‘Fortnite’ Season 5 heats things up with a new desert region

Epic Games’ Fortnite: Battle Royale may essentially task players with doing the same thing every match — kill everyone else — but the studio has certainly kept things interesting. Recent updates and events have caused interdimensional rifts to open, and the start of Season 5 has introduced a new location that’s sure to heat things up.

Head to the southeast section of the battle royale map after the latest update, and you’ll find the “Moisty Mire” area has been replaced by a much less moist area called “Paradise Palms.” Unlike the green locations on the rest of the map, Paradise Palms is a desert, which should help to change up strategies for hiding from enemies. In place of “Anarchy Acres” in the northern section of the map is a golf course called “Lazy Links,” just in case you want to work on your putting game while 99 other players are murdering each other.

Fitting with the golf course, Fortnite also introduced a new golf cart vehicle called the “All-Terrain Kart,” or ATK. The vehicle can hold your squad and should assist you in tracking down crafty opponents, or in tracking down your ball after a nasty slice into the rough.

Season 5’s cinematic trailer also confirmed earlier images we saw of a burger in the California desert. In the video, we see interdimensional oddities occurring all around the map, and the large sign on top of the Durr Burger restaurant disappears before popping back up in the middle of the desert. Who says you can’t have a burger for “desert?”

Other, smaller changes have been added in Season 5, as well. Progressive challenges can now be completed across multiple seasons, so you’ll no longer have to rush through them, and certain storms will now shift position instead of simply shrinking, so you can’t get too comfortable in one position. If you’re on Nintendo Switch, you can also use motion controls for aiming your weapon, which should feel right at home for anyone experienced in Splatoon 2.

Fortnite: Battle Royale is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, and iOS. An Android release is planned for later this summer.