What you need to know about the big upcoming XP changes in Fortnite

Epic Games will be dramatically changing the way progression works across Fortnite’s various modes in the near future. Starting with all new passes added after the end of the current season, you will be able to complete each pass you have with XP. Festival Points and Lego Studs will be removed, and you will be able to advance all of your current passes at once by earning XP in each mode. This change will begin with the new Festival Pass – which will be renamed Music Pass – launching on November 2nd, and the Lego Pass will be updated with this change on December 1st when Fortnite Chapter 6 begins.

In addition to the progression changes, the passes themselves will also change. The current Festival and Lego Passes, as well as Mini Pass events like this summer’s Pirates of the Caribbean, all use the same 11-tier template, divided into free and paid titles. New passes starting after Chapter 6 begins in December will permanently abandon this template and move to a new standalone title that includes both paid and free items. The Battle Pass will also be simplified, the Battle Star currency will be abolished and a simpler progression system will be introduced.

Essentially, the Battle Passes, Lego Passes and Music Passes will now all have a similar format, although the Lego and Music Passes will likely still be much shorter than the Battle Passes.

Additionally, starting with Chapter 6, Fortnite will no longer have the option to purchase levels in its passes. Instead, you can purchase any specific item directly, although you still have to purchase the pass yourself first. In theory, this means you can come in at the end of the season and purchase the tier 100 skin immediately without having to purchase the entire pass for more than $100.

Passes will continue to expire on the specified end dates and you will no longer be able to purchase or process them after the end of each season.

This could be seen as a quality of life boost, as it means you don’t need to play “Festival” at all to complete the pass for this mode. But these changes will likely come with the removal or significant nerfing of passive XP from Festival and Lego Fortnite – since the quests for these modes now award XP instead of a mode-specific currency, passive XP will become redundant. Since many people used these modes to level up AFK, it is possible that this change is being made at least in part to eliminate this practice.

The passive XP gain rate in these modes has been quite good, but overall progress may be slower once these changes take effect. We need to see how it actually works before we know if it’s a positive change.