James Davenport, PC Gamer – December 3, 2018 at 1:50 AM
Honestly, I thought the back half of my 20s were an indicator of how time flies, but Fortnite Season 7 is only a week away and I've never felt closer to death. But here we are, standing on the precipice of great change and new skins. After months of watching a mysterious cube roll around the map, draining lakes and summoning monsters, we finally figured out what was inside. It was a transdimensional butterfly, because of course it was.
And now: Winter is coming. To Fortnite. On the back of a massive iceberg with a castle frozen at its center. Also: portals.
Let's examine new evidence cropping up week by week and recap some major events, positing scrupulous theories all the while. But first, let's get what we know out of the way. If you need to catch up with the story so far, head to page two.
When is Fortnite Season 7's release date?
Finally, we have a date. The season will not be extended like Season 5, confirmed by a tweet containing the first Fortnite Season 6 is currently scheduled to end once this next week of challenges is done with, which puts a Season 7 release at December 6.
Something that isn't related to Season 7 is getting revealed at The Game Awards, too. Curious.
A bitter ice spreads... 3 days to Season 7. pic.twitter.com/yj70svBXti
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) December 3, 2018
How much will the battle pass cost?
The battle pass will likely cost the same amount as every one so far: 950 V-Bucks or about $10.
What new tools and theme changes will we see in Fortnite Season 7?
Finally, that bunker beneath Wailing Woods is being put to good use. It opened up at the start of Season 6, revealing a series of tunnels and laboratory equipment all set up to study a rift. But after the v6.30 update, some new tech showed up in the bunker that appears to harness the power of the rifts to create controlled portals. I'd wager that portals will soon, either with Season 7 or a few weeks before, become a deployable 'trap' item.
Fascinating meta implications aside, while scrounging about for clues, players have reported that the silhouette of a castle is now visible on the glassy surface of rifts.
Sure, it could be a distortion of the space behind the rift and we might be tricking ourselves by seeing what we think we should be seeing, but a castle would make sense. A battle pass spray, which are often used to tease upcoming skins or map changes, depicts a castle. And dataminers dug up some wizard skins in the v6.30 update, characters right at home in a medieval fantasy setting.
It's possible that they're just skins and nothing more, but writing and reading this whole thing sort of implies we're wearing tinfoil hats and scribbling coded messages on the walls, yeah?
What map changes are coming to Fortnite Season 7?
The evidence is piling up and what once felt like a mad theory is looking more credible every day: Some chunk of the Fortnite map is getting a snowy revamp comparable to the desert addition that arrived this summer.
*Gestures towards messy conspiracy corkboard* Let me tell you why.
1. There's a massive blizzard surrounding an iceberg with a castle poking out of the top heading towards the island.
2. Players can see their breath on the starting island, which is closest to the snow storm.
Someone requested a close-up 👀so here it is! With a T-pose thrown in for good measure. pic.twitter.com/KcadHxfgKn
— Emma Kent (@GoneEFK) November 28, 2018
3. Look at all this snow stuff.
- Chiller traps
- Valkyrie skin, part of the Harbinger set (foreboding...)
- Ragnarok, also a Harbinger item, signifying great change
- The recently released Deep Freeze bundle might be another sly tease The A.I.M. Hunting Party skin has frozen boots, and these challenges skins are often an indication of things to come as seasons begin to close out
4. The viking village could be the epicenter. The "worlds collide" tagline of Season 5 extends beyond the desert area. The unnamed viking village in the southwest corner of the map arrived with some snow, both on the ground and falling from the sky. Along with all the other chilly teasers, this could've been where Epic planned on changing the map from the start. World's collide wasn't necessarily a season theme, but an ongoing one that set the precedent for future updates. Plus, it sort of makes sense with the anything-goes nature of Fortnite cosmetics.
5. Epic employees need to take a damn vacation. All that cube business took plenty of work, a string of substantial updates and happenings pulled taut over a multi-season schedule. For Season 7, I hope the team just releases a big update and calls it for a month or so. Go home, Epic. You've done enough. The kids will be alright.
What new skins are coming to Fortnite Season 7?
Hard to say, but expect more winter-themed skins to appear in both the battle pass and the store. Fortnitemares introduced a ton of spooky skins, Season 5 had a nice summery theme, and Season 7 will likely roll with a colder vibe. Expect thick coats, snowmen and snowwomen, reindeer llamas, and whatever else Epic can cook up.
The story so far
Way back in Season 4, Fortnite's very first one-time in-game event sent a rocket spiraling into the sky where it busted a couple holes in the space-time continuum.
It was from the last remaining rift that the cube appeared, summoned by purple lightning towards the end of Season 5.
That cube then started rolling over the map, printing runes into the ground that created bubbles of low-gravity in their immediate vicinity. It led to bonkers bugs during very expensive tournaments, and eventually, a floating island.
When the cube reached Loot Lake, it melted into the water and turned the surface into lava! Just kidding, it turned the surface into a trampoline because of course it did. With the launch of Season 6, the bouncy lake reincorporated as the cube beneath the surface and lifted the island at the center of Loot Lake into the sky. The island then revisited each rune, filling them with purple energy before returning to Loot Lake. It was around this point where I started worrying about what I'd been doing with my life.
The runes then lifted out of the ground and moved towards the floating island. Once there, they spit out the purple juice Kevin (yeah, the internet named the cube) forced them to drink and fell to the ground. Kevin got upset, both from the anger wrought by the juice rejection and the pure caloric intake.
Like most of my Friday nights, our cube friend ate a bit too much and burst out of his cube pants (the island), kicking off the Fortnitemares event. Monsters appeared, possible metaphors for Kevin's internal critic. Why would you eat so much, Kevin? What's wrong with you, Kevin? Or they're just monsters. Hard to say.
Cracks started spreading all over the Fool Shape, and then this happened.
It was weird. Loot Lake looks pretty now, and every player carries with them the knowledge that their fictional existence is indeed a simulation, now a simulation within a simulation. Logging off doesn't feel the same anymore. I walk around my neighborhood, staring at cracks in the sidewalk. Is that dirt, or?
This article originally appeared on PC Gamer* 
