Fortnite: Battle Royale just launched into the future with Season 9. The sprawling map is more futuristic than ever, with brand new locations replacing Tilted Towers and Retail Row. While last season saw the creation of the volcano and Lazy Lagoon, and was somewhat pirate-themed with its treasure maps and Pirate Camps, this season is all about a high-tech future.
Let’s take a look at all the map changes in Season 9.
Neo Tilted Replaces Tilted Towers
Neo Tilted is a futuristic version of Tilted Towers, built on more or less the same basic grid with a few changes. I must admit, I was expecting a bit more when I first heard about this area. We’d already seen the user-created version of a futuristic Tilted, and I like some aspects of that version better (more skyscrapers with more levels open to the outside, for instance).
Also, it’s weird that cars aren’t more futuristic. Only some new lines and colors on semi-trucks distinguish them from before. I was hoping we’d see more futuristic vehicles.
Here’s Neo Tilted from above:
You can see the new buildings are much more modern than the brick ones of yore:
And here you can see the Slipstream which is one of this week’s challenges:
Even the basketball court has gotten a futuristic makeover:
Blimps fly above town:
The clocktower is now digital:
The ruins of the old clocktower are now in Junk Junction:
Loot Lake
The buildings next to Loot Lake have gotten their own modern makeover, and a long black pipe connects the vault and Neo Tilted, apparently powering the futuristic city somehow:
Pleasant Park
Windmills now surround Pleasant Park, connected by ziplines:
The Block
Here’s the current Block courtesy of MakaMakes_YT. It’s rather sparse and modern, with a little yacht floating around an island house:
Mega Mall
Tilted Towers wasn’t the only area destroyed by the volcano at the end of Season 8. Retail Row was also wiped out, though the residential area remained intact. Retail Row has no transformed into Mega Mall, a slick three-story mall filled with shops, a fountain and more (though the residential area remains almost identical to before).
Here’s the mall from above. You can see part of the Slipstream that runs around the perimeter of the location, which is part of one of this week’s challenges.
There’s a fountain in the center of the mall:
A number of new shops have popped up including a Flush Factory outlet, a toy store and this “Sew What” shop:
As you can see, the residential area remains almost untouched save for small details like this basketball hoop:
Pressure Plant
Built into the side of of the volcano is a new named location: Pressure Plant. It’s a highly industrial area filled with heavy machinery, piping and ugly buildings.
The mysterious helicopter from last season is in this location, along with some of the digging equipment from the dig-sites. I guess whoever was in charge of that operation has set up shop here.
Giant Fish
A giant wooden fish has appeared in the hot springs area northwest of Pressure Plant:
Sky Platforms
One of the challenges for Week 1 includes visiting these flying Sky Platforms which are quite reminiscent of Apex Legends, actually.
John Wick’s House
It looks like we’ll be getting a special John Wick LTM–I wonder if that means the Reaper skin will become available in the Item Shop? Leaked John Wick’s Bounty challenges have been found in the game’s files, and John Wick’s house has popped up just outside of Paradise Palms:
There’s even John Wick’s car out front:
A view of the map from afar:
Finally, here’s the new map:
What do you think of all these changes? How does Season 9 compare to Season 8 so far?
