Where to Find the Secret Battle Star in 'Fortnite' Season X, Week 1
Things are so different and confusing now — so let's make sense of it.
The entire structure of Fortnite: Battle Royale challenges has changed in Season X, released Thursday, and even though there’s definitely a new loading screen with a secret clue hidden in the image, there’s also a lot of confusion about what it all means. Does it relate to a similar series of challenges like Season 9’s Utopia challenges? Do they lead to secret battle stars, hidden banners, or something akin to Fortbytes?
So far, there’s a lot of misinformation and assumptions being made in the Fortnite community, so let’s try to cut through the noise to explain what we know and what we can assume.
“Road Trip” challenges — like visiting the Drift painted stone head or destroying stop signs as Catalyst — have seemingly replaced traditional weekly challenges. But there are also limited-time “missions,” essentially challenge sets that unlock each week during Season X but expire after seven days with a new challenge unlocked each day, all at the typical 9 a.m. Eastern unlock time.
The first is the “B.R.U.T.E. Squad” mission set focusing in Fortnite’s new two-person robot vehicle, and it expires on August 8. Anyone who completes three of these challenges/mission steps unlocks the loading screen. For this week, the loading screen (which already leaked) is a variation on the B.R.U.T.E. image included in the version 10.0 update patch notes, but it includes a coordinate-based clue highlighted below.
The loading screen clue references an intersection of zones in the northwestern area of the island.
And you thought the introduction of Fortbytes last season was confusing!
The reason why nobody can confirm the existence of a secret battle star or anything else like that for Season X, Week 1 just yet is because nobody can actually complete three B.R.U.T.E. Squad challenges until the third one unlocks on Saturday morning around 9 a.m. Eastern. There are already plenty of guides and YouTube videos pinpointing this specific location, but again, the loading screen with the coordinates is a leaked image that remains unconfirmed. Things can still change.
Based on other data-mining, here’s what the full seven challenges included in the B.R.U.T.E. Squad mission are:
- Play matches with a friend — 3
- Eliminations from closer than five meters — 2
- Use the B.R.U.T.E. in different matches — 5
- Apply shields — 100
- Deal damage to opponents from below — 100
- Search chests at Dusty Depot or Pleasant Park — 7
- Visit Snobby Shores and Shifty Shafts in the same match — 1
All of these are straightforward and easy to accomplish without much guidance at all. Anti-social people who don’t want to play matches with their friends will have to wait until at least Sunday when “Apply shields” is unlocked. Once people do get access to the loading screen, they should be able to follow the coordinates of D2, D3, E2, and E3 to a location just south of the block and directly west of the small valley shaped like an umbrella.
Look for the patch of brown dirt in the middle of the green grass right where the coordinates intersect.
Per usual, there’s a small patch of dirt amidst the grass that marks the location. That is already visible. The secret battle star or whatever the reward is remains inaccessible — for now.
We’ll update this post if anything changes, but for the time being, just complete as many B.R.U.T.E. Squad tasks as possible in anticipation of the loading screen unlocking. Then follow our
Fortnite: Battle Royale B.R.U.T.E. Squad challenges are only active until August 8.
