Fortnite's drastically diminished Save the World XP rewards was a bug, Epic says, but now it's fixed

A ninja throws kunai in this Fortnite: Save The World marketing screenshot

(Image credit: Epic Games)

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Update: Several hours after acknowledging the problems with XP rewards in Fortnite, Epic now says they've been fixed. "We've made several adjustments and fixes to XP across Fortnite!" Epic posted on X. "Daily bonus goal rewards are now higher. Lego Fortnite quest XP has been fixed (now rewarding 25,000 instead of 700). Increased weekly XP earnable in Save The World, Lego Fortnite, Reload, and Creative experiences. "We’ll continue to monitor and ensure that players can earn similar amounts of XP regardless of their game mode and will make further adjustments as needed." The amount of the increases has not been specified.

Epic Games says a recent change to Fortnite Save the World that drastically cut back on the XP players could earn was in fact a bug, and the issue is being fixed.

The trouble came to light yesterday when players discovered that Epic had apparently made a change to the XP cap on Save the World, the original Fortnite PvE experience. Fortnite Save the World is pretty much an afterthought at this point, long ago left in the dust of Fortnite Battle Royale, but players can still use it to earn progress in Fortnite overall. As Forbes explains, players could previously earn multiple levels per day from playing Save the World, but with the start of Chapter 6 Season 1, it was cut to a total of nine levels per week, a drastic reduction.

This did not go over well with the Fortnite community. Multiple threads on the Fortnite subreddit were highly critical of the change, complaining that the tighter cap unfairly impinges upon their progress. Many felt the change was part of a more forceful push to monetize the Fortnite battle pass, and there was also considerable upset that all of this happened without any warning: Epic said nothing at all about the new XP cap prior to pushing it live.

Now it has said something, and it turns out the Save the World XP issue is a bug. "We're aware of an issue where after a certain threshold is reached, Save The World players earn less XP than intended," Epic posted on X. "We're working to resolve this now and will let you know when a fix is live."

We're aware of an issue where after a certain threshold is reached, Save The World players earn less XP than intended. We're working to resolve this now and will let you know when a fix is live. — (Image credit: Fortnite Status (Twitter))

It looks like this might have been part of a broader problem with Fortnite, as XP awards in Lego Fortnite were also disabled because of a problem with how it was being handed out. The Lego Fortnite Status account said all XP that would have been earned during the period that awards are disabled will be granted at some point before the current Lego pass ends.

We've detected an issue with how the XP was granted in LEGO Fortnite. We are temporarily disabling XP in LEGO Fortnite and will let you know when we have enabled it again. We'll also be restoring XP for all the affected players that would have been earned in LEGO Fortnite while it was disabled before the current LEGO Pass ends. — (Image credit: LegoFN_Status (Twitter))

All of this may have emerged from a change to Fortnite's overall XP reward system that was announced in October. Rather than having separate daily quests for each mode, as of December 1 the regular battle pass, the music pass, and the Lego pass all share reward tracks and advance with XP earned from any Fortnite mode except Save the World. This hasn't proven entirely popular either, as some players say the merging of daily rewards has cut back on the amount of XP they can earn and forced them to play game modes they're not interested in, but at least it's not a bug.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.