Fortnite Season 7 ‘Invasion’ update: 17.00 patch notes, Aliens, Rick & Morty, more

Matt Porter
Fortnite Season 7 patch notes

Fortnite Season 7 is officially here, with the 17.00 patch on PC, Xbox Series X, PS5, and more, introducing Aliens, Rick & Morty and Superman crossovers, new weapons, and much more.

Fortnite Season 6 came to an end with season-ending live event, and just hours later, Season 7 has kicked off with a bang. Teases and data mines already hinted at the fact that the new season would be sci-fi themed, and the new trailer for the Fortnite season has confirmed that the “Invasion” is underway.

With new weapons, changes to Llamas, exciting crossovers, and upgraded visuals, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into with this major update. Here’s everything you need to know about Fortnite Season 7’s 17.00 patch.

Fortnite 17.00 Update patch notes

Fortnite Season 7 trailer

Aliens invade in Season 7

Fortnite Season 7’s theme is “Invasion,” with aliens arriving on the Island. While downtime is ongoing, it seems like Aliens could be NPCs this season, while players will be able to fly around the map in the UFOs that have been abducting people over the last few weeks.

Alien spaceship flying over Fortnite island

Rick & Morty, Superman, join Fortnite

Fortnite has become well-known for its weird and wacky crossovers, and Season 7 will be no different. Rick Sanchez has already been spotted in the Season 7 trailer posted above, and wherever you find him, Morty is sure to follow.

Find out how to unlock Rick Sanchez in Fortnite 7 with our in-depth guide.

On top of that, Epic also teased that Superman would be appearing as well this season, and now the man of steel has arrived with his own cosmetics set. You can learn how to unlock the Superman skin in our guide.

Fortnite Superman skin set

Four new weapons & Llama adjustments

As always, Fortnite fans can expect to get their hands on new hardware this season, with four new weapons joining the game.

The Kymera Ray Gun is an “alien weapon that emits a continuous deadly ray,” which deals 9 damage to enemies with an infinite magazine size. The Pulse Rifle will offer a more long-range approach, dealing 33 damage, and can switch between full and semi-automatic depending on whether you are hip firing the gun or aiming down sights.

The Recon Scanner will launch a bolt that will mark nearby enemies and chests, and will deal a huge 98 damage should you hit a player directly. Finally, the Rail Gun will deal a huge 85 damage, but you’ll need to charge it up before you fire, making it a slow fire-rate option.

On top of all that, we know that Loot Llamas are also getting an upgrade, but we don’t know the specifics of that just yet.

Fortnite Season 7 map changes

Unlike previous seasons, Fortnite’s island hasn’t received a major revamp during the Season 7 update. Sweaty Sands and Colossal Crops have been renamed to Believers Beach and Corny Complex, but haven’t been changed significantly.

One major change though is the giant spaceship that is currently floating above the island. To see all the updates, you can check out our guide on all the Fortnite Season 7 map changes.

Upgraded visuals with Season 7

Fortnite season 7 upgraded visuals

Epic Games have confirmed that Fortnite will be receiving some visual upgrades in the 17.00 update. These follow the changes made to Fortnite’s release for the new generation of consoles in 2020.

If you set your graphics settings to “Epic” after the Season 7 update, you’ll see that both “Battle Royale and Creative modes benefit from improved Storm and cloud effects, as well as enhanced simulations for smoke and liquid.”

Epic explained that this means “cooler-looking explosion, fire, and Slurp effects.” There will also be improved postprocessing features such as bloom and lens flares and improved shadow quality.

Here are the system requirements for Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 7:

  • Epic Quality Presets specifications
    • Nvidia GTX 1080, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, or equivalent GPU
    • 4 GB VRAM or higher
    • Intel Core i7-8700, AMD Ryzen 7 3700x, or equivalent
    • 16 GB RAM or higher
    • NVMe Solid State Drive
    • Windows 10 64-bit
  • Recommended specifications
    • Nvidia GTX 960, AMD R9 280, or equivalent DX11 GPU
    • 2 GB VRAM
    • Core i5-7300U 3.5 GHz
    • 8 GB RAM
    • Windows 10 64-bit
  • Minimum specifications
    • Intel HD 4000 on PC; Intel Iris Pro 5200
    • Core i3-3225 3.3 GHz
    • 4 GB RAM
    • Windows 7/8/10 64-bit

Fortnite 17.00 Bug fixes

Fortnite vehicle

While Epic Games haven’t confirmed the bug fixes taking place in Season 7’s 17.00 update, a look at their official Trello Board of Community Issues can give us some clues.

Here are all of the Fortnite bugs Epic Games are aware of across Battle Royale, Creative, Mobile, and Save The World.

General

  • Shanty for a Squad Emote out of sync when joining already-singing players.
  • Difficulty scrolling through player list in Voice Chat tab on controller.
  • Unable to perform Last Forever Emote.

Battle Royale

  • Unable to fish while inside certain vehicles.
  • Several Pickaxes disabled in competitive.
  • Taking damage through cars while in motion.
  • Unable to craft Mechanical Bows or Primal Fire Bow in core modes after playing in competitive mode.

Creative

  • Rounds not reporting correct placements.
  • Unmanned vehicles destroy props when environment damage is turned off.
  • Asset memory size not showing in pre-place mode on XL Islands.
  • Boats only work with certain island templates.
  • Barrier device not preventing players to build through them.
  • Save Point device wrongly increasing saved score.
  • Vehicle explosion not properly triggered with “Destroyed with Transmit” on.
  • Player can encounter infinite loading screen when flying out of Island.
  • Switching from one Island to another keeps previous Island’s settings.

Save The World

  • Players with overloaded inventories may be unable to load into Ventures.
  • Console players get mouse and keyboard prompts.
  • The Weekly Supercharger Quest is only granting Hero Superchargers.
  • Broken Pickaxe animations.
  • Husks can deal damage to objectives through player-built structures

Mobile

  • Nintendo Switch players unable to gift cosmetics, Bundles, or Battle Pass on controller.

Image Credit: Epic Games

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About The Author

Matt is CharlieINTEL's UK Editor, specializing in all things Call of Duty, including Warzone and Modern Warfare 2. Matt previously worked as a freelance esports writer for Gfinity, before joining Dexerto in 2018 as a Junior & Senior Writer. You can contact Matt via email at: [email protected]