Fortnite season 8 brings back Kevin the Cube, introduces Marvel's Carnage

Fortnite season 8 is finally upon us, after we all managed to survive and defeat last season's alien invasion. There's no time to rest, though. Season 8 introduces a ton of new battle pass skins, new gameplay mechanics, and perhaps most importantly, Kevin the Cube.

If you're only a recent convert to the church of Fortnite, Kevin the Cube is a giant purple cube with what I can only describe as funky temporal magic abilities. In practice, it's just a fun symbol with no practical use, like the Space Needle.

There's a ton of details to go over, so let's prepare for Fortnite season 8 as thoroughly as possible.

Fortnite season 8 story trailer: Kevin the Cube returns

As we mentioned above, Kevin the Cube has returned to Fortnite. He's brought some new friends, however, and they don't seem too happy with us. The purple cubes that powered the alien mothership in season 7 have now fallen to earth, and the resulting timey-wimey chaos has opened up rifts into a dimension called "The Sideways."

Functionally, those cube rifts are new locations where you can fight off enemy NPCs to collect loot.

In the season 8 battle pass trailer, we also hear a monologue from a character referred to as the Queen. She seems none too pleased with us, and is intent on destroying our dimension. Her silhouette can be seen on the battle pass page. It appears that she'll become available later, like season 7's Superman.

Fortnite season 8 battle pass

Season 8's battle pass includes another 100 tiers of rewards to collect by leveling up. You'll start with Charlotte, a casual goth-ish woman. Despite the fairly pedestrian look, her second tier comes with a dope samurai sword.

Other battle pass skins include

- Charlotte's Enchanted Spirit outfit, which puts her in a short kimono-style dress.
- Kor, a woman with major Ada Wong vibes and a rad red trenchcoat.
- Fabio Sparklemane, a unicorn spoof of the infamous Fabio romance novel covers. He's easily the most visually distinct character this season, given his dramatically different face.
- J.B. Chimpanski, a monkey astronaut with muttonchops. I really want to pound a few brewskis with this primate.
- Torin, a young woman with some superhero vibes, sporting a cape. Weirdly, her built-in emote turns her face into a creepy alien skeleton, so I'm not quite sure if she's on our side.
- Finally, we've got Marvel's Carnage. Not to be confused with anti-hero Venom, Carnage is another symbiote creature working through serial killer Cletus Kasady. Epic is never one to let a marketing crossover go wasted, what with Venom: Let There Be Carnage dropping in theaters soon.

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Fortnite season 8: Sideways chests and weapons

Epic is always eager to add in a few new gameplay mechanics in each season, and season 8 is no different. This time around, we've got Sideways loot chests and weapons.

As shown in ShiinaBR's tweet below, there's the Sidways Rifle, the Sidways Minigun, and the Sideways Lightblade.

Fortnite season 8 map changes

Fortnite season 8 definitely has one of the more dramatic amount of map changes we've seen in the past few seasons. If it isn't the wreckage of the alien mothership, it's the purple cubes dotting the landscape. Spread around the map are several wreckage sites pulsing with cube energy. These areas have weird energy tunnels you can fly through for a quick getaway or to flank opponents.

Slurpy Swamp has also been renamed to Sludgy Swamp.

Fortnite season 8: Punchcards return

Punchcards are back to help players earn bonus XP a little more easily. It's basically a different way of organizing rotating daily and weekly challenges, so if you see a punchcard that looks doable, don't hesitate to complete it before it disappears.

The more inventive punchcard quests will have you interact with an NPC and start their questline. Those will likely be the quests where you need to search for unique objects or complete objectives that go beyond "deal X damage."

Fortnite season 8: Paint-a-Toona Fish

Like last season's Kymera customizable skin, season 8 will let you collect paint jars to customize your very own toon version of Fortnite's Fishstick.

Don't forget to check out more of our Fortnite season 8 coverage here.