Fortnitemares 2026: Every Confirmed Collab and Map Change in Fortnite
Fortnitemares 2026 launched October 1 with Five Nights at Freddy's, and Epic has now confirmed Freddy Krueger, Slender Man, Beetlejuice, Black Clover's Asta and more for the rest of the event. Here's every confirmed collab, map change and returning mode.
Fortnitemares 2026 is now live in Fortnite, and the opening days of the event have confirmed a horror roster far bigger than just the Five Nights at Freddy's crossover that headlined launch day. Epic Games has now put names to most of the masks: Freddy Krueger, Slender Man, Beetlejuice, Black Clover's Asta and more are either already in the item shop or locked in for the rest of October.
Here is everything Epic has officially confirmed for Fortnitemares 2026 so far — the collabs, the map changes, the returning game mode, and what's still to come before the event wraps at the end of the month.
1. When Fortnitemares 2026 Started and How Long It Runs
Fortnitemares 2026 went live on Thursday, October 1, once the downtime for the v42.30 update ended, making it the earliest start for the annual Halloween event in the game's history. The event sits inside the current Chapter 7 Season 4: Override battle pass season and is scheduled to run through the end of October.
Epic teased the event nine days out with an official post from the @Fortnite account reading "Nitemares really do come true," alongside the first look at this year's key art and its tagline, "The game is cursed." The October 1 start also makes this the earliest Fortnitemares has ever begun — the 2025 edition started on October 9, and 2024's started on October 12 — giving players roughly an extra week with the event live compared to the last two years.
Nitemares really do come true 🖤 10.1 pic.twitter.com/Jp4h5t0TLF
— Fortnite (@Fortnite) September 23, 2026
2. Five Nights at Freddy's Kicked Off the Event
The centerpiece of launch day was the long-rumored Five Nights at Freddy's crossover, which added Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy as playable outfits, each with a battle-damaged "Withered" alternate style. Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria has also been added to the map as a named landmark. We covered that collab in full detail — including the Withered styles and where the Pizzeria sits on the map — in our dedicated breakdown of the FNAF x Fortnite crossover.
3. Freddy Krueger Brings A Nightmare on Elm Street to the Island
The key art Epic released alongside the FNAF reveal also confirmed Freddy Krueger, from A Nightmare on Elm Street, as part of the Fortnitemares 2026 roster. An Elm Street landmark has been added to the map alongside the Pizzeria, placing Krueger's crossover squarely inside this year's event rather than as a standalone shop item. He joins the list of horror-movie villains who have previously crossed over into the game, including Ghostface, Leatherface, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers — a group Fortnite has leaned on for its Halloween event for several years running, alongside the newer wave of character and brand crossovers like FNAF.
Epic hasn't published a shop-by-shop release calendar for the rest of the event, so exact in-game arrival dates for Krueger and the other confirmed crossovers below weren't locked down as of this writing. What is confirmed is that all of them are part of the official Fortnitemares 2026 lineup, not community speculation.
4. Slender Man, Beetlejuice and Black Clover Round Out the Roster
Beyond the two horror-icon headliners, Epic's teaser material confirms three more crossovers for the event:
- Slender Man — the faceless internet horror icon appears in the official key art, continuing Fortnite's run of pulling from creepypasta and viral horror as well as movies.
- Beetlejuice — a gravestone spelling out the character's name appeared in Epic's teaser footage, confirming a skin tied to the Tim Burton film is coming to the item shop.
- Asta from Black Clover — the anime crossover brings Asta in his Devil Union look, with a black-and-red outfit and his demon-forged sword as a pickaxe or back bling.
Epic has also confirmed Lady Liberty from The Purge, a Predator crossover tied to the Predator: Badlands film, and Halloween-themed outfits built around Universal's Halloween Horror Nights brand, rolling out later in the event's run. A League of Legends tie-in is also confirmed, bringing at least one themed item, the Orb of Illusion, into the loot pool.
5. The Map Is Changing for the Event
On top of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria and the Elm Street landmark, Epic has reworked the Battlewoods point of interest into a Halloween-themed location renamed Gravegate for the duration of the event. Expect the usual Fortnitemares treatment of fog, jump scares and reworked loot spawns around the new and changed POIs rather than a full map overhaul.
6. Horde Rush Is Back as a Co-Op Mode
Fortnitemares' recurring Horde Rush limited-time mode has returned for 2026. In past years, Horde Rush has squads teaming up to fend off waves of enemies across a shrinking set of locations, racking up score multipliers between fights before taking on a final boss. This year's version is also pulling in mechanics from the season's Override content, including Sprites, so progress and rewards earned in Horde Rush tie back into the wider Chapter 7 Season 4 systems rather than sitting completely separate from it. If you haven't kept up with how Sprites work this season, our explainer on Sprites leveling, mastery and rewards covers the basics.
7. New Weapons and Seasonal Loot
Fortnitemares events traditionally bring back a rotating pool of Halloween-specific weapons and items, and Epic's own teaser and item-shop rotation for 2026 point to the same approach: themed melee weapons, a pumpkin-based launcher, and candy-style consumables sit alongside the season's existing Chapter 7 Season 4: Override loot pool. Expect the event loot to layer on top of — rather than replace — the core season's weapon roster for the duration of October.
8. What's Still Coming Before Halloween
Epic has been staggering Fortnitemares content rather than dropping the full roster on day one, which is standard practice for the event. With FNAF and the map changes live from October 1, the remaining confirmed crossovers — Freddy Krueger, Slender Man, Beetlejuice, Black Clover, The Purge, Predator and the Halloween Horror Nights outfits — are expected to roll out through the item shop over the following weeks, running up to the event's end-of-month conclusion alongside Chapter 7 Season 4: Override's own battle pass content. For a refresher on what that season added to the map and battle pass before Fortnitemares arrived, see our guide to the Override battle pass and map changes.
Quick Recap
- Fortnitemares 2026 started October 1 with the v42.30 update and runs through the end of the month inside Chapter 7 Season 4: Override.
- Five Nights at Freddy's (Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy) headlined launch day with Withered alternate styles and a new Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria landmark.
- Freddy Krueger, Slender Man, Beetlejuice, Black Clover's Asta, The Purge's Lady Liberty, a Predator crossover, Halloween Horror Nights outfits and a League of Legends tie-in are all officially confirmed for the event.
- The map has gained an Elm Street landmark and seen the Battlewoods POI reworked into Gravegate.
- Horde Rush is back as a co-op limited-time mode, now tied into this season's Sprites and Override systems.