As is now traditional, the launch of a new Fortnite season means a new look map, and while many expected Fortnite Season 5’s changes to have less of an impact than the massive meteor that destroyed Dusty Depot, quite the opposite is true. The entire Moisty Mire has been destroyed, Anarchy Acres is no more and one of the almost empty hills in the East has acquired an entire new village with quite the centrepiece.
At its core, this is still the map you know and have hopefully mastered, but there are more than a few new locations to change everything up for the next 10 weeks and beyond. The Worlds Collide theme for Fortnite Season 5 means that there is a lot of variation in the new areas we get to see, some are ancient historical sites, whereas others are modern luxury resorts, there are even a few dinosaurs that don’t look out of place.
Of course with these new areas only just launching they are incredibly popular, making it pretty difficult to explore them and figure out where all the good loot is without being booted back to the menu because one of the 20 people who also landed there managed to get a pump before you could even find a pistol. That’s why we have done the hard work for you, putting out solid win/loss ratio on the line to go and explore these incredibly popular new areas so you can dominate everyone who decides to drop alongside you.
Lazy Links
Imagine one day you are tending to some of your growing crops in Anarchy Acres, and then all of a sudden you are in the middle of a luxury golf resort. Those poor farmers have had to deal with just that, as Lazy Links has replaced the northern farm on the map, bringing some high class and culture to the world of Fortnite.
The golf resort features are few buildings with solid loot, and the main clubhouse type building that has a lot of potential chests in its upper levels. Getting up to them isn’t the easiest at times, but explore through the roof area and you can be sure of a chest or two most of the time.
The holes themselves don’t really have too much in the way of loot, although the basketball court is usually good for a shotgun or two. And with the new toy emotes that come with the Fortnite Season 5 Battle Pass you can even partake in a few holes of golf or shoot some hoops on route to a victory royale. There is also a load of ATK spawns around here so you can make pretty much any circle, now matter how bad it is for you.
Paradise Palms
Paradise Palms is easily the biggest new addition in terms of named locations on the map. Sitting slap bang in the middle of where the Moisty Mire used to be this new desert city is made up of swanky houses and what seems to be one giant apartment building that is one of the tallest buildings on the entire map. Needless to say with a ton of buildings of this size there is a lot of loot to be had here, and if you can get this location all to yourself you are guaranteed to be well kitted out for the rest of your run.
It’s not exactly close to the centre of the map, so chances are you will have to move away to get into the circle pretty early on, but even so that should pose too much of a challenge, as the area has multiple routes to leave and also has quite a few ATK spawns. The different architecture from the rest of the map and the massive hills surrounding it also mean that any late circles in this area will be unlike anything you have ever played.
The Rest of the Desert
Paradise Palms is just one area of the massive new desert biome in the south east corner of the map. The racetrack has been given a makeover and is now fully tarmacked making it a great spot to play around with the ATK. There’s also a smaller town on the southern coast that has way more loot than you would imagine and a gas station that could be a solid drop if everywhere else in the area seems very busy.
The extended desert area really is quite unlike the rest of the map. The massive hills all over the place mean sightlines are much shorter, so snipers are limited at best here, and the different color scheme means that so skins stick out even more than other locations. It’s not exactly enough to warrant a total change of playstyle, but it is worth remembering when running around this new area.
Viking Ship Yard
This one may not be a named area on the map, or even really mentioned in the patch notes, but this is easily the coolest new addition to the map in Fortnite Season 5. Atop of the large hill that sits between Greasy Grove and Snobby Shores now resides a viking village, complete with a giant ship that is perched on the edge of a giant waterfall. To say this looks incredible would be an understatement.
Now the loot here is often underwhelming, and if you land with others it usually comes down to luck. Why? Well, that’s because this is a very small area with few escape routes — so it’s a risky game unless you have a lot of materials. However, it is worth the trip just to see how cool this place looks, and if by some miracle you manage to get there alone and the circle is kind to you, you could easily end up with a great sniping location to hunker down in during the mid-game.
Everything else You Need To Know About Fortnite Season 5
There’s a few other changes to the map, but these are much smaller than the other additions. The recently added football stadium is no more, with grassland and a giant head taking its place, while other heads have appeared at other locations as well. These usually have a couple of chests alongside them so they are worth checking out.
Dusty Divot has also changed quite a lot. Nature has once again taken over, with trees filling the crater and even some ponds forming in the base. The research facility in the center is on its last legs but still offers solid loot options. The trees change everything here, you can grab a ton of resources and actually play within the crater without worrying about those on top seeing your every move, so this is now a pretty good option for those wanting a quiet drop.
Those are the key changes to the map in Fortnite Season 5, but you can be sure that these will not be the last. Over the coming weeks there is sure to be more additions and changes to the map in some way, but at this stage we can only guess what Epic has up their sleeves for the rest of the season.
