Huge sandstorm will engulf Fortnite island as part of the new season

Fortnite has started with in-game teasers in preparation for the new season of the game, which will start at the end of this month, May 2024. For now, it is known that there will not be an event as such - which is understandable given Epic Games’ new policy in this regard - but instead, there will be an in-game mini-event that has already begun, with a huge sandstorm that threatens to engulf the map. In this news, we summarize everything there is to know about it:

What does the Fortnite Sandstorm mean and what does it look like?

Teasers of Fortnite’s massive sandstorm have appeared in-game as of Monday, May 13, 2024, at 10:00 AM ET. The first phase of the mini-event consists of several storm clouds appearing around the giant statue that crowns Mt. Olympus.

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In addition, the rays of sunlight that illuminate the area when seen from afar are now blue instead of golden, indicating that something is about to happen.

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A few days later - we do not know when exactly - the next part of the mini-event will consist of a huge sandstorm appearing on the horizon, threatening to swallow the island.

It is an immense cloud of dust several hundred meters high that will completely cover the island of the game. We do not know if, as happened after the event The Device (Fortnite Season 2 Chapter 2), Epic Games will be prompted to replace the storm of the game with this sandstorm. In the case we discussed, a huge wall of water replaced the boundaries of the safe zone on the map, so there is at least a precedent for this strange change.

What we do know, from several files of the game itself decrypted on the same May 13, is that this statue will have an animation in which it gives a sword to the sandstorm, trying to stop it to save the island.

Zeus, the king of Olympus and the main villain of this season, was defeated in the story quests of the current season. We do not know if this sandstorm, or the fact that the statue of Mount Olympus comes to life, is part of his revenge for being defeated, although we would not be surprised at this point.

The appearance of the sandstorm is Epic Games’ way of announcing the arrival of the new season of the game at the end of the month, similar to what happened with the Pandora’s Box mini-event during the previous season. And this is, for the time being, the plan of the studio for Fortnite, to make these mini-events instead of massive events as usual.

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What will the new season of Fortnite be about?

The arrival of the sandstorm would square with the leaked roadmap of the game, where it could be seen that the theme of Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 3 will be post-apocalyptic and that it could have a collaboration with ‘Mad Max’ taking advantage of the premiere of ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ on the same day of the start of the season.

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In other words, it can be expected that the map of Fortnite Season 3 Chapter 5 will be almost completely covered in sand and that Epic Games will take advantage of this new context to introduce new outfits with a post-apocalyptic theme, in addition to the more than usual new weapons and items.

When does the new Fortnite season start?

Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 3 will begin next Friday, May 24, 2024, at 2:00 AM ET. This date and time is equivalent to the following across the United States:

Simply logging in won’t be enough; Fortnite Patch 30.00, the file size of which is still unknown, will need to be downloaded. After the download, Epic Games will keep the game’s servers down for several hours, and you will have to wait until they are active again to play smoothly and enjoy all of the new season’s content.