Gaming

'Fortnite' Season 9 End Date: S10 Event Teases Giant Monster vs. Big Robot 

'Fortnite' is about to feel like 'Pacific Rim.'

by Corey Plante

Fortnite: Battle Royale is about to feel a lot like Pacific Rim going into the final days and weeks of Season 9, because the giant Cattus monster swimming around the ocean with a castle on its back is scheduled to return and fight Doggus, the huge robot being constructed at Pressure Plant.

On Saturday, projected countdowns appeared over various Sky Platforms around the Fortnite island, and they all end at 3 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, July 20. Most leaks and speculation about the event indicate it has something to do with the robot and the monster. Will it be a huge battle players can witness mid-game? Or will they merely see the catastrophic aftermath? Can they participate like they could in the Unvaulting like it’s some kind of raid boss battle?

Earlier this season, players noticed a giant eye inside the glacier at Polar Peak following a volcanic eruption, leading many to speculate it might have something to go with a promotional crossover event for Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

We don't know what the whole Cattus body looks like, but the eye sure is creepy.

Epic Games

By early June, the creature broke free with the version 9.20 update, destroying parts of the island before it began swimming around in the nearby ocean with a piece of the Polar Peak castle still sticking out of the water.

These days, it’s starting to seem like Sgt. Winter and the Ice King used this monster — dubbed Cattus in the game’s files — to invade the island last year. Now that it’s free, however, the residents of Fortnite have to do something about it, especially after it wreaked havoc on Loot Lake in the version 9.30 update.

Every lizard-like giant footprint and the surrounding destruction we’ve ever seen in Fortnite is probably due to this monster.

It’s a good thing that with each version update, progress on a giant robot being constructed in Pressure Plant also progressed. All it needs now is a head.

End-of-season events have long been the norm in Fortnite: Battle Royale, telling a loose story about paranormal activities happening in the world. They usually take place on the Saturday after Week 10 begins in-game, kicking off some circumstance that reshapes the map for the following season. In Season 8’s “Unvaulting,” players visited a space “In-Between” worlds where they collectively unvaulted the Drum Gun. The event triggered a volcanic eruption that destroyed parts of the map. Further volcanic activity forced Jonesy and Peely into a bunker, which then led to the time jump into Season 9.

Here's a recent look at Doggus. What will the head look like?

Epic Games

You could trace almost all of these events back to the meteor strike at the end of Season 3, which introduced The Visitor, a character who went on to launch the rocket that ripped open the huge rift in the sky that eventually led to the creation of the purple cube, leading to Fortnitemares and the Butterfly event. That, of course, made Loot Lake ground zero for further exploration and experimentation that led to the Unvaulting.

The other throughline in the Fortnite story involves the Ice King’s invasion of the island, presumably to harness the cosmic power that resides there. Will any of this ever make sense? Probably not, but it makes for an entertaining enough spectacle to keep fans enthralled.

Regardless of what happens during Saturday’s event, it feels like this will be Fortnite’s biggest event ever, and the destruction wrought could introduce devastating changes to the geography of the map.

This next Fortnite: Battle Royale event should take place on Saturday, July 20 at 3 p.m. Eastern, and Season 9 is scheduled to end on Wednesday, July 31.

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