‘Fortnite’ servers are down, here’s Chapter 6, Season 1, going live

Post updated 30/11/24. See updates below.

Fortnite’s the current ‘Remix’ season has been incredibly popular, but it’s coming to an end. Not only is the season coming to an end on Saturday, the new season will be the first in Chapter 6. Fortnite players will get a brand new map, new movement mechanics, a brand new Battle Pass and more this weekend.

Chapter 6 Season 1 is called ‘鬼 Hunters’ and will feature an Asian/anime theme with lots of new locations with a distinctly Japanese look, including pink cherry blossoms, Asian markets and creatures that look like they’ve sprung from a Studio Ghibli film. There will also be Yokai demons, Titans, new mystical powers and the arrival of King Kong and Godzilla. A giant floating turtle will be one of the cool new additions. Not only is it adorable, it moves around the map. New movement mechanics include rolling and wall running, making this the most parkour of them all Fortnite seasons.

Before Chapter 5 ends, players can take part in the big season-ending event, The Finale, which will not only be a massive Juice WRLD concert, but also feature the return of The Device. This is quite a strange event as the rapper – real name Jarad Anthony Higgins – passed away in 2019. A new Snoop Dogg track is also part of the event, which you can read more about right here. A free Juice WRLD skin and other goodies are available in the store now, but only until the end of the season.

When does chapter 5 end and chapter 6 begin?

The official end time for Chapter 5 and this ‘Remix’ season is 11:00 PM PT / 2:00 AM ET Saturday, November 30 / Sunday, December 1 but since this is the end of an entire chapter, it’s also possible that the season ends directly after The Finale event. If that’s the case, we’ll see the season end and the servers go down sometime after 9 p.m. 11am PT / 2pm ET as the event is about 20 minutes long. It is possible that the game will remain live until later. Edit: Obviously now that the event is over this isn’t the case, so the original downtime should be accurate.

The new chapter will go live on Sunday morning subject to any hiccups, and players will be able to update their game the moment the servers go back online and dive into the map. Without official confirmation, we can only speculate when Chapter 5 will end, but it’s a safe bet that you’ll be sailing around the new map on Sunday morning. I’ll update this post if we get a more specific end time or if the servers go down.

Here is the trailer:

The other exciting news is the return of OG Fortnite, which includes the game’s original map and will let players battle it out in original locations with the game’s original loot. According to Epic Games, you will also be able to play through older seasons. This new (old) mode will go live permanently on December 6th.

It’s an exciting weekend for Fortnite, basically. I’m excited to get in!

Update: Fortnite the servers are down and the big chapter 6 season 1 update is underway. Server downtime is expected to last around 8 hours, with downtime beginning at 10 p.m. ET. This means the game should go back online around 06:00 ET / 03:00 PT. This is of course an estimate and downtime may take longer or the game may go live earlier than expected. Regardless, Fortnite’s new season airs early Sunday morning. Here is the new map:

“When the wind blows, the sun rises on a beautiful new island, shrouded in mystery and mysterious energy. In its darkest corners, demons live and wreak havoc with their masks of chaotic power. Great heroes must rise to drive back the ancient evils that roam this land. Become a ronin and cut through the darkness to find the light in Fortnite Battle Royale Chapter 6 Season 1: 鬼 HUNTERS (Demon Hunters)!” Epic Games released in the new chapter’s official blog post.

Epic also released new information on the new ‘Simple Edit’ feature that promises to make building edits much easier to complete, giving those of us who were never the best builders to begin with new hope – and master builders even more of a advantage :

Simple editinga new build option you can turn on in the Settings menu allows you to edit builds with the touch of a button. The resulting edit is based on the part of the building you’re looking at, rather than being manually painted – it automatically performs building edits instantly, removing the step of selecting tiles altogether.

Simple Edit makes editing on the fly a breeze, and should also prove useful to players new to building in Fortnite or interested in learning. Simple editing allows for a smaller subset of edits to choose from, and masters of the current editing system will have more editing options available.

As with any major addition to Fortnite, we will collect data and feedback about Simple Edit and may make adjustments to the system in the future.

This along with all the new movement mechanics, magic powers and a brand new map should provide Fortnite players a lot to play with when December starts. I’ll be diving in tomorrow to try and earn the new umbrella.