Fortnite update 17.10 has now launched, introducing a new mothership minigame that allows players to earn secret loot.
Fortnite: Invasion debuted a couple of weeks ago and implemented an alien theme that added futuristic weapons, pilotable UFOs and a customizable otherworldly avatar to the popular battle royale. Today the new season (which is Fortnite's 17th) received its first patch and it made some significant upgrades in the process.
The biggest change for Fortnite chapter 2, season 7 is that players can now be abducted onto the enormous mothership that looms over the island. Once aboard the spacecraft, they will then have the chance to compete against others in an alien experiment that rewards them with powerful weapons and desirable loot.
How to Get Aboard the Mothership
To participate in these mothership experiments, players must willingly allow themselves to be beamed up by the new "abductor" ships scattered around the map. This will not happen immediately at the start of the match, so there is no point in camping directly beneath one of these vessels unless you want to make yourself an easy target.
Instead, you will need to wait until the abductor starts to produce a strange, unearthly noise. When this happens, beams of light will begin to emanate from the craft in several different directions and, if you head to where they are shining, you will get picked up.
You will then be teleported into a low-gravity arena where you must race against the clock to find as many orange-colored "vault orbs" as possible. The more of these artifacts you collect before time runs out, the better your reward will be upon completing the trial.
After the experiment, you will then be transported to the vault itself. Depending on how many orbs you managed to collect, the alien chests here will give you different-tiered loot, but you will only have a finite amount of time to pick it all up before you are returned to the main game.
What Else Does Update 17.10 Add?
Alongside the abductors and mothership experiments, Fortnite's 17.10 update also makes some much-needed adjustments to the pilotable flying saucers. Specifically, it reduces their rate of fire so that players on the ground have a better chance of shooting the vehicles down without getting totally obliterated first.
Other balancing tweaks mentioned in the patch notes include recon scanners now taking additional time to recharge, and the lifetime of recon bolts being diminished. Elsewhere, a few major bug fixes have been introduced and alien wildlife has even been added to the map.
Speaking of which, a new species, known simply as parasites, now roam the island and will attach themselves to your head so that they can leach away at your health. There is a give and take with these bugs though, as they will simultaneously protect you from headshot damage and bestow you with increased agility.
A summary of all the changes for Fortnite 17.10 can be found below, courtesy of official Epic Games sources.
Abductors Introduced
Abductors will beam up nearby players and give them a chance to compete in mothership experiments for valuable loot.
Alien Parasites
Alien parasites can now be found on the island and will attach themselves to players' heads. In doing so, they will drain life from the player but also grant them increased agility and protection from headshot damage.
Balancing Tweaks
The flying saucers' rate of fire has now been reduced, as has the lifetime of recon bolts and the recharge speed of recon scanners.
Super Level Styles Now Available
Silver, Gold, and Prismatic pages have been added to the "bonus rewards" battle pass section. These apply to the characters Sunny, Guggimon, Zyg, Doctor Slone, and Rick Sanchez.
Major Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to take damage through cars while in motion.
- Fixed an issue that caused us to temporarily disable the ability to change loot pools in Battle Lab. This ability has been reenabled.
- Fixed an issue preventing Doctor Slone's and Bunker Jonesy's entries from completing in the character collection book.
In other news, the O2 arena has recently been recreated in Fortnite and can be accessed for one week only. Further details can be found here.
