‘Fortnite’ Season 7 brings ziplines and airplanes as holiday gifts

If you’re tired of running around on the ground or inside buildings in Fortnite, then the game’s Season 7 update is just what you’re looking for. The update is winter-focused, but that didn’t stop Epic Games from offering brand-new ways to get the drop on your enemies from above.

Season 7 adds the X-4 Stormwing Plane to battle royale mode, and it’s the perfect vehicle for a squad looking for an advantage to close out a match. The plane has room for four passengers and a pilot, and it is equipped with a mounted machine gun to take out targets. It also has a boost and air-brake, and if you find yourself in danger, you can skydive out of the plane just like you would at the beginning of a match.

You’ll find several new locations in the battle royale mode, as well, including “Frosty Flights,” “Polar Peak,” and “Happy Hamlet,” as well as the new “Iceberg” biome. The snowier areas are covered with ice, which you’ll slide across, and these areas will also feature ziplines that you can use to quickly move from point to point. You can still use your weapons and items while you are moving across them, so you won’t be a sitting duck.

The balloons introduced earlier this year have also been tweaked. You can now still use weapons and items while they’re equipped, and you need three of them on your back to lift off from the ground — you can press the “jump” button to release them individually so that you can have a smooth landing.

A new tournament — the Explorer Pop-Up Cup — has been added, giving players increased resources to build structures, but one of our favorite additions comes in the Season 7 Battle Pass: Wraps. You can decorate your weapons and vehicles to look like they’ve been gift wrapped, and more can be used once you’ve leveled the new Battle Pass up. The surprise is kind of ruined, though, because everyone knows it’s a gun or a vehicle already. Battle Pass users get early access to Creative mode, as well, which was just revealed yesterday.

Smaller changes have been made to the UI, including damage numbers of vehicles, but mobile players get the biggest boost with Season 7. If you’re on a 2018 iPad Pro, you can now play the game at 60 frames per second, and 4X MSSA Anti-Aliasing has been re-enabled for iOS, as well. Galaxy Note 9 and the North American Galaxy S9 Plus should also see a performance boost.

Fortnite is available now with cross-play support on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.