Fortnite Season 11: What's new in Chapter 2 patch, map locations, battle pass and latest news

Fortnite Chapter 2 has finally arrived.

The new update dropped after players spent nearly two days staring at a swirling black hole that had disappeared the map.

Now Fortnite has returned – though with a new map and a whole variety of new features.

What’s new in Chapter 2?

First up, you get everything you'd expect in a normal update.

That includes a whole new run of cosmetics, new skins and weapons.

Some players have complained that the most intensive of the skins appear to be slowing down the game a little, so using them could cause performance issues. If you are running into problems, swapping back into the default skin could fix them.

The other, potentially frustrating, change is that your control binds could have been reset, making everything go back to the default, so put those back in if you need to.

But far more exciting than those standard updates are all the more profound, fundamental changes that the game has made as part of its new chapter.

Chief among them is the new map. Though it looks largely similar – it's still very natural, with lots of trees and lots of water – the actual things on it have changed, and there are a whole host of new points of interest to explore.

Another fundamental change is that Epic has introduced new ways of levelling up. Developers promise that will make the game more fun and less of a grand, and say that it features "a brand new XP system and medals you earn in match".

Additional features include new water features, which mean that players can now swim, drive boats and fish in the water. Fishing will usually allow you to get fish that can be eaten for more health – but sometimes guns will come out of the water, too.

There are also new squad features. The update brings a new gun called the bandage bazooka that heals teammates when it is shot at them, the ability to carry other players, and group emotes that can be done together.

Players can also hide in objects and jump out to kill players, or blow up explosive ones to aid in an attack.

What was so strange about the launch?

For all its new changes and updates, Fortnite Chapter 2 will probably be most memorable for the way it arrived.

Players knew that an event called "The End" was coming, after it was teased by developers and an in-game timer started counting down to the mysterious time.

But they were not prepared for just what would happen: the game's entire map was pummelled by huge asteroids, and then players and the entire world was pulled into a void.

That void became a swirling black hole that took up the entire game, with players entirely unable to play. That state of affairs lasted for nearly two days: from Sunday evening to Tuesday morning, UK time.

During that time, players expressed their frustration and their excitement. The game was the biggest on the streaming service Twitch – despite the fact it wasn't actually possible to play it.

Eventually, the black hole disappeared and the servers went entirely offline. A couple of hours later, the game went live again, and all the Chapter 2 features arrived.

How did the rollout go?

While it was a little strange, and players complained about some performance issues, everything seems to have gone fairly smoothly.