Fortnite's Cuddles and Chaos event is live — here's how to get the free rewards

Fortnite's Cuddles and Chaos event kicked off on July 24, spotlighting a new Creative Island category called creature games — maps built around sidekick companions. Players have until August 25 to complete the Cuddles and Chaos Quests and earn free cosmetics, including the Panda Team Jr. sidekick.

To find the event islands, head to the Discovery section under the Play tab, scroll to Game Collections, and select Cuddles and Chaos. Featured maps right now include Sidekick Wars and Sidekick Masters, with standouts like Astropets Tycoon and Pets vs Brainrots also in the mix. On top of the quest rewards, players can grab the KATS Turntable back bling for free by watching participating Twitch streams on July 24 for at least 30 minutes. One catch: the quests were temporarily disabled at launch after a bug caused the game to crash, so check whether they're back online before diving in.

Sidekicks themselves launched back in November 2025 as a major rework of Fortnite's old pet system, which debuted in Chapter 1 Season 6 back in 2018. The original pets were purely cosmetic back blings with a few animations — sidekicks are a different beast, free-roaming alongside players during matches and invisible to opponents. Cuddles and Chaos is essentially Epic's push to give that system a proper gameplay layer by letting Creative island makers build entire experiences around the companions.

The creature game islands are a permanent addition to Fortnite's Creative library, but the quests and Twitch Drops are time-limited, so the August 25 deadline is the one to keep in mind. If you're on the fence, the free Panda Team Jr. sidekick alone is probably worth the detour.