Fortnite: Gnomes return for secret “Downfall” challenge, here’s how to complete it

The most recent patch of Fortnite hid a secret challenge in the game for players to find and complete for what would be an easy 60,000 XP if the game had bothered to mention it. Of course, now that the internet knows about it, the challenge itself is relatively easy. Here’s a basic walkthrough for how to complete the Downfall challenge.

Fortnite Downfall Challenge Part 1: The Lair

The first part of the secret Downfall challenge in Fortnite is to locate the gnomes’ evil lair. Once you know about it, it’s actually fairly easy to find. Players can find the gnome lair to the east of Weeping Woods. The small, two story complex, is situated on a hill overlooking the forest.

Head inside through the ground floor front door (east side of the building) and immediately turn left to go through the door. Turn right and enter the first door on the right of the hallway, which should lead to a staircase going down. While this area seems to be a dead end at first, there should be a vent on the right side wall, open it and crawl through to find the secret Gnome lair.

You’ll know it’s the right location when Fortnite notifies you that you have completed “The Lair” challenge, and awarded you 20,000 XP.

Downfall is related to the Gnome questline.Audio files relate to "Junk Bots/Junk Robots" https://t.co/GqMFkxpL2Z

— FireMonkey • Fortnite Intel 🎄 (@iFireMonkey) September 23, 2020

Fortnite Downfall Challenge Part 2: The Traps

While inside the lair, take note of the map situated in the corner of the room being stared at by the sinister looking Gnome. You should be able to recognize it as the Fortnite map, with five red pins connected with strings stuck into it.

Make your way to the associated location of each pin, one in the south, two in the west, and two in the northeast. Look around for similarly sinister Gnomes in each area. They should be found watching over barrels of Slurp Juice. However, these are no ordinary barrels of Slurp like you might find elsewhere on Fortnite, these ones appear to be traps designed to maim the unsuspecting.

Fortunately, you’re here to thwart the Gnome’s plot. Simple approach the barrel and disarm it. Repeat this for the other barrels and you’ll earn another 20,000 XP.

Fortnite: The Downfall secret challenge guide and trap locations https://t.co/U9Jd3ZW1jG #supportsmallstreamers pic.twitter.com/Yq5dt8oOR3

— GbrilliantQ (@GbrilliantQ) September 23, 2020

Fortnite Downfall Challenge Part 3: The Aftermath

This last part tasks Fortnite players with finding and destroying a Gnome holding on to a newspaper. For this one, you have to find a cluster of Gnomes together and visually identify your target. Once you’ve done this, simply attack it and move on for another easy 20,000 XP.

In the video which shows how to do this, the newspaper Gnome was found in Lazy Lake, but there is no guarantee that it can only be found at one location. Because this Fortnite challenge is secret there is very little information to be had about it.