Fortnite Patch Notes Reveal Halloween Event, New Weapon

Fortnite's weekly update has arrived, and boy does it seem to be a big one. Not only does this new patch kick off a Halloween themed event called Fortnitemares in both Save the World and Battle Royale, but it also adds a new weapon and makes some big changes to the game in general. If you were hoping for a beefy patch this week, you certainly got your wish.

First up is the Fortnitemares event, which adds a PvE element to Battle Royale. For the duration of the event, you'll find that cube fragments have spawned throughout the world. Large cube fragments can be found near the corrupted areas of the map, while small cube fragments spawn randomly as a match progresses.

What do you find at the cube fragments? Monsters, of course. You'll be fighting Cube Fiends and Cube Beasts as you seek out these fragments – they have a chance to drop loot when defeated, but beyond that, all varieties of Fiends and Beasts will grant shields when killed. The amount of shield varies from a measly 3 for defeating a basic Cube Fiend up to 20 for defeating a Mega Cube Beast. You'll have help in dispatching them, however, as the Fiend Hunter Crossbow has been added to the game as an epic drop that does quadruple damage to these monsters.

Playground Mode has also received a significant upgrade, with a variety of minigames added. There's the Port-A-Challenge, which is comprised of three different minigames meant to test your building and your accuracy. The Spiky Stadium has also returned with dedicated respawn points and vending machines that dole out grenades and traps. The Port-A-Pirateship minigame that was shown at SXVXN is also available in Playground mode now, splitting players into two teams and tasking them with destroying the other team's pirate ship.

Finally, we come to Fortnite's newest weapon, the Six Shooter. It'll drop in uncommon, rare, and epic variants from floor loot, chests, and vending machines. The Six Shooter deals 34/36/38 damage depending on rarity, and firing from the hip will give you an increased rate of fire at the cost of accuracy.

Those are merely the biggest changes shipping in this week's patch. Epic has made plenty of other tweaks as well – gliders can now be redeployed in all game modes, for instance – so to read more about what's changing, check out the full patch notes.