Epic Games has officially unveiled the Dragon Ball crossover event that begins in Fortnite today, Aug. 16 — and it’s a big one. There’s more here than even yesterday’s fairly extensive leak suggested.
Across a short trailer, a gameplay video (which was the basis of yesterday’s leak) and a detailed blog post, Epic confirmed that Son Goku, Vegeta, Bulma, and Beerus have arrived in the game as skins. They bring a host of activities with them, both within and without Fortnite’s battle royale mode.
The four characters are available as skins in the Item Shop, all drawn in a sharp cel-shaded style. Goku and Vegeta both come with three alt styles and built-in charging up emotes. (Universal versions of their charging up emotes are also sold separately.) Bulma comes with a Lab Coat alt style.
A new “Power Unleashed!” tab has been added to the game, with quests and rewards available to all players until Aug. 30. Completing quests raises players’ power level and awards them Dragon Balls, as well as rewards like back bling, emotes, sprays, and battle pass levels. Completing all quests awards the Shenron Glider, based on the wish dragon of Dragon Ball lore.
Within battle royale mode, Bounty Boards around the island have been replaced with Versus Boards for the duration of the Dragon Ball event. If two players interact with these boards, they’ll be revealed on each other’s maps and given five minutes to find each other, defeat their opponent and claim victory.
Additionally, new Dragon Ball-themed items will drop from the sky onto the map in increasing numbers as the storm closes. The famous Kamehameha allows you to unleash Goku’s energy beam on your foes, while the Nimbus Cloud lets you fly around the island. Bulma can be found in the Kame house on a very small island off the mainland, where you can chat to her and exchange Bars for very powerful items.
Tournament of Power, a duos tournament, will take place on Aug. 18 in a three-hour window. This is the only competitive playlist in which players will be able to use the Kamehameha and Nimbus Cloud items.
Some more relaxed Dragon Ball activities are being added to Fortnite as part of the event, too. A cruise ship will host a Dragon Ball Super Episode Festival, where players can watch a selection of six episodes from the Dragon Ball Super anime series. And, starting Aug. 19, Dragon Ball Adventure Island will arrive in-game. It’s a sort of Dragon Ball theme park with iconic locations and activities, and a PvP battle arena.
Both the Episode Festival and Adventure Island will remain available until Sep. 17.
That’s a lot of Dragon Ball stuff to be getting on with over the next few weeks. Strangely, there seems to be no explicit link in the event or in its selection of characters to the worldwide theatrical release of the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie this coming weekend. But it’s presumably no coincidence.