The servers of Fortnite will go offline for a patch on Thursday, October 15, 2026. What you should know about the server downtime and the contents of Update 42.40 can be found at MeinMMO.
Thursday, 15.10.2026
12:00 PM
And with that, we conclude our ticker and wish you lots of fun with the rest of the spooky season! Thank you for being with us!
11:45 AM
And here come the highlights of the patch notes for you:
Loot and Equipment
- New in the game: Thorn’s Vampiric Blade, Finger Pistols, Gatekeeper Shotgun, Hunting Rifle, Boost Pack, and all ghost variants.
- Moved to the depot: Midas’ Masterpiece, Witch Broom, and various overrides such as Big Bang or Healing Overdrive.
- Weapon adjustment: The Cleanup Shotgun now has a slightly increased rate of fire.
Ghosts and Events
- New companions: The Honey Ghost summons bees on ranged hits. The One Wish Willow Ghost steals equipped ghosts of defeated foes and pushes enemies back when taking damage, but marks you on the map when removed.
- Progress: The last page of ghost mastery is available, including the Pixel Polly style and the Quack Ghost, which grants you additional ghost XP.
- Power Hour on October 17: You start directly with Freddy’s Nightmare weapon, benefit from more frequent Trick-or-Treat ghosts, and can loot 1-Up Tokens and Extractors from chests.
Gameplay and Menu Navigation
- Automatic upgrade: If you walk over a rarer version of your currently equipped weapon, it will automatically be swapped.
- Locker optimization: You can now sort items by frequency and last used. Additionally, the random selection works reliably again.
- Discover Tab: The menu is gradually receiving a fresh design with new tiles, a clean look, and autoplay videos.
Important Bug Fixes
- Nintendo Switch 2: Vulnerabilities when breaking objects are now displayed correctly again.
- Game mechanics: You will no longer get stuck after taking over a Freddy animatronic or when gliding shortly before landing. The area damage of the Mega Buster triggers again as intended.
- Field of view: The heads of outfits like Bugs Bunny, Sonic, or Ironmouse have been reduced in size in big-head mode so that they don’t obstruct your view while aiming.
- Controls: The simultaneous use of mouse and controller works smoothly again.
- Cosmetics: Numerous texture, clipping, and animation errors with skins like Madison Beer, Ironmouse, Skillet, and the Guardian have been fixed.
You can find the complete overview below in the article.
11:39 AM
The servers are back online! I repeat: The servers are back online! You can now dive into the update.
11:35 AM
The planned end at 11:30 AM CEST seems to be delayed. We continue to test and see when you can play again and enjoy the update.
11:30 AM
It seems the planned maintenance time was not sufficient, as the servers are still offline. We are keeping an eye out.
11:27 AM
HYPEX has discovered that there are new songs to listen to soon:
11:24 AM
@FortniteFNKL shows you the free sprites that you can earn:
11:20 AM
The servers are still offline. We remain vigilant and will notify you as soon as that changes.
11:07 AM
HYPEX shows you the new voice lines:
11:00 AM
The servers are unfortunately still offline. According to plan, maintenance should end around 11:30 AM CEST.
We keep an eye out if you might get access earlier or if there are delays.
10:55 AM
Here you can see the Beetlejuice skin and the associated cosmetics:
10:46 AM
The infamous Slender Man is also coming with this update:
10:43 AM
@Guille_GAG also shows you the new sidekicks in a video:
10:40 AM
With this update, you can again earn free rewards. @Guille_GAG has compiled them for you in a post:
10:36 AM
HYPEX shows you an animated teaser for the collaboration with One Piece. The crate looks really cool. What could be inside?
10:33 AM
@FortniteFNLK shows you the new lobby screen for LEGO:
10:29 AM
Here’s a video of all the new cosmetics from Shiina:
10:27 AM
Shiina shares that there will be a new set for Obsession.
10:25 AM
Leaker HYPEX shows you the new YEAT emotes:
10:23 AM
@Guille_GAG shows you all the new sprites:
10:21 AM
According to leaker FortniteFNLK, the collaboration with anime One Piece has now been confirmed!
10:15 AM
Leaker Shiina shows you the new lore loading screen.
10:05 AM
According to Epic Games the maintenance will last approximately 1.5 hours. Thus, the servers should be accessible again around 11:30 AM CEST. Let’s hope everything goes smoothly.
10:00 AM
The servers are now being taken offline.
You will not be able to access the game and must wait until the update is installed. Meanwhile, we will keep an eye out for the most exciting leaks and server status for you.
9:30 AM
The matchmaking is now ending. Server maintenance is expected to begin in about 30 minutes.
Leaker Shiina has already discovered that there will be a new story moment in the update:
9:00 AM
Remember: In approximately 30 minutes, matchmaking will end. So make sure to finish your rounds in a timely manner.
8:30 AM
If you need something to do during the wait, besides the ticker: You could try to beat the highscores of our mini-game.
8:00 AM
Good morning! Pack your pumpkins and vampire teeth! Today comes the last update of Season 4 and brings once again spooky Halloween content.
- The server maintenance will begin around 10:00 AM CEST.
- The matchmaking will end at around 9:30 AM CEST.
So make sure to finish your rounds beforehand to avoid being unceremoniously kicked out.
We will accompany the downtime with appropriate leaks about the update so you can know what to look forward to.
Fortnite: What you need to know about the server maintenance on October 15, 2026
What happens during the server downtime? The servers will be shut down. During this time you will not be able to play Fortnite.
When does the server downtime in Fortnite start? The servers are expected to be shut down on October 15, 2026, at around 10:00 AM CEST. Shortly before (about half an hour, around 09:30 AM CEST), matchmaking will be disabled.
When can I play Fortnite again? It depends on the size of the update and the length of the downtime. Depending on the size of the update, it usually takes between 1 – 3 hours. Therefore, you will usually be able to play again between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM. We will keep an eye on how it unfolds for you in the ticker.
What content is coming in Patch 42.40? In the last update of Season 4, there will once again be Halloween-themed collaborations. There may also be the first teasers for upcoming collaborations. We will accompany the server downtime with relevant leaks so that you know what to expect.
Fortnite: Update 42.40 – Patch Notes in English
LOOT SELECTION AND OVERRIDE UPDATES
NEW LOOT HACKS
A new wave of loot is ready to be hacked, including finger pistols. Bang, bang! 👉👉
- Thorn’s Vampiric Blade
- Finger Pistols
- Gatekeeper Shotgun
- Hunting Rifle
- Boost Pack
- All Ghost Variants
IN DEPOT
- Midas’ Masterpiece (Ris Anomaly)
- Witch Broom (Pocket Item)
- Camera Settings Override, Big Bang, Action Hero, Healing Overdrive (Overrides)
ACCOUNT BALANCE ADJUSTMENTS
- Cleanup Shotgun: Rate of fire slightly increased.
NEW GHOSTS & REWARDS
- Honey Ghost (Winner of “Design A Sprite”): Chance to cause bees to appear at the hit location when dealing damage with a ranged weapon.
- One Wish Willow Ghost: Extract enemies’ equipped ghosts upon elimination and push nearby enemies back when taking damage. When removed, you will be marked on the map – so be careful!
The last page of ghost mastery rewards is now available, including new Quack Ghosts and a new style for the Pixel Polly outfit! Quack Ghost grants additional ghost XP to every ghost you carry when it gains XP.
Power Hours: Trick-or-Treat Ghosts | October 17
This Saturday, October 17, the hunt begins – everyone dives into the fray with an enhanced Freddy’s Nightmare in their hands. Don’t doze off.
🕑 Starts at 8:00 PM CEST
🕘 The second round starts at 3:00 AM CEST
- Freddy’s Nightmare is yours from the start – move faster while it’s equipped and slice the unwary.
- Trick or Treat! Ghost variant appears more frequently.
- 1-Up Tokens and Portable Extractors can drop from chests.
Bug Fixes, Improvements & Adjustments
General
- Vulnerabilities appear on Nintendo Switch 2 again when you hit a destructible object.
- A problem was fixed that caused the setting “Lock input method to mouse” to prevent controller and mouse input from working properly together.
- The slurp shimmer effect of the shield potion no longer incorrectly remains on your character until the end of the match.
Cosmetic
- New sorting options added for the locker – sort your items by “Most Used”, “Last Used”, and “Least Used”.
- A problem was fixed, which caused random locker presets and gear to not mix correctly when joining the next match via “Play Again”.
- The “Set Randomly” option in the locker now reliably sets the equipped item randomly.
- A problem was fixed that showed white highlights on the hair of both Madison Beer outfits.
- Both Madison Beer outfits now properly animate expressions on mobile devices when emoting.
- The “Air Pilot” style is now displayed correctly on the outfit “The Guardian”.
- The back accessory “Ironmouse Worm” is no longer obscured by Decora Ironmouse’s hair.
- Skillet’s head wear no longer disappears on high graphics when certain emotes are used.
- The missing name and description for the Porsche 911 Turbo in the locker have been added.
- The pickaxe “FNCS Scythe” is now correctly listed as part of the FNCS set.
- The shimmer of Gold Punk no longer appears jagged around the mouth and right eye socket.
- The faces of characters no longer appear distorted at the end of the emote “Test Your Might”.
- The contrail from the Shali Heely shoes no longer appears darker on the right foot.
- The emote “Sugar on My Tongue” now appears when you filter locker by emotes.
- In the descriptions of the pickaxe and back accessory “2D’s Mic”, now it states “New selectable styles!”.
Discover
- Discover has a new look! With today’s update, you may notice a refreshed Discover – rolling out gradually and reaching more and more players over time. Look forward to more expressive tiles and modules, videos that play automatically while browsing, a cleaner logo design, new tile shapes, and more. Let us know what you think!
Gameplay & Environment
- Equivalent Weapon Upgrades
- Walk over a version with a higher frequency tier of a weapon you are carrying, and it will automatically swap!
- To try this out, go to Settings > Game > Combat System and ensure “Automatically pick up weapons” is enabled.
- Walk over a version with a higher frequency tier of a weapon you are carrying, and it will automatically swap!
- When you hold down the sprint button while moving sideways and then run forward again, sprint is triggered correctly.
- A problem was fixed that slowed down sideways movement when setting the forward diagonal angle to 77 or higher.
- The charged shot of the Mega Buster triggers area damage correctly again.
- You will no longer get stuck after defeating and taking over one of Freddy’s animatronics.
- A problem was fixed in which the object hunting override did not visually transform you into an object upon first use.
- A problem was fixed in which the Hunter and Gatherer override played the enemy marking sound in a loop while you were in the storm.
- A bug was fixed where you could get stuck while rolling if you deployed your glider just before hitting the terrain at Stone Sanctum.
- A problem was fixed where custom keyboard mappings for certain vehicles in the game were not being applied and reverted to the default mapping.
- The head sizes of some outfits (e.g., Bugs Bunny, Sonic the Hedgehog, Decora Ironmouse) were slightly reduced to prevent them from blocking your view while aiming in big-head mode.
- Overlapping cheat codes in Wonkeeland that could not be interacted with have been fixed.
- A cheat code in Golden Grove that could not be reached in Zero Build was moved.
- The Guardian no longer appears as a hired companion under the terrain.
- A problem in Horde Rush was fixed where the Firestorm SMG was not fully displayed when found as ground loot.
User Interface
- The gadget selection no longer overlaps and does not stop working when visiting Geno’s Machine.
PC
- Additional stability improvements have been made.
- The error reporting on Intel graphics has improved when GPU crash debugging is enabled in graphics settings.
- Crashes on startup that could occur on certain AMD graphics have been fixed.
- A problem was fixed where some players were experiencing delayed hotfixes.
Mobile
- Auto-fire no longer incorrectly triggers when the loot hack menu is open.
- A problem was fixed where the push notification that a download had completed never arrived.
- The UI for ghost and override effects can now be repositioned in the HUD layout tool to prevent overlaps with custom layouts.
- A problem was fixed where restart buses could not be activated by tapping their on-screen symbol.
We will monitor the server downtime live for you, providing you with the most important information and leaks. Have you just started with Fortnite and are still a total beginner? Then we have 6 tips that will improve your skills in the game for you: 6 quick tips in Fortnite that will make you better right away
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