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Fortnite Gem Hour: August 8 Power Hour Times, Rewards and NZ/AU Schedule
Author:News DeskCategory:News, Date: 9th August, 2026
Epic Games ran a special “Gem Hours” event across two two-hour windows on Saturday, August 8, boosting spawn rates for Fortnite’s new Gem Sprites and handing out Mythic-rarity loot in every Battle Royale and Zero Build match. GameRant reported the Gem Hours in Fortnite began on Saturday, August 8, from 2 PM to 4 PM ET and 9 PM to 11 PM ET (6 PM to 8 PM UTC and 1 AM to 3 AM UTC), giving players two separate windows to chase the rarest Sprites in the current season before it wraps up.
This week’s event is officially called “Gem Hours” and features significantly increased spawn rates for the recently released Fortnite Gem Sprites. It’s the latest entry in Epic’s rotating “Power Hour” format, which periodically supercharges loot and collectible rates during limited windows rather than for the whole season.
Gem Hour Times Converted for New Zealand and Australia
Because the event runs on a fixed UTC schedule, the local clock time differs sharply between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. Working from the confirmed UTC windows of 6 PM–8 PM UTC and 1 AM–3 AM UTC (August 9), New Zealand players on NZST (UTC+12) saw the first session run from roughly 6 AM to 8 AM on Sunday, August 9, with the second stretching from about 1 PM to 3 PM the same afternoon.
For Australian players on AEST (UTC+10), the equivalent local windows fell around 4 AM to 6 AM and 11 AM to 1 PM on Sunday, August 9. The afternoon session on both sides of the Tasman lines up with a normal weekend gaming slot, making it the more practical window for local players who missed the early-morning run.
What Gem Hour Actually Changes in Matches
Both sessions lasted for two hours and included several additional Power Hour bonuses, including Mythic loot, Self-Revive Devices and the return of the Mythic Goldfish. On top of the Self-Revive and loot changes, all seasonal weapons dropped at Mythic rarity, all Sprite variants appeared more often with an increased chance for Gem Sprites specifically, and the Mythic Goldfish had a chance to drop from Chests.
Crucially, players didn’t need to sit through both windows to benefit. Players only needed to participate during one Fortnite Gem Hours session to receive the event modifiers. However, timing mattered for anyone already mid-match: players already in a match when Fortnite Gem Hours started needed to return to the lobby and enter a new game to ensure the event modifiers were active.
Nine Gem Sprites and Some Brutal Drop Odds
The event exists to help players finish a collection that only became fully available days earlier. Fortnite added 8 new Gem Sprite variants on August 6, 2026, as part of the weekly New Sprite Day refresh, while a ninth variant, Gem Llama, had already been available since July 30 through Relic Chests; the new lineup includes Gem Water, Gem Earth, Gem Demon, Gem Duck, Gem Aura, Gem Punk, Gem Zero Point, and Gem Grim.
Every one of the nine variants shares the same passive bonus. Every one of them reduces fall damage by 30% while carried. That perk is modest in a firefight, which is why most players were chasing the Sprites purely to complete a collection rather than for combat value.
Two of the nine are notoriously difficult to obtain even with the event’s boosted rates. Gem Zero Point sits at the bottom of the drop table at roughly 0.00001%, with Gem Grim next at about 0.00099%. Both are tied to rare Chest pulls rather than fixed map spawns, meaning Gem Hours’ spawn-rate multiplier offered the best realistic shot at either variant without relying on pure luck across dozens of matches.
Why Epic Timed This Before Chapter 7 Season 3 Ends
The clock is genuinely ticking for anyone still missing Sprites from this set. This gave players a total of four hours to jump in and hunt for Gem Sprites to finish their collection before the Fortnite season ends on August 19. With Chapter 7 Season 3 closing out in under two weeks, Gem Hours functioned as one of the last concentrated opportunities to fill gaps in the current Sprite roster before the next season’s content rotates in.
Sprite collectors won’t have to worry about the mechanic disappearing entirely, though. Reporting from ComicBook noted that Sprites will officially stick around next season, with a new generation of Sprite designs including the Create-a-Sprite winners. That means Chapter 7 Season 4 is set to bring its own fresh batch of collectibles, but the specific Gem-themed designs chased during this weekend’s event are tied to the current season and won’t necessarily carry over once the new Sprite generation launches.
For New Zealand and Australian players who missed both windows on August 8-9, Epic’s Power Hour rotation typically returns with a new theme the following weekend, so a fresh chance at boosted Sprite rates is likely before the season’s August 19 close-out.
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News Desk
The GamesReviews News Desk covers the latest gaming news across PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, PC and esports. Reporting is AI-assisted and reviewed by our editorial team.
