42.40 Fortnite Ecosystem Updates and Release Notes

Abilities and Fortnite Template Abilities are now out of Experimental, so you can publish islands with custom abilities built with animation, Niagara effects, sound, and more, without writing complex code. The LEGO® Brick Editor adds 50 new bricks, and you can now license UEFN source assets on Fab. Players are also starting to see the redesigned Discover experience. Starting October 22, portrait thumbnails, landscape thumbnails, and logos will be required to publish or update your island.

Fortnite Discover Redesign

Starting today, players will begin seeing a redesigned Discover experience in Fortnite. This is a phased update that will come to more players over time. The tiles and modules that make up Discover will be more expressive, with autoplay video, a cleaner logo treatment, new tile shapes, and more.

Upload New Asset Types

We're introducing four new asset types:

• A gameplay video for your island details page

• Two portrait thumbnails — one with art and logo in one flat image and one art only

• An art-only landscape thumbnail

• A transparent island name logo

Starting October 22, portrait thumbnails, landscape thumbnails, and logos will be required to publish or update your island. This will make sure every island is set up to take advantage of the newly redesigned surfaces in Discover.

For full specs, safe areas, and per-tile guidance, see Making Thumbnails and Videos.

LEGO® Brick Editor Update: 50 New Bricks

50 New Bricks 

Bring more detail, personality, and creativity to your builds with 50 new bricks in the library. From decorative elements to pieces that enable more intricate, smaller-scale creations, these additions open up a wide range of new building possibilities. They land just in time for Fortnitemares, and they’re here to stay.

Improved Performance

We've expanded the level of detail (LOD) system to improve how builds render in-game. The result is a smoother, more optimized gameplay experience, especially when exploring larger and more complex creations.

Updated Primitive Brick Behavior

Primitive bricks pulled directly from the brick library now automatically transform into a different brick type once they are Kragled, creating more consistent behavior throughout the building process.

New Brick Categories

Finding the perfect piece just got easier. The library is now organized into categories by brick type, making it faster and more intuitive to find the bricks you need.

Publish Experiences with Custom Abilities

Abilities and Fortnite Template Abilities are now out of Experimental. Build simple and responsive abilities with animation, Niagara effects, sound, and more — all coordinated on a timeline, without writing complex code. You can add and configure ability elements directly in the editor, with editable properties available as soon as an effect is selected.

Learn more about Template Abilities by checking out the documentation and the Template Abilities livestream.

Updates:

• Abilities now use entities instead of agents.

• If Use fails, it now logs the failure for easier debugging.

• fort_ability_attach_socket and fort_target_query_affiliation are now <open> enums.

• CentralAngle has been renamed to Angle on the fort_wedge_ability_target_query.

• Angle now uses Radians instead of Degrees in fort_wedge_ability_target_query.

Fixes:

• Calling fort_template_ability.Use() with a player as the instigator now works.

• Ability animations now replicate.

• Looped animations in Template Abilities now loop.

• Uses that get rejected no longer run their full timeline.

• Cancel now stops the timeline, and end events no longer fire twice.

• Unequipping an ability mid-use no longer skips its end events.

• Targeting queries now return entities for players, NPCs, and other actors that have them.

• Fire VFX now shows on the player when the burn ability is triggered.

New Verse API for Text Chat Channels

You can now use Verse to create and manage custom text chat channels in your UEFN islands, giving you more control over how players communicate during gameplay.

With the new text_channel API in /Verse.org/Chat, you can organize players into different chat channels, control who can send messages, and customize the appearance of messages in the chat feed.

What's New:

• Create Custom Text Chat Channels: Use text_channel to define groups of players who can communicate through text chat. Players can belong to multiple channels, enabling experiences such as team chat, faction chat, and role-based communication.

• Control Who Can Send Messages: Use CanSend on has_text_member_info to control whether individual participants can send messages. Participants who cannot send messages can still see other participants and messages in the text chat widget.

• Customize Message Appearance: Use text_message_style to customize text colors and add contextual labels after player names. For example, [Tilted Towers] Jonesy: gg. Contextual labels are automatically displayed in square brackets.

• Set Channel-Wide or Individual Styles: Apply a default MessageStyle to a channel or override it for individual participants. Style changes affect new messages only.

• Customize System Messages: Use SystemMessageColor to set the color of system messages such as "Now chatting in …" and "You cannot write in …" displayed in the chat feed.

• Manage Channels with Verse: Use AddChatChannel() and RemoveChatChannel() to register and unregister channels, and Enable(), Disable(), and IsEnabled() to control channel availability.

• Find Registered Channels: Use GetTextChannels() to retrieve the text chat channels registered with the current simulation.

Additional Details

Text chat channels support up to 100 participants. Players beyond this limit are not included in the chat, and registering a channel fails if its group already exceeds the limit.

Text chat participation is subject to player parental controls and user settings.

These new APIs give you additional flexibility to build communication experiences that fit their islands, whether they're creating competitive team games, social experiences, or role-playing adventures.

Build Faster with UEFN Source Assets, Now on Fab

Starting today, you can license UEFN source assets on Fab. Source assets are complete, editable systems — AI and NPC behaviors, vehicles, weapons, UI, environments, and more — many of which are built with Verse and Scene Graph. Unlike reference files, they open directly in UEFN and you can edit them right away, cutting down on the time spent rebuilding systems that already exist. 

Browse what's live on Fab, starting with a free kit from Epic Games, or find source assets in the Fab window without leaving UEFN.

For more on UEFN source assets on Fab, check out the blog.

Mobile: HUD Controller and UI Customization — Fixes, Feature Requests, and Tweaks

Mobile HUD overrides now work better with your players’ own layouts and Fortnite’s default controls. This update adds a property for icon-only changes and fixes several issues with the HUD Controller device.

Apply Canvas Transform on Touch Control Layout Override

The Touch Control Layout Override widget now has an Apply Canvas Transform property. Use it when you override icons with Override Touch Controls on a HUD Controller device and want to change only the icon. When unchecked, position and size overrides are ignored, so your players’ custom button layouts stay as they set them.

Fixes:

• Override Touch Control Layout now works with items that change the Jump and Sprint buttons, such as the Mandalorian Jetpack. Jump and Sprint switch to Up and Boost as expected.

• The Shoot button now appears when your HUD Controller device Override Touch Control Layout references an empty widget.

• The Carry/Drop button can now be overridden and removed with the HUD Controller device.

• Overridden Sprint, Shoot, Reload, and Crouch buttons no longer capture input, so touches pass through to the controls behind them.

Embedded IARC Questionnaire in Creator Portal

You can now complete the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) rating questionnaire without leaving the Creator Portal as a dedicated step in the publishing flow instead of being sent to the IARC website. The questionnaire works as before. You complete it when you publish an island and before it goes to moderation, and your ratings appear on the Ratings tab. If an update changes your answers, retake the questionnaire when you publish that version.

Memory Thermometer: Upcoming Changes

In recent releases, Memory Snapshot and Timing Insights have given you real visibility into how your experiences perform. The next step is to bring memory reporting into that same workflow.

The publish memory requirement is moving into the profiling tools. You'll still be able to run the memory calculation manually, but it will also run automatically on every cook — so any session launch or pushed change produces a new value. If your project exceeds the threshold, the Game Performance report at the bottom of the editor will tell you, and a per-asset memory digest will show what's driving it.

Memory will also be reported in real units. The publish limit reads as 100,000 units currently, but will read as 300 MB. The budget isn't changing — the number will just match what other memory tools show, making it easier to compare against your own measurements.

In a future release, we'll remove the memory thermometer from running sessions. With just-in-time reporting and the per-asset breakdown in place, memory guidance will live in the profiling tools.

43.00 Verse Errors

The event(t) class will be subscribable by default in 43.00. Published islands will continue to run as before. Unpublished Verse code may encounter ambiguous overloads and name conflicts as a result of users previously implementing this themselves, such as:

# User code
event_subscription := class:
    CancelEvent:event() = event(){}

    Cancel():void=
        CancelEvent.Signal()

AwaitForEvent(Event:event(t), Callback(:t):void, Subscription:event_subscription where t : type)<suspends>:void=
    race:
        loop:

These errors can be fixed by removing the conflicting extension methods. event.Subscribe returns cancelable directly. See the Using Verse Fields Event Type in a UMG User Widget post for an example. 

Subscribable events are featured in the UI Template and the Conversations Template in UEFN.

Content Browser and Inventory Updates

Check out the weapons and items available in this release!

New Weapons

• Gatekeeper Shotgun (Rare, Epic, Legendary)

New Prefabs, Galleries, and Props

• Reality Reign Prefabs and Galleries

  • Reality Reign Floor Gallery

  • Reality Reign Wall Gallery

  • Reality Reign Prop Gallery

  • Reality Reign Processor Base

  • Reality Reign Display Tower

  

  

  

  

Roadmap Updates

We've closed out Q3 on the roadmap. Every card that shipped is now in the What Shipped column, so you can still look back at everything that landed.

One card, New Virtual Machine, has moved to Q4 2026. We've also added a few new cards, so take a look at what's coming!

Share Your Feedback

Have a feature you'd like to see, or feedback on an existing one? Submit it in Feedback & Requests on the Epic Developer Community forums. For bugs, use Issues and Bug Reporting.

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 that caused Shock Rocks to destroy structures on islands with Environmental Damage turned off.

  • Forum Post

• Fixed an issue that caused the vehicle exit key to display as unbound on keyboard and mouse, preventing players from exiting vehicles.

  • Forum Post

• Fixed an issue that prevented fort_template_ability.Use() from activating an ability when the instigator in the provided context was a player.

  •   Forum Post

• Fixed an issue that caused the Guard Spawner device to remove weapons assigned to it in the editor.

  • Forum Post

• Fixed an issue that caused audio to stay spatialized around a player's original camera when a Scene Graph Camera was active on their camera_director.

  • Forum Post

• Fixed an issue that caused the Epic and Legendary Seven Cluster Cannons to display 77 damage in the inventory instead of their actual values.

  • Forum Post

• Fixed an issue that caused Ctrl + B on a static mesh to open the Bumpy Bay Prop Gallery and select FortStaticMeshActor instead of the mesh's own folder.

  • Forum Post

  For a full list of all scheduled fixes for v42.40, refer to this search on the Epic Developer Community Forums.

Fortnite Ecosystem Updates and Fixes

Performance

New:

• Improved overall engine stability for all platforms.

• Improved reporting of Intel GPU issues to Windows users when Use GPU Crash Debugging is enabled in video settings.

Fixes:

• General Windows video settings fixes for the editor:

  • Fixed launch crashes on some AMD GPUs.

  • Improved stability on Intel GPUs that support async compute.

  • Fixed delayed retrieval of hotfixes for some developers on Windows.

UEFN Updates and Fixes

New:

• A new toggle in the editor’s Session menu provides a way for developers to set VerseVM as the target server for their UEFN sessions. This provides a way for developers to start testing their islands against the new VerseVM instead of the BPVM.

  • Verse Reload is not yet supported by the VerseVM and is disabled when the toggle is set to On.

  • Live Edit is not yet fully supported by VerseVM. Currently, only BPVM transmits Verse properties through Live Edit to the server.

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue with Interchange importing glTF assets. Now, when SkinnedMeshNodes update, the processing resolves for InverseBindMatrices and no longer drifts between BindPoses and Scene hierarchies.

  This fix also addresses issues with multi-root skinned mesh files.

• Fixed an issue with Browse To Asset that affected static meshes.

• Fixed an issue where project publishing failed to cancel correctly.

• Fixed an editor issue that resulted in error messages when collecting objects upon closing a project.

• Fixed multiple bugs found in the Entity Prefab Editor multi-viewport support:

  • The Maximize viewport checkbox is now checked when the viewport is maximized.

  • Hidden tools in the Prefab Editor viewport toolbar are now accessible through the menu when the viewport toolbar becomes too small to display them.

  • Fixed an issue that prevented the multi-viewport panel option names from displaying.

Animation and Cinematics New:

New:

• Added V2 rig expressions to RigMapper’s MHL_MHH and CDL_CDH definitions, and all baked definitions.

Fixes:

• Fixed multiple RigMapper issues that affected the stale index cache:

  • Fixed silent evaluation failures.

  • Fixed chained-batch data loss.

Environments and Landscapes

New:

• Improved the Landscape Paint mode’s Layer Allow List. Developers can now change the cursor and Target Layer action indicators when using Add To, or Remove From in the Target Layer Allow List in the Landscape Paint tools.

Fixes:

• Fixed multiple Landscape Paint mode issues:

  • Fixed shader warnings when entering Landscape Paint mode.

  • Exposed terrain properties on WaterBodyIsland.

  • Fixed a potential crash issue caused when right-clicking a landscape proxy actor.

Lore Updates and Fixes

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where running validation fix-up checked out and resaved every actor in the level instead of only the affected packages. 

• Fixed an issue where a branch archived by another user appeared as active after reverting pending changes or creating a personal branch on it.