Fortnite Reload Nitemare Island: Map, Loot and Rewards

Nitemare Island came back to Reload on Thursday, October 8, and it brought something the 2025 version never had. A new match modifier, The Hunt, assigns every player a rival. Eliminate yours and you are handed a random Kado Thorne Exotic, a gun that heals you as it hits. Then a fresh round of rivalries starts.

Epic's Reload notes call the season Nitemare Island: Kado's Curse. Our Fortnitemares 2026 guide gave it one paragraph, because on October 2 it had not launched yet. It has now been live for two days, and the Fortnite Wiki has logged the map, its loot and both reward tracks. This is the full version.

What this post does not cover: how Reload plays in general, which is in our Reload guide, and Reload's storm timings, which are in our storm phases guide. Where this comes from: Epic's v42.30 Reload and Battle Royale notes, Epic's own in-game news and social posts as the wiki records them, and the Fortnite Wiki for everything Epic does not publish, which here is most of the numbers.

Nitemare Island at a glance

A 2025 map with a 2026 coat of paint

This is not a new island. Nitemare Island first arrived in Reload on October 10, 2025, during that year's Fortnitemares, and the description on Epic's launch video called it "a 'greatest hits' of POIs from Fortnitemares past." The wiki's rotation log shows it leaving in November 2025 and coming back for one weekend, February 13 to 16, 2026.

The October 2026 version is a refresh. Epic's Battle Royale notes promise "a refreshed map and a mix of horror weapons," with Elite Kado Thorne "calling the shots." Epic's in-game news promises "updated POIs" and "remixed Fortnitemares loot." The wiki describes the new theming as Kado Thorne and The Eclipse.

What it does not yet describe is which POIs changed. The ten named locations have the same names as in 2025, and the only v42.30 change any of their wiki pages records is at Retail Ruin, where "many shops were finally finished." If a building looks different from your 2025 memory, the wiki has not caught up with it yet.

The ten named locations and their chest counts

The counts below are what each location's own wiki page records. Read them as the old map's numbers. Eight of the ten pages were last edited on or before August 17, 2026, seven weeks before the refresh. The other two, Retail Ruin and Punishment Patch, were edited on October 8, but those edits changed their text and galleries, not their counts. They tell you the shape of the island, not a recount.

Two things to take from it, and one to distrust.

Spooky Suburbs is the loot hub. Its 95 chests are 38% of the 252 recorded across the eight locations with numbers, nearly three times the next one. That makes it the obvious drop for a squad that wants to split up and still gear all four players.

The bottom of the table is thin. Gravey Gates and Revenge Reels record 12 and 13 chests. Enough for a duo. Not where four people should land.

Do not trust two of the rows too far. Creepy Cabins and Estranged Estate carry identical figures, 21 chests and 18 ammo boxes, which looks more like a copied infobox than two counts. Spooky Suburbs' 294 ammo boxes is more than every other recorded location combined (253), and the wiki gives no breakdown for it.

Three maps in rotation, not four

Epic's v42.30 Battle Royale notes said that on October 8, "Stranger Things and Squid Grounds also join the map rotation." That is not quite what happened. As of October 10, the wiki's Reload page lists three maps in both the casual and the Ranked rotation, and Beebom's October 8 quest guide names the same three:

Per the wiki's rotation log, Nitemare Island took Oasis's slot and Stranger Things took Springfield's. Squid Grounds has no October entry at all, and its own page's history ends in 2025. Stranger Things also had a rough first day: the log has Oasis standing in for it from 9:10 AM to 1:58 PM EDT on October 8 "due to issue."

The practical point is the player count. Two of the three maps run 40 players and one runs 24, so a session hopping through the rotation alternates between a full lobby and a much smaller one. Plan drops accordingly.

What drops only on Nitemare Island

The wiki's Reload loot log files these under "Nitemare Island Only." Land on one of the other two maps and you will not find these in the pool, with one exception noted under the table:

One qualifier on the Sideways rows. Mythic versions of the Sideways Rifle, Minigun and Scythe have been in Reload's general pool since October 1. What is Nitemare-only is the lower rarities listed above.

The mobility here is the headline once you get past the guns. Myst Form turns you into an invulnerable flock of ravens that can fly for 4 seconds, on a 20-second cooldown, with 10 charges. The Void Oni Mask throws Void Tears you can teleport to. The Witch Broom is the Mythic. The Hoprock Cube Rifle, added in a 5 PM EDT hotfix on launch day, gives you low gravity for as long as you hold it. Its hip-fire hits for 50, and aiming spends five rounds on a slow cube that explodes on impact for 70, or for 125 if you shoot it to detonate.

Last Call is the oddity. Equip it and your outfit becomes Ghost Face. You get a three-hit melee combo of 55 to 60 damage a hit, a 70-damage lunge that cancels fall damage, and a phone call that marks nearby enemies on a 25-second cooldown. Last Call and Myst Form are also in Blitz Royale's pool this month, per the wiki, so if you have met them there you know them already; our Blitz Royale guide covers that mode.

One caution about Epic's own art: the news image at the top of this post shows Storm Beast's Pom Poms, and the wiki notes they were not added to Reload.

Two Reload-wide changes landed in the same October 8 hotfix and apply on all three maps: the Thunder Burst SMG was added, and the Havoc Pump Shotgun and Red-Eye Submachine Gun were vaulted.

Kado Thorne's Siphon guns, by the numbers

Epic's pitch for the season was "Siphon loot galore that restores health as you deal damage." That is a different mechanic from the classic Siphon in our Siphon explainer, which pays out on eliminations. These guns heal you on every hit, by an amount the wiki says depends on how much damage the shot dealt. Neither Epic nor the wiki publishes the exact ratio.

Read it by range, because that is how the guns split:

• The Deadeye AR is the mid-range pick. It has a 1.5x scope, hitscan out to 100 metres and perfect accuracy while aiming. At 154 damage per second by the wiki's figure, it also siphons on every bullet of a 26-round magazine.
• The Gatekeeper hits hardest per shot and runs dry fastest. It holds three shells, reloads all of them at once, and its damage starts falling off at 9 metres, down to 25% at 27 metres and nothing beyond that. Take it into a box and nowhere else.
• The Monarch rewards aiming. Aiming raises the damage from 47 to 78 a shot and slows the fire rate. Its falloff is so slight that it still does 96% of its damage at 107 metres.
• The Twin Siphon Shotguns lose their headshot bonus to a cap. 78 times 1.75 is 136.5, but the wiki gives them a 125 max-damage cap, so a clean headshot lands 125. They hold ten shells to the Gatekeeper's three.

The wiki lists all four as obtainable from Chests and Rare Chests on Nitemare Island. The three Kado Thorne guns have a second source, The Hunt.

The Hunt: a rival, then an Exotic

The Hunt runs on Rivalries, the head-to-head system Battle Royale ran in Chapter 7 Season 2 and dropped in v41.00, brought into Reload for the first time. The wiki's Rivalries page says it is enabled in The Hunt on Nitemare Island, and the Reload page sums up the loop: every player gets a rival to hunt, and eliminating your target grants a random Kado Thorne Exotic before a new wave of rivalries begins.

That is as far as the wiki's documentation goes. It does not say whether The Hunt runs in every Nitemare Island match, or whether Reload keeps the Battle Royale version's timer and map markers. Epic launched the map with a promo video for the modifier, and none of Epic's notes we could find carries rules text for it. So treat the following as what the loop rewards, not as the modifier's full ruleset:

1. Your rival is the fight worth taking. Any elimination shortens the reboot timer of a teammate waiting to come back (see the next section). Your rival is the one that also pays out an Exotic.
2. The prize is random. You might want the AR and get the shotgun. Chests and Rare Chests are your second chance at the one you want.
3. Assume someone is hunting you. Every player has a target, so somebody probably has you.

How reboots work while you hunt

The Hunt only makes sense once you know how Reload brings players back, so here is the short version. Reload does not make you carry a Reboot Card to a van. Per the wiki's Reload page, you come back automatically as long as one member of your squad is alive. Epic's own description of the mode: "Reboot as long as one teammate is still in the action!"

Put that next to The Hunt and every rival you eliminate can do two jobs. It hands you a Kado Thorne Exotic, and if a teammate is waiting to reboot, it takes 4 seconds off their timer. That is a reason to chase rivals early, while reboots are still on.

Ranked Season 11 rewards

Reload Ranked reset with the new season. The wiki logs Ranked Season 11 starting October 8, and Epic's post the day before read "Reload Rank reset is tomorrow!" The rank rewards unlock when you enter a Ranked Reload match at that rank:

The Ranked rotation is the same three maps as casual, so a Ranked session will put you on Stranger Things and Surf City as well as Nitemare Island. The wiki's Chapter 7 Season 4 Ranked quest page, which holds both Reload seasons' rewards, lists an end date of October 31. How Ranked scores placement and eliminations is in our Ranked guide.

Map Mastery: 12 quests to the pickaxe

Map Mastery is the second track, and it is per map. The wiki says only the quests for maps currently in rotation are enabled, so right now that means Nitemare Island, Surf City and Stranger Things. Each map has the same four tiers:

Two discrepancies. Beebom's list puts the Victory Royale quest at 3 rather than the wiki's 2, and it asks for Top 5 finishes on all three maps, where the wiki has Top 10 on Nitemare Island and Surf City. Check both numbers in your own quest tab. By the wiki's figures, a full map is worth 55,000 XP, and all three maps in rotation are worth 165,000 XP. Our XP guide covers where that sits among the other sources.

The cosmetics come from the total number of Map Mastery quests you have completed:

Beebom lists four quests per map, which makes twelve across the three maps in rotation, so while the rotation stays at three maps the Driver of Darkness Pickaxe takes every tier on all of them. (The wiki also lists Map Mastery quests for Squid Grounds and the other benched maps, so a map joining the rotation would add quests to choose from.) That includes two Victory Royales, or three by Beebom's count, on 24-player Stranger Things. The wiki also lists a fifth "all quests completed" entry per map and does not say whether those count toward the 12. If they do, the pickaxe gets easier. Plan as if they do not.

Quick Action Checklist

• Drop Spooky Suburbs if your squad wants to gear fast. Its 95 recorded chests are 38% of the island's recorded total, even if those counts predate the refresh
• Hunt your rival while reboots are still on. Each rival elimination hands you a Kado Thorne Exotic and can take 4 seconds off a waiting teammate's reboot timer
• Pick your Siphon gun by range. Deadeye AR for mid-range, Gatekeeper for boxes, Monarch when you can aim
• Carry Myst Form or the Void Oni Mask for rotations; both are Nitemare-only in Reload right now
• Expect three maps, not four. Nitemare Island, Surf City and Stranger Things; Squid Grounds is not in the rotation the wiki lists, despite Epic's notes
• Adjust when Stranger Things comes up. It runs 24 players to the other two maps' 40
• Enter a Gold Ranked Reload match for the first Season 11 reward, the Pale Moon Rising Spray
• Finish all four Map Mastery tiers on all three maps for the Driver of Darkness Pickaxe, and check your own Victory Royale and Top 5/Top 10 targets