Fortnite Season 7 players have been able to meet Rick Sanchez as they fought against an alien invasion, remind Clark Kent of his superhero persona and dance at an Ariana Grande concert as the Mothership scanned their brains for island secrets. However, after "Operation: Skyfire," the Fortnite island has been irreversibly altered once again. The Mothership from Season 7 is grounded, but with its fall rises a new threat: cubes. Season 8 sees the return of "Kevin," a cubic threat introduced in Chapter 1, and this time, it has brought "friends" along to invade the island.
The season's new gameplay mechanics include new weapons and map changes. There are now cube pickups that turn players into "ghosts" and let them fly around and phase through walls. However, perhaps the biggest change is the Quests system, which reintroduces punchcards alongside a sorely needed quality-of-life update that makes leveling up much easier.
Quests are missions within Fortnite that task players with completing specific requirements, which can be anything from ringing doorbells until they break to popping tires on vehicles. NPCs on the island distribute quests, and each one has a five-part questline to complete. These make up a character's punchcard, and completing punchcards nets players a ton of XP, making them well worth the effort.
The latest update finally allows players to finish multiple stages of a quest in a single match. Previously, completing a stage would require players to exit the game to gain access to the next one, which was incredible inconvenient. Now, players will be given the next stage as soon as they accomplish the previous one, meaning they can get further without leaving a match. This reduces the number of steps and time involved in completing a punchcard.
Along with quests, Season 8 received a slew of other updates. A new season means a new Battle Pass with cosmetics and characters for players to unlock, including the criminal Carnage from Marvel Comics. There is also a Paint A Toona Fish event that allows Battle Pass members to customize their Toona Fish (the new cartoony Fishstick), similar to the Kymera event from last season. However, the bottles of paint and rainbow paint currencies players need are much easier to find this time around.
Another big change is introducing "The Sideways," a new POI that spawns in random locations at the start of each match. Things get trippy within this bubble, as building is disabled, everyone has low gravity jumps and everything looks like it belongs in the Upside Down from Stranger Things. The icing on the cake is the new cubic enemies that spawn in the Sideways and attack players.
Cubes drop interesting loot that lets players build cubic weapons -- if they manage to slay them. However, taking them on alone is near impossible, and players can still attack one another during these confrontations. Players will need the help of trusted friends to finish off these foes.