New Fortnite Season 8 Patch Brings Buried Treasure Maps, Here's How They Work

In its ongoing quest to keep things fun and fresh, Fortnite developer Epic Games has introduced a new gameplay feature for Season 8 with the game's latest update. As part of patch 8.01, players will now be able to use maps to hunt for treasure. However, this isn't like the treasure hunts from seasons past, so we've put together a short overview of how it works.

Naturally, the first part of hunting for treasure is getting your hands on a map. These maps can be found as Floor Loot or in Chests. They are a Legendary item that take up an inventory slot, and you can also only carry one at a time--so no hoarding them! Using your map will make a small dotted red line appear in front of you. However, this line doesn't extend out very far, so it's designed to serve as an indication of the general direction you should be heading instead of a direct path to it.

Once you're close to the location you'll see a golden shaft of light marking exactly where you need to dig with your pickaxe. There's also a very hand "X" to mark the spot. Digging takes a little bit of time, so be careful and make sure there aren't any other players around to pick you off. When you successfully open the chest, you'll be treated to some items of Legendary rarity level.

One thing to keep in mind is that, like other items, treasure maps can be forcefully taken from you. That means that if a player kills you, they can grab the map and hunt down the treasure instead. Naturally, you can do the same, so if you're feeling a bit piratey, you could hunt down players using their maps and then take them out to snatch their loot.

The first set of weekly challenges for Fortnite Season 8 is now available, and the two trickiest of them task players with visiting the new Pirate Camps and finding a giant face in the desert, jungle, and snow. You can see the complete list of this season's objectives in our full Season 8 challenges guide.