Fortnite Friday: The week 9 battle pass challenges are … explosive

Fortnite Friday is a weekly review of what is going on in the world of Fortnite. We cover the battle pass challenges, new game modes and any other information you need to know.

Fortnite Friday is a weekly column covering everything happening around the popular 100-person multiplayer showdown game, Fortnite: Battle Royale. We’re nearing the end of season 6 and no one has any idea what’s coming next.

Season 6 has been as eventful as any. It was dominated by the moving purple cube that placed runes throughout the map, melted into loot lake then created Kevin, the giant tornado of fun. After the incredible in-game event during week 6, it was all gone.

It feels like the cube event took place months ago. For the first time, Fortnite gamers are left without any hints as to what is coming next season. Given that this season ends on Dec. 6, the obvious guess is a winter wonderland.

This is all pure speculation, but covering parts of the map in snow, adding snowmobiles and designating one new drop area to be a de facto “Santa’s workshop” would be a lot of fun. Epic Games probably has a ton in store for the holiday season, we’ll just have to wait and see what it is.

Before that time comes, get your challenges done. Here is your week 9 challenge guide:

Free Challenges

• Get 30 seconds of airtime in a vehicle (0/30)
• Get a score of 10 or more on different carnival clown boards (0/3)
• Stage 1: Consume mushrooms (0/5)
  • Stage 2: Consume small shields (0/2)
  • Stage 3: Consume large shields (0/2)
  • Stage 4: Consume chug jug (0/1)

These three challenges are the fun ones this week. 30 seconds of air time in a vehicle is a combined time. Hit the corrupted areas to get this challenge done quickly. Just riding around on the vehicles enough will get you to 30 in no time.

The carnival clown boards are spread across the map. You’ll have to pop balloons with your pickax as they inflate from the board. It’s basically Fortnite‘s version of “whack-a-mole.” Score 10 on three of the boards and be sure to watch your back as you are doing it, because you’ll be left in the open. Here’s a map of the board locations:

Consuming shield is a pretty simple of a task. Wailing Woods is still the best location to find the shield mushrooms. The rest will come as you play the game. You may have some difficulty finding a chug jug, but once you do, be sure to consume it instead of saving it and getting eliminated.

Battle pass challenges

• Deal damage to players with clingers, stink bombs or grenades (0/300)
• Deal damage to opponent structures with dynamite (0/10,000)
• Rocket or grenade launcher eliminations (0/3)
• Stage 1: Deal damage with __ to opponents (0/100)
  • Stage 2: Deal damage with grenade launcher to opponents (0/100)
  • Stage 3: Deal damage with rocket launcher to opponents (0/100)

I rarely say bad things about the way Epic Games runs their battle pass challenges but this is a little ridiculous. Thank the high-end streamers who have been whining about too many explosives in the game, because Epic’s ultimate troll job was releasing this “explosive” set of battle pass challenges.

It’s not that these will be overly difficult to work though, but that they’ll be extremely annoying to complete. They’re also redundant. Two of the four battle pass challenges are basically the same. There’s so much overlap here that it borders on laziness from Epic.

Epic Games, we get it. You like explosives. We do too, in moderation. That being said, now would be a great time to bring back the all-explosives LTM. Expect that LTM to be reintroduced next week if they take heat for the challenges this week.

To complete these challenges, pick up and carry every explosive device you wind in the game and eventually you’ll knock all of these off. Try not to leave a match with any explosives left in your loadout. When you see someone, think “bombs first, then shots.”

Update v6.31 patch notes

Wild West LTM – Red Dead Redemption 2 is probably still the hottest game on the market right now, but why should they have all the fun? Fortnite‘s take on the classic western is a tricky game mode that involves nothing but six shooters, hunting rifles, shotguns and dynamite. Yee-haw!

Dynamite – Yay! More explosives! Said just about no one in the Fortnite community. Let’s stay positive, though. Dynamite is basically more a more powerful version of the grenade with less range. This new addition is like a sped-up version of the recently nerfed C4. Use it in densely packed areas to take down buildings, walls, opponents, etc.

Elimination of the week

This week’s EOTW is not an emilination, but a very creative use of the challenge pianos. This ode to an all-time Kanye great from @Sampz21 is too good to pass up.

If you come across anything we might have missed or have any ideas on what should be included in these posts in the future, hit me on Twitter @TheRealBruin. Until next week!