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 give it a hard stop: the event runs "until November 1." That puts it across the last month of Chapter 7 Season 4, which the Fortnite Wiki has ending on October 31.

The event is one day old as of this writing. Some of what Epic announced is live, some is dated for later in the month, and a few things changed without a line in Epic's notes at all. This guide keeps those three apart. Battle Royale comes first, then the other modes, then the shop. Systems that predate this update, 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 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 and these are the dates Epic has published so far:

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.

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 matters if you pick drops from our Chapter 7 Season 4 map post. The Battlewoods had the highest chest count on that table, 81. Nightmare Neighborhood has no chest count on the wiki yet. Freaky Fields is a haunted farm that the wiki says has appeared annually since 2024; its Chapter 7 page is a stub with no loot data.

Five bosses came with the update:

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 all four as its bosses: Freddy, Bonnie and Chica on the dining-room stage, Foxy in Pirate's Cove beside it. The wiki is not consistent, though. Its Bonnie the Rabbit boss entry gives his location as random places around the map, which fits Epic's wording better. Start at the pizzeria, but do not assume all four stay there. 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 has not published the animatronics' health or attack numbers. The wiki's Bonnie entry lists 300 HP, and it has no boss figures for the other three yet. 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 three places it has a chance to come from: a Rare Chest in the vaults at Stone Sanctum or Mega Maze, or the duck race at Heatwave Harbor.

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.

Epic lists four returning items, the Wood Stake Shotgun, Dual Fiend Hunters, Witch Broom and Heavy Assault Rifle, and unvaults Quack Snacks. Epic also adds six new Loot Hacks, which it says 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.

Three items were vaulted: 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, so that list is now three items shorter.

One balance change landed. 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, four switched off

Epic's 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. By the wiki's count that leaves 40 of the 47 released Overrides enabled. If you were planning around one of those four from an older guide, do not expect it on a console for now.

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 is worth knowing where candy comes from this month. The Snack-O'-Lantern spills it, and Slap Candy Corn is one of the new Loot Hacks.

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

Four new Sprites now, two more on October 15

Epic's notes say new Pumpkin Chests carry Sprites "scattered across the Island," with more arriving through October, among them the last of the community #DesignASprite winners. Epic does not say which of the six are community designs. Rarity and summon cost are from the wiki's Sprite list:

Per the wiki, each of the four live Sprites comes in Base, Cheat Master, Gold, Loot Hacker and Bounty Hunter variants. 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 can now be heard from farther away.

Epic has scheduled a Power Hour on Saturday, October 3, at 2 PM ET (6 PM UTC) with a second round at 9 PM ET (1 AM UTC Sunday). Everyone drops in with the Dual Fiend Hunters, Bounty Hunter Sprites appear more often, and 1-Up Tokens and Portable Extractors may drop from Chests. Bounty Hunter Sprites level up from eliminations, so it is a fighting window rather than a looting one.

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 map is still Venture, the same island our Blitz Royale guide describes. The v42.30 Blitz notes list no map change.

Reload runs on a two-step schedule. The Steady Storm modifier, which removes the waits between storm phases, is on until Monday, October 5 at 7 AM ET as the Springfield season ends. Then on October 8, Epic launches 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 promises "Siphon loot galore that restores health as you deal damage." Stranger Things and Squid Grounds join the map rotation the same day. 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 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:

• 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. Our OG mode guide covers the mode itself.
• Arenas: a new Ranked season with ranks reset. Overtime now closes with a cube-shaped storm, building is enabled in Overtime, and Neutral Edit is turned off when it starts. Fight Nights, announced at the FNCS Global Championship, join the standard Arenas tournaments. The Arenas pool vaulted the Ranger Assault Rifle, Tactical Assault Rifle, Oni Shotgun, Sentinel Pump Shotgun, Flopper and Slapperoni Pizza.
• LEGO Fortnite Odyssey: the Shatter Sanctum portal at the Monastery of Spinjitzu is open until October 8 at 4 AM EDT; beating the Shatter Spawn earns the Sword of FIRE and the Scythe of QUAKES. More in our LEGO Fortnite Odyssey guide.
• Save the World: the Bladey Acres questline is back until October 28, and finishing it earns 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. The wiki has not yet published the quest steps.

Quick Action Checklist

• Plan around November 1. That is Epic's end date for Fortnitemares; the wiki has Season 4 ending October 31
• Stop planning drops at The Battlewoods or Latte Landing. 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
• Possess an animatronic. Start looking 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
• Stop expecting Constant Heal, Headshot, Power Pickaxe or Speed Shooter on Override Consoles; the wiki records them disabled
• Open Pumpkin Chests for the new Sprites, and expect Honey and Obsession on October 15
• Play the October 3 Power Hour at 2 PM ET or 9 PM ET for Bounty Hunter Sprites and the Dual Fiend Hunters
• Finish Reload's Springfield Ranked and Map Mastery rewards before October 8, when Nitemare Island starts a new Reload season