'Fortnite' Season 5 Leaked Map: Desert Setting Teases Huge Changes

Big changes could be coming to the Fortnite: Battle Royale in Season 5, and a new leak offers new clues as to exactly what that might be. It looks like developer Epic Games could pull a Lost Season 4 on us by sending the Fortnite island traveling through time in Season 5.

On Monday morning, prominent German Fortnite data-miners Die Buddies Zocken (@TwoEpicBuddies on Twitter) released a new video on their YouTube channel detailing what translates to the “new desert map” for Fortnite Season 5. The video is entirely in German, but the host speaks continuously as their character skydives down to a familiar but very different version of the Fortnite: Battle Royale map.

Most landmarks and named locations look more or less the same, but what was once a lush island full of grassy hills has become a desert with very little green outside of the many trees. That in itself should raise some measure of suspicion. Parts of this leaked map likely represent some, but not all, of the changes coming for Season 5.

Here’s a full look at the supposedly leaked map.

As the host walks through the map, visible grass only a few meters away from his character seemingly evaporates, so the area immediately surrounding the in-game avatar is pure sand:

This seems a strong indication that whatever version of the map this guy’s playing on, it’s not the one players could get in Season 5.

So what’s a possible explanation for this half-finished map?

Some pretty intense ARG (alternate reality game) clues developed over the weekend. On July 5, a rift swallowed the Durr Burger in Greasy Grove:

And then that very object was found in real life by a person in a California desert. According to a Reddit post, an “agent” at the site no doubt working for Epic Games said there was a huge crack under the burger and they “said that the crack could open at any time and everything would fall in.” They also implied that this crack could correspond to the one in the skies above the Fortnite: Battle Royale island.

Obviously, none of this will really happen, but is it possible that Epic Games is using this weird ARG to imply that a rift in the real world will dump a ton of sand onto the island?

It’s tough to say what’s actually going to happen, but Season 5 is slated to kick off on Thursday, July 12 at 4 a.m. Eastern, so we’ll know more by then.