Epic Games rolled out Fortnite update v40.20 on April 16, 2026. It is one of the bigger mid-season patches in Chapter 7 Season 2, covering Battle Royale, Reload, Festival, LEGO, and Save the World.
Servers went down at 4 AM ET on April 16. Matchmaking was disabled 30 minutes earlier, at 3:30 AM ET. Downtime lasted roughly three hours, with servers back online around 7 AM ET.
Showdown Act 2: The Elites
Act 1 of the Showdown Rivalries concluded with Team Ice King defeating Team Foundation. Act 2, titled The Elites, is now live. The story shifts focus to Daigo and the Elites returning to the island, with Jules taking over the versus section of the Battle Pass.
Both teams can unlock new weapons and items by completing Rivalry milestones.
Team Ice King unlocks:
- New Revolver
- Recon Scanner
- Reforged Infinity Blade
- Slipstreams
Team Foundation unlocks:
- Super Shredder Shotgun
- New Building Mechanic
- New Projectile Launcher
- New Sanctuary POI Update
New Exotic weapons are also available at Rivalry Machines on the map. Players earn coins by winning duel challenges against other players, then spend those coins at the machines to buy the new weapons. The Eradicator O.X.R. Rifle is one of the new Exotics added to the loot pool this way.
Showdown Act 2 is the second of three acts this season. It will be followed by an Epilogue and a season-ending live event.
Fortnite Reload: Elite Stronghold Map
The Elite Stronghold is a new Reload map added in v40.20. It is set in the Elites’ base of operations and is designed around faster, more compact combat.
Players ranked Elite or higher in Fortnite Reload get early access starting April 18. The map opens to everyone else on April 20.
Save the World Goes Free-to-Play
This is the biggest change in v40.20. Save the World, Fortnite‘s original co-op PvE mode, is now free for all players.
Previously, access required a Founder’s Pack or a Save the World Quest Pack. The mode was in early access until 2020 before becoming a paid product. As of today, it is free and permanent.
Players who already owned the mode before this update keep their Founder benefits, including V-Bucks earned through Daily Quests, Mission Alerts, Storm Shield Defense Missions, and existing Challenges. New players will earn X-Ray Tickets for progression instead of V-Bucks.
As a thank-you to existing players, Epic gave the following rewards on April 16:
- 1x Hero Supercharger
- 1x Weapon Supercharger
- 1x Trap Supercharger
- 5x Survivor Superchargers
- 1x Hero Recruitment Voucher
- 1x Weapon Research Voucher
- 10,000 Gold
All players who load into Save the World for the first time also receive the Snowstrike Hero, tied to a community milestone event that reached its final goal.
