A Guide to What’s New in Fortnite Chapter 7: Season 1

The enduring appeal of Fortnite lies in its regular seasonal and occasional chapter updates that keep the game fresh. Epic rolls out completely new maps for its Fortnite chapter updates. Fortnite Chapter 7 Pacific Break is the latest installment, which adds a touch of LA Hollywood glamor to the game with its Golden Coast map. These are the new map and gameplay features players can discover in Fortnite Chapter 7: Season 1.

The Fortnite Chapter 7 Backstory

Chapter 6 ended with the vanquishing of the Dark Presence at the Battle of Oninoshima. The Zero Shard sent everyone to the Golden Coast, which was great until a small Cube Cradle destroyed the Battle Bus. Dark Voyager was the pilot of the Cube Cradle, a new threat emerging from The Last Reality. The Dark Voyager is looking for the Zero Point shard while also seeking to eliminate threats.

The New Fortnite Chapter 7 Map

Golden Coast is the new map that the Fortnite Chapter 7 update introduces. That is a Hollywood-inspired map with a U.S. Pacific Coast theme. The map includes many locations and landmarks with Hollywood inspiration. Perhaps the most notable is the Battlewood (Hollywood) sign on the Gold Coast map. These are the named locations in the Fortnite Chapter 7 map:

• Battlewood Boulevard
• Humble Hills
• Wonkeeland
• Tiptop Terrace
• Ripped Tides
• Sus Studios
• Classified Canyon
• Sandy Strip
• Fore Fields
• Painted Palms
• Latte Landing
• Bumpy Bay
• InnoLoop Labs

So, there are a lot of new locations for players to explore in Fortnite Chapter 7. Perhaps the most notable is Battlewood Boulevard, which is the historic Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. That is one of the largest named locations on the map, and it’s the biggest urbanized area for players to battle it out on.

Sus Studios is another groovy location on the Golden Coast map designed around the Hollywood theme. The Sus Studios location is a movie studio and film set complex. You can find some rare chests in the hidden areas of Sus Studios.

Wonkeeland, in the northwestern corner of Golden Coast, is an amusement park where players can have a lot of fun. It includes a rollercoaster that players can glide along to move around Wonkeeland. You can also hook up to a Ferris wheel in Wonkeeland, which tosses you up in the air for gliding when you get off it.

Or check out Sandy Strip on the eastern side of the map. Sany Strip is a Vegas-inspired location filled with casinos and entertainment venues. It includes fountains with neon lighting akin to the Fountains of Bellagio and a building that looks like the Sphere in the real-world Vegas Venetian Resort.

Players can venture into more open map terrain at Fore Fields on the eastern side of Golden Coast. Fore Fields is a golf course set alongside the ocean (similar perhaps to Pebble Beach). That’s the best place to check out the golf buggies in Fortnite Chapter 7, which you can ride around the map.

Surfing Replaces the Battle Bus

One thing players certainly notice when they start playing Fortnite Chapter 7 is that it doesn’t always have a Battle Bus (Dark Voyager destroyed it). Matches start with players surfing a massive wave around the Golden Coast map. That wave tosses players up into the air for them to glide down onto the map.

There’s no doubting that the new surfing has an impact on the early gameplay in Fortnite Chapter 7. No longer can players glide to almost anywhere they want on the map. The surf wave restricts players to landing closer to the coastal areas, which makes it harder to avoid early-game dogfights.

Epic has now restored the Battle Bus in Fortnite Chapter 7 because of the player backlash. However, that Battle Bus isn’t in all matches. Players will now sometimes surf the tsunami or ride the Battle Bus when matches start.

Gold Bar Overhaul

Epic has also modified the gold bar currency in Fortnite. The gold is still there, but your bar total doesn’t carry over across matches. Your gold bar total resets to zero after each match. So, there’s no point in saving gold during matches anymore.

Simple Edit

Fortnite Chapter 7 introduces a new way to build things in the form of Simple Edit. It enables you to make building edits with single button presses. Aim your crosshair at the center or top-right corner of a player-built wall to edit it in different ways. That gameplay mechanic is enabled by default, but you can turn it off via settings, as covered on this Epic page.

Hot Air Balloons

Hot air balloons are another fun and useful gameplay feature in Chapter 7. Those balloons give players a new airborne way to get around the map. Head to a docking station on the map and then wait for a balloon to arrive to jump on it.

New Weaponry and Gear

Of course, Fortnite Chapter 7 includes some new weaponry and gear like any other seasonal update. Epic has refreshed the whole loot pool for the seventh Fortnite chapter. These are the new weapons you can pick up in Fortnite Chapter 7:

• Enhanced Enforcer AR
• Enforcer AR
• Deadeye Assault Rifle
• Iron Pump Shotgun
• Hush’s Deadeye Assault Rifle
• Pinpoint Iron Shotgun
• Tactical Pistol
• Holo Rush SMG
• Twin Hammer Shotgun
• Overdrive Tactical Pistol
• Vengeful Sniper Rifle
• Human Bill’s Lighting Gun
• Forsaken Vow Blade
• Duel Micro SMG
• Arc-Lighting Gun

That’s a pretty big list of new weaponry, and the Arc-Lighting Gun is perhaps the most notable new addition. The Arc-Lighting Gun fires lighting rays rather than bullets. It’s a very potent weapon for close-range gunfights that you can fire for about seven to nine seconds. The epic Arc Lighting Gun is quite common, and you can pick up a legendary one from a secret vault in Classified Canyon.

The Forsaken Vow Blade is another potent new legendary weapon with which you can hack down opponents in Fortnite Chapter 7. To pick up that blade, you must enter a Forsaken Vow Rift gate. The locations of those rift gates appear on the map with blade symbols when you get close enough to them.

There are six new gear items you can pick up in Fortnite Chapter 7. Players can pick up and toss new grenades at enemies. The Self-Revive device enables you to revive yourself after a knockdown. Utilizing the Wingsuit propels you into the air for gliding. Plus, there are these three boss kits that give players special abilities:

• Hush’s Kit: Short-range teleportation ability
• Human Bill’s Kit: Low gravity effect
• Beach Brutus’ Kit: Passive shield field

The Fortnite Chapter 7 Bosses

Beach Brutus, Human Bill, and Hush are the three bosses in Fortnite Chapter 7. Those bosses appear at random locations on the Golden Coast map. Skull icons mark the locations of bosses when you’re close to them. Defeating the bosses enables you to pick up their kit medallion items specified above, which kind of turns you into them. They also drop the Hush’s Deadeye Assault Rifle, Human Bill’s Arc-Lightning Gun, and Brutus’ Twin Hammer Shotguns’ mythic weapons when defeated.

NPCs in Fortnite Chapter 7

There are currently ten NPCs (non-player characters) you can discover in Fortnite Chapter 7 across the map. Five of them are hirable NPCS, and the others provide variable services. Check out our guide to non-player characters in Fortnite for further details about specialists and friendly NPCs. These are the NPCs in the latest Fortnite chapter:

• Dummy (Ripped Tides)
• Heroic Hope (Classified Canyon)
• Miles Cross (Heavy Specialist in Painted Palms)
• Kingston (Medic in Bumpy Bay)
• Carinia (Supply Specialist in Battle Boulevard)
• Cat Holloway (Medic in Humble Hills)
• Vengeance Jones (Innoloop)
• Unpeely (Wonkeeland)
• The Bride (Sandy Strip)
• Carter Wu (Heavy Specialist in Latte Landing)

So, players can discover the glamour of Hollywood in Fortnite Chapter 7: Season 1. The Fortnite chapter updates are always the most exciting because they give players whole new maps to explore, and Pacific Break is no exception in that respect. Not all players love the surfing, but the Golden Coast map certainly includes many exciting and fun locations to check out.