Fortnite v42.40 Update: New Sprites, Loot Hacks and the Trick or Treat Power Hour Explained

Epic Games has released Fortnite update v42.40, the last major content patch of Chapter 7 Season 4: Override before the season wraps up on October 31. The update adds two new Sprites, six fresh Loot Hacks, a weekend-long Power Hours event built around the Fortnitemares crossover, and a handful of quality-of-life changes. Here is everything Epic confirmed in its official update notes.

1. What's New in Fortnite v42.40

According to Epic's official v42.40 Battle Royale Update Notes, the patch headlines with "new loot to hack, new Sprites to befriend, Power Hours this weekend, and another round of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes." The update went into effect this week, and Epic's companion known issues thread confirms the next fix window lands with v43.00 on November 1 — effectively the start of the next season.

The headline additions are two Sprites, a new wave of Loot Hacks, several vaulted items, one weapon balance pass, the final page of Sprite Mastery rewards, and a scheduled Power Hours event tied to Fortnitemares. Each is detailed below.

2. The Honey Sprite: A Community-Designed Addition

The Honey Sprite is the winning entry from Epic's "Design A Sprite" community contest, in which players submitted their own Sprite concepts for a chance to see them added to the game. Per the official patch notes, equipping the Honey Sprite gives you "a chance to spawn bees at the hit location upon dealing damage with a ranged weapon" — a swarm effect that punishes enemies after you land a shot.

It's a direct follow-up to the Sprite leveling and Mastery system that Epic built out earlier this season, giving the community-designed item a real mechanical niche rather than just a cosmetic effect.

3. The One Wish Willow Sprite: High Risk, High Reward

The second new Sprite, One Wish Willow, ties into the Obsession collab running through Fortnitemares. Its effect, as described in the official notes: "Extract enemies' equipped Sprites upon elimination and push nearby enemies away when damaged. You'll be marked on the map if you remove it, so be careful!"

That last line matters for how you play it. One Wish Willow rewards aggressive players who can convert eliminations into stolen Sprites, but un-equipping it broadcasts your position to the lobby — a deliberate trade-off that pushes players to commit to a fight rather than hot-swap loadouts mid-match.

4. Six New Loot Hacks to Unlock

Loot Hacks let players spend Sprite Dust to unlock specific items for a match. Update v42.40 adds six new entries to the rotation:

• Thorne's Vampiric Blade
• Finger Guns
• Gatekeeper Shotgun
• Hunting Rifle
• Slap Splash
• All Sprite Variants

Making "All Sprite Variants" hackable as a single entry is a meaningful change on its own — it gives players a guaranteed way to target a specific Sprite variant instead of relying purely on Pumpkin Chest drops.

5. What Got Vaulted (and the Lone Balance Change)

Three categories of items left the loot pool with this patch. Vaulted as a Rift Anomaly: Midas' Masterpiece. Vaulted as a Pocket Item: the Witch Broom. And four Match Overrides were removed outright: Super Shot, Big Boom, Action Hero, and Healing Overdrive.

On the balance side, Epic made exactly one adjustment this patch: the Sweeper Shotgun received a slightly increased fire rate. It's a minor tweak compared to the loot pool shakeup, but it's the only weapon change Epic shipped in v42.40.

6. Trick or Treat Sprites Power Hour: October 17 Schedule

Epic also ran a weekend Power Hours event tied to the update, called Trick or Treat Sprites. Per the official notes, the event structure was:

• First round: 2 PM ET / 6 PM UTC on Saturday, October 17
• Second round: 9 PM ET Saturday / 1 AM UTC Sunday, October 18
• Players spawned in with an enhanced Freddy's Nightmare equipped, which grants a speed boost while held
• The Trick or Treat Sprite variant appeared more frequently during the event
• 1-Up Tokens and Portable Extractors had an increased chance to drop from Chests

Freddy's Nightmare — the weapon handed out for free during the event — is normally earned by defeating the Freddy Krueger boss at the Nightmare Neighborhood point of interest, which was added when Fortnitemares 2026 launched on October 1.

7. Quack Sprites and the Final Sprite Mastery Rewards

Update v42.40 also unlocks the last page of Sprite Mastery rewards for the season, which includes the new Quack Sprite and a new Style for the Pixel Polli Outfit. The Quack Sprite's effect, per Epic: it "boosts every Sprite you're carrying with an extra Sprite XP whenever it gains XP" — effectively a multiplier for players who've been stacking multiple Sprites through the Mastery system all season.

Since this is described as the "final page" of rewards, it's a signal that the Sprite Mastery track is wrapping up alongside the rest of Chapter 7 Season 4.

8. Quality-of-Life Changes: Like-for-Like Weapon Upgrades and More

The patch's biggest systemic change is Like-for-Like Weapon Upgrades: if you walk over a higher-rarity version of a weapon you're already carrying, you'll automatically swap up to it, provided the "Auto Pick Up Weapons" setting is toggled on under Settings > Game > Combat.

Other notable fixes and additions from the official notes:

• New Locker sorting options: Most Used, Last Used and Least Used
• A gradual visual redesign is rolling out to Discover, with new tile shapes, playing video previews and a cleaner logo treatment
• Players are no longer stuck in place after defeating and possessing one of the Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics
• A fix for overlapping Cheat Codes at Wonkeeland that previously couldn't be interacted with
• Several PC stability improvements, including a fix for launch crashes on certain AMD video cards

9. How v42.40 Fits Into Fortnitemares 2026

Update v42.40 doesn't introduce a new crossover on its own — it builds on the Chapter 7 Season 4: Override content already in place, and specifically on Fortnitemares 2026, the month-long Halloween event that brought Five Nights at Freddy's, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Beetlejuice, Obsession, Hazbin Hotel, The Purge and other crossovers to Battle Royale, Horde Rush and Reload starting October 1. The official Fortnitemares trailer below covers the event's broader additions, including the Nightmare Neighborhood POI and the Freddy Krueger boss fight.

With Chapter 7 Season 4 scheduled to end on October 31 and v43.00 fixes already earmarked for November 1, v42.40 reads as the season's final major content drop — the Sprite roster, Loot Hack rotation and loot pool are largely set for the rest of the season from here.

10. Quick Tips Recap

• Toggle "Auto Pick Up Weapons" in Settings > Game > Combat to take advantage of Like-for-Like Weapon Upgrades automatically.
• Farm Pumpkin Chests if you're hunting the One Wish Willow or Honey Sprite — both drop from the same Fortnitemares loot source.
• Spend Sprite Dust on the new Loot Hacks, especially "All Sprite Variants," if you're chasing a specific Sprite for Mastery progress.
• Check the Locker's new "Most Used" sort if your item list has grown unwieldy this season.

Official Resources

• Fortnite v42.40 Battle Royale Update Notes (Epic Games)
• The Corruption Spreads in Fortnitemares 2026 (Fortnite.com)
• v42.40 Known Issues and Pre-Release Updates (Epic Developer Community)

For more on this season, see our breakdown of the Chapter 7 Season 4: Override Battle Pass and map changes, or browse the full walkthroughs.net guide archive for more Fortnite coverage.