Fortnite Season 8 begins later today, bringing plenty of changes to Epic’s battle royale. There are new skins, a new map, and balance changes galore, but most impactful is a change to how Fortnite’s challenge system will work.
Season 8 heralds the arrival of a new Party Assist system, allowing players to help their matchmade friends to complete their weekly challenges. According to the latest Fortnite patch notes, you’ll be able to activate Party Assist for a specific daily or weekly challenge, and rely on your friends to tick it off for you.
Say, for example, you needed a certain number of sniper rifle skills in order to level up your Season 8 Battle Pass, but sharpshooting isn’t exactly your forte. All you’d need to do is enable Party Assist, and drop into a game with your most eagle-eyed friend, allowing them to score those all-important headshots in your place. Even though they’ve picked up the kills, Party Assist means that you’ll progress as well, hopefully speeding up your journey through each weeks’ new challenges.
It’s worth pointing out that Party Assist will only work with players you’ve match-made with by yourself. Epic says that “this functionality excludes ‘fill’ players who are added into the party during matchmaking.” You also won’t be able to rely on your teammates in massive LTMs like Team Rumble or 50v50, unless they were in your original squad.
Check: Here are the Fortnite Season 8 Week 1 challenges
Fortnite Season 8 brings plenty of changes to the battle royale. The Fortnite Season 8 map now includes a jungle biome, complete with dangerous volcanoes. Elsewhere, you’ll be able to use Pirate Cannons to fire yourself across the map, but the Shopping Kart, ATK, and X-4 Stormwing have all been vaulted.