How to use guitar controllers with Fortnite Festival

Fortnite Festival finally has support for guitar controllers, so it’s the perfect time to relive the glory days of Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Not every controller is supported out of the box though, but if you do have a compatible guitar controller, you’ll get access to special Pro Lead and Pro Bass versions of every Fortnite Festival Jam Track that feature hammer-ons and all those classic features from the OG rhythm games. Here’s what you need to know if you want to use a guitar controller with Fortnite Festival.

Which Guitar Controllers Are Supported?

Currently, only Rock Band 4 guitar controllers and the new PDP Riffmaster guitar controller are supported in Fortnite Festival. The same platform restrictions apply to each controller, so you won’t be able to use an Xbox guitar on PlayStation or anything like that.

How to Play Pro Lead and Pro Bass in Fortnite Festival

If you have a supported guitar controller, then all you need to do is plug it in and Fortnite Festival will recognize it automatically. If you’ve set it up correctly, then you should be able to navigate the menus with it and you should see the new Pro Lead and Pro Bass song parts when selecting Jam Tracks.

Pro Lead and Pro Bass make Fortnite Festival play more like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, changing the tracks to look more like traditional rhythm game tracks. They have hammer-on and pull-off notes that you can hit without strumming if you’re on a streak, and each lane has colored notes to match the buttons on your guitar controller. Sadly, the whammy bar on guitar controllers doesn’t do anything yet outside of a visual effect.

Pro Lead and Pro Bass have their own Fortnite Festival leaderboards too, so you can compare your performance to other pro rockers out there instead of those lowly controller players. All players regardless of input type will see the new Overdrive note changes, however. Epic Games has changed the Overdrive note color on all songs from orange to silver-white to fit in better with the new Pro Lead and Pro Bass note colors. Hitting Overdrive is essential to completing some Fortnite Festival quests, so make sure you get used to the change.