Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3 launch recap — Star Wars comes to Fortnite

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Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3 just landed , meaning that the extended downtime that began at 2 a.m. EDT / 11 p.m. PDT has officially ended. With that new season comes a fresh batch of content from a Galaxy far far away.

The new season kicks off a new Star Wars-centric update called Galactic Battle. This means there will be a brand new Battle Pass and map locations — not to mention new characters and skins. if you ever wanted to play as Darth Jar Jar (yes, really), this is your chance.

Here's our coverage of the launch as it happened, and what you can expect to find in the now-ongoing season of Fortnite.

Is Fortnite down?

Yes Fortnite is down right now, but don't worry too much — this is all planned. Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3 is due to land later today (May 2), and that means the servers needed to go down to prepare.

Servers officially went offline at 2 am. EDT / 11 p.m. PDT / 7 a.m. BST this morning.

At this point we're unsure how long the outage will actually last. So far Epic Games hasn't said anything about the downtime, or when we can expect Galactic Battle content to be available. We'll keep you up to date with the latest news on when Fortnite will be playable as soon as we hear it.

Fortnite: Galactic Battle official trailer

The official cinematic trailer for Galactic Battle has been released, giving us a glimpse of what's to come once the Fortnite outage is over.

In the trailer we can see Star Destroyers appearing through a hole in the universe, launching TIE Fighters, stormtroopers and all kinds of other Imperial nasties into the world of Fortnite. Also making an appearance are Rebel X-Wings, with Luke Skywalker leading the charge, Mandalorians, a Samurai-ified version of Darth Vader and the Death Star. To name just a few.

If this trailer is anything to go by, Fortnite is going to be full to the brim with new Star Wars content and characters over the course of the season. Of course Darth Jar Jar makes an appearance as well. Which is quite exciting, assuming to subscribe to that particular fan theory...

Servers are back online

Fortnite has confirmed that servers are back online, meaning the Galactic Battle update is now yours to enjoy. While this is certainly good news, the amount of people flooding to Fortnite to enjoy the new season may cause some stress on the servers — and further downtime.

We're hoping that doesn't happen. But we're covering the launch of the new season right here with live updates. So if Fortnite does have some problems with the influx of players, we'll be the first to let you know.

Fortnite Galactic Battle release schedule

The launch of Chapter 6 season 3 (or Galactic Battle) is only the start of what Forntite has to offer in the coming weeks.. In fact, Epic Games has confirmed that Galactic Battle will receive weekly updates, adding new weapons and content into the battle royale.

Here's the official schedule:

• Tales of the Underworld (watch first two episodes in Fortnite) - May 2, 2025

• The Pull of the Force – May 8, 2025

• Mandalorian Rising – May 22, 2025

• Star Destroyer Bombardment – May 29, 2025

• Death Star Sabotage – June 7, 2025

It's not clear what extras these updates will actually bring to Fortnite just yet. So we'll have to wait and see whether our favorite Star Wars weapons and characters will be playable at some point over the next month.

Behold... Darth Jar Jar

A lot of Star Wars fans will have heard the not-so-serious theory that Jar Jar Binks was actually a Sith Lord. We even got to see Darth Jar Jar make his official debut in the Lego rebuild the Galaxy series last year.

Fortnite Galactic Battle takes things a step further, bringing Darth Jar Jar to the game. This is a brand new skin, which means you can actually play as an evil version of bumbling character.

All new map locations with a Star Wars flavoring

Any good multiplayer game knows that new content should always offer new places to explore. Fortnite is no exception. 4 new Points of interest (POIs) are being added to the Galactic Battle season as a result.

The first is Outpost Enclave, a rebel base with a distinctly Tatooine feel to it. To counter that we have a First order basepopulated by Stormtroopers. Vader's Samurai Solitudeis a blend of Star Wars and historic Japan featuring the Samurai Vade mini boss. Finally there's the Resistance Base, which is in the forest and houses the Millennium Falcon.

Even more skins to enjoy

Aside from Darth Jar Jar, there are a bunch of other new skins coming to Fortnite as part of Galactic Battle. They include Poe Dameron, a Wookie Team Leader, Resistance Evie and Emperor Palpatine himself.

Later on in the season will also give gamers the chance to unlock General Grievous, Mace Windu and a customizable Mandalorian skin.

Everything's holding pretty well so far

An hour ago, Fortnite was down and Down Detector was flashing red across the board. Now, though, with the game back up, reports of issues have dropped back down to a slightly less scary-looking orange.

As of the last update at 12:38, Down Detector only had 32 reported issues with Fortnite in the U.S. — suggesting that the servers are holding up to demand pretty well.

Though this may change as more of the continental U.S. wakes up and jumps into the game. We'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Galactic Battle on iOS?

One of the bigger news stories from the start of the week involved Apple and its ongoing feud with Epic Games.

A court ruled that Apple has ignored an injunction from 2021, and means Apple has to allow app developers to direct users to off-app payment systems . That was one of the reasons Fortnite got kicked from the App Store in the first place, and Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has confirmed this means Fortnite could return to the Apple App Store in the U.S. as early as next week.

What this means is that Fortnite will be officially playable on iPhones and iPads for the first time in several years. Who knows, maybe this means you'll be able to play Galactic Battle on your iPhone now?

All new weapons

Obviously no Star Wars-centric video game is complete without the lightsaber. And there will be plenty of lightsaber action going on in Galactic Battle. heck, there's even an unlockable purple lightsaber, for those of you hoping to complete the Mace Windu look.

But what about other weapons? Star Wars isn't just about lightsabers. Fortunately there are plenty of blasters to enjoy as well:

• Reliable  DL-44 Blaster Pistol

• Heavy  CR-2 Blaster (an SMG!)

• Close-range  ACP Scatter Blaster and  BARM-ST12 Scatter Blaster

• Close-to-medium range  DLT-19 Blaster Rifle

• Long-range  IQA-11 Marksman Blaster Rifle

• All-purpose  A280-CFE Blaster Rifle

• ( unvaulted ) Highly accurate  DC-15 Heavy Blaster Rifle

• ( unvaulted ) Empire standard Issue  E-11 Blaster

• ( unvaulted ) First Order standard issue  F-11 Blaster

There's also a "Thermal imploder," a grenade that kicks off a compression vacuum that ignites to cause some pretty major damage. Enough to rip holes in buildings.

Early access to a new Star Wars show

Remember back before Episode 9 came out, Fortnite hosted a special Star Wars event that led into the events of the movie? Galactic Battle doesn't quite have anything on that scale, but it is giving fans chance to watch the next Star Wars series early.

Tales of the Underworld officially hits Disney Plus on May 4th, but Fortnite players will be able to watch the first 2 episodes from 10 a.m. ET today (May 2).

I've been a big fan of Star Wars' "Tales" series, thanks to it offering smaller stories in the Star Wars universe. So any kind of early access sounds like a good deal to me.