'Fortnite' Season 8 Buried Treasure Item Teases More Interactive Looting

Fortnite: Battle Royale Season 8 hasn’t done too much to further the new theme of “‘X’ marks the spot” since the season began last week, but all that could change very soon. The Season 8 trailer made it seem like hunting for treasure would be a big deal, and a new item coming to Fortnite very soon is about to make good on that promise.

Over the weekend, a note popped up as part of the in-game Fortnite news feed teasing a new item called “Buried Treasure.” The accompanying image looks like the Treasure Maps featured as part of the former challenge type. We haven’t seen those since Season 5, Week 9, and we initially thought the challenge format might return because of how well it fit with the Season 8 theme. But now, it’s starting to look like there will be something totally different.

The in-game preview reads, “Scour the island for hidden loot with the new Buried Treasure item!”

Rather than a certain kind of challenge, Buried Treasure is actually the name of a new item that’s being added to the game. The map featured in the image has an X southeast of the volcano that corresponds to the beacon of light that led the Ice King, Prisoner, and Blackheart to a chest in the jungle during the Season 8 trailer.

Could it be that players who find the map can then go to that location and claim lots of treasure?

A likely explanation for this new item is that it’ll function similarly to a Supply Llama or Supply Drop in that it’ll offer better loot than regular chests and will also be harder to find. But there has to be some kind of mechanic involving a treasure map.

Last summer, one player on the Fortnite: Battle Royale subreddit suggested a “Buried Treasure” feature which would basically function like a small bundle of chests.

It’s possible that Epic Games borrowed this idea for Season 8, but because the theme is “‘X’ marks the spot” and the teaser image has a map, there has to be some kind of map-based functionality that goes along with this.

Our best guess is that players can randomly find a treasure map as an item, and if they follow it to reach a location marked with an “X,” they can claim some great loot. But similar to what happened in the Season 8 trailer, it’s likely that several players will get the same map leading to the same place and have to compete to claim the prize.

One of the Season 8 teaser images did say “Battle it out / And loot the stash,” so Buried Treasure might force players to fight for the loot. The other teasers also made note of finding treasure shimmering “in caves” or elsewhere to reinforce the idea that it’ll happen at different locations.

Now, more than a week later, these teasers are finally starting to make some sense. It was always about this new Buried Treasure feature. We don’t know exactly when the new item will go live in the game, but if Epic Games is already teasing it in the news feed then it should only be a matter of days.

Fortnite: Battle Royale Season 8, Week 2 begins Thursday, March 7.