The new season of Fortnite battle royale is here, which means an onslaught of new content, areas to explore, themes, and mechanics. Fortnite Season 8 Cubed has arrived, and it is but the latest addition in the current Chapter 2 as we begin to near the end of this second island. 

The arrival of Fortnite Season 8 Cubed comes after the conclusion of the Operation Sky Fire live event. That was the first one in a very long time after seasons either went without an ending live event or opted to have an event that anyone could play whenever they next logged in. 

In Operation Sky Fire, the always suspicious Dr. Slone tasked players with taking bombs together to the alien mothership and destroying it in a countermove that the aliens would not see coming. Though this was successful in the end, it had some intense ramifications for the Fortnite world. 

For one, there is the fact that Dr. Slone betrayed the Fortnite battle royale players by leaving us high in the sky when the bombs were set to die along with the alien horde. Fortunately, we were able to come up with a solution to the dilemma by connecting with the return of the cube. 

We finally found out some of the purpose behind the cube as we saw that it is far from the only one in the universe, with the alien mothership containing hundreds, if not thousands of them. It seems that they have an alien source to them and are being used to power the aliens somehow. 

With connecting to the cube, we were almost able to escape, but the bombs went off before we could finish our daring escape, leaving us on the ship as it exploded. Presumably, the player could wash up on the island safely, with much of the rest of the mothership ending up in the ocean near the island. 

Some parts crashed on the new version of the island in Fortnite Season 8 Cubed and many different cubes that are now at various locations. With the conclusion of the Operation Sky Fire live event, the game went offline until the launch of the brand new battle royale season. 

In the new season of content, players can find tons of changes around the island, some of which are noted in the minor Fortnite Season 8 Cubed patch notes that Epic Games has been gracious enough to offer. This new season includes the usual additions and changes for a season.

Sure, there are the map changes to the island (though they are pretty lame this time around) plus the new battle pass, skins to collect, a new customizable character, new enemies to fight, weapons to use, and so much more. Here is everything that you need to know about the Fortnite Season 8 Cubed content through our little patch notes that we have created. 

Fortnite Season 8 Cubed begins with the most predictable part of it all: a brand new battle pass to use. What is great here is the addition of new characters and other cosmetic items that you will now use in season 8. 

A solid move from Epic Games is continuing the battle pass format that started in Season 7. The new free form nature of the pass continues here, with players having more choice in what they decide to collect in the pass first. 

How it works is largely like Season 7, where there are 10 total pages of content that you will be able to unlock items in the paid version of the battle pass. Of course, if you want to get these items, you will need to shell out the 950 V-Bucks to unlock the paid version with these items.

For every level that you get in the new season, you will get five battle pass stars that you can then turn around and use to unlock the items on each of the 10 pages. Unfortunately, not every item is equal. Therefore, some items will cost a whole lot more stars than others that are not as interesting. 

For instance, when you purchase the battle pass at launch, you will automatically get the new Charlotte skin as the first new battle pass skin that you earn. However, if you want the next skin on the battle pass, the Toona Fish, you will have to spend nine battle pass stars. 

This will require you to level up at least once since you start the battle pass with five stars immediately given to you. If you’re like me and spend the initial five stars on the 100 V-Bucks option on the first page, you will need to level up twice to get enough stars for the new Toona Fish. 

Toona Fish is one of the several battle pass characters this season, but what is unique is that it is also the customizable skin this season. Like the Kymera before it, this Bendy and the Ink Machine-style fish sticks character starts simply black and white but can be customized in many different ways. 

You can unlock other characters across the 10 pages of the battle pass, including the fabulous llama character who has a couple of skin color options and more. Perhaps the most exciting one, though, is the single crossover character that is at the top of the battle pass. 

Oddly enough, the leaks were incorrect. This season, the final battle pass character is not the debut of anime characters with Naruto, but another crossover entirely with Marvel. The latest Marvel crossover character is Carnage, who will be starring in the upcoming Venom sequel film. Carnage is quite vicious-looking in Fortnite. Players can grab him on the final page of the pass along with a themed glider and other items. 

One of the most welcome additions in Fortnite Season 8 Cubed is that the return of the cube has brought with it the return of the zombie hordes or cube monsters. Oddly enough, this return is marked with a Stranger Things-like approach of having an Upside Down-style location on the island. 

Known as The Sideways in this new battle royale season, it is a fascinating and terrifying location where the cube monsters now lurk. You will not find them roaming around the island on their own or just hanging out near the cubes as they will be inside of The Sideways only. 

This is a great way of bringing back the NPC monsters without bothering the players who would prefer to enjoy traditional battle royale against other players and not the NPC enemies. If you do want to take on the zombies, though, you can always head to The Sideways and check it out. 

How it works is that there is at least one main named location in every match that is selected to be the host for The Sideways for that match. It changes from match to match, but I have seen it happen at Misty Meadows and Believer Beach, for instance, so there are likely others beyond that. 

You will be able to see the location from the start of the match by the orange-ish circle over the point of interest. When you head there, you will see the massive orb of orange in the middle of the location. You can walk right through it for a transformation into The Sideways. 

This is a straight-up hellish area that is quite scary for a game that is friendly for all ages. The hellish landscape includes the ability to find the zombie creatures here and fight them for special rewards, including some of the new items this season. 

The introduction of The Sideways in Fortnite comes with some new Sideways weapons that you can use in battle royale. When you defeat the cube monsters, they are likely to drop one of the two new Sideways weapons in the Sideways rifle and the Sideways minigun. 

Both are fantastic and devastating additions to the new season and are likely to become metagame changers for the next few months. They can overheat when used, but you may want to keep close to overheating when using since they are more powerful at this point. 

Furthermore, the cube monsters will also drop their special crafting parts that you can pick up and then upgrade the two Sideways weapons further and do better with them. There are other intriguing new items in the game, including the release of turret stations. 

However, the turret stations are not in the game yet at the time of launch, but their spaces are. Essentially, players will spend their gold bars to vote on a turret location that they want to see Epic Games add in the future. Like the turret that is near the entrance to Boney Burbs, for instance? Then vote for it and it could become the new location soon. 

Furthermore, this season, there are returning items from the vault, like the automatic sniper rifle and the harpoon gun. These are fantastic items, so it will be great to see how players use them in the current season. Nuts and bolts also continue to be available here for upgrading your regular weapons to charge shotguns, suppressed assault rifles, and so on. 

One of the most intriguing Fortnite Season 8 Cubed changes is to the challenges system. It is still unknown if there are weekly challenges this season, but there don’t need to be any when the new party quests are in. 

You can do Party quests with your teammates, a returning feature that allows you to progress and share the rewards. This system is more interesting because you are not given regular quests from the menu, and then you go out and do them. 

Instead, there are whole quest lines given to you from the NPCs on the island themselves. Talk to an NPC. They will have some quests for you to take on that usually have multiple stages, experience to earn, and gold bars to collect. 

If you do not want to go out of your way to find the NPC and talk to them to get their party quests, you can always visit one of the many phone booths around the island and call them up to get quests. You can only hold up to five quest lines at once, though, so you will need to either abandon or complete one to take on a new one. 

Daily and weekly quests are available that typically have to do with completing the punchcard missions from a specific NPC or doing a certain number of legendary quests. Regardless, this is the best way to get experience this season to level up and progress through the various pages of the paid battle pass to earn the numerous rewards, including the ultimate one of Carnage at the very end. 

We will be sure to have more details about the party quests system and how it all works soon, plus any guides on how to complete the main ones once we have a hold on how the new quests work later this week, so be sure to stay tuned for that.