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Fortnite downtime details revealed, plus futuristic Season 9 teasers

By Brittany Roston/

Earlier this week, Epic revealed that Fortnite Season 9 will release on May 9 (that's tomorrow!), bringing with it the latest Battle Pass and new batch of content. As expected, Epic has revealed the precise downtime schedule that will take place tomorrow, and it's early: players have until 1AM PT / 4AM ET to complete their remaining tiers before the season ends. What can you expect after the update drops?

This month brought some of the biggest changes to the Fortnite island since the volcano's arrival. Epic recently opened the vault at Loot Lake, allowing players to collectively choose which item would be added back into the game. After that vaulting event ended, players returned to the island, only to discover that the volcano had erupted and destroyed the map's best destination: Tilted Towers.

The destination remains a giant smoldering rubble pile with the exception of one building, the "bad luck structure" that experienced exceedingly excellent luck and survived the destruction. Retail Row is likewise in shambles after the eruption, which pelted the spot with fiery volcanic rock. The volcano is still smoldering, the vault is still illuminated, and players are more excited than ever.

Season 9

Epic has been teasing Season 9 with a growing number of tweets, the most recent of which includes a hint that Tilted Towers will return, and it's return will in some way be important to the future of the game:

That joins past tweets that have also stated, "The Future is Unknown. The Future is Bright." The first two images feature the letters "N" and "E," which led to speculation that the company was spelling "NEW," but the most recent image appears to show a circle...or, more likely, a dragon of some sort.

The tweets feature a futuristic skin that resembles a space suit, as well as another skin that looks like an alien — notably, this skin has text resembling the alien lettering on the cube that once traveled the island. Speculation is high that Epic plans to rebuild Tilted Towers as a more modern city, and that modern change may be part of the overall story development.

There's still the issue of the dragon, which players expected to appear in a major way this season, but that has largely remained absent. Tiny dragons are visible in the eggs within the volcano, which features a throne room and is, as of the last day of Season 8, still smoking and bubbling.

Fans have pointed out through the season's duration that there's something odd about the final skin in the Season 8 battle pass, which is very plain compared to past seasons. Players are anticipating a plot twist in which Epic unveils something related to that final skin, possibly the marking the arrival of an actual dragon in the game.

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