Fortnite’s floating island is Season 6’s best addition

Loot Lake was long one of the most boring areas in Fortnite. If a game ended up there, it would simply come down to which player had the most resources and could avoid stepping in the movement slowing water.

Season 6 has now changed that completely. Instead of a lake with regular water, Loot Lake in Season 6 is a reimagined area. Epic Games has turned the once-placid lake into a raging whirlpool. Technically, the center of the lake still holds the same house it did before, but that house is now hundreds of feet off the ground, floating on a rock in the sky. Any player that jumps into the whirlpool at the center of the lake now gets thrown into the sky and activates their glider.

It’s a fascinating change to the Fortnite map. Suddenly the center of the map — more or less — is no longer a useless dead zone that slowed players down, but a terminal for traveling across the map quicker. Need to get somewhere? Just head to the whirlpool and let it launch you into the air, then fly where you want or need to be.

That’s not all that’s different. Since the update, the island has moved. Now, instead of over Loot Lake, the island is further southwest toward Greasy Grove. The whirlpool at the center of the lake is still there, while the tornado that seems to be holding the island up and launching players into the air moved with the island to its new home.

Epic Games via Polygon

By moving the island and creating this new hub of mobility for the Fortnite map, Epic has given players a completely new way to look at the environment. Since the island offers players the ability to move quickly around the map, it and the surrounding areas are always popular spots for players to drop. In Season 6, Epic has given players a mobile hot drop: a shifting zone every week, or however long the developers choose to leave the island in one place, that should constantly be a hive of activity.

That means areas of the map that are often ignored by players, like the edges or Loot Lake, are suddenly much more attractive places to be. While these areas might normally be too troublesome to bother with if the circle is on the other side of the map, the addition of the island means that you can drop there and simply fly to wherever the next circle is.

It’s fun and chaotic and exciting. There’s no telling where the island will move or when, and every time you’re near it, something strange or unexpected could happen. For the first time since Season 4, Fortnite seems to have a genuine element of mystery each time you log into the game week to week, or, for now, even day to day.