Fortnite celebrates its birthday with a big patch update – and cake

It’s official: Fortnite is now one year old. And to celebrate the occasion, Epic’s epic battle royale shooter is getting a sizeable patch update – alongside a number of birthday challenges for the next... fortnight.

Each challenge completed will reward players with different birthday-themed cosmetic items or XP boosts, while completing all three will give you the chic Birthday Cake Back Bling to wear with pride throughout the two-week celebration.

You’ll also be able to eat cake in-game for +5 health and +5 shield boosts, because why not?

Nap time

Little one-year-old Fortnite will be offline this morning while the patch 5.10 changes are implemented. We expect the game to come back online later today, seeing as Epic has promised a host of birthday challenges that will run until August 7.

Patch 5.10 is the first update since Season 5 began earlier in July, which brought in all-terrain golf carts and some interdimensional portals that let you zip across the map in sci-fi style.

The new patch will bring in a new close-quarters weapon – the ‘high capacity, fast firing’ Compact SMG – alongside some light UI changes to timers and menus. You can pore through each bullet point and stat change at Epic’s full patch notes here.

In Fortnite: Save The World, you'll find a new map called Canny Valley with a brand new quest.

Fortnite’s popular Playground Mode, which lets up to four players hone their skills together in a less pressured environment, will also be relaunching on July 25 – this time with an aim assist feature for new players, increased ammo and supply drops, and the ability to swap teams in game for fluid play.

Let's block ads! (Why?)