If you think the point of Epn Games’ Fortnite is to fight a battle generously to win in the end, think again. Yes, you can focus on winning that sweet Victory Royale if you want. But for space nerds, it’s the current season of the game full of ancient astronauts, spaceships and more.
Fortnite is a third-person shooter that you can play on your own, or with friends. You get together and take part in challenges, which on the space side recently included the launch of two secret missions. As you go up, you earn outfits, swag and dance moves – and yes, there are also astronauts and planet-themed things here.
The game, who are now fighting Apple and Google over direct payments for mobile apps, it is most famous for its player-on-player combat, but in recent years it has added experience to appeal to a wider audience. These include (but are not limited to) concerts, movies, conversations and even a creative mode where you can simply explore the map and chill.
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The last season of Fortnite, Chapter 2: Season 3, launched June 17 and saw the playing card almost completely flooded by water, which then slowly receded from the week to reveal a transformed landscape.
So where’s the space content in a season focused on water, and aquatic creatures like Aquaman and his archrival Black Manta? Surprisingly, space is almost everywhere.
Let’s start with Ziona.
Described as “a wanderer in a lost world”, this feminine astronaut outfit becomes available to players as they advance to level 80. Siona lets you play the game as an astronaut – in various outfit colors, though – which is awesome enough. But she may also be key in figuring out what’s going to happen next season of Fortnite, which is currently scheduled to drop on August 27th.
This month, the returning Fortnite map revealed a crashed spaceship with another “old astronaut” inside. For a while, it was underwater, but regular Fortnite Twitter leak @FortTory noticed the ship lurking at Craggy Cliffs and examined it closely when the ship came out of the water. Data miners also found the name of the astronaut (Deo), suggesting that he may be a character coming to Fortnite.
Numerous players pointed out that the ancient astronaut’s spaceship resembled Ziona’s. The spaceship became available to players as a secret challenge on August 1st. Players had to pick up three parts (a thruster, battery pack and the always vital heat shield) and install on the spaceship for a launch.
Where the astronaut follows is … unclear, although the spacecraft apparently flies in the clouds. The launch also opens up space “rifts” allowing you to wait a few seconds in the air before falling back to the ground. But experienced gamers suggest that this space content could point us to what will happen next season.
“Fortnite has not really gone to space yet – although it has received space-themed cosmetics – but would it include taking all players to a new map? Or is calling alien-related? If the spaceship is old, is that it? implicit that it came from the past and time travel is involved? At this point all fans can do is speculate, “GameRant wrote last month, before launching the old astronaut challenge.
There is also a team of Marauders in every Battle Royale game that emerge from a rift in the air, land their space capsule and go on to attack players.
There’s more fuel for a seasonal theme embedded in recent challenges. Another secret question had players helping a group of mini-islanders known as the Coral Buddies. The goal is to help these cute creatures – which are isolated on islands at the top left of the map – progress through the wood, stone, modern and nuclear era.
For a water-themed season, Fortnite has surprisingly a lot of space skins and content available in its levels. The “Battle Pass” (available for $ 1,000 V as $ 7.99 USD) is advertised as including levels 1 through 100, though more content unlocks well into the 100’s.
The most space-related content is quite high in levels, with a “Comet Crasher” slider reaching level 90, a “Planetary Vibe” dance unlocking at level 84, Mini-Moon backbling at level 77, and of course Siona at level 80. There are also some space-y contrails available, with Stardrop available at level 43 and the Photon at level 66.
This week, Epic Games gave all active players a cosmic harvesting tool, the Shooting Starstaff Pickaxe, for free. The tool resembles a small meteorite perched on a stick, driven by early blue energy, with a color scheme similar to Siona’s standard outfit colors.
Fortnite also fell a mid-season space events called the “Galaxy Cup”, on July 26 and 27. Top tier android players were able to wear a Galaxy Scout outfit and other gear, while all participants received a basic galactic “wrap” for weapons after doing some of the tournament. A few weeks later, Fortnite made the Galaxy Scout outfit, glider, harvest tool and wrap available for two days in the store. It is unknown when the set will return, but always check if the content refreshes.
Historically, Fortnite has been known to drop space-y updates. This spring, “Star Wars Day” (May 4), featured light bars as weapons, as well as buying outfits featuring Rey, Kylo Ren and a Sith Trooper. A concert in the game called “Astronomical” ran from April 23 to 25, featuring rapper Travis Scott. While Scott sang in-game avatar, players had to fly above the earth, to see auroras shining in the air, and to look at cool astronaut outfits; happy, Scott upload the entire experience on YouTube if you miss the show.
You will also see periodic entries in the Fortnite store with space themes. An example is the Astra constellation outfit and accompanying constellation wrap, which have appeared twice in recent weeks. At least one other astronaut-themed outfit appeared in the store earlier this season as well. The real name of Fortnite’s Battle Royale Island, according to game files, is apparently Apollo – most likely a reference to mythology, however, and not NASA’s lunar landing program. (The island’s chapter 1 is called Athena.)
Players with long periods of time may remember that space themes have been around for a while. A Millennium Falcon-shaped glider was available for free to all gamers, during the December Winterfest. Astronauts debut in 2018 during Chapter 1 Season 3 Battle Pass. Live events in the game also have a comet, asteroid impact and even included an enormous black hole that made the Fortnite map wander at the end of Chapter 1, in October 2019.
The game has worked hard to bring in more newbie and casual players like me, including cars introducing early August and embedding humorous “Easter eggs” as you ride. One of my early sessions with friends this spring had us stumbling across, of all things, a King Arthur-like sword embedded in a rock. More recently, Fortnite put an in-game football / soccer experience on the map where teammates can kick balls into goals and see who wins on the scoreboard.
A space-themed season would be the ultimate experience for space nerds like ourselves. However, in the meantime, think about finding out if Fortnite’s map falls into darkness. I regularly see auroras glistening in the middle of the stars, which reminds me of how space touches us all – even in a virtual world.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
