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, can hand you a rival, which Epic calls a Mark, the moment you land. Eliminate yours and Kado Thorne pays you a reward of his choosing: at launch always one of his Siphon guns, which heal you as they hit, and since the October 15 update other items too. Then a new Mark arrives with the next Storm circle.

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. This is the full version: the map, its loot and both reward tracks, updated on October 25 for Epic's v42.40 Reload notes of October 15, which changed the map rotation, the reboot timers and what The Hunt pays.

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, its October 8 Reload post, its v42.40 Reload 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.

The map rotation after the Squid Grounds weekend

Nitemare Island launched on October 8 in a three-map rotation with Surf City and Stranger Things. Epic's v42.30 Battle Royale notes had said that on October 8, "Stranger Things and Squid Grounds also join the map rotation," but Epic's own Reload post that day put Squid Grounds later: "Shortly thereafter, Squid Grounds will be making a return to map rotation in place of Surf City!"

That is what happened. Epic's v42.40 Reload notes gave Squid Grounds "an exclusive weekend, October 15–19," and the wiki's rotation log has it running alone from October 15 until Nitemare Island and Stranger Things were re-added on October 19. For the rotation after that weekend, Epic's notes read: "Both Ranked and Unranked players get Nitemare Island, Squid Grounds, and Stranger Things map." As of October 25, the wiki's current casual and Ranked rotations list the same three, with Surf City among the unavailable maps. Player counts are from the wiki's Reload page:

One caution if you have seen a split rotation reported. The wiki's copy of the v42.40 notes, made on October 15, gave Ranked Nitemare Island, Surf City and Stranger Things, and Unranked Squid Grounds, Nitemare Island and Surf City. Epic's own notes give the single set above instead, and that set also matches its October 8 plan and the wiki's rotation tabs.

Surf City, remixed in September when Heatwave Harbor and Squibbly Shores replaced Divey Dam and Breaker Beach, left on October 15 and was not re-added on October 19. Per the wiki's rotation log, Nitemare Island had taken Oasis's slot on October 8 and Stranger Things had taken Springfield's. 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 full lobbies and a much smaller one. Plan drops accordingly.

Nitemare Island-specific loot

The table below is the Fortnite Wiki's Reload loot log for the October 8 launch and its hotfix. Epic's October 8 Reload post lists most of the same items under "Nitemare Island-specific Loot," along with a Vampiric Blade that the wiki says it has not confirmed in the Nitemare Island pool. The wiki's log, though, files everything below except Last Call and Stalkbox under "Nitemare Island & Stranger Things Only." So expect most of it on Stranger Things too, none of it on Squid Grounds, and one more 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 map-specific 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: the Thunder Burst SMG was added, and the Havoc Pump Shotgun and Red-Eye Submachine Gun were vaulted. Epic's v42.40 notes made four more on October 15. The Iron Pump Shotgun and Morphite Tactical Shotgun were unvaulted, and the Twin Hammer Shotguns and the regular Gatekeeper Shotgun were vaulted. Epic says that Gatekeeper is "still available on Nitemare Island"; the wiki's copy of the notes footnotes that it has been fully vaulted. Neither vault touches Kado Thorne's Gatekeeper or the Twin Siphon Shotguns, which are separate items the wiki still lists in Reload.

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 and Stranger Things. The three Kado Thorne guns have a second source, The Hunt, though since October 15 a Hunt win is no longer guaranteed to be one of them.

The Hunt: a Mark, then Kado's reward

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 records it arriving in Reload in v42.30. Epic's October 8 Reload post sets out the rules:

The reward changed on October 15. At launch it was only ever one of Kado Thorne's Siphon weapons, the three Kado guns in the table above. Epic's v42.40 Reload notes say the modifier was adjusted, "enabling more gameplay items to be rewarded with each Hunt win." Epic does not list the new items, and the wiki's Reload page still describes the old payout, a random Kado Thorne Exotic. So treat the following as what the loop rewards, not as a full ruleset:

1. Your Mark is the fight worth taking. Any elimination shortens the reboot timer of a teammate waiting to come back (see the next section). Your Mark is the one that also pays out.
2. The prize is Kado's pick, not yours. Since v42.40 it may not be a Siphon gun at all. If you want a specific Kado weapon, Chests and Rare Chests are the other source.
3. Assume someone is hunting you. A place in The Hunt is a chance, not a given, but whoever is in it gets a fresh Mark every Storm circle, and it could be 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 June 2024 launch post put it this way: "Squaddies reboot in Fortnite Reload, so long as one member of the team remains."

The seconds are Epic's, from its v42.40 Reload notes of October 15. That update added the looting and damage cuts and lengthened the base timer "to accommodate these changes, adding 15 seconds to each game stage phase." Epic's own Duos list does not quite fit that line: it lists six Duos phases against seven before, and its Duos peak rises from 17 to 31, not 32, so take the Duos figures as Epic lists them. The knock, elimination and team-wipe cuts are marked unchanged, and they match Epic's June 2024 launch posts for Squads and Duos. The wiki's Reload page still gives only the Squads knock, elimination and wipe set, without naming a mode.

Put that next to The Hunt and every Mark you eliminate can do two jobs. It pays out Kado's reward, and if a teammate is waiting to reboot, it takes seconds off their timer: 4 in Squads and 3 in Duos, per Epic's v42.40 notes, plus 1 for every 30 damage you deal while they wait. With Squads timers now at 45 to 55 seconds, that is a reason to chase your Mark 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:

Since October 19, Epic's v42.40 notes give Ranked the same three maps as Unranked, so a Ranked session will put you on Squid Grounds and Stranger Things 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 by that rule, since October 19, that means Squid Grounds, Nitemare Island and Stranger Things, with Surf City's switched off. Each map has the same four tiers:

Two discrepancies. Beebom's October 8 list, written for Nitemare Island, Surf City and Stranger Things, 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, Surf City and Squid Grounds, and Top 5 only on Stranger Things. 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 and the wiki both list four tiered 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. That includes two Victory Royales, or three by Beebom's count, on 24-player Stranger Things. By the wiki's rule, the October 19 rotation changed which three: Squid Grounds' quests replace Surf City's. Neither Epic nor the wiki says whether Surf City quests you finished before it left on October 15 still count toward the 12, so check your Map Mastery bonus-goal count before you plan around them. 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 Mark while reboots are still on. Each Mark you eliminate pays a reward of Kado's choosing and takes seconds off a waiting teammate's reboot timer (4 in Squads, 3 in Duos, per Epic's v42.40 notes)
• Loot while a teammate waits. Since October 15, a chest takes 2 seconds off their reboot timer, a rare chest 4, an ammo box 1, and every 30 damage you deal another 1
• 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; Epic lists both as Nitemare Island-specific, and the wiki also has them on Stranger Things
• Expect Squid Grounds, not Surf City. Since October 19, Ranked and Unranked both rotate Nitemare Island, Squid Grounds and Stranger Things, per Epic's v42.40 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 Nitemare Island, Squid Grounds and Stranger Things for the Driver of Darkness Pickaxe, and check your own Victory Royale and Top 5/Top 10 targets