Chapter 5, Season 4 of the popular game, Fortnite, went live on August 16. Having played it myself for the last few days, I can honestly say this is one of the best seasons of the game I have played in.

The MCU Returns to Fortnite

This season is the first Marvel/Fortnite collaboration since Chapter 2 and the first since Disney invested $1.5 billion in Fortnite creator, Epic Games. It is jam packed with Marvel skins including characters from the Avengers, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four focusing on Doctor Doom.

Four new locations have been added to the map: Doom Castle, Doom’s Courtyard, Doomstadt, and The Raft along with 3 new bosses: Mysterio, Emma Frost, and Doctor Doom himself. Each boss has a major battle that rewards you with major loot and medallions giving you advantages in game. There are also Avenger’s Chests found throughout the map that drop some amazing weapons including War Machine’s 3 piece arsenal: Hover Jets, Arsenal (Gauntlets) and an auto-fire turret backpack – getting all 3 makes you hard to beat. Add Captain America’s shield and you could pretty much join the Avengers!

Doom Castle: Home of Doctor Doom

The first and largest is naturally Doom Castle where you will fight Doctor Doom in his throne room.

One of the fun parts of exploring the castle is looking for the TON of easter eggs packed into this area starting with the throne you will find Doom sitting on before challenging him – which is made of the remains of The Thing from Fantastic Four. You will actually find all of the team within the castle with Reed Richards and Sue Storm trapped in display cases with the heart of The Human Torch in another. Take a look around after the fight is over and look for all the hidden details – Epic really outdid themselves on this one!

Fighting Doom will take a little work but gives you 3 rewards: The Siphon Medallion, Arcane Gauntlets and Doctor Doom’s Monarch Pistol. The medallion is definitely the best of the 3 in the game actually siphoning life from those you eliminate. The gauntlets give you 2 attacks: Arcane Blasts which can be fired 8 times before you need to let it recharge, and the Mystical Bomb (aka BIG rocks!) with a 12 second cooldown. The best part is it has infinite ammo. The Monarch Pistol is the weakest of the drops though it does have a red eye sight, does 49 damage, has a 2.4 fire rate, 9 magazine size, and 2.34 second reload time. Not shabby though there are a lot of great weapons this game.

The battle is pretty straight forward. As soon as you enter the Throne Room, Doctor Doom will rise from his throne and you need to open fire as soon as he does. Before he attack, he charges himself and you will see a green light. When this happens, find cover! He will perform either a kick attack or use the Mystical Bomb and both attacks hurt a lot. Mid fight, Doom’s Guards will rush in to help him so keep behind cover and take them out. They are not super strong, but there are a lot of them. Keep your distance from Doom and hit him when you can.

Doom’s Courtyard is basically a point where you can land before storming the castle to try to get some decent loot to gear up for the fight, though at least in these early days of the season, Doom will probably already be looted by the time you get there, so perhaps this area is best used once you escape the castle to help heal and shield up.

Doomstadt: Home of Mysterio

Doomstadt is a village just west of Castle Doom where you will find the second boss, Mysterio. Not as many Easter eggs in this area though there is a hidden Iron Man room here that is fun to explore.

Mysterio’s fight fits the trickster and he does not have a static location so be careful you don’t accidentally run into him before you are ready. He is often around the Doctor Doom statue in the central courtyard though can be inside a nearby building too. His drops include the Stealth Medallion and his Mythic Sovereign Shotgun. The medallion makes you invisible when crouched for a brief period. If you are stealthy player like I am, this adds an extra element to your sneakiness letting a player walk right past you before opening fire from behind him, especially as you stay invisible even when walking in crouch. The Sovereign Shotgun has a red eye sight, laser, suppressor, does 105 damage with a 1.44 fire rate, 6 magazine size, and 4.42 reload time. Most players seem to love or hate the new sovereign series shotguns, but this one is the best stats of them so try it out.

Mysterio is an illusionist and does not stay still teleporting around the vicinity of the Doctor Doom statue in the center of the area to confuse you. He also has the ability to duplicate himself and shooting only the real Mysterio will do damage. If all that wasn’t enough, Doctor Doom’s guards will run in to help him. They aren’t strong, but there are a lot of them and focus on taking them out quickly, even before hitting the boss himself. To me, this is the trickiest fight of the 3 just because you have to constantly watch his movement. Close-range weapons seem a bit better for this fight so stack some shotguns and SMGs before challenging him.

The Raft: Prison of Emma Frost

The final new area is The Raft – the prison normally in the middle of the ocean as seen in Captain America: Civil War. Here it is located below Grim Gate on the western side of the island.

Emma Frost, one of the mutant’s of X-Men comics, has a large, luxurious cell in the bottom-right corner of the prison. You will find her on her glamorous throne and will not be hostile until you attack her so be careful to be ready with decent weapons before you do. Her drops are the Reveal Medallion and her Striker Burst AR. The medallion is very powerful scanning the area in random intervals revealing enemy players and tagging them for a brief period – excellent in end game when you are trying to find that last player or two. Her personal AR is great for mid-range fights with red eye sight, speed mag, speedgrip, muzzle break, and damage of 37, fire rate 4.8, magazine size 20 and a 1.7 reload time. Like all the boss weapons, it cannot be modified at benches but is a strong weapon worth picking up.

Fighting Emma Frost is pretty straight forward, though other players and Doctor Doom’s guards can get in your way so clear them out as much as you can before attacking her. She is a close-up fight so stock up on SMGs, pistols or shotguns. The thing to watch with her is that she shimmers into diamond state making her invulnerable. Use that time to focus on the guards and wait for her to be damageable again. The Raft has a lot of holes you can duck and and out of to escape some of the damage, so use cover and attack her when you can.

Weapons and Heals

There actually seem to be a lot more Legendary weapons in chests this season, not just in the big new areas above. I have found Avengers Chests around the map – each named area seems to have at least one or more, so don’t feel like you have to fight the ton of other players that always land in the new points of interest to get the new stuff.

As usual you will find a mix of pistols, SMGs, shotguns and sniper weapons. Shockwave and shield grenades are also still in this season as are small and large shield potions. Splash cans are back which personally are my favorite when I need a quick heal. Mix these up with Caps Shield and the War Machine items to find your favorite load out.

So far, I am loving this season so if you haven’t played Fortnite in a while, this is a great time to jump back in, especially if you are a Marvel fan.