Fortnite Just Added Cars. Here's How They Work.

Epic Games promised many additions for Fortnite: Chapter 2 – Season 3. Customizable umbrellas. Shark skiing. Aquaman. And, it delivered on all of these promises, but one feature from the Battle Pass Trailer was AWOL for most of the season: cars.

The trailer assured gamers they could drive around Fortnite's flooded island in sports cars and trucks, adding yet more ways to traverse the game world in style. However, Epic only added cars in update v13.40, also known as The Joy Ride Update. The update's celebratory trailer displays the cars in action, but it doesn't explain how to get your hands behind the wheel or how the cars function. 

Before diving into the battle royale and going for a spin, here's a crash course on everything you need to know about the Fortnite's new cars.

Prior to driving a car in Fortnite, you have to decide what kind of car you want. Update v13.40 includes a small selection of rides, from the responsible Islander Prevalent to road-owning Titano Mudflap. Each vehicle has its own advantages and disadvantages, but as long as it's not a forklift, you can just walk up to one and start driving. Even if you want to drive a truck hauling materials, you can enter it and speed away, though without the cargo. Plus, if you want to carpool with a friend, you can hop in and ride shotgun while firing one, all while listening to new radio stations.

While Fortnite isn't known for sticking to reality, its vehicles require gas. Each car has a fuel gauge, and once it's empty you need to refill it, find a new one, or hoof it on foot. If you want to top off, you can either sprinkle gas from a gas can or gas pump onto your car, and it will absorb the fuel through osmosis. Plus, if you have an empty gas can, you can refill it at the pump and save it for later.

Much like other other vehicles in Fortnite, cars have their own health pools. Most have 800 HP, but the bigger and beefier ones have 1,000 and up to 1,200. The easiest way to drain a car's health is to shoot it up, and if you are lucky, you can shoot out the tires. Once a car drops to zero health, it will catch on fire and explode. The fire spreads, so don't stand anywhere near a car when it blows up, but by all means park a dying car near an enemy's fortification.

Though bullets drain car health quickly, it appears you can run into as many walls and opponents as you like, and they won't even scratch the paint job. They're also pretty useful for outrunning the encroaching storm, though if you get caught outside the safe zone while in a car, you'll still die.

While every Fortnite match starts with players jumping out of a flying bus and floating to the ground on physics-defying umbrellas, the game's new cars are sticklers for physics.

Weight and traction play a major part in driving Fortnite cars. Smaller and lighter cars are faster than larger models. However, cars are only at their fastest on pavement. If you drive on a grassy knoll or even through shallow water, you won't be able to take full advantage of a car's horsepower.

However, speed isn't the only factor to worry about. If you drive a car and someone shoots out your tires, you can drive normally so long as you only travel in a straight line. Once you turn, however, the car will spin out of control and you will have to wrestle it to regain command.