Fortnite Season 4 start date, event, map changes, and battle pass details

Fortnite Season 4' release day is creeping ever closer, and before you know it, we'll be leaving Chapter 2 Season 3's watery depths for something new. Now that we're entering what will probably be the final few weeks of Season 3, you can expect a ton of clues and leaks to drop about the Fortnite Season 4 start date, event, battle pass, map changes, and much more.

Season 3 featured plenty of significant changes, not least of which was the dramatic flooding of half of the map, burying familiar landmarks. Over the course of the season, the water has receded back into the ocean, revealing new and old locations. No one's quite sure yet what Season 4 will bring, so we've whipped up this guide to lay it all out for you.

And in case you're wondering what Fortnite developer Epic suing Apple and Google means for Season 4, we've got you covered too.

Fortnite Season 4 start date

Thanks to Season 3's battle pass ending on August 27th, and Epic's insistence that players using Apple or Android devices won't be able to play Fortnite after the next major update, we can reasonably conclude that Season 3 will end on August 27, and Season 4 will either start on the same day or possibly after a brief interim period.

Obviously, Epic isn't just dealing with Apple and Google's army of lawyers. The United States is still very much in the middle of a pandemic. Politics aside, the quarantine measures put in place by various state governments and game studios' own safety measures aren't likely to go away any time soon.

This means that Epic, once again, has to launch a new season in the middle of a pandemic, when all of its employees are working from home. So don't be surprised if a delay to Season 4 happens. Epic managed to launch Season 3 after an almost two-week delay back in June. Remember June? Simpler times.

All that said, it'll be interesting to see how Epic's lawsuits with Apple and Google will impact the beginning of Season 4. Clearly, Epic is banking on Fortnite's millions of players pressuring Apple and Google to relinquish their side of the fight. A 2019 Newzoo report states that 78% of Fortnite players are console users, but Fortnite still reached 100 million iOS downloads within five months of launching on Apple back in mid-2018, and 21 million downloads on Android within 21 days of being available. Even accounting for PC players' slice of the demographic pie and the natural erosion of a player base over time, that's a metric ton of players.

Will Epic push back Season 4 so it doesn't leave mobile players behind? Or will they push forward and let those mobile players grow increasingly frustrated? Epic clearly hopes the public will pressure Apple and Google, creating the #FreeFortnite social media campaign, so it all remains to be seen.

When is the Fortnite Season 4 event and what's going to happen?

The best leaks and guesses regarding the Season 4 event have unsurprisingly come from the usual data miners. We're still a little ways out from Season 4, but already some decent hints have started to be uncovered.

HypeX, who's had a very positive track record of Fortnite data mined leaks, says they found a larger-than-usual rift in the sky above Catty Corner. I've yet to see this rift for myself, but here's HypeX demonstrating their findings.

So i was bored and i tried to make the upcoming rift thing get closer to the ground and it worked, and i was right.. its right above catty corner & the vault!(NOTE: it will not be this close to the ground, the height of it is 900k, i only changed it to 20k) pic.twitter.com/hj0dzcPyEOAugust 8, 2020

HypeX has also shared out some info on a new POI dubbed "crater," a location named "hightower," and a series of runes dubbed "the dots."

Another leak before i go to sleep.. these will appear in the map very soon!Crack: its the Rift in the sky from my previous tweetCrater_POI: is an encrypted small POIHightower: i'm not really sure, i might be wrong on that oneThe Dots: they are 6 Runes like the one in the pic pic.twitter.com/b53OBD5VjhAugust 6, 2020

So it remains to be seen what HypeX's findings will materialize into, but one possible theory involves the Ancient Voyager skin set, including Siona and Deo. Siona is available as part of the Season 3 battle pass, and Deo is available in the item shop for a limited time. Siona is described as a "wanderer in a lost world," while Deo sports a very similar astronaut outfit.

The pair are featured in a recent image tweeted out by the Fortnite Twitter account, seen above. They're chilling out by the stranded spaceship that was previously buried underwater before the waterline around Craggy Cliffs receded. The spaceship was then featured as a secret challenge, where players had to collect three nearby parts to fix it, which allowed the ship to rocket away into another rift in the sky.

Fortnite is certainly no stranger to doing events focused on rifts in time and space and strange interstellar travelers. It's possible we'll see another instance of a spaceship rocketing around the map and altering some portion of the map. That said, I'd be surprised if it was as drastic as Season 2's doomsday device, which caused a giant tidal wave to act as the "storm wall" for a few days before the actual Season 3 map arrived.

We'll of course be updating this article pretty frequently when any other clues get uncovered by data miners or otherwise.

Fortnite Season 4 battle pass

The Fortnite Season 4 battle pass remains a mystery for now. As always, you can expect it to likely cost 950 V-bucks for the basic battle pass, and 2,800 V-bucks for the special battle pass that will start you out at tier 25.

One very important thing to note for Season 4 is that Epic has recently revised V-buck prices, after nearly three years. V-bucks are now 20% cheaper, meaning instead of paying $9.99 USD for 1,000 V-bucks, you'll only pay $7.99.

This new payment setup is partially the result of Epic's baiting of Apple. Epic instituted a new "Epic Direct Payment" system that saved you those two dollars on iOS and Android devices, effectively cutting Apple's share of the profits off. We saw how that turned out, with Fortnite getting kicked off the App Store and Epic suing. Regardless, players are now getting (slightly) more bang for their V-buck. If you bought V-bucks shortly before the change, Epic has details regarding how they're compensating you.

Other than that, there's currently no reliable info on what skins or cosmetics will be available as part of the Season 4 battle pass. We'll update this article as soon as we know what to expect.

Fortnite Season 4 map changes

Fortnite Season 3 featured one of Fortnite's most dramatic map changes in some time. Sure, Chapter 2 Season 1 introduced a brand new map, but Season 3 flooded the heck out of it, adding a floating city (or two), drowning a few other locations, and opening up water routes for boats and shark skiing.

We don't know much about Fortnite Season 4's map changes yet, although we can make a few educated guesses based on what's gone down so far.

Although cars were teased in Fortnite Season 3's gameplay trailer, we only just received them in a recent update. Thankfully, the waterline has receded enough that there's a lot more dry road to drive around. I wouldn't be surprised if Epic modified parts of the map to allow for more interesting routes for cars and trucks to take around the map, much like the boat racing track they implemented for Season 3. That's just a guess, though, so take it with a grain of sea salt.

We'll update this article as soon as more info leaks about Fortnite's Season 4 map.

Fortnite season 4 skins: Are Wolverine and Thor coming?

Fortnite data miner HypeX, who tends to be reliable, has stated that a "very trusted source" informed them that Marvel's Wolverine could potentially be a new Fortnite Season 4 skin.

"Epic was planning to make a Wolverine skin & Wolverine Claws pickaxe, he might be the season 4 secret skin or just an itemshop skin!" HypeX tweeted.

It wouldn't be the most ridiculous stretch for Marvel to get yet another classic character skin in Fortnite. We've already had Thanos, Captain America, Deadpool, and even three characters from X-Force. DC has gotten in on the game too with the still available Aquaman, Batman, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and now Joker and Poison Ivy in a November bundle.

The evidence for Thor is a bit weirder. Data miners like HypeX have discovered files for in-game comic books sporting depictions of villain Galactus, the bifrost "rainbow bridge," and a Nordic-looking fellow brandishing a hammer of lightning.

Check my previous tweets for more context.. pic.twitter.com/J9UCf9JCjQAugust 6, 2020

Besides that, some amusing connections between "Relaxed Fit Jonesy" and "Sad Thor" from Avengers: Endgame. Jonesy's sloppy look is almost unquestionably a parody of Thor's robe and stained white shirt.

That's everything we know about Fortnite Season 4 for now. With the new season date rapidly approaching, we can expect plenty of new information and updates to trickle in soon.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out the rest of our Fortnite guides and news.