Fortnite Reveals Wild New Battle Bus Change As Chapter 7: Season 2 Begins

It’s a major day in the Fortnite calendar. Chapter 7: Season 2 gets underway in just a few hours.

Officially titled Showdown, C7S2 will bring back Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as The Foundation as the season focuses on a conflict between him and the Ice King.

Showdown will introduce plenty of new mechanics, including one major change to the Battle Bus that, I have to say, sounds awesome - and way better than last season’s surfing.

According to HYPEX, players will actually be granted the opportunity to drive the Battle Bus. Yes, you’re taking the wheel.

As you may know, Fortnite leakers are able to datamine updates before they go live and that’s revealed an interesting little tidbit about C7S2.

“This time YOU take the wheel,” a leaked description reads. “Every match one random player is chosen to drive the Battle Bus. If selected, steer through rings to grant everyone XP and spawn a Supply Drop at each ring’s coordinates."

I like the sound of that. I’ll never say no to bonus loot and XP.

Fortnite’s New Showdown Season Will Make Players Select One of Two Teams

That’s far from all that’s on the way. Leakers have also unearthed a ‘Rematch’ feature where it looks as if you’ll be permitted to request to load into the same next match as the players you just played against.

Epic Games co-founder Mark Rein previously made reference to “skyzips” as a key feature, which sounds perhaps like some kind of vertical traversal tool?

As for what else has surfaced in the datamine ahead of the official patch notes later today, it looks as if XP is now purchasable from vending machines, with a 5,000 XP daily limit.

I’m all for that as I’ve fallen into a habit these last few seasons of not being able to complete the Battle Pass in time.

Listen, I’m not as locked in as I was. I’m a busy gal. I just wish I’d had one more chance to dilly dally in Wonkeeland before the season changed over. Please survive the map cull.

There’s also some interactivity with the Battle Pass this time around as players choose to either side with Team Foundation or Ice King, which’ll determine the Battle Pass’ final bonus skin.

Epic Games

HYPEX details a mythic Enhanced Harpoon Gun which can deal a whopping 100 damage. Oof.

There’s a new Bubble Shield, Dark Voyager Drones, and an Overdrive Grenade.

Unfortunately, this season change does mark the implementation of the new V-Bucks system.

As a reminder, $8.99 will not net you 800 instead of 1,000, $22.99 will secure 2,400 instead of 2,800, $36.99 equates to 4,500 instead of 5,000, while $89.99 gets you 12,500 instead of 13,500.

I’ll be honest, the concept of this season hasn’t blown me away just yet. Outside of the Battle Bus changes, it feels a tad underwhelming but I’m willing to go in with an open mind.