Star Wars in LEGO Fortnite: What does the new crossover bring?

After all, Disney has made a big investment in Epic Games recently, making Fortnite and Star Wars even closer than they already were.

So, when does the LEGO Fortnite Star Wars event kick off, and what Star Wars goodies should we expect from the update? Read on to learn more!

When is the LEGO Fortnite Star Wars event? Start date and time

The LEGO Fortnite Star Wars event will begin on Friday 3rd May 2024, as part of an overarching Fortnite Star Wars event that will also impact Battle Royale, Fortnite Festival, Rocket Racing and the Item Shop.

This might be a day earlier than you expected, with May the 4th (be with you) often being a fan-favourite date on which companies release Star Wars content.

Fortnite will enter a period of downtime beforehand. The v29.40 update will patch in the new Star Wars content, which should hopefully be live in the UK by 2pm BST on 3rd May 2024.

What's included in the LEGO Fortnite Star Wars update?

As the official Fortnite blog puts it: "The Galactic Empire is in hot pursuit of a band of Rebels, who need your help! The Empire and Rebels are unknowingly heading to a rift to your world, which will lead them to a new island in your world."

The arrival of Star Wars characters into the LEGO Fortnite universe has a bunch of different consequences, which we'll explain below! Plus, there's a trailer for the whole thing which we'll embed right here.

Explore Star Wars Island and help the Rebel Village

The new Star Wars Island is home to a Rebel Village, which you will be able to repair and improve after the Empire crashes into your LEGO Fortnite world.

The village has 10 levels of progress for you to complete, and you should be able to find the village using some Macrobinoculars from the crash site. Once you've got to know the Rebels at the base, they'll lead you on a quest to defeat some baddies from the Empire.

By helping the Rebels to build up their village, you'll also unlock the ability to use lightsabers in LEGO Fortnite. These elegant weapons also make powerful tools, but in the world of LEGO Fortnite they will need to recharge after combat.

Craft LEGO Star Wars items at Rebel Workbench

The addition of Star Wars stuff to your LEGO Fortnite island will allow you to collect different resources. In turn, this will allow you to craft Star Wars items at any Rebel Workbench. This will allow you to make the following:

Bowcaster - Launches a quarrel that deals damage then explodes in the area.

DL-44 blaster - There's no substitution for a good blaster at your side.

E-11 blaster - Standard-issue blaster for Imperial Stormtroopers.

Thermal Detonator - The bounty hunter's detonator of choice! This thrown explosive affects a wider area than Dynamite.

To unlock the recipes for all of these items, you need to add Durasteel and Scrap Durasteel to your inventory. We'd assume you can get Durasteel, and any other spacey resources that you need, by smashing up spaceships and other Star Wars things.

You'll need to make a Rebel Workbench first, before you can make the other Star Wars items. Add Plastoid to your inventory to get the recipe for the Rebel Workbench.

Build Mos Eisley and get Chewbacca in the LEGO Pass

There is also something called the LEGO Pass, which works similarly to the Fortnite battle pass and the Fortnite Festival Pass. It has a free track, that will earn you some smaller goodies, and a paid track that will allow you to unlock some cool stuff.

Just for buying the LEGO Pass, which costs 1,400 V-Bucks, you'll get Chewbacca as a skin in every Fortnite mode (including a LEGO form).

And if you complete the free track of the LEGO Pass, you'll get a buildable version of The Mos Eisley Marketplace.

Epic has provided the following advice on how to get the LEGO Pass:

• After selecting the LEGO Fortnite experience in Fortnite, go to the LEGO Pass button in the top navigation.
• Here is where you’ll see the LEGO Pass and a button to view Quests. These Quests are about helping the Rebels. Complete them to earn Studs!
• The more Studs you collect, the further you'll progress in the LEGO Pass! Unlock in-game rewards from the free reward track as you progress. If you want, you can also unlock in-game rewards from the purchasable Premium Reward Track.

Get LEGO styles for some Star Wars faves

These new Fortnite Star Wars skins will be available for fans to buy during the event, with LEGO styles confirmed for each of them:

• Dagobah Luke (Item Shop)
• Lando Calrissian (Item Shop)
• AWR Trooper (Item Shop)
• Chewbacca (LEGO Pass premium track)

The following pre-existing skins, if you already have them, will also be getting a LEGO style when the event goes live:

• Darth Vader
• Krrsantan
• The Mandalorian

This does create a strange reality where you can choose to dress up as Darth Vader while you try to help the Rebel Village. And if that backwards logic doesn't capture the spirit of playing with your LEGOs and mashing them together into new shapes, we don't know what does!

If all this talk of LEGO Star Wars has made you want buy some new real-life kits, check out some of the latest and greatest options below.

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