While they’ve arrived a day later than usual, thanks to a delay, the latest batch of Fortnite challenges–those for Week 9–are now available in the Battle Royale mode for PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile, which means new Battle Stars to earn. You should know the drill by now, but if you’re new to the game, we’ll break down how this works. Challenges are split into two categories, with one selection of them available to all players and the other exclusively to those that have paid for a Battle Pass. All you’ve got to do is complete the objectives and, in return, you get Battle Stars that unlock new goodies. Here’s how to do them, including where to find the Shifty Shafts treasure map.
The treasure map is the week’s challenge likely to take the longest–that is, if you do it the hard way and actually find the treasure map, then follow it. The alternative way is to just follow our guide: Since you don’t technically need to get the map to complete the challenge, you can skip going to Shifty Shafts and locating the map and instead head to the location it’s ultimately pointing you toward. In this case, it’s in the mountains just north of Salty Springs and south of Dusty Divot. Once there, you’ll spot a little collection of stone pillars where you’ll also see the Battle Star. We’ve put images of the treasure map and the precise location of the Battle Star in the gallery below; you can also watch the video above to see us do it.
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This week’s other challenges aren’t too tricky. On the free side, you’ll need to deal 500 damage with explosive weapons, use an ATK or a Shopping Cart to rack up 150,000 Trick points, and follow the aforementioned Shifty Shafts treasure map.
For those who have paid for the Season 5 Battle Pass side, there are four more challenges to complete. You’ll need to search for one chest in Pleasant Park (this is the first stage of the challenge, at which point four further stages will unlock one by one). On top of that, you’ll need to visit seven different Stone Heads, take out five players with an assault rifle, and also eliminate three enemies in Tomato Temple. Here’s the complete list:
Fortnite Week 9, Season 5 Challenges
Free
Deal damage with Explosive Weapons to opponents (500) — 5 Battle Stars
Get Trick Points in a Shopping Car or ATK (150,000) — 5 Battle Stars
Hard: Follow the treasure map found in Shifty Shafts — 10 Battle Stars
Battle Pass
(Stage 1) Search Chests in Pleasant Park (1) — 5 Battle Stars
Developer Epic Games also has rolled out Fortnite’s 5.40 update, which introduces the High Stakes event. This new limited-time mode has its own set of challenges to complete. Here’s what the High Stakes challenges are and the rewards that you can earn by completing them. The update also adds the Grappler item in, which is used primarily to zip around the environment. You can read the full Fortnite update 5.40 patch notes here.
The new challenges for Season 5, Week 9 of Fortnite are now available. You can see the complete list of them below, and we also have a guide to following the treasure map in Shifty Shafts. That’s one of the tougher challenges in the free section, but over in the paid Battle Pass group, there’s one challenge in particular that’ll require a fair bit of legwork to get done. This one tells you to visit seven different Stone Heads around the map. Here are the locations of where to find them.
If you’re a hardcore Fortnite player, you’ll probably have a good idea of what to do and where to go, considering that the Stone Heads are always in the same position, and this kind of challenge has popped up previously. However, if you’re new to the game and this challenge, we’re here to lend a helping hand. Below you’ll find a list of all the locations we’ve spotted the Stone Heads, so simply high tail it between these and you’ll be done in no time. You can also watch the video above to see us do it, and follow along.
Fortnite Stone Head Locations
South east of Junk Junction
North of Tomato Temple
North west of Dusty Divot
East of Lonely Lodge
North east of Greasy Grove
South east of Shifty Shafts
West of Lucky Landing
Once you’re done with this week’s challenges, there’s still more to do, as developer Epic Games also has rolled out Fortnite’s 5.40 update. This introduces the High Stakes event, which is a new limited-time mode has its own set of challenges to complete. You can read about what the High Stakes challenges are and the rewards that you can earn by completing them. You can read the full Fortnite update 5.40 patch notes here.
If you’re still working on challenges from previous weeks, head over to our full Fortnite Season 5 challenge guide to get help with every single challenge in the season thus far.
Fortnite Week 9, Season 5 Challenges
Free
Deal damage with Explosive Weapons to opponents (500) — 5 Battle Stars
Get Trick Points in a Shopping Car or ATK (150,000) — 5 Battle Stars
Hard: Follow the treasure map found in Shifty Shafts — 10 Battle Stars
Battle Pass
(Stage 1) Search Chests in Pleasant Park (1) — 5 Battle Stars
For the first time since the release of Forsaken, Destiny 2‘s mysterious merchant Xur has arrived. As always, he has a selection of Exotic armor and a weapon for sale, though the offerings are fairly disappointing, particularly if you’re a Titan. In a change we first saw last week, you won’t find Xur on the map. Here’s what Exotics he has for sale and where to find him.
Destiny 2’s 2.0 update made some notable changes to Xur, the most significant of which concern where he’s located. Not only can you not find him on the map, you’ll no longer simply find him wherever the current Flashpoint is happening.
For this weekend’s appearance, you can find Xur at the Tower. He’s returned to his usual spot, just behind Dead Orbit’s area. When you spawn in, turn left and make your way toward the hangar. Go under the Future War Cult area and toward the Dead Orbit section. Just up a set of stairs, next to a landing pad, you’ll see Xur hanging out by himself.
In terms of his wares, he now offers a more limited selection of items overall. For consumables, the Three of Coins (now deprecated) is gone; he only has the Five of Swords challenge card. For Exotics, however, he does have one weapon, as well as one piece of armor for each class. Disappointingly, both the weapon and Titan armor–Prometheus Lens and Ashen Wake, respectively–are the same as last week’s offering. The Fated engram, which guaranteed you an Exotic you don’t already own, is nowhere to be seen.
Here’s what’s on sale right now and how much it costs:
Young Ahamkara’s Spine (Exotic Hunter Gauntlets) — 23 Legendary Shards
Nezarec’s Sin (Exotic Warlock Helmet) — 23 Legendary Shards
Ashen Wake (Exotic Titan Gauntlets) — 23 Legendary Shards
Again, you’ll find that you may want to purchase Exotics you already own, as these versions feature more and different perks than existing versions. These may also be higher Power level than those you already have, which spares you the trouble of spending Masterwork Cores to infuse them.
Destiny 2’s new DLC just recently released, and you can see what we think about it in our Forsaken review-in-progress. We also have a Destiny 2 guide with some useful tips you should be aware of.
When White Boy Rick works, it is a beautiful and heartfelt drama about family and the injustice of the legal system when it comes to the war on drugs, featuring stunning performances by both established actors and a promising newcomer. But the second half of the film loses itself and rushes through the most interesting aspects of the story.
You may be forgiven for thinking Yann Demange’s sophomore feature was going to be like Scarface. It’s got everything you would want out of a crime film – an underdog in a bad family situation who suddenly becomes successful by selling crack cocaine at age 15. Yet White Boy Rick has more in common with Spring Breakers than Scarface. This is a film about the optimism of a family who is convinced hard work will make anyone achieve the American Dream, and how that family can endure the hardships of the ’80s drug epidemic.
Back in February, we saw the launch of FFXV Pocket Edition on Android, iOS, and Windows 10 devices. It’s a much more condensed, chibi-esque version of the original game that released in 2016.
On consoles, you’ll have the exact same experience you did on mobile. The same chibi art style is still there, the battle system will remain mostly automated, and you’ll see the same key sequences. It’s also still fully voice acted, and you can ride the chocobos and drive the Regalia too.
For those who are curious about FFXV but aren’t ready for a serious, hundreds of hours long JRPG commitment, Pocket Edition might be a good fit because it’s intended to be a more casual experience than the original title. Consoles will have HD resolution, but Square has not detailed if that resolution will be 1080p or 4k.
FFXV Pocket Edition HD is available now. From now until September 13, you can pick it up for 40 percent off on Xbox One and PS4.
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The Conjuring Universe might not have the name recognition or the star power of something like the MCU, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a self referential web of continuity and call acks that happen across different movies, pulled from different sources, over multiple years. If there’s anything the 2010s have taught us about pop culture it’s that we just can’t get enough of a good shared cinematic universe.
The Nun is the fifth installment in the Conjuring lineup, after two official Conjuring movies, Annabelle, and Annabelle: Creation, meaning it has a ton of room to work in this particular playground. And work it does, as it follows the ill-fated adventure of a vatican employed “miracle hunter,” Father Burke, and his newly assigned partner, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) to investigate a mysterious suicide in a remote Romanian monastery. Of course, things don’t go exactly as planned, and what Burke and Irene actually wind up finding is anything but a miracle. The monastery itself had been confining an ancient demonic evil that had since escaped its prison and was beginning to rain death and terror down on anyone who dared cross its path.
This wasn’t the first time we’d come face to face with said demonic evil. Valak, the demon nun itself, has been featured in multiple Conjuring Universe installations with a featured role as the Big Bad of the Conjuring 2, and as an ominous and looming presence in Annabelle: Creation. Wheels within wheels of manipulation and deceit have placed Valak at the very heart of the Conjuring Universe’s arcane web, and subtly built it up as one of the most destructive and dangerous forces in Ed and Lorraine Warren’s life.
But we’re not here to talk about the doom and gloom of Valak’s spooky apocalyptic desires, ambiguous as they may be. We’re here to talk about all the references, nods and Easter eggs The Nun managed to pack into this latest chapter of the Conjuring Universe. We’ve compiled a list of everything we caught, from classic horror shout outs to historical spooks. Click through the gallery to see them all, and let us know in the comments if we missed anything.
Originally released in 2005, Capcom and Grasshopper Manufacture’s Killer7 was widely regarded as the most subversive and bizarre game of its day. Blending on-rail shooter gameplay, adventure-style puzzles and traversal, and an incredibly strange and surreal storyline involving a group of assassins with seemingly multiple-personalities–the game pulled no punches with its incredibly over the top narrative and gory action. Created by Goichi Suda, otherwise known as Suda51, Killer7 has remained one of his most notable titles, and has amassed a cult following since its release on Gamecube and PS2.
While Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda51 have moved on to other games, which includes the No More Heroes series and Let It Die, Killer7’s fanbase has kept interest in the game alive–which prompted the developers to remaster the game for modern platforms. Before its fall release on PC, we sat down with Suda51 to talk about the making of Killer7 and played the first mission of the remaster. During our talk, he spoke candidly about what he learned in the years since he created the game, and some of things he hopes could happen with it in the future. The following interview has been edited for readability and brevity, with Suda’s responses interpreted through a translator.
What’s it like returning to Killer7 after so many years?
SUDA51: It’s a really mysterious feeling. A while ago, we redid The Silver Case and in the same way we redid this game in particular, and a lot of those memories and experiences that I had when I was making Killer7 were revived in my mind–and I kind of re-experienced all of that with this game. I remember that this level we’re showing here, one of the early stages of the games, had to be redesigned about ten times. The way it worked back then was that they had to kind of do one level at a time–instead of designing much of the game all at once–so we just had to keep plowing through this and remake it until we felt good about it.
How was it working with Capcom on this game? It’s a very unusual and surreal game, so I imagine they had some thoughts about what you had created at the time.
Yeah, it was actually a really good relationship because our producer, Shinji Mikami [creator of Resident Evil] said yes to everything. He didn’t really say “no” or shoot down anything. One of the good things about working with Mikami-san, for example, like on this level here, was that he taught me more about level design–how fast the character should move, gameplay and all other things–so it was a really good experience. We were given a lot of freedom, but at the same time when we needed him to step in and give us some advice and guidance, he did.
This game was also a part of the experimental set of titles known as the Capcom Five, which included P.N. 03, Viewtiful Joe, the cancelled Dead Phoenix, and of course Resident Evil 4. What was it like working alongside those games while in development on Killer7?
Yeah, just speaking as a player, seeing those other games from the other dev teams at the time was like a ‘whoa’-type experience. I’m just extremely gratified that Capcom allowed me to make a game within that community. I remember those times a lot, and it was a really big honor that I felt I had to pay back. I really put my all into into making this game good.
What actually motivated you to bring the original game to new platforms for the remaster?
Well, one thing that I want to point out is that the release on the GameCube version was the original version that they developed. One thing that is apparent before this remaster was that it hasn’t been easy for players to experience the game, unless they had copies on GameCube or PS2–because how many people really have those things hooked up at this point? While more people have probably played the game on the PS2, the version that we fully stand behind is the GameCube version. With the remaster, we pulled from the original source on the GameCube, which is the version I want fans to play. I appreciate that the GameCube version was the original version, because it didn’t seem like we had a lot of unique games like Killer7 for the GameCube back then. And beyond that, it’s finally on something that’s kind of more persistent, [the PC marketplace].
So the style of this game is very unique. Not only in terms of visuals, but also in its tone and focus on western media, particularly the surrealist films of David Lynch, by way of an action-thriller from Shane Black. Was that something that was always clear in regards to your vision–in how Killer7 is western media through the lens of a Japanese developer?
Yeah, in regards to Lynch and other action films, absolutely. I’m a huge Lynch fan, and his influence popped up there in some regards, but by the same token, it was really something where back then you really couldn’t really make games as freely as you would have wanted to. And so I felt that this was a really big opportunity. And so, as you know, the game has five chapters to it. And it kind of feels like each chapter could practically be a different game–I tried to cram so much into it.
With Killer7, there’s this lineup of radically different characters to play as. Is there a particular person in the roster that’s your favorite?
Definitely Coyote Smith, His style, his personality, and all his unique characteristics. Unfortunately in the actual game itself, I didn’t have a chance to tell all of his story and get everything I wanted to out there, but even still, I obviously know what I created and what is there for him. I just think he’s really cool.
It did seem like there were some character that didn’t get their full stories told. Were there any characters in particular you wished you had more time with to flesh out more?
Yeah. Well, basically Dan, Harmon, and Garcian’s stories are pretty much told within the game. But with that said, everybody else, especially like Coyote and Kaede, I wished I could have told more. Particularly why Kaede has the blood on her dress. There are reasons for that. I didn’t have a chance to put that in the game.
So each act of the game brings its own narrative and style, and while they can be seen as stand alone stories, they’re all still connected together. Is there a particular one that sticks out for you as your favorite?
Everyone’s favorite seems to the Super Sentai parody [in Mission 4, Alter Ego], but the Cloudman act is my favorite. As we were making the game, we always had an idea of where things were gonna go, but we also had to make sure things were still very interesting along the way. We thought about how we planned to keep things varied across all the acts, and how it would all come together in the end. And so that’s why you have things like for example in Cloudman, when you have the last boss character, who’s the ring leader, you get to understand him more as a character and see things from his particular perspective. Doing that allowed us to let the players basically see what I wanted do with Killer7, to have these characters, and their presence, sort of seep into the players themselves as they were playing it–and leave an impression on them after the game’s finish.
That was kind of the goal for making everything different as well as making the balance of the game good to keep people interested in playing more. We tried to keep it fun for a while, but not all the time.
Yeah, the Curtis Blackburn mission was when the game took an even darker turn. While the game was consistent in its violence and mature themes, it was still mostly dorky and tongue-in-cheek. This chapter however seemed like a major shift towards bleak territory–which at the time of its release in 2005 seemed very unusual for games.
Yeah, it was always about trying to strike that balance and keeping things interesting. The chapter before that is like really weird and funny, kinda silly even. Yet in the same way, again, that has to do with messing with the player and how they’re feeling–to really shake things up. We all put a lot of energy into making sure that every experience that the player has is different and beyond what came before.
When you look at Killer7 and how it fits into your history of games, it really sticks out as one of the darker stories, especially when compared to the not so serious No More Heroes. Just as an aside, do you think a character like Travis Touchdown would be able to exist–or even survive–in Killer7?
I think fighting these guys might be a little much for Travis. Plus I think the group of assassins wouldn’t get along well with him. They might think he’s a little annoying. He’s a really nostalgic kind of guy, and his personality wouldn’t mesh well with these guys.
It seems like you’re being nostalgic for this game now.
Yeah, actually seeing this level being played again, I remembered all the work that went into getting this right. Overall, we probably cut half the puzzles from the game. This level is the Fukushima Situation. Within that, half of the map area was cut because otherwise it was too long. We cut about two hours of content from that, map wise. I would have loved to have kept it in. Maybe we could’ve unlocked the whole thing after, because the whole thing is actually in the game already. All the puzzles. The whole map. It’s already in there. It’s just that they cut it from a programming perspective and hit it with a flag.
So if someone were to go into the game’s files they would be able to unearth all that cut content?
Probably yeah, actually.
Well, looking back on this game, what would you say was one of the biggest successes you found with the game?
Well, what makes me feel good about this game is that it all actually makes sense and that we were able to finish it to completion. It’s a really weird game, but because the amount of care we put into every single location you visit and the thought that went into all the characters–how it looks, how it moves, and all of those things down to the minute detail of it–it still looks pretty good, you know? The fact that we were able to finish it, while still putting all that care into each and every scene, is something that I believe is still really good about the game. There’s really no other game like this, or at least there wasn’t at the time.
While working on this, the staff I was with really didn’t really know what they were making. They didn’t really get it for a while. There were actually multiple times during the project where I had to ask myself if what we were making was fun, are people gonna like this, or even if this game would even make it at all. And again there came a point when it all kinda clicked for everybody and it was like, yes, we get it. This is fun. You know? But eventually, there came a point where the staff kinda… got it. They all got on the same vector, and then things really picked up. I was very pleased to see it all come together.
Even after all these years, and after you moved on to other games, Killer7 remains a well-liked title. Would you ever consider a revisit to the Killer7 universe in any way?
Well with this game, I put all of my energy into it and I was kind of burnt out a little afterward. Honestly, I feel it’s a really complete work as it is, so trying to revisit this and make a world like this again would be really daunting. I’m pretty happy with where things left off with Killer7. I unfortunately don’t have the same amount of energy that I had back then to make a sequel or something, I’m too old for that now. Having said that, Capcom owns the rights to this, so if the company should allow it, what I would really like to do is to restore much of the cut stuff in here. I would like to make a more definitive version of the game that restores all the stuff that was cut. That’s something I believe I can do.
What’s the one thing you want to say to like maybe long time fans of the game?
Speaking to just the old fans, right now, thanks to the indie games movement, I feel this game, as you kind of mentioned, has a lot to offer for people. There’s so many indie games that are out there right now doing cutting edge things, and I feel this is the perfect environment for young gamers to come into the medium. For gamers who have never had a chance to play this game before, and for those that I really want to reach with this. To give them an opportunity to play this game. And see what it’s all about, and hopefully fall in love with it.
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