The first update of season eight in Fortnite: Battle Royale is releasing today and players are excited to see what’s in store. The full patch notes have been revealed by developer Epic Games and server downtime is expected at 3am CT.
There were some expectations about this update and fortunately, some of them have been met. Players will now be able to learn how to use the Buried Treasure item, and there are a few tweaks coming to audio and console settings.
Here are the main changes in the v8.01 Fortnite update.
Buried Treasure
Epic has announced that the Buried Treasure will be a Legendary map that allows players to locate buried chests on the map. These chests contain valuable Legendary loot and players will need to use a pickaxe to dig up the treasures.
Players can only hold one Buried Treasure map at a time, and they can be found in Floor Loot and Chests.
Item availability tweaks
Players will now encounter Infantry Rifles and Clingers less frequently as Floor Loot or in Chests. Additionally, Bottle Rockets have been removed from any default playlist in Fortnite.
Audio tweaks
The audio tweaks that were announced previously have been implemented in this patch. The changes include improvements to the sound of the standard Assault Rifle to ensure it is not overwhelming for the shooter, the addition of a louder sound when players destroy structures, and new ways of processing footsteps for players above and below the user.
Gauntlet Test Events
Epic has revealed that a new test tournament will be held to try out new rules for matches in the Fortnite Events tab.
These events will have a single, large session instead of several small ones over the upcoming weeks, and they will run until March 9. The point system will be revamped, giving players more points for eliminations and Victory Royales, but they will lose two points when starting a new match (only if they already have points).
Following this period, there will be Gauntlet Finals with the top players in each region.
Players will be able to experience these changes once the server downtime is over, which should be a couple of hours after it starts. They can install the v8.01 update on all platforms and jump into new matches to test out all these exciting changes.