Fortnite v39.50 lands: Lantern Fest turns "squad" into "small army"

Fortnite's latest update kicked off Lantern Fest with a very simple idea: bigger Reload teams = bigger chaos. The headline feature is 8-player Reload teams for a limited window, plus quests that hand out XP and a couple of cosmetics.

What it means for gamers: if you've ever felt like your squad needed "just two more friends" to finally stop hot-dropping into instant regret… congrats, now you can invite basically your entire group chat. The downside is obvious: eight people means eight opinions on where to land, and at least one person who "swears they rebooted you" while sprinting the other direction.

Still, it's a fun, social-heavy week and a great excuse to grind out pass XP before the next season mood-swing hits.