Fortnite Act 2 “The Elites” v40.20 Update Explained: Weapons, Map Changes, and fixes

Act 2 “The Elites” is the second phase of Fortnite’s season‑long Showdown Rivalry between Team Ice King and Team Foundation, added with the v40.20 update on 16 April 2026. For Battle Royale players, it means a fresh set of milestone rewards like the Hammer Revolver, Super Shredder shotgun, and a new Reforged Infinity Blade that roll out as the community pushes each team’s progression bar.

Fortnite v40.20, released on April 16, 2026, officially launches Act 2: The Elites. This update progresses the Showdown Rivalry between the Ice King and the Foundation, introducing new global milestones that unlock powerful weapons and map changes for all players, regardless of their faction choice.

Fortnite Act 2: Showdown Rivalry Rewards

Major Bug Fixes and Meta Adjustments

If you’re mainly playing Zero Build or standard BR, you don’t have to swap teams or reroll your entire playstyle; these unlocks become island‑wide changes and items, not exclusive toys that only one faction can touch. This guide focuses on the confirmed changes that matter day‑to‑day: what each side actually unlocks, how the new weapons behave based on published stats, and which bug fixes quietly change your matches.

Quick rundown of the biggest changes

If you just want the essentials from v40.20 and Act 2:

1. Showdown Act II starts, with new milestone rewards for Team Ice King and Team Foundation in both Battle Royale and Save the World.

2. Team Ice King’s confirmed milestone rewards are Hammer Revolver, IO Recon Scanner, Reforged Infinity Blade, and slipstreams in the ice biomes.

3. Team Foundation’s side gets the Super Shredder shotgun, a Save the World base/Builder’s Barracks expansion, the Cube Rifle, and an upgraded Vortex Beacon at Seven’s Base/New Sanctuary.

4. Save the World is now fully free‑to‑play and tied into the same seasonal event, with crossover quests that feed rewards into both modes.

5. The Chaos Reloader shotgun’s auto‑reload finally works as intended, and some weapon ability bugs (like Thorne’s Vampiric Blade breaking your jump input) are fixed.

That’s the confirmed backbone of the update; everything else sits on top of this.

Showdown Act II rewards: what each team actually gets

The main question a lot of players have right now is “What do I actually unlock with Act 2, and does my team choice matter?” The rewards are tied to global milestones, so once a stage is cleared, that item or change exists for everyone in the relevant mode.

Team Ice King rewards

Sources that have broken down the internal milestone list all agree on Ice King’s side of Act II:

• Hammer Revolver is confirmed as an automatic heavy‑ammo sidearm with roughly a 2.25 fire rate and a high 2.0x headshot multiplier at Mythic, going up to 69 body and 138 head damage on that top rarity.

• IO Recon Scanner works like the earlier recon launcher: it fires scanning projectiles that reveal enemies and loot through walls for a short burst.

• Reforged Infinity Blade is explicitly described as a “new version” of the infamous melee weapon, not a straight copy of the Chapter 1 monster; expect strong mobility and damage, but current coverage stops short of exact numbers.

• Slipstreams in ice biomes are listed as a milestone reward, reintroducing aerial rotation lines through that region once the community hits the right tier.

None of these are team‑locked in practice: once milestones are cleared, you can pick up and use these items regardless of whether you’re queuing as Ice King or Foundation.

Team Foundation rewards

Team Foundation’s side leans into rifles, build‑centric POIs, and better redeploy around their base.

• Super Shredder shotgun comes directly from Save the World; in that mode it’s a slug‑like long‑range shotgun, and v40.20 ported it into Battle Royale with tuning for BR ranges and pellet behavior. Exact Battle Royale stats haven’t been fully published yet, so any specific damage numbers you see are based on player testing, not official tables.

• The “Save the World base expansion” lines up with Builder’s Barracks and Seven Base changes, tying the PvE side and BR side together through shared structures and quests.

• Cube Rifle is described as a DMR‑style rifle on Foundation’s track; outlets explicitly label it as a mid‑ to long‑range marksman weapon, but again, formal stats are still limited to datamined sheets and hands‑on impressions.

• The upgraded Vortex Beacon at Seven Base (near New Sanctuary) boosts redeploy utility from that structure once unlocked, building on last season’s redeploy tower design.

For most players, this boils down to a new long‑range shotgun option, a fresh DMR, and stronger rotations from Foundation territory as the season progresses.

How to engage with Act 2 as a BR or Zero Build player

1. Pick a side (Ice King or Foundation) based on which reward track you prefer, or which theme you like more.

2. Play normal matches; Showdown Rivalry milestones progress through standard play and rivalries rather than separate LTM hoops.

3. Keep an eye on in‑game progression screens as milestones hit, because that’s when global changes like slipstreams or new weapons start appearing in the regular loot pool.

4. If you also touch Save the World, run the crossover quests—these feed rewards into both modes and accelerate how quickly you feel the new content.

If you’re queuing ranked Zero Build, the main practical impact of Act 2 early on is how the new weapons slot into your usual 2‑gun + mobility setup and how slipstreams/vortex changes affect your mid‑game rotations once they unlock.

Save the World is now free and tied into Act 2

One of the biggest structural changes in v40.20 is that Save the World is now free for all players, including new platforms like Nintendo Switch 2.

• Epic’s official notes confirm that starting with v40.20, you can jump into Save the World without buying a founder pack or bundle.

• The same notes detail a crossover event between Save the World and Battle Royale where quests in one mode reward cosmetics and progress in the other.

This matters for Act 2 because Super Shredder, the base expansions, and some of the character‑driven rewards sit on both sides of the game. If you’re already grinding BR daily, doing an hour of PvE here and there can now throw extra rewards and context back into your main mode.

Important bug fixes and subtle meta tweaks

Some of the most impactful changes in v40.20 are under the hood, especially if you’ve been abusing or suffering from specific weapon bugs.

• Chaos Reloader shotgun now functions as designed: it reloads correctly while unequipped, shows reload progress on the Quick Bar, and fires consistently when you swap back. Before this patch, its signature holster‑reload feature would sometimes break, which made it unreliable at high MMR.

• Thorne’s Vampiric Blade no longer eats your jump input after using its secondary attack, fixing a nasty movement bug in fights.

• Ranked Zero Build has Port‑a‑Bunkers and Shield Bubbles back in the loot pool, giving defensive players more ways to anchor around power positions and play endgames without leaning solely on mobility.