Fortnite Showdown Chapter 7 Season 2: Everything You Need to Know

Fortnite has officially kicked off a new Battle Royale season, and this one feels a lot more layered than usual. Epic Games is calling it Fortnite Showdown, and it introduces a season-long team rivalry system that directly impacts gameplay, rewards, and progression. As of now, the moment you log in, you are forced to pick a side: Team Foundation or Team Ice King.

Fortnite Showdown adds team choice, rivalries, and new mechanics

The update comes from Epic Games, which confirms that your team selection will influence the weapons added throughout the season. At the end, the winning side unlocks exclusive outfit styles for Battle Pass owners, giving the whole season a competitive direction beyond just matches.

The biggest gameplay shift is the Rivalry system. You can now challenge players mid-match, earn Rival Credits, and spend them on perks like Exotic weapons, infinite Slap, or XP bundles. These credits carry across matches, and the more rivalries you win, the higher you climb across 20 ranks with better rewards.

Epic has also added a Global Leaderboard Challenge, where players can earn cosmetics and even compete for rewards like an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, a PS5, and Fortnite merch.

On the gameplay side, the loot pool has been heavily refreshed. New weapons like the Vector 7 DMR, Chaos Reloader Shotgun, and Skyline Deployer are now live, alongside returning weapons like Combat AR and Twin Mag SMG. Special mythics tied to each team, including Ice King’s Gauntlets and Foundation’s Rift Rifle, are also part of the mix. The map gets new POIs as well, including Sanctuary, Frigid Fortress, Dark Dominion, and Squibbly Shores.

New modes, Battle Pass perks, and seasonal twists

Epic is also adding Arenas on April 9, a new ranked, build-only mode featuring 1v1 fights and 16-player competitions. There’s also a new Battle Bus mechanic where one player drives each match, earning XP for everyone.

Rift anomalies now dynamically change matches, while a Returning Player Modifier helps ease players back into the game. On top of that, a new Battle Pass is live, offering rewards like Ice King cosmetics, Elite Jules, and more, with early bonuses available for those who unlock it before March 26.

All that said, this season feels like a clear attempt to push Fortnite into a more competitive and evolving experience. Whether the permanent team choice and rivalry system pays off long-term is something we’ll have to see over the coming weeks.

Fixes and improvements

Apart from everything announced for the new season, here are some changes and improvements made to the game.

PC IMPROVEMENTS & FIXES

• Addressed several high-profile crashes, especially affecting competitive play and asset streaming.
• Improved Intel GPU stability for most modern GPUs.
• Fixed an issue where players would crash on launching the game, particularly players on Intel CPUs.
• We’ve deployed a set of changes that will allow us to address a wide variety of PC crashes immediately, without waiting for a patch or hotfix.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS & FIXES

• Teammates’ icons are now anchored to the edge of the minimap when far away, showing where they are even if not nearby. 
• Added the ability to keymap a second ping button when viewing the map in fullscreen.
• You can now open Chests more reliably while moving.
• You can now hurdle through windows more reliably while strafing or looking up.
• Fixed an issue that blocked players from passing through windows broken with certain assault rifles and snipers.
• You can now bash into open doors to close them. No more being blocked by wide open doors getting in the way.
• You can now initiate conversations with Characters from farther away.
• Items on the ground no longer appear invisible.
• Pickup interactions will more reliably filter out items you can’t use.
• We’ve added a little extra time between a Victory Royale and the post-match screen so you can celebrate that W longer.
• Your Emotes, Jam Tracks, and car items will now shuffle correctly when using randomized presets or loadouts.
• You can now cancel location pings more easily by re-pinging the location rather than having to target the ping icon. 
• Custom build binds assigned to “R” now work when you’re not building.
• On keyboard + mouse, pressing Esc with the inventory screen open will now close the menu instead of opening the Escape menu.
• (Reload) Fixed an issue with Morphite weapons not reliably firing or reloading.

If you wish to learn everything about the Fortnite Showdown Chapter 7 Season 2, make sure to check this release note.