Fortnite v42.40 Is Live: Bee Swarms, Sprite Thieves and a Freddy-Powered Power Hours
Fortnite's v42.40 update is out now, and it's the last big drop before Chapter 7 Season 4 wraps up on October 31. It adds two final Sprites for the season, six new Loot Hacks and a Saturday Power Hours event built around Freddy's Nightmare glove. Here's what's changed.
Two last Sprites for the season
The headline additions are a pair of Sprites. The Honey Sprite is the winner of Epic's community Design A Sprite contest. Land ranged damage while carrying it and there's a chance a swarm of bees spawns where your shot hit.
The second new Sprite ties into the horror film Obsession, part of this year's Fortnitemares lineup. Epic's notes list it as the One Wish Willow Sprite. It's built for stealing: eliminate an enemy and it pulls their equipped Sprites out for you to grab. It also knocks nearby enemies back when you take damage. The catch is that removing it marks you on the map, so dropping it mid-fight gives away your position.
Sprite Mastery also gets its final page. It adds Quack Sprites, which give bonus Sprite XP to every Sprite you carry whenever they level up, plus a new style for the Pixel Polli outfit.
Loot pool shake-up
Six new Loot Hacks are in: Thorne's Vampiric Blade, Finger Guns, the Gatekeeper Shotgun, the Hunting Rifle, Slap Splash and all Sprite variants. Heading into the vault are Midas' Masterpiece (the Rift Anomaly), the Witch Broom pocket item and four Match Overrides: Super Shot, Big Boom, Action Hero and Healing Overdrive.
There's one balance tweak worth noting. The Sweeper Shotgun now fires slightly faster. Epic didn't share exact numbers.
Power Hours: Trick or Treat Sprites
Clear some time on Saturday, October 17. Power Hours runs twice: from 2 PM ET (6 PM UTC), then again from 9 PM ET (1 AM UTC Sunday). During each round:
- Everyone drops in already holding Freddy's Nightmare, which boosts movement speed.
- The Trick or Treat Sprite variant spawns more often.
- Chests can drop 1-Up Tokens and Portable Extractors.
Quality-of-life changes
A few smaller fixes will matter day to day. You can now sort your Locker by Most Used, Last Used or Least Used. A new Like-for-Like Weapon Upgrades option swaps you to a higher-rarity version of a weapon you're already carrying, as long as Auto Pick Up Weapons is on. A redesigned Discover screen is also rolling out gradually, so not everyone will see it right away.
Epic also fixed a list of bugs, including sprint-while-strafing issues, Weak Points on destructible objects on Nintendo Switch 2, and an unreachable Cheat Code at Golden Grove in Zero Build.
Fortnitemares rolls on
Outlets report new Fortnitemares quests that reward the Jack-A-Nape outfit, plus new Kado Thorne quests. FRVR also reports a free Cuddlz Back Bling for completing 10 "Safety in Numbers" quests on creator-made islands.
Other crossovers named by dataminers, including Hazbin Hotel, Slender Man, Beetlejuice and The Purge, don't have confirmed dates from Epic yet. Treat them as expected, not guaranteed. The same goes for the giant pirate chest east of Sunken Shores. Leakers are reading it as an early One Piece tease, but Epic hasn't confirmed a collab.
With just over two weeks left in the season, v42.40 is the last chance to finish your Sprite collection. Grab the Honey Sprite and save Saturday evening for Power Hours.