Fortnite maker Epic Games has issued an update to address some of the game’s biggest issues after taking the server offline at 9am UK time on Tuesday for what is expected to be for no more than four hours.
Here’s what’s changed as a result of the content update, including improvements to Battle Royale, Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing and more.
What’s new in the Fortnite update?
We’ve picked out some of the main changes in the Fortnite update below, and listed the rest further down the article.
Battle Royale movement
Starting with Battle Royale, Epic said character movements and animations have been tweaked to make them faster when running and crouching. The camera also won’t be as hyperactive and the change in view while sprinting has been adjusted to create a “smoother experience".
If you’ve played with your settings, make sure to double check them as Epic has reset everyone’s Custom Diagonal Movement as part of the updates.
The improvements are aimed at the biggest grievance among players since the launch of Chapter 5 earlier this month.
Gameplay in Fortnite is typically very fluent, with the best players able to build and move at staggering speeds, but the updated movement in Chapter 5 felt off to some.
Annoyed players said characters felt slow and clunky, and demanded movement be reworked or reverted to how it was before.
Lego Fortnite cave bug
Meanwhile, Epic said it has squashed a bug in Lego Fortnite that was causing players to lose all their items as they entered or exited caves. By now, you should know not to leave your homestead carrying anything too valuable but losing your stuff to a glitch would be infuriating.
Rocket Racing collisions
Racers rejoice: The latest Fortnite update has a fix for car-on-car collisions in Rocket Racing that should keep you facing the finishing line when you get bumped from behind.
All the changes in the Fortnite update
Here are all the other improvements included in the latest Fortnite update:
Battle Royale
- Society Medallion icons now stand out more on the map and minimap
- Certain areas brightened where it was too dark at night
- The storm’s edge should now be easier to spot
- Frenzy Auto Shotgun and the Thunder Burst SMG weapon icons updated
- Flowberries now grant more Shield
- Increased damage for the Ranger Pistol, Shield Breaker EMP, and Ballistic Shield's pistol
- Snowball Launcher mag size reduced
- Thunder Burst SMG mag size increased
- Reduced the drop rate of the Reaper Sniper Rifle
- Striker AR deals less damage
- The circle indicating a Society Medallion holder is smaller
- Society Medallions now have a brief delay before Shield regen begins. They also have slightly reduced regen rates and no longer refill 100% Shield (unless you have all five).
Lego Fortnite
- Increased durability of non-rare/non-epic and rare/epic tools and weapons
- Reduced damage of the Brute’s Poison area for all three Brutes
- Reduced damage of the Frost Scorpion explosion
- Sand Scorpions, Scorpions found in caves, regular Scorpions, Crabs on the shoreline, Sand Spiders, and Alpine Frost Spiders are slightly easier to defeat
- Rams now give Heavy Wool
- Grapplers now hold 30 charges
- Spiders won’t jumpscare you as often when turning over rocks.
Rocket Racing
- Shortened queue times for high-ranked racers
- Jackie outfit patched so that racers who have hit Gold I now just need to complete one full race to complete the Quest and receive it
Fortnite Festival
- Fixed missing song library error
- Fall damage has been disabled in the Main Stage’s Backstage
- Restart Song” functionality temporarily disabled
- Fixed an issue where some scores may have been posted to the wrong leaderboard
When is the next Fortnite update?
If you’re wondering when you can expect the next Fortnite update, and resulting downtime, Epic says it will arrive in early 2024.
