Every year or so, a new Fortnite chapter is released, and with it comes a brand new island with an array of new locations to explore as quickly as possible before getting your head blown smoove off by a sweat who hasn't seen sunlight in years, so I decided, why not take some Fortography of them?
Each island comes with a specific core theme, and the theme for this chapter is America, with all of its POIs being themed after famous American cities. Currently, it seems to have California and Hollywood in the spotlight as of season one, but knowing how much can change during a single Fortnite chapter, it'll probably be changed up pretty quickly.
Not all new POIs are featured, just ones that really piqued my interest, which is almost all of them. Some are also significantly more detailed than others, and thus require more photos to properly display them.
Innoloop labs: Located right in the middle of the map, in between Bumpy Bay and Sandy Strip. This POI feels like it was designed for me in particular, with my terminal addiction to loops and cycles and weird science labs. Fortnite's lore has always been about those loops and cycles and only recently have I realized how deep it runs. The whole battle royale format is just a constant of cycle, and Epic Games decided to play around with it to make this game stand out amongst the sea of battle royales even though it has always been something different from the start.
^ft. my main man Flyesbee with the new Arc-lightning gun.
Update: 11/12/25: This POI ended up having a lore change right in the middle of me writing this entry [I started this on the 9th], and it is now known as Lethal Labs, which is really ironic to me. Of course a place named Innoloop labs would immediately have some bullshit going on around it, considering how important loops are to this game's convoluted storyline.
Latte Landing: Located in the north eastern portion of the map, right by Painted Palms. I don't have much to say about this POI other than I love all of the neon green. and the big shots pun with both the coffee + film studio theming is really really good.
Sandy Strip: Located on the eastern side of the map, next to Fore Fields. We're going to vegas babyyyyyy. very very fun POI. Big fan of The Shape [It is literally called this ingame] that's supposed to mimick that damn sphere. The Shape makes a low humming noise when you walk up close to it which reminds me a lot of Kevin the Cube and also The Monolith. I wonder if It'll end up just as impactful as them in the future?
I also really love the contrast between the Olympus Oasis and The Shape with them being right next to each other while being completely different forms of architecture, it gives the location quite a lot of depth to me.
ft. Mothmando Elite, my secondary main.
Classified Canyon: Located in the southern portion of the map, right next to Sus Studios. My freaking dinnar. If super high-tech secret bases have 0 fans I am dead. This POI is based around Area 51 in Nevada, and is right by Sandy Strip. I wonder if we'll get another wave of Fallout cosmetics this chapter, especially since the tv show is taking place in New Vegas? I hope we do. I will never give up hope for an NCR ranger skin.
^ft one of the new cat companions you can see lurking around. I named and designed her after my own cat, Inky.
See her ok?
Sus Studios: Located next to Battlewood Boulevard and Classified Canyon. I'm not fucking joking that's what its been named. Thanks Epic Games. Name aside this one seems to be inspired by Paramount / Warner Bros. Studios, and is generally a really good POI. You have to be really careful when traversing this one, as there are a lot more open spaces and each building is seperated by an outdoor bridge.
Wonkeeland: Located north west, right next to Tiptop Terrace. Fortnite's first themepark POI! Wonkeeland is likely inspired by Disneyland, but it resembles pretty much any old themepark you'd come across in the US. You can grind on the railing of the rollercoaster [and pick up loot on the way] and there's a cool crocodile-themed slide at the back of the park. Not only that but there's what appears to be a lazy river too. This POI is genuinely so unique with so much attention to detail in each building and attraction that you'll come across. I hope Epic Games continues to make locations like this in the future, even though they'll never be as iconic as Tilted Towers or Salty Springs, they'll still leave an impact on people, especially those who really enjoy the art side of Fortnite like I do.
Tiptop Terrace: Located right by Wonkeeland. A Treehouse POI. The first time I landed here, loot was oddly scarce? Like it took me a solid couple of minutes to find a gun that wasn't common, which is extremely irritating when you know that several other people have landed with you. Seems this issue has been fixed, though. This is another great location, specifically due to it being more wilderness based, while the rest of the map is focused on modern cities and secret technology-advancing labs, this adds contrast that gives this island just the right amount of variety it needs to stand out.
For the past couple of years, Fortnite has added a game mode that lets you experience the game as it was back in 2017/2018 [chapter 1] when it initially gained its popularity. This includes weapons, the iconic locations, the map and all of the alterations to it over time, and even story-related events.
This is great for both old players such as myself and newer ones, as it gives us OGs a nice little throwback, and it gives those who missed out on what was possibly the best era of Fortnite a chance to try it out for themselves.
However, the mode is not completely 1-to-1. There have been small, yet impactful changes made to certain events that many say are related to the current state of Fortnite lore.
For example, Kevin the cube had turned a mysterious shade of red, and thus nicknamed "Revin" accordingly. He stayed that way until he reached loot lake and had mysteriously reverted back to his classic purple look. At the time, since there were errors all across the Chapter 1, Season 6 map, there were accusations thrown at Epic Games for being lazy and that they simply don't care for the mode anymore.
This was believed to be true until remnants of Revin appeared in the house on Loot Lake's island, and it went back to being lore-related once more.
As the staple "Butterfly" event date grew closer and closer, leakers discovered that Revin had somehow appeared in the "In-Between" [a sort of nexus between universes] and is assumed to be corrupting the place, as the usually white lines nearby it had turned red. It's unknown as of right now what that means for the future lore of Fortnite, but we should know in 3 weeks when the Simpsons mini-season ends and Chapter 7 starts.
I went to the event as Drift, who was my main skin for years until certain collabs and recent original skins pulled my attention away from him. He was also a Chapter 1, Season 5 battle pass exclusive skin, which adds to the whole "replay" theme going on. I was there for the original butterfly event too, a whopping 7 whole years ago.
I also gave him a butterfly wing backbling, which I had to buy the Mariah Carey skin for. I am so insanely dedicated to the bit it's not even funny. Oh well, at least it looks really really good on Drift.
I managed to drag my buddy Eric in to view the event with me, as he has also been playing this game around the same time as me. Right after the event ended, we played a couple of normal rounds and managed to get a victory royale on our last one. [because it was 7 in the morning for me at that point]
Victory royales never stop hitting like crack no matter how many times you get one I'm so serious. Was my first win of the current season as well.
We also kept getting shot at by tryhards until damage was disabled for the event which sucked. But matchmaking servers favoured us and we didn't need to waste precious time joining new ones for the two times we got killed. You know how it is with this game.
One of the things that reactivated my yearly Fortnite sleeper agent was the reveal of two new bug-themed skins, those being Dr. Theodore Flyesbee and The Mothman, the two of them releasing in late September and late October respectively.
Though, what really pushed me to start playing the game actively again was the inclusion of a sinister Monolith that was revealed to be related to the Daft Punk collab event. [I went to this, and it kicked ass]
My fascination with Monoliths and other weird god-like geometry of course started with my love of the Space Odyssey franchise, and it seems everywhere I go that freak rectangle keeps following me. I mean, there's one in Venture Bros, one in the Xeno game series, and suddenly there was one in a game that ended up being the most consistent thing in my life. Funny how that works.
The area around The Monolith was my go to drop spot until the chests in the area started bugging out once the event had started. A shame, but that didn't stop me from having fun with it in replay mode, at least.
Fixating on Fortnite characters can be quite a challenge depending on how lucky you get with it, as 80% of them do not have any purpose other than to be cosmetics. I am one of the lucky few, and Dr. Flyesbee ended up being an ingame NPC with dialogue that shifted over the course of the last chapter. He even has reactive dialogue towards certain skins, and one of those includes The Mothman. The interaction in question was read by many people including myself to be a wee bit gay, and that pushed a few people to start drawing ship art of them. Gay bug world forever baby.
Flyesbee in particular is quite possibly one of the best character designs in this game. He's immediately recognizable as a fly rather just a random bug, with his stubby antennae and huge red eyes. Fly eyes usually don't have pupils like he does, however It seems they were necessary in order to give his face more depth. He's actually extremely expressive for a character with weird tubes for a mouth.
Fortnite's art team has always knocked it out of the park with their character designs, and this is absolutely no exception.
Here are some recent collages of him [ft. the mothman] that I've made:
Since Flyesbee is naturally iridescent, he is especially fun to play around with the light source + effect tools that replay mode offers you. Fun fact: He's actually the first Fortnite character to utilize the fur technology seen on his planet-sized head and his arms.
However, this technology is attached to a specific anti-aliasing setting, that if switched off just makes him look kind of bald. You also need quite high graphics to see him in his prime, but such is life with Fortnite being such a huge game file-wise.
My laptop handles the game at high graphics decently well, though I tend to lower them in order to increase my fps and deal with less lag. Though most of my problems come from having god awful ping. Shout out Australian wifi.