Fortnite Shiny Hours: Batman Sprite Power Hour Times for July 18 Explained
Epic Games ran another round of Shiny Hours in Fortnite on Saturday, July 18, giving Chapter 7 Season 3 players two separate two-hour windows with boosted spawn rates for rare Sprite variants. The Batman-themed event tied into the ongoing Hot Bat Summer update, with the first session starting at 2pm ET and the second at 9pm ET, according to Vice and GameRant.
The Fortnite Shiny Power Hours began on Saturday, July 18, with two total sessions, one from 2 PM ET to 4 PM ET, and another the same day from 9 PM ET to 11 PM ET. Epic has been running this expanded two-session format for weeks now. Since the start of Chapter 7 Season 3, Epic Games has expanded weekly Power Hours into two sessions every Saturday, giving players another opportunity if they miss the first one.
When Shiny Hours Landed for NZ and Australian Players
The first Fortnite Shiny Hours session started at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET, with the second session starting at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET. Converted to local time, that put the opening window at roughly 6am NZST and 4am AEST on Sunday, July 19, with the second run following at around 1pm to 3pm NZST (11am to 1pm AEST) that same day.
That scheduling quirk meant Kiwi and Australian players had to choose between an early alarm or an early-afternoon session, a familiar trade-off for anyone chasing time-limited Fortnite loot from outside North America.
What Changed During the Two-Hour Batman Sessions
Unlike earlier single-variant Power Hours, this event boosted multiple rare Sprite types at once rather than focusing on just one. This was not like the previous power hour event, which only focused on one Sprite; in this event, the appearance rate of all Special Sprite variants was increased.
The full modifier list stacked several bonuses on top of each other. The Batman Sprite spawned more often, all players started the match with a Batman Grapnel Gun and a Self-Revive Device, Batman Beach Buggy vehicles spawned more often, Gold, Gummy, Galaxy, and Holofoil Sprites spawned more often, the Sprite Hunt Rift Anomaly was enabled throughout matches, and the Battle Bus Victory Royale Rift Anomaly was guaranteed to occur in each match.
Players who successfully found a boosted Sprite still had to bank it before the match ended for it to count toward their permanent collection. Simply carrying a Gold, Gummy, Galaxy or Holofoil Sprite during Fortnite Shiny Hours did not automatically add it to the permanent collection — the Sprite had to be successfully extracted before the match ended.
Batman Sprite Arrived With Update 41.20 Two Days Earlier
The Batman-flavoured spawns were not a coincidence. The Batman Sprite arrived with Fortnite update 41.20 on July 16, folding the Dark Knight into the game’s Sprite companion system just two days before Shiny Hours went live. The Air Sprite and Seven Sprite also joined Fortnite on July 16, with the Air Sprite providing movement benefits and the Seven Sprite helping squads follow enemy foot trails.
That made the July 18 event the earliest large-scale chance for collectors to chase rare Gold, Gummy, Galaxy or Holofoil versions of all three new companions in the same weekend, on top of the ongoing Hot Bat Summer crossover content already running across Chapter 7 Season 3.
Cube Sprite Variant Still Sitting in the Files
Notably absent from the boosted loot pool was the Cube Sprite variant, a rarity data-miners have already spotted inside the game’s code. The Cube Sprite variant was not included in Fortnite Shiny Hours, and although the new rarity is currently in the game’s files, it has not yet been enabled.
Dataminer leaks cited by Vice suggest the wait won’t be long. According to leaks, the Cube Fortnite Sprite could instead make its debut on July 24, 2026, giving players another rare variant to collect after the Shiny Hours event ends. If that date holds, it would land in the middle of the following week rather than during a weekend Power Hour, a break from Epic’s usual pattern of tying new rarities to Saturday events.
Read also: Fortnite Vini Jr Sprite: How to Find the Mythic Slide-Kick Companion
With Chapter 7 Season 3 still mid-run and Hot Bat Summer content rolling out in stages, Epic’s now-standard two-session Saturday format looks set to continue giving global players, including those tuning in from New Zealand and Australia at odd local hours, repeated chances to fill out their Sprite collections before the next themed event replaces Shiny Hours.
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