Fortnite season eight ditching planes in favour of bananas and snakes

If you had a particularly lazy weekend, you may have slept on Saturday's Fortnite AMA: a thread by Epic which sought to answer the community's questions about the game's future. Highlights include hints about season eight items, along with some interesting mechanics Epic is considering for future seasons. Oh, and some frankly devastating news about everyone's favourite vehicle.

First up: bananas! That's the one word Epic has told players to keep in mind for season eight. Thanks to a teaser image released on Sunday, we know Fortnite is adopting a pirate theme, so bananas definitely seem appropriate. Will they replace apples as a healing item? Or maybe allow players to trip each other up? I'm looking forward to watching Epic's plans come to fruition.

Something I'm less happy about is the removal of planes, a change which is due to occur "at the start of season eight". This means you only have until the 27th February to perform any remaining aerial acrobatics on your bucket list. Again, if the new theme is pirates, my money's on these being replaced by boats.

Thanks to a new tweet, we also know snakes will somehow be involved in the pirate theme - possibly hatching from those eggs once under Polar Peak. This means we just missed having snakes on a plane in Fortnite. I am livid.

Things haven't exactly been plane sailing for Fortnite's driftboard, which only recently added to the game following a series of delays. Epic says its reception has been "really positive", and the board could stick around for a while: but this depends on how well it works with a new "single-occupancy vehicle". Rowing boats?

Of course, a certain other battle royale game has recently been making waves, and this seems to have reignited discussions about major battle royale mechanics in Fortnite. One of these is respawning - the ability to bring a teammate back even after they've been killed - which Epic emphasised it has been considering "for a while".

"Want to make sure we give it the time it needs and fully understand its impact on the game as a whole," producer RZELive said. "Look for further updates during Season Eight."

Apex Legends has received a great deal of praise for its squad communication system, and Epic is also looking to bring further improvements to Fortnite.

"There are some improvements coming in Season Eight that will help with map markers & team communication, and we're always mindful of how we can make these areas better," one developer explained.

Another frequently-demanded mechanic is the "double pump" shotgun - the ability to swap between two loaded shotguns in quick succession. Epic has killed any hopes of that returning.

"We do not have any plans to bring back the double shotgun," EpicEricSw stated. "The main issue is that the high damage of the weapon is balanced by its slow rate of fire, and bypassing that weakness makes it too powerful."

Ranked play, meanwhile, is looking rather unlikely for the time being. When asked on the topic, Epic said it considers its pop-up cups a step in the right direction towards that style of competitive play, but remained vague on whether ranked play would actually happen.

But if there's one thing that's guaranteed in every Fortnite season, it's the inevitable destruction of the Tilted Towers building. Things are once again looking ominous thanks to a datamine showing its demolition, and Epic didn't help settle any nerves.

"Is anything ever really safe?" RZELive posted, along with a shrugging emoji.

I look forward to a fresh dump of Tilted Towers destruction conspiracy videos.