It’s been a huge few weeks, but a brand new Fortnite Christmas event is about to start. What can we expect for Winterfest 2023 Fortnite? This is what’s happening.
Fortnite has just launched Chapter 5, an enormous expansion to FN that’s brought in new worlds like Lego, Racing, and Festival. However, the core Battle Royale is still the central experience. Winterfest 2023 Fortnite is a great example of how the game’s changed, but while keeping BR central. This will be the final of our three events each year and expectations are high given the recent additions to Fortnite’s worlds.
The Fortnite Christmas event usually runs for a bit over two weeks, covering the part of the year where Epic takes a brief break. To keep players busy without a weekly update, we’ve always gotten a huge event instead. This means we get new drops of content all week, special skins, and even map changes. It’s also one of those rare occasions to get a free Fortnite skin, with two on offer this year. The Christmas Cabin seems to be gone this year, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get free Winterfest Fortnite skins though.
While Chapter 5 has only been out for a few weeks, we’re expecting this huge update to really shake things up. When does the Fortnite Christmas event end and what will come with the update?
Winterfest 2023 Fortnite – What’s in the New Update?
Each year, Winterfest is a unique holiday celebration happening right in Fortnite! We normally get days of rewards, special quests, items, and more. This year there are 14 free items coming! There’s a lot to jump into with Battle Royale, but this new celebration includes plenty for Fortnite’s newer game modes too. This is what you can expect over the next few weeks in Fortnite Chapter 5.
Free items in Fortnite Winterfest
Each year one of the highlights of Fortnite Christmas is the free gifts. Each day you get a new reward, giving you a reason to jump into Fortnite for the entire process. Great if you’re still lower down on the Chapter 5 Battle Pass.
Each day you’ll be able to unlock one of the various cosmetics. The biggest rewards are definitely the outfits though. What can you unlock over the course of Winterfest 2023 Fortnite?
Free Winterfest Fortnite Skins 2023
Two new free items are here for Fortnite Winterfest 2023. There’s Winterfest Bushranger as the first. That’s a new version of the Bushranger skin, but with a Santa hat. It isn’t the most unique new addition, but a nice chance to get a new version of a popular Fortnite character.
The second of the new skin is a bit more exciting. Holiday Boxy, it’s another Christmas version of an existing skin. This time it is taking the cardboard box man we’ve seen in the past and changing the boxes into Christmas wrapping! He ties into the LTM coming for Winter 2023 Fortnite too.
What’s more than just two basic free skins, these work in Lego too! Each of the free Winterfest Fortnite skins are available as Lego Fortnite skins too. It’s great to see even the free items getting some play in the newer game modes.
New Items in Battle Royale for Fortnite Christmas Chapter 5
Along with free cosmetics, we’re getting some changes to the game’s balance in Fortnite Chapter 5. There are a few older items making their seasonal comeback. These are the new Fortnite CH5 items that have been added with the Winterfest update.
- Holiday Presents – Just like birthday presents, these are back once again. A throwable present with good loot inside.
- Sneaky Snowmando – Disguise yourself as a Snowman.
- Snowball Launcher – Grenade launcher that fires snowballs instead of standard rockets.
- Snowy Flopper – The Christmas fish, gives you health and an ice effect
- Icy Grappler – The traditional grappler, but one that applies the ice effect when you use it too.
These new items should liven up the loot pool. There are fun items that come back every year, but also some that we don’t see quite as often back for Winterfest 2023 Fortnite.
New Quests
You don’t need to complete quests to get the free Winterfest Fortnite skins. However, if you’re looking to level up fast in Fortnite, then the Winterfest challenges are going to be one of the best things to jump into. These provide tons of XP. The Lego XP glitch might be one method, but these quests are a bit more fun than just grinding! You’ll be able to get XP and collect a free pickaxe if you can finish 19 of them.
New LTM for Fortnite Christmas – Ship It Express
One much-missed feature of Fortnite in recent years has been LTMs. The old-style modes with different rules for Battle Royale were a nice change of pace, and even the best Fortnite creative maps don’t quite replace them. A new one is here for Winterfest Fortnite 2023 too! How will it work?
Ship It Express is a Zero Build game where you’ll have to deliver presents. Your goal is to deliver them to your opponents, which damages them. In keeping with the whole delivery theme, you’ll also find more loot spawns and supply drops all over.
Fortnite Competitive Changes for Winterfest 2023
Those are the big alterations to Battle Royale and the free Winterfest skins, but what about the Fortnite Chapter 5 tournaments? We’ve got a few items in the game which won’t be present in these events. These Winterfest items are being skipped in events:
- Holiday Presents
- Sneaky Snowmen
- Snowball Launchers
As you can see, a few of the Winter items are arriving in tournaments anyway. While Cash Cups and other events are running, quite a few are skipping the Winterfest Fortnite 2023 period entirely though.
When Does Winterfest Fortnite 2023 End?
That’s everything that’s coming in the Fortnite Christmas update. How long do we have to enjoy all this wintery content though? Fortnite Winterfest 2023 has a clear end date this year. We’re expecting it to wrap up on January 2, 2024. You’ll only have until then to unlock your skins and complete the quests. Make sure you’re getting everything done week by week if you want to unlock everything.