Fortnite This Week: Hollow Knight Arrives, Reload Goes Back to Nitemare Island and What's Next
Hollow Knight joins Fortnitemares with the October 7 shop reset, Reload's Halloween map returns October 8 and new Sprites follow on October 15.
Fortnitemares 2026 is one week old, and Epic isn't easing off. The Halloween event kicked off on October 1 and has been dripping out a new crossover almost every day since. This week is a busy one: Team Cherry's Knight lands in the Item Shop, Reload's spooky island comes back tomorrow, and the next batch of Sprites is already on the calendar. Here's where Fortnite stands right now and what's coming before the season wraps up.
Hollow Knight joins the party
The headline for Wednesday, October 7 is Hollow Knight. The official Fortnite account confirmed the collab, and it goes live with the Item Shop reset at 8 p.m. ET (midnight UTC, so it's already October 8 in Europe).
This isn't a regular outfit. The Knight arrives as a Sidekick – the small companions that follow you around – and it unlocks a second style and emotes as you play with it. The bundle also includes:
- Hallownest Grub Back Bling
- The Knight's Nail Pickaxe
- A Hollow Knight banner icon
Epic hadn't posted prices at the time of writing, so check the shop before you budget your V-Bucks. For a Sidekick, the Knight is an unusually big get – it's one of the most recognizable faces in indie gaming, and it's a rare case of a small-studio hero sharing the island with Hollywood horror icons.
The Fortnitemares crossover calendar so far
If you've been away since the event started, here's what has already hit the shop, based on the shop dates reported for the first week:
| Date | Arrival |
|---|---|
| October 1 | Five Nights at Freddy's (Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy) |
| October 2 | Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street) |
| October 3 | Black Clover |
| October 5 | Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights |
| October 6 | Ghost Face (Scream) |
| October 7 | Hollow Knight |
The Five Nights at Freddy's animatronic outfits have a neat trick: they visibly break down as you take damage.
Still to come "throughout October", according to Epic, are Hazbin Hotel, Beetlejuice, The Purge, Slender Man, Obsession, 99 Nights in the Forest and Predator: Badlands. None of those have firm shop dates yet, so expect them to show up with little warning.
Reload returns to Nitemare Island on October 8
Tomorrow, Thursday, October 8, Fortnite Reload gets its Halloween refresh. Epic's official Fortnitemares post confirms a reworked Nitemare Island, with the Stranger Things and Squid Grounds maps joining the Reload rotation at the same time.
According to Dexerto's breakdown of the event, the island is led by an Elite Kado Thorne boss and adds a "Siphon" set of loot – a Deadeye Assault Rifle, Monarch Pistol and Gatekeeper Shotgun that heal you when you land hits. If you play Reload mostly for the smaller map and fast respawns, this is the week to jump back in.
Free rewards worth chasing
You don't need to spend anything to get something out of Fortnitemares:
- Nitemare Quests refresh every Thursday across Battle Royale, Reload and Horde Rush. Completing enough of them before October 31 unlocks the free Jack-A-Nape reward track, which ends with the Jack-A-Nape outfit after 26 quests. Tomorrow's refresh lines up with the Reload update, so it's a good day to stack progress.
- A hidden quest gives you Jimothy, a raccoon Sidekick, for extracting your first Dumpster Dive Sprite at an extraction site.
- Redeeming an eligible Fortnite gift card between October 2 and 31 grants the Gold Punk outfit.
What's next: October 15 and the end of the season
The next big date is Thursday, October 15. That's when the Honey and Obsession Sprites are due – Honey sends bees after anyone who damages you, while Obsession helps you collect other Sprites. Fortnite's regular two-week rhythm puts the next game update, v42.40, on the same day, and Epic has already said several known issues from the current build are slated to be fixed in it. The Obsession crossover skins are widely expected to land around then, but Epic hasn't confirmed a date.
After that, the clock starts running down on Chapter 7 Season 4 (Override). The in-game timer points to the season ending at the turn of October into November, which is also when Fortnitemares wraps up. Epic hasn't officially announced what comes next, so treat any "Season 5" or "mini-season" talk you see online as speculation until Epic confirms it.
Why it matters
Fortnitemares has become Fortnite's biggest annual event, and this year it started earlier than usual – Dexerto notes the 2025 edition didn't begin until October 9. That extra week means more time to finish the free quest track, but it also means a crowded shop. If you only want one or two of these collabs, keep an eye on the shop at each 8 p.m. ET reset, because Epic is spreading the remaining crossovers across the rest of the month.
We'll have the v42.40 changes covered when the update drops on October 15.
Sources
This article was written by AI (Claude) and checked against the sources above. Games are updated regularly, so details may change.