Fortnitemares 2026: New Overrides, Weapons and Dates

Fortnitemares 2026 went live on Thursday, October 1, with update v42.30, and Epic's Battle Royale notes gave it a hard stop: the event ran "until November 1." That put it across the final weeks of Chapter 7 Season 4.

Update, November 1: Fortnite changed season today with v43.00, Treasure Hunters, which Epic describes as a new Island, Crossbones Isle. This guide is a record of the Fortnitemares event and the Season 4 map it ran on, and its present-tense lines describe the state as of Fortnitemares' last stretch in October. For what v43.00 changed, see our Fortnite Treasure Hunters and Crossbones Isle guide. Epic shipped a mid-event update, v42.40, on October 15. Some of what Epic announced came with the launch update, some arrived later in the month, and a few things changed without a line in Epic's notes at all. This guide keeps those apart. Battle Royale comes first, then the other modes, then the shop. Systems that predate Fortnitemares, such as how Override Consoles, Loot Hacks and Sprite Dust work, are explained in our Override systems guide and are not re-explained here.

Where this comes from: Epic's v42.30 and v42.40 notes on its Fortnite Communities site, which publishes one thread per mode; Epic's Fortnitemares blog post and launch-day roadmap; and the Fortnite Wiki for the numbers Epic does not publish.

Fortnitemares 2026 at a glance

The dates Epic has published

Epic posted the roadmap above on launch day. Put it together with the per-mode update notes, including the mid-event v42.40 notes of October 15, and these are the dates Epic has published:

The roadmap's collaboration tiles name a franchise, not what it adds. Epic's blog post also lists collaborations coming "throughout October" without dates: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Black Clover, Hollow Knight, 99 Nights in the Forest, Hazbin Hotel, The Purge, Obsession, Slender Man, Beetlejuice, Predator: Badlands and Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights.

What v42.40 changed on October 15

Epic's mid-event update, v42.40, went live on October 15. These are the changes that bear on this guide, from Epic's per-mode v42.40 notes. Save the World and LEGO Fortnite Odyssey also got v42.40 notes of their own, which are not covered here.

Two POIs replaced, five new bosses

Epic's Battle Royale notes name one new location, Nightmare Neighborhood, and Epic's blog post adds a second, Freaky Fields. Neither Epic text says what they replaced. The Fortnite Wiki does: Nightmare Neighborhood took the place of The Battlewoods and Freaky Fields took the place of Latte Landing, both on October 1. Epic's own v42.30 bug-fix list still mentions "a tunnel near The Battlewoods," so do not expect the patch notes to tell you a POI has gone.

That mattered if you picked drops from our Chapter 7 Season 4 map post. The Battlewoods had the highest chest count on that table, 81. The wiki recorded 74 chests at Nightmare Neighborhood. Freaky Fields is a haunted farm that the wiki says has appeared annually since 2024; its Chapter 7 page is a stub with no chest count.

Five bosses came with the update. Epic publishes no boss health figures; the health column is the Fortnite Wiki's event page:

Freddy Krueger is the Nightmare Neighborhood boss. Epic's description: "He can hide behind a friendly face, then vanish and reappear close enough to strike." In other words, he comes to you.

The animatronics are the stranger addition. Epic says only that they are "lurking around the Island." The wiki's page for Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, a new landmark, lists two of them as its bosses, Freddy Fazbear and Foxy the Pirate. The wiki's boss pages for Bonnie the Rabbit and Chica the Chicken give the same five spawn points for both, none of them the pizzeria: Lifty Lodge, Golden Grove, Chopped Shop, Carwash, or a building west of Shaken Sanctuary. That fits Epic's wording better. Go to the pizzeria for Freddy or Foxy, and look elsewhere for Bonnie and Chica. The wiki records 17 chests at the pizzeria. It was the unfinished building next to the Arcade landmark, which the wiki places between The Battlewoods and Latte Landing. That puts it between this update's two new POIs.

Beat one and you can possess it. Epic's wording on what happens next is the useful part: "If your health bottoms out while possessing it, you'll have a few seconds where you can't be eliminated before the animatronic shell breaks and you're back in the fight." So the animatronic works as a shell around you. When its health runs out you get a short window in which you cannot be eliminated, then you are yourself again. Epic's v42.40 notes also fixed a bug where you could get stuck after defeating and possessing one. Epic has not published the animatronics' health or attack numbers; the wiki's event page gives each of the four 300 HP. For the general question of when a boss is worth contesting, see our Mythic weapons guide.

The new weapons, and what left the pool

The headline gun is the Bonerattler SMG. Epic's pitch is one line: "Reveal enemies through walls." The wiki explains how. Aiming down sights switches on a purple flashlight that shows an enemy's skeleton through walls in green, out to 25 metres, though not at the very edges of your field of view. It is hitscan and has first-shot accuracy, and by default you can aim down sights while reloading and in midair. Its fire rate was raised from 10.4 to 10.6 in a launch-day hotfix.

Every rarity fires at 10.6 with a 34-round magazine, which works out to 180.2 damage per second at Uncommon and 212 at Legendary. The Exotic Marker version also marks a target on hit, revealing their position to you and your squad. The wiki lists four places it has a chance to come from: a Rare Chest in the vaults at Stone Sanctum or Mega Maze, the duck race at Heatwave Harbor, or the Rare Chest in the attic of the green-roofed house at Nightmare Neighborhood.

The other new items Epic names:

• Freddy's Nightmare, the Freddy Krueger boss drop described above.
• Snack-O'-Lantern Gizmo. Epic's description: "Toss to smash it open and spill a pile of Exotic Candy."

The wiki adds one Epic's notes do not mention: the Easy Ride Pumpkin Launcher, an Exotic Pumpkin Launcher released October 1 that fires a rideable pumpkin rocket. The wiki records it vaulted with v42.40 on October 15.

At launch Epic listed four returning items, the Wood Stake Shotgun, Dual Fiend Hunters, Witch Broom and Heavy Assault Rifle, and unvaulted Quack Snacks. The Witch Broom did not last the event in Battle Royale: Epic's v42.40 notes vaulted it on October 15. The v42.30 notes also added six new Loot Hacks, which Epic said let you "customize your loot pool even more": Last Call, the Infantry Rifle, the Pumpkin Launcher, the Light Machine Gun, Slap Candy Corn and Loot Hacker Sprite variants. That batch has since rotated out. Since October 15 the Loot Hacks are Thorne's Vampiric Blade, Finger Guns, the Gatekeeper Shotgun, the Hunting Rifle, Slap Splash and all Sprite variants, per Epic's v42.40 notes.

v42.30 vaulted three items: the Drum Gun, the Ranger Assault Rifle and the Tetris Rift. All three were Season 4 additions in our Chapter 7 Season 4 weapons post. v42.40 then vaulted Midas' Masterpiece, the Rift Anomaly, on October 15.

v42.30 made one balance change. Rebecca's Guns, the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners weapon from v42.20, got more SMG damage, "including at longer ranges," and less spread and recoil on both the SMG and the Assault Rifle.

If you play Ranked, Epic adds a caution: "Ranked and Competitive playlists will also see a portion of Fortnitemares vaults and unvaults." The notes do not say which portion, so check the pool in your own Ranked match.

Six new Overrides, and the ones switched off

Epic's v42.30 notes name three new Match Overrides, describe two more ("trade shields for extra health, fire pumpkin rockets while shooting weapons") and end with "and more." The Fortnite Wiki's Override tracker fills in the sixth, Sugar Rush, and records each of the six in a match-wide and a Squad version. The descriptions below are the in-game text the wiki records:

The same tracker records something Epic's notes leave out. v42.30 disabled four existing Overrides: Constant Heal, Headshot, Power Pickaxe and Speed Shooter, plus the Squad versions of the last two, and an October 2 hotfix switched off Prop Hunt and Squad Prop Hunt. Epic's v42.40 notes then vaulted four more on October 15, this time in the notes themselves: Super Shot, Big Boom, Action Hero and Healing Overdrive. Epic names only the match-wide versions, and the wiki still lists Squad Big Boom and Squad Super Shot as enabled. Add the match-wide Extra Life, which the wiki records switched off in an August 27 hotfix, and by the wiki's count as of late October, 34 of the 47 released Overrides were enabled. If you were planning around any of these from an older guide, they were not on Override Consoles during Fortnitemares.

Two of the new ones change what you should carry:

1. More Health takes shields away for the whole match if a player claims the match-wide version. Shield Potions lose their point, and anything that restores health becomes the item to hold. Epic's own in-game text says as much: "Might want to grab different healing items." Our healing items tier list sorts them by what they restore.
2. Sugar Rush only pays off if you eat candy, so it was worth knowing where candy came from during the event. The Snack-O'-Lantern spills it, the wiki lists Slap Candy Corn as a Freddy Krueger drop, and the wiki says Trick or Treat Sprite variants can find candy when you open containers. Slap Candy Corn stopped being a Loot Hack after the October 15 refresh.

Spooky Sprinter changes how you read a lobby: in a match where it is active, a player sprinting toward you may be cloaked.

Six new Sprites, two added on October 15

Epic's v42.30 notes said new Pumpkin Chests carry Sprites "scattered across the Island," with more arriving through October, among them the last of the community #DesignASprite winners. Two more arrived with v42.40 on October 15, and Epic's v42.40 notes label one of them, the Honey Sprite, a "Design A Sprite Winner!" Epic does not label the other five; the wiki's Power Hours page also counts Dumpster Dive among the contest's five winners. Rarity and summon cost are from the wiki's Sprite list, and the two October 15 abilities are Epic's v42.40 text:

Both shipped differently from how Epic previewed them in its v42.30 notes. The preview had the Honey Sprite sending bees "after enemies who damage you," but the version that shipped triggers when you deal ranged damage, not when you take it. The second was previewed as the "Obsession Sprite," in which One Wish Willow would "help you collect other Sprites," and it shipped as the One Wish Willow Sprite with the abilities above. Epic's warning on it was blunt: "You'll be marked on the map if you remove it, so be careful!" The wiki puts that mark at a 100-metre-radius area for 20 seconds. Its Sprite list rates the Willow Mythic, though the Willow page's own variant table says Legendary.

v42.40 also opened the final page of Sprite Mastery rewards, with new Quack Sprites. In Epic's words, a Quack Sprite "boosts every Sprite you're carrying with an extra Sprite XP whenever it gains XP."

Per the wiki, each of these Sprites comes in Base, Cheat Master, Gold, Loot Hacker, Bounty Hunter and Trick or Treat variants, and a Trick or Treat variant has a chance to find candy when you open containers. Cheat Codes have become Trick or Treat Cheats: input one and, in Epic's words, "maybe you'll get an extra treat alongside your Sprite." Cheat Codes could be heard from farther away.

Epic's update notes cover two Saturdays of Power Hours during the event, each at 2 PM ET (6 PM UTC) with a second round at 9 PM ET (1 AM UTC Sunday). On October 3 everyone dropped in with the Dual Fiend Hunters, Bounty Hunter Sprites appeared more often, and 1-Up Tokens and Portable Extractors could drop from Chests. On October 17 everyone dropped in with an enhanced Freddy's Nightmare, the Trick or Treat variant appeared more often, and the same 1-Up Token and Portable Extractor drops were on. The Fortnite Wiki's Power Hours page records two more Saturdays at the same times that Epic's notes do not cover: on October 10 everyone started with a Mythic Witch Broom, and on October 24 everyone started as a Five Nights at Freddy's animatronic carrying Finger Guns, with the five Design A Sprite winners spawning more often.

Sprites did not end with Fortnitemares. Epic's v43.00 notes say Sprites continue in the Treasure Hunters update, with new Sprites, double Sprite XP and Sprite Dust on Mondays and the Sprite Mastery Track returning. Details are in our Treasure Hunters guide.

Horde Rush, Blitz and Reload

Horde Rush is the returning Fortnitemares limited-time mode. Epic describes it as squads against waves of Cube Monsters: you build a loadout around perks, buy and upgrade weapons, take on surprise encounters, and can raise the challenge at Cursed Shrines. Beat the final boss and the run carries into an Endless Mode.

Blitz Royale gets a Fortnitemares loot rotation in Epic's separate Blitz notes, running alongside its normal pool:

• Battle Bus loadouts: Wood Stake Shotgun, Pump Shotgun, Makeshift Revolver, Striker Assault Rifle, Bonerattler SMG or Tactical Submachine Gun, with Hop Drops and Peppermints.
• Gold Chests: the Chainsaw, Myst Form, Last Call and Freddy's Nightmare.
• Gold Llamas and Gold Supply Drops: the themed items plus the Pumpkin Launcher and higher-rarity seasonal weapons.

Last Call is the twist. Equipping it makes you Ghost Face, and in Epic's words you "eliminate its wielder to take the weapon, and the role, for yourself." The v42.30 Blitz notes list no map change, so the map is Venture, the same island our Blitz Royale guide describes.

Reload opened the event on a two-step schedule. The Steady Storm modifier, which removes the waits between storm phases, stayed on until Monday, October 5 at 7 AM ET as the Springfield season ended. Then on October 8, Epic launched Nitemare Island: Kado's Curse as a new Reload season, with new Ranked and Map Mastery rewards. Epic says Elite Kado Thorne is "calling the shots," and promised "Siphon loot galore that restores health as you deal damage."

The map rotation did not go the way the launch notes said. Epic's v42.30 Battle Royale notes had Stranger Things and Squid Grounds joining the rotation on October 8, but Epic's October 8 Reload post put Nitemare Island alongside Stranger Things and Surf City, with Squid Grounds coming "shortly thereafter" in place of Surf City. Epic's v42.40 Reload notes then gave Squid Grounds an exclusive weekend from October 15 to 19, after which both Ranked and Unranked Reload rotate Nitemare Island, Squid Grounds and Stranger Things. The Fortnite Wiki's rotation log records the switch on October 19 and lists Surf City as out of rotation. Epic's v43.00 Battle Royale notes do not mention Reload, so this post makes no claim about its state after October. Our Reload guide covers how the mode works, and our Siphon explainer covers the classic version of the mechanic, which heals you on eliminations rather than on damage.

Quieter changes in Battle Royale and Zero Build

These sit in the bug-fix half of Epic's v42.30 notes and are easy to miss:

• Item pickup now prefers what you can use. When several items are in line of sight, ammo and materials you are full on, and consumables you already hold a full stack of, are no longer picked up first.
• Scroll-wheel pickups lost their speed edge. Epic says scroll-wheel pickups "gave a significant speed advantage when looting," and pickup speed is now more consistent across input methods. If you bound pickup to the scroll wheel to win loot races, Epic has evened that out. The inventory habits in our inventory management guide still apply.
• Reboot Vans no longer drive. Drivable Reboot Vans have been replaced with stationary ones.
• The Mega Buster no longer hits through walls. Epic fixed it sometimes dealing damage through them.
• On PC, Epic Quality Assets replaces High Resolution Textures. It is a new option in the Epic Games Launcher (the three dots on the Fortnite icon in your Library, then Options) that downloads Epic-quality map terrain and objects instead of streaming them. Cosmetics still download on demand. If you had High Resolution Textures installed, Epic says you are switched over automatically. Our performance guide covers the rest of the PC settings.

OG, Arenas, LEGO and Save the World

v42.30 also updated the other modes, and not all of it is Halloween. Where v42.40 has changed something since, it is noted:

• Fortnite OG: Epic's OG notes say "Gotham City is gone, and the Wild West settlement of Tilted Town now stands in its place," as of October 1. Inside town limits you cannot build or destroy structures. Four weapons are unvaulted for Tilted Town only: the Hunting Rifle, Infantry Rifle, Six Shooter and Double Barrel Shotgun. Epic's v42.40 OG notes added two Rift Zones on October 15: Retail Row in place of Mega Mall, and Moisty Palms in place of Paradise Palms. Our OG mode guide covers the mode itself.
• Arenas: v42.30 opened a new Ranked season with ranks reset. Overtime closes with a cube-shaped storm, building is enabled in Overtime, and Neutral Edit is turned off when it starts. At launch the storm always closed on the center of the room; since v42.40 on October 15 it "closes on a different endpoint each round, anywhere within the room," and Epic has re-enabled all of the Combat Rooms. v42.40 also cut Ranked Solos to 12 players and Ranked Duos to 8 players (4 Duos), which Epic calls "a temporary measure." On tournaments, Epic's v42.30 notes say only that standard Arenas tournaments "will continue alongside a new addition, Fight Nights," announced at the FNCS Global Championship, with no date. The v42.30 Arenas pool vaulted the Ranger Assault Rifle, Tactical Assault Rifle, Oni Shotgun, Sentinel Pump Shotgun, Flopper and Slapperoni Pizza, and v42.40 published a new pool.
• LEGO Fortnite Odyssey: the Shatter Sanctum portal at the Monastery of Spinjitzu was open until October 8 at 4 AM EDT; beating the Shatter Spawn earned the Sword of FIRE and the Scythe of QUAKES. More in our LEGO Fortnite Odyssey guide.
• Save the World: the Bladey Acres questline returned and ran until October 28, 2026, and finishing it earned the Mythic Raven Hero. More in our Save the World guide.

The Item Shop side

The Five Nights at Freddy's set went into the Shop on October 1, and Epic says the outfits "show battle damage." The wiki's October 2 Shop record gives the prices:

That 4,500 bundle price matches the Kingdom Hearts bundle from v42.20. The Kingdom Hearts skins themselves are gone: the wiki's October 2 Shop record lists none of the four, and its September 30 record had all of them. How Shop rotation and returns work is in our V-Bucks and Item Shop guide.

There is a free reward too. The wiki lists the Jack-a-Nape Outfit, an Epic-rarity clockwork chimp, as a Fortnitemares 2026 quest reward, alongside the Wind-Up Key Back Bling and the Jack's Tambourine Pickaxe. As of October 25 the wiki still marks the outfit unreleased and has not published the quest steps.

Quick Action Checklist

The event's end date has passed and Fortnite is on v43.00, so this is a recap of what the October version of Fortnite asked of you, not a to-do list for today.

• Epic's end date for Fortnitemares was November 1, the day v43.00 Treasure Hunters launched
• In October, drops at The Battlewoods or Latte Landing were gone. Nightmare Neighborhood and Freaky Fields replaced them on October 1
• Beat Freddy Krueger at Nightmare Neighborhood for Freddy's Nightmare, a teleport-and-slash Legendary; the wiki gives him 1,000 HP
• Possess an animatronic. The wiki puts Freddy Fazbear and Foxy at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria; when the shell breaks you get a few seconds in which you cannot be eliminated
• Aim down sights with the Bonerattler SMG to see skeletons through walls out to 25 metres
• Hold health items, not shields, if More Health is claimed. It removes shields and doubles health
• In October, Constant Heal, Headshot, Power Pickaxe, Speed Shooter or the original Prop Hunt were off Override Consoles (the wiki recorded them disabled; Spooky Prop Hunt was on), as were Super Shot, Big Boom, Action Hero and Healing Overdrive, which Epic vaulted on October 15
• The Witch Broom left Battle Royale on October 15, when Epic vaulted it
• The Honey and One Wish Willow Sprites arrived October 15, and removing the Willow marked you on the map
• The October 15 Loot Hack batch was Thorne's Vampiric Blade, Finger Guns, the Gatekeeper Shotgun, the Hunting Rifle, Slap Splash and all Sprite variants
• Squid Grounds joined Reload's rotation after its October 15 to 19 weekend; Ranked and Unranked both rotated Nitemare Island, Squid Grounds and Stranger Things
• Save the World's Bladey Acres questline ran until October 28, per Epic's notes