next tier or something like that, you can spend the battle pass stars to unlock various items on each page. 

For instance, there is the base skin on the first page that everyone who purchases the paid battle pass will receive. Alongside it is a new emote, back bling, loading screen, and more. You can choose which of these items you wish to buy on the page first and go in the order you like. 

While that may seem pretty lame in general, the changes add up over time as you still get the same items. You need to purchase a few items on the first page to unlock the second one, so you could prioritize the next skin in the battle pass by purchasing the cheapest items (like the loading screen for three stars) to unlock the next page. 

Then you can save up your stars and immediately buy the next skin as soon as you unlock the next page. It is a fascinating and more exciting way of allowing more control for players. In the end, you will still need to purchase most items to get to the end and unlock Rick Sanchez on the final page, but it is an awesome new look for the repetitive battle pass formula. 

A new season would not be complete without some new map locations for players to explore on the island, and Fortnite Season 7 Invasion has plenty of those as well. There are only two new named locations on the island at this time, which is even less than the previous season. 

That said, there are lots of new landmark locations. Some of these are big enough to be mini-points of interest on the island, in my opinion. There are several IO bases that you can visit in Season 7. 

As for the two main new areas, Believer Beach replaces Sweaty Sands with only some minimal changes. Corny Complex replaces Colossal Crops previously on the island in the last season. Overall, they are not huge changes but interesting enough. 

One of the strangest changes on the map this time around is removing one named location but keeping the actual place. Stealthy Stronghold has been officially demoted, much like what happened with The Shark, to a landmark named differently. For the full breakdown of the map changes in this new season, be sure to stay tuned. 

With the start of Fortnite Season 7 Invasion, there are plenty of new weapons to try out. Like Season 6, the bulk of the changes are as the gameplay has shifted considerably. Unfortunately, a lot of the weapons that were prominent in the last season are gone. 

As much as I, personally, liked the Primal Rifle, it is sadly gone along with all of the other Primal weapons. I have not confirmed whether or not the bow is completely gone either, but it seems to be the case, which is unfortunate as it was my best weapon in Fortnite to date. 

There are plenty of new weapons to replace the vaulted weapons, mainly in the IO department. The new IO weapons are here to help fight back against the invaders and include some interesting additions, like the Pulse Rifle. 

This is seemingly a new assault rifle of some kind, or perhaps a take on the infantry rifle, which is powerful but slow. I found that this weapon is too slow to be worth using, especially considering that it does not have a nice scope. You are better off sticking with a normal assault rifle or a sniper rifle if you want that slower but powerful weapon. 

It is joined by the rail gun that is a much better addition to the roster and acts like a long-range weapon that has to be charged up. Though it does take a little bit to charge, it is extremely powerful and will decimate enemies in short work. 

Then there is the recon scanner, which is a strange item to help you survey what is around you. There are alien weapons, too, like the Kymera ray gun, but that is hard to find at the start of the season. Epic promises more weapons to come as the season progresses. 

There is a new vehicle, too, in the form of the flying saucers. You can take control of the UFOs that the aliens are using to attack the island. From what I gather, you can find one by heading to the named locations highlighted in purple and finding one there. 

The flying saucers are the new meta-changing vehicles with the ability to fly up, pick up objects to throw, and zap enemies on the ground. It is powerful but somewhat difficult to control. Despite that, I expect it to be a potentially controversial one moving forward, much like the mechs and planes in the past. 

For instance, in my first match of Season 7, I died due to the storm since I tried to unlock every new location on the map. Still, in my second solo match that I took a little bit more seriously, I could easily win it by hopping in the flying saucer and destroying the remaining players at Boney Burbs. 

This may have you wondering how the crafting system works in this latest season with removing the Primal weapons that brought it about in the first place. It seems that crafting is somewhat dumbed down in Season 7, but it does remain a part of the meta. 

In general, what crafting has this time around is about bringing back some of the vaulted weapons from the battle royale game’s past. This includes fan-favorite weapons like the burst assault rifle, rapid-fire SMG, and more. They have returned but are only accessible through crafting. 

The animal bones and mechanical parts are gone, too, leaving the new nuts and bolts materials as the main crafting material. With them, you can craft long-lost weapons like the lever-action shotgun and more. Keep in mind that these weapons will not be available as ground or chest loot otherwise. 

Though the materials from Season 6 have been removed from the game and their respective weapons, the animals remain. I have found boars thus far in the new season, so I expect and hope that this means that raptors remain at least in some quantity on the island.

Though Fortnite Season 7 Invasion has a pretty exciting launch thus far, some missing elements are not quite here just yet. It leads us to believe that more is definitely on the way as the season goes on. For starters, there is this season’s “secret” battle pass character. 

In past seasons, we had the Predator, Wolverine, and so on, and this season brings back a superhero with the long-awaited arrival of Superman. Clark Kent will make his debut in the game as the new battle pass additional character that you will likely need to unlock through some special missions. 

There is the normal Clark Kent with his emote that allows him to transform into Superman. There is a special dark Superman that will be available, too. The quests for unlocking this skin and its skin styles are currently unknown, but we expect a similar situation to Neymar Jr. in Season 6. 

What is odd about the Superman release is that it is not happening until around two months from the launch of Season 7, as indicated by the in-game timer. This tells us that this season is likely going to be long as you need a good amount of time for players to unlock everything in the Superman set. 

We expect that this season will last at least three months, if not longer than that, so we also anticipate some other major changes to the island. Since there are only two new named locations at this time in the season, it stands to reason that there will possibly be at least one more come out in a later update. 

I would not be surprised to see Boney Burbs shift at some point during the season into a new location, like Metropolis or something like that when Superman arrives, similar to what was done with Batman and Gotham City in Chapter 1. For now, though, we will have to wait and see, so stay tuned for more info on this brand new season of content now.