Fortnite’s Myths & Mortals season lets you wield godlike powers and bullet-bend as avatar Korra later today
Chapter 5 Season 2 launch pushed back several hours after an "unexpected issue"
After cracking open its virtual Pandora’s Box using the magical key of “shooting it with a lot of bullets”, Fortnite’s mythical next season is due to roll out later today. Chapter 5 Season 2 - or Myths & Mortals, if you prefer - will bring a pantheon of god powers, locations from Greek mythology and, uh, Korra from the Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel, who has a gun now I guess.
As usual, the new Fortnite season will reshape parts of the battle royale game’s map, this time adding locations pulled from Greek mythology. There’s a Mount Olympus with temples and a giant winged statue, the glowing green rivers of the Underworld and its Cerberus-guarded Grim Gate, and Brawler’s Battlefound, a battlefield favoured by Ares where you’ll be able to battle the god of war.
To help you attack and destroy god(s), Chapter 5 Season 2 will hand some godlike powers (and new guns) to the players themselves. On the new mythic powers side, there’s the Thunderbolt of Zeus, which will pop you into the air and chuck down bolts - it sounds a bit like an electrified version of the ridiculously powerful Deku’s Smash from a few chapters back. Another option for getting up in the air are the Wings of Icarus, which will let you fly for a limited time - until your wings burn, geddit? - and zoom back to the ground in a divebomb attack. While they won’t be in at launch, the season’s trailer showed off another incoming power in the Chains of Hades, a grappling weapon with vibes of Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion.
The gods who don’t get flashy new powers instead get some guns. Cerberus’ Gatekeeper Shotgun fires three rounds in quick succession, Hades’ Harbinger SMG deals high damage for a takeoff for increased recoil and spread, Artemis’ Huntress DMR puts a variant on the scoped rifle and Ares’ Warforged Assault Rifle fires quickly and deals a lot of damage but with a lot of recoil. All of the new powers and guns will appear in their normal versions during matches, with the option to fight the gods to nab their mythic variants.
Alongside the brand new additions, Myths & Mortals will bring back the Hammer Pump Shotgun, Frenzy Auto Shotgun, Nemesis AR, Thunder Burst SMG, Reaper Sniper Rifle and Ranger Pistol from the last season, and add two new weapon mods in a Thermal Scope and Speedgrip, the latter of which boosts your movement speed while aiming.
As well as showing up as enemies to fight, the gods and some extra Greek legends will be unlockable as outfits in the refreshed Myths & Mortals Battle Pass, which will run until May 24th. The pass includes Cerberus - who unlocks immediately - Aphrodite, Poseidon, Medusa, Zeus, Artemis and Hades.
Later in the season, there’ll be a surprise outlier in the introduction of Korra, the water-bending avatar from Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel series The Legend of Korra. (The original animated series, not that live-action Netflix travesty.) Korra’s appearance during the trailer sandwiched between a load of Greek gods and monsters is a strange one, with the avatar shown pelting blobs of water at foes using an as-yet unannounced new power. You’ll presumably also be able to bullet-bend by picking up a gun and shooting like normal, too.
After seeing a last-minute delay from its planned arrival this morning (GMT) due to an “unexpected issue”, Chapter 5 Season 2: Myths and Mortals will now go live sometime after 10pm GMT tonight - although that’s the very earliest it’ll be available.