Everything you need to know about Fortnite’s Chapter 3 relaunch

Fortnite Chapter 3 begins very soon, more than two years after the infamous black hole swallowed the battle royale universe to kick off Chapter 2 in 2019. According to the latest leaks, rumors, and official announcements, Chapter 2 will be two seasons shorter than its predecessor despite lasting for longer overall. Details remain scarce, but here’s everything we know about Battle Royale’s next big overhaul with regard to important dates, skins, and features fans might see in the new map.

When is the Fortnite Chapter 3 start date?

According to the latest update from trusted Fortnite leaker HYPEX, Fortnite Chapter 3 is expected to start on the morning of December 7, after the Season 8 live event on December 5 and two days of downtime.

However, these details slightly diverge from the official announcement from Epic Games, which concludes Season 8 one day earlier on December 4 at 4 p.m. Eastern. Given this slight discrepancy in timing, it’s possible Chapter 3 will begin on either December 6 or December 7. We’ll have to wait for the official downtime timer to know precisely when the next Battle Pass will become available.

What will happen during the Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 8 live event?

We’ve published a separate article detailing the latest leaks for the Fortnite Season 8 live event, but we’ll recap some of those findings here. Similar to the concluding moments of Season 10, Season 8 will finish off with an event simply called “The End.”

During these festivities, players will presumably confront the Cube Queen and her minions directly, as the purple threat slowly consumes the Battle Royale map. Spectrogram images of the Cube Queen’s sounds suggest she may charge up her pyramid at the center of the map to release a barrage of electric currents. It remains to be seen how that assault will impact the rest of the map and the Zero Point therein, but we imagine the end results won’t be good. The Last Reality and the Cube Queen will reportedly function as NPCs strong enough to eliminate players.

On the other side of the fight is the Foundation, who made a brief appearance in the Season 8 cinematic trailer and hasn’t been seen since. According to iFireMonkey, the Foundation is expected to have voice lines during the upcoming event. We’re not sure what happens beyond that, but it will be explosive enough to take Fortnite down for a few days with the return of the black hole. Are you ready to fight the cubes?

Fortnite Chapter 3 trailer leak - SPOILERS

On the evening of December 1, Fortnite leaker fredythefox published a tweet featuring a TikTok-friendly trailer showcasing what looks like the final moments of “The End” live event due to happen on December 4 at 4 p.m. Eastern. In the short clip, we see the Fortnite Island slowly flipping over to reveal a totally new Island underneath.

Past leaks that referred to the Chapter 3 island as “The Flipside” certainly appear to be correct given this added context.

What are the other Fortnite Chapter 3 leaks so far?

Details remain scarce about Fortnite Chapter 3 beyond the event leaks, but HYPEX has confirmed at least one major skin collaboration will debut in the early weeks of the opening season. Sources that have been proven correct in the past say Neo and Trinity from The Matrix will be featured in-game during the second week of December. We presume this will be in the Item Shop just like the recent Dune bundle, but we'll have to wait and see.

If Neo wasn’t enough for you, maybe a potential collaboration with Spider-Man will tickle your fancy. Similarly unearthed by HYPEX, it’s suggested Fortnite’s developers at Epic Games might be working on a web-swinging feature currently codenamed WestSausage. Attached to the limited-use item are data strings referencing “Swing Attach Location, Swing Detach Time, Swinging, Swing Accelerate, [and] Swing Jump.”

Spider-Man has been conspicuously absent from past Marvel-themed crossovers, but, considering Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to debut in theaters on December 17, the timing seems kismet to introduce Parker's hero as a potential big addition to the next battle pass. Carnage wreaked havoc in the Season 8 Battle Pass, so it’d make sense to follow that up with a strong heroic counterpart.

Here are some other features that may find their way into Chapter 3 as indicated by recent data-mines.

• A slide mechanic: HYPEX has been monitoring a new movement mechanic since September that has yet to be added to the game. It has a cooldown and could be tied to an item.
• Rideable animals: HYPEX also tweeted about rideable animals in September as well. You can reportedly perform basic actions while riding them, and they can attack other players.
• New Weapons: More recently, HYPEX uncovered data for a throwable axe weapon that might find its way into Chapter 3 at some point in time, as well as something that sounds like a buffed Flint-Knock Pistol.
• Winter stuff: Surprising or not, it looks like Epic is updating some old winter challenges to be used later this year.
• New Map: FNBRUnreleased suggests Artemis is the internal codename of the new map. This relates to the codename of the Chapter 2 map previously called Apollo. Apollo and Artemis are two twins in Greek mythology, sometimes depicted as polar opposites of one another. The Chapter 3 trailer leak seemingly confirms the Chapter 3 map is actually found underneath the one for Chapter 2, with a nickname called “The Flipside.” If that’s the case, this twin naming convention certainly makes sense.
• The Foundation: On December 1 Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson tweeted a video advertising ZOA Energy drink. Intentional or not, Johnson clearly has what looks like a Fortnite helmet in his fridge. Later in the video, there’s also a quick shot of what appears to be a mockup of a Fortnite weapon as well. As has been presumed for several months, all evidence suggests Johnson is, indeed, the voice of the Foundation character and we may hear more from them during the Chapter 3 live event.