Fortnite Battle Royale Gets A New Map Update And More This Week

Popular free-to-play game Fortnite Battle Royale is getting a new map update and various new pieces of content in the coming week.


Published: January 15, 2018 9:52 PM /

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Fortnite Soldiers Shooting

Fortnite Battle Royale, the free-to-play portion of the Fortnite IP, is set to get a major overhaul to the map this week, which adds 5 new cities and more places to find loot throughout the map. With a growing userbase that has surpassed over 40 million players and a new milestone of 2 million concurrent players, it's safe to say the game is continuing to grow under the constant updates that Epic continues to release for free, although players can support the game through the Battle Pass and skins should they choose to do so.


Check out the new map in full below, and see for yourself what you'll get to explore:

A map showing the island used in Fortnite Battle Royale

Crazy difference, right? Some of the more notable changes to the map include Junk Junction and Haunted Hills to the northwest of the map, Snobby Shores on the west side, with Tilted Towers near the center of the map and Shifty Shafts just below it. Based on developer comments, the goal was to add more density to the west side of the map, which had fewer places to drop in comparison to the east side.

Tilted Towers is the first true "city" in Fortnite Battle Royale, and will include skyscrapers for players to enter and fight both in and around. In an interview with PCGamer, level designer Sidney Rauchberger had this to say about the new city:

"You can try and own buildings, and there’s building to building combat. And because the buildings are large, there’s a lot of close quarter combat inside of those buildings..."
Fortnite Screenshot showing a character using a paraglider to head towards a nearby settlement.

That's not all, though - if you've ever wanted to get into combat inside a mine, now's your chance! Shifty Shafts is the first truly underground portion to come to Fortnite's map, and one can imagine nothing more than dimly lit shotgun battles...or just lots of explosions in close quarters if someone is feeling extra crazy.

The eastern side of the map is virtually untouched, with exceptions to some minor changes that we'll really get to see the extent of come patch day. The new look of the map is thanks to the fact that the development team has been able to integrate a new streaming tech into the game that allows more detailed environments without having to sacrifice performance - a great step forward!

If you want to see how different the updated map really is, just check out the GIF below!

There's a lot to love about what's coming in this new map, as well as all the new places to drop and interesting new loot spots, so it's safe to say every Fortnite Battle Royale player will be excited about this patch. If you're looking to get into it yourself, look no further than patch day this week!


Quick Take

Can't say anything more about this update other than it's going to really be great for the balance of the map. More places to drop is huge for spreading people out, and I'll be interested to see how the meta changes over time with how people choose to drop throughout the map. Looking forward to this for sure!

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Rutledge Daugette is the Guides Editor & Founder of TechRaptor. Rutledge's degree in Game Programming ultimately led him to found the site in 2013, with… More about Rutledge

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