v41.20 brings Control Rig support for Sidekicks, consistent voices and personas for 36 Fortnite characters in LLM conversations, and in-world UMG Widgets. New content includes the Bank Shot Pistol, Smoke Grenade, Friend Zone item, and a set of Sinister Strip prefabs and galleries. Starting July 23, you can publish islands featuring Sidekicks and Creatures-themed assets.
Control Rig Support for Sidekicks
The first wave of Control Rigs for Sidekicks has arrived in UEFN. Built on the same rig structures used internally at Epic, you can now animate your Sidekicks with the same tools and workflows that power the game itself. Whether you're crafting new animations from scratch or customizing existing ones, this includes three archetypes — Dog Large, Dog Small, and Cat Small. Your Sidekicks, your animations.
Starting July 23, you can publish Fortnite islands featuring Sidekicks and the new Creatures-themed assets. Head over to the Creator Portal to submit your island if you haven't already scheduled it to go live.
Creature-Based Games Publishing Opens July 23
Creature-based games are taking the spotlight in Discover with a dedicated Game Collection. You can also add in-island transactions to your islands, giving you more options for monetizing your experiences. Creature-based games must follow the Fortnite Developer Rules — which include guidelines and payout terms for in-island transactions.
Remember to select the Creatures tag when publishing a creature-based game so it can show up in the Game Collection. This applies whether it uses Sidekicks, Klombo, or your own original creatures.
Watch our Creating in Fortnite livestream to learn more about building worlds and bonds with Fortnite Sidekicks.
Publish Islands with LLM Conversations Starting July 30
On July 30, conversations will exit Experimental and you'll be able to publish islands with LLM-powered NPCs and characters.
With 41.20, we added consistent voices and personas to 36 Fortnite characters when used as NPCs, with more coming over time. These Fortnite characters sound and react in a way you’d expect right out of the box.
For more info, including related rules, FAQs, and other documentation, check out this blog post. Start building now so you’re ready to publish your island using LLM-powered NPCs and characters on July 30 when conversations exits Experimental.
Mobile Tools Exiting Experimental Soon
The mobile touch controls, gesture support, HUD, and platform controls features introduced in 41.00 are planned to exit experimental in 42.00. If you haven't started building with them yet, now is the time so that you’ll be ready to ship mobile-ready experiences to players when the tools go live.
For a full overview of what mobile tools shipped in 41.00, see the 41.00 release notes and check out the most recent Creating in Fortnite livestream, Designing for Mobile in UEFN: Gestures, Touch Layouts & Interactive HUDs.
Mobile Touch Control Input Contexts - Movement Control Hidden in UI
Player movement touch control is no longer visible when in UI Mode with Virtual Pointer active. This resolves an issue in which it appeared that players could issue movement input while this mode was active, when they could not. See UEFN Updates and Fixes below for more related updates.
In-World UMG Widgets Are Now Available
You can drag your UMG User Widget from the content browser into the viewport to display your UI in the level. You can also drag it into the prefab editor to add the widget to an existing entity prefab. All existing UMG functionality carries over to this in-world entity, including Verse fields and UI animations.
In the prefab editor, the UMG User Widget appears as an entity in the prefab editor that you can apply logic to, and is reflected as an entity subclass. In the prefab editor, the widget name gets formatted as [WidgetName]_entity, enabling world-space placement in Verse code and prefabs.
TouchActionWrapper Deprecation
With the 41.10 cross-device input support for tappable HUD widgets, the TouchActionWrapper is no longer used. Developers will need to migrate projects using the TouchActionWrapper to use the Custom Button instead.
To learn more, see Tappable Custom HUD Widgets.
Content Browser and Inventory Updates
Check the new weapons and items available this release!
New Weapons
Bank Shot Pistol
Smoke Grenade
New Items
Friend Zone
New Prefabs & Galleries
Sinister Strip Lil’ Tilted Prefab
Sinister Strip Entrance Prefab
Sinister Strip Wall Gallery
Sinister Strip Floor Gallery
Sinister Strip Roof Gallery
Sinister Strip Prop Gallery
New Documentation
Custom Buttons
Use the Custom Buttons page and the User Interfaces template in UEFN to explore how to create and use custom buttons in UMG. Custom buttons use Verse to code the button behavior in order to play UI animations, and more. With custom buttons, you’re one step closer to a completely unique UI design.
Community Bug Fixes
The following fixes are from issues that you submitted to us on the forums. Thank you for your patience and for reporting these issues!
Fixed an issue where the Switch device was not showing an on state, even when the initial state was set properly.
Fixed an issue where players were unable to jump immediately after respawning.
Optimized navigation updates for moving Scene Graph entities by removing them from the navmesh while in motion and re-adding them once settled, preventing navigation update churn.
Fixed an issue where saving failed when adding one entity prefab to another, making it impossible to nest prefabs.
Fixed an issue where a mesh from a further distance was loading faster than one at a medium distance.
Fixed an issue where cutting and pasting a selection of props resulted in duplication instead of transferring to another area.
For a full list of all scheduled fixes for 41.20, refer to this search on the Epic Developer Community Forums.
Fortnite Ecosystem Updates and Fixes
Fixes:
The Fullscreen setting now applies on game launch.
The Lawless Stink Rifle no longer plays the equip audio twice.
UEFN Updates and Fixes
New:
Touch controls can now be used to rotate the Smoother camera.
New Exit Session options available for gameplay sessions. See Live Edit and Iteration Improvements for all the details.
Fixes:
Fixed a bug where selecting Exit Session during a live edit session returned the player to the lobby instead of closing the Fortnite client entirely.
Fixed an error that prevented developers from switching projects during an active edit session despite Keep Session on Project Change being enabled.
Fixed a bug that prevented events and functions from working properly when setting up during live edit on a minigame.
Fixed an issue in which the player movement widget would steal input focus from HUD Buttons when positioned on the left side of the screen. Player movement stick on mobile no longer overrides touch buttons on the same side of the screen.
Fixed an issue in which scale settings were not affecting the Dev HUD Layout Buttons. Scale settings now properly adjust Dev Layout Buttons.
Vehicle key bindings are now hidden when the Virtual Pointer is enabled in-game. Previously, when Virtual Pointer mode was enabled, vehicle keybinds would appear as unbound instead of being invisible.
Physics
Fixes:
Fixed an issue that caused erratic behavior when the Player Spawner device Spawn Location was set to Sky and the island used Physics.
Fixed an issue where the freefall (ground rush) effect incorrectly triggered on Physics-enabled islands. Freefall is now disabled on islands using Physics.
Fixed an issue where sliding down a ramp and then jumping caused players to take fall damage or be eliminated upon landing or colliding with an object.
Fixed an issue preventing a player from opening their glider after jumping on the DLauncher (Invasion) device.
Scene Graph
Fixes:
Fixed an issue that caused stackable items players picked up and dropped on the ground to incorrectly combine when another item of the same type landed nearby, resulting in incorrect stack counts and items storing improperly in the inventory when Custom Items and Inventory was used.
Fixed a bug where queries using
FindComponentsdid not find all components with the component type.
Creator Portal
New:
The Bounce Rate chart has moved to the Gameplay tab on the Project Analytics page. It shows the percentage of sessions that ended within a given time threshold—2, 5, and 10 minutes—so you can identify when players are dropping off, and adjust your island’s gameplay accordingly. See the Project Analytics documentation page for more.
Lore (Unreal Revision Control) Updates and Fixes
New:
The VS Code plugin has been updated to reflect the new product name, Lore, rather than Unreal Revision Control (URC).
EDA Updates
New:
Improved Verse code generation: EDA now has a significantly better Verse code generation model that is built with higher-quality training data, as well as stronger LLMs as backbone.
Up to date knowledge: EDA now syncs with knowledge sources more frequently, helping it stay up to date with the latest UEFN documentation.