After Fortnite Update, Freebies Now Available To Make Up For Server Problems

The day following the latest patch for Fortnite, the 3.5 update, has been a disappointing one for fans. The game was rendered unplayable for many on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and mobile during that span due to a variety of technical issues. Those appear to be ironed out now for the most part, but developer Epic plans to apologize with freebies for everyone. [Update: The first of these freebies are now available, so be sure to log in and claim them while they're free.]

"It's been no secret that over the past 24 hours we've been experiencing issues with our services that have prevented many of you from playing Battle Royale and Save the World. We're sorry," Epic says in a message on its website. "We know how frustrating this has been. We messed up here."

In return for players being "awesome and patient," it's offering free items that can be claimed for a limited time. This weekend, Battle Royale players can get a free Back Bling item (a new type of customization slot added for Season 3), which is pictured below. Also this weekend, Save the World players can grab a Troll Stash Llama. Both of these will be available from the respective modes' in-game stores.

In addition, Battle Royale players will receive a "pack of Battle Stars," which are used to rank up the Battle Pass and earn rewards. Save the World players will get some amount of seasonal gold. Unlike the freebies on the store, these will require downtime to distribute, so that will happen as part of the planned update for the week (which is likely to come between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, US time).

Epic says it intends to release a "detailed postmortem" detailing the problem Fortnite encountered this week and its plans to "improve services" in the future. This will be released "later next week."

There's still no word on when the removed Guided Missile weapon will return to Fortnite: Battle Royale, but the game is at least playable once again. That's good news, as the 3.5 update introduced a new Port-a-Fort item and made a variety of other changes. Week 8 challenges are also now available, although the server issues have prompted Epic to delay the release of the new 50v50 limited-time mode until next week.