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Ultimate Guide: Playing OG Fortnite Season 7 in 2023! (Project Nova)

Fortnite Season 7 was first released in June 2021 and is remembered by veteran players as one of the most iconic seasons in the game‘s history. With exciting new additions like alien invasions, flying saucers, the iconic Rick Sanchez skin and more – Season 7 left an indelible mark on the Fortnite universe.

And now in 2023, over 18 months since it ended, there‘s renewed interest among fans about revisiting OG Fortnite Season 7 gameplay. The reason? An ambitious fan project called Project Nova that allows players limited access to play older, archived versions of Fortnite straight from Epic‘s servers.

In this ultimate guide, I‘ll give you all the background, instructions and tips you‘ll need to jump back into OG Fortnite Season 7 using Project Nova. So ready up your laser cannons and hop into those flying saucers – we‘re going back to the invasion of 2021!

What Was Fortnite‘s Season 7 All About?

Let‘s start with a quick history lesson. After the wrap up of the Primal-themed Season 6 with characters like Lara Croft, Season 7 kicked off with an alien invasion theme in June 2021.

The Season 7 cinematic trailer showed the eccentric scientist Dr. Slone triggering an alien attack on the Fortnite island by messing with the mysterious Spire tower. This brought down the alien Mothership into the atmosphere, depositing invaders, weapons and even kidnaping key characters!

This invasion theme persisted through the entire season with various in-game events:

  • Alien Abductions: the Mothership would randomly abduct players and deposit them elsewhere leading to chaotic battles.
  • Beam Attacks: the Mothership would also lock onto and disintegrate landmarks or bases with its main beam.
  • Weekly Alien Artifact Hunts: players had to find artifacts each week that allowed them to customize and evolve their Kymera skin.
  • The Final Countdown Event: players had to band together to defeat the Mothership and prevent the map‘s destruction.

In addition to the chaotic invasion storyline, Season 7 also added a ton of new weapons, items and mobility options:

  • Recon Scanners: handheld scanners that could detect nearby foes and loot through walls.
  • Pulse Rifles: alien energy rifles with no reload times but would overheat with sustained fire.
  • Rail Guns: extremely powerful alien sniper weapons that could pierce multiple walls.
  • Inflatable Tunnels and Bouncy Saucers: new movement items that added verticality and speed.

And that‘s just scratching the surface! Iconic new skins like Rick Sanchez, Superman, Joey from Friends and so much more made it one of the most ambitiously crossover-filled seasons ever.

Overall Season 7 is remembered by fans as a peak time in Fortnite history – where Epic was firing on all cylinders with the gameplay, events and pop culture tie-ins.

What is Project Nova and How Can It Take You Back?

Of course since mid 2021, Fortnite has rolled out 5 additional seasons adding and changing vast swaths of the game. Many fans longing for the good old days have wondered – can we ever go back and play classic Fortnite Season 7 again?

This is where the fan project Project Nova comes in. Let‘s understand what it actually offers:

  • Official Old Build Access: Project Nova uses custom middleware to unlock access to Epic‘s archived old game builds from each season. So what you play is 100% officially from Epic‘s own history.
  • All Cosmetics/Map Locations: Every skin, emote, glider – even the entire island map itself is recreated back to its OG state from seasons past.
  • Multiplayer Servers: Project Nova redirects the game data into community run servers, allowing players to squad up with friends.
  • Strictly Time Limited: Due to potential legal issues, the project offers 1-week access in intermittent bursts. Each time the DLC pack disappears fast!

Essentially, think of Project Nova as opening a temporary time portal back to past Fortnite seasons! Due to tricky legality around running old builds, access is fleeting and sporadic.

But in that short bursts of operability, nostalgic players have relived iconic seasons like Chapter 1 Season X and Chapter 2 Season 2. And now early 2023 seems to be the chance for lucky fans to replay the alien invasion days of Season 7!

Step-By-Step: Accessing OG Fortnite Season 7 in 2023

If you too want to party like its 2021 and enjoy OG Season 7 once more, then here is a step-by-step guide on making it happen:

Step 1 – Join the Project Nova Discord Server:

As access periods are erratic and limited, the Project Nova team uses their Discord channel for all announcements on availability. So the first step is to join their server: https://discord.gg/nova

Once you‘re in, keep an eye out in the #announcements channel for any Season 7 related notices.

Step 2 – Download Required Game Files:

When a Season 7 activation period is announced, the first requirement will be to download the game files. The full uncompressed folder size is a beefy 41 GB so ensure you have stable fast internet and sufficient disk space!

The download will likely be distributed via torrent links to decentralized and expedite access given the size. Instructions on exact links will be provide by Project Nova during the access period.

Step 3 – Content Decryption/Accounts Creation:

After your 41GB download completes, there will be further steps provided to decrypt and configure the content to work correctly. This will require:

  • Making an account authentication request
  • Running the files via Project Nova‘s custom launcher tool
  • Potentially configuring settings if errors are encountered

Full exact instructions will be provided by the Project Nova team via their Discord. Follow them meticulously to avoid issues!

Step 4: Hop Back to 2021 and Enjoy Your Nostalgia Trip!

If all goes well in the first 3 steps, you‘ll suddenly find yourself loading into a fully playable recreation of Fortnite Season 7 from mid 2021!

You‘ll have all skins, battle pass items, gliders – everything unlocked ready for you to enjoy! The alien invasion Battle Royale theme will transport you right back to one of Fortnite‘s most over-the-top seasons ever!

Now it‘s entirely upto you how best to indulge your nostalgia over the next 7 days before the time machine closes!

Tips for Making the Most of Your Season 7 Return

To maximize joy from your temporary 7 day access to OG Fortnite offered by Project Nova, I‘d recommend the following:

  • Party Up With Friends: coordinate with your old Fortnite squad so you can play together and reminisce on voice chat! The multiplayer access means you can recreate your team-ups from 2021.

  • Create Custom Skin Presets: take your time making skin combinations with all the previously locked options now available! My go-to preset is Rick Sanchez with Interstellar Glider and Wavy T contrail.

  • Explore The Map: float around on a Bouncy Saucer or Inflate-a-Tunnel through old landmarks like Corny Complex. See if you can spot differences compared to the current map!

  • Try Out OP Weapons: The Rail Gun and Recon Scanner dominated the 2021 meta with their info and damage exploits! Try out skybasing with Recon for unlimited intel.

  • Grind Those Forgotten Quests: Season 7 introduced tons of new NPCs on the island with fresh quests and gear to unlock. Visit characters you‘d forgotten like Sunny or one of the Joey/Chandler skin duo!

I hope these tips will let you make the absolute most of the limited opening Project Nova provides back to peak old-school Fortnite!

Controversies Around Reviving Old Fortnite Seasons

Of course, there are a range of controversies and debates surrounding unofficial fan projects trying to revive older versions of existing live service games. While most fans and even companies turn a blind eye, there are a few issues worth discussing:

Legality of Running Archived Builds

There are potential copyright infringements from modifying and redirecting old game builds without developer permission. Companies could issue DMCA takedowns of fan projects if they wanted, though Epic hasn‘t done so yet.

Divide Attention from Current Versions

Games like Fortnite thrive on having a consolidated player base focused on the latest seasonal builds where sales are strongest. Fragmenting fans attention tempts them away from those current battle passes and item shops.

However most fans strongly argue that reinstating older seasons that are no longer playable does NOT take away engagement from current Fortnite content. If anything the burst of nostalgia reignites general passion and interest in the game as a whole after a trip down memory lane!

Monetization Ethics

There are also debates around the morality of projects like Nova potentially monetizing access to archived builds they technically don‘t own rights off. However thus far most fan restoration attempts have been strictly non-profit passion projects.

The consensus seems to be that as long as they are free and time limited, they provide no meaningful revenue losses to the IP owners. If anything they offer great PR and goodwill reminding players why they fell in love with games like Fortnite!

The Waiting Game…When Will Season 7 Return Next?

If this guide has gotten you all excited to replay Fortnite‘s alien invasion days, I‘m sure your burning question is when Season 7 may be accessible next via Project Nova.

The bad news is that with something in a legal grey area operating intermittently in the shadows, any Project Nova accessibility periods are unpredictable by design! The team is vague by necessity to avoid attention and stays completely on the DL sharing info only in bursts directly to their inner Discord circle.

BUT…based on observing their progress thus far in restoring multiple older seasons over the past year, my educated guess would be:

High Chance of 1 Week Access Again in Q3 2023

If 2022 is any indicator, Nova seems to take around 9-12 months between unlocking builds for additional encore relaunches. Their longest access this far has been 14 days too for especially popular seasons.

So with Season 7 last available via Nova in a short burst back in March 2022, I‘d predict pretty good odds of at least another Week long replay window at some point between July to September 2023!

Of course if you just can‘t wait that long, the Project Nova team does have Season 8 from late 2021 currently scheduled to open for 12 days starting March 1, 2023! So that‘s at least another iconic old school Fortnite map to keep watch for.

Otherwise monitor that Nova Discord activity feed closer to mid 2023…and GET READY for the mother of all alien invasions over again! Charge those rail guns and polish those Kymera helmets – because OG Season 7 when it returns is GUARANTEED to be one wild nostalgia trip!