The 8th Season of new content for the exceedingly popular battle royale, Fortnite, is well-underway. And as is usually the case, Epic and co. are busy plugging away and new content additions for the popular shooter. The latest weekly update in the v8.20 series is live as of now, so let’s unpack it and see what’s going on.
First up of course is changes and new additions to the Battle Royale mode. And since it is by far the most popular game mode, it’s the one Fortnite fans care about the most, so let’s see what’s happening this week.
The new weapon this week is of course the engine of decimation, the Boom Bow. This explosive weapon fires Shotgun Ammo at your target, exploding in a radius that deals a fair chunk of damage. It’s also pretty decent for blasting apart cover and constructions.
In terms of a new game mode, the Sniper Shootout LTM is coming back this patch. this mode restricts players to using Sniper Rifles to take out their enemies, making for a much more stressful and intense long-range game.
A bunch of bug fixes have been dropped into Fortnite as well with this update. Clipping bugs with Traps and other assets have been addressed for one thing, and some balance problems with various weapons and vehicles, like the new Baller, have been worked out.
Here’s the full patch notes, sorted by game mode for you to peruse. So take a look down below and check them out.
Battle Royale
Weapons and items
- Boom Bow
- Fires Arrows with a Shotgun Shell tip, which explode on impact.
- Uses Shotgun Ammo
- The longer you hold the fire keybind down, the stronger the shot! This increases both projectile speed and direct impact damage.
- Explosive damage is consistent regardless of the power of the shot.
- The Boom Bow will achieve maximum power after 1.6 seconds of charging.
- A direct hit will deal both the direct hit damage and the explosion damage to the enemy player it impacts.
- Direct hit
- Base damage 15
- Headshot Multiplier: 2x
- Explosion
- 100 damage
- Peppers
- Increased duration from 10 seconds to 20 seconds
- Increased movement speed bonus from 20% to 40%
LTM: Sniper Shootout
- In this limited time mode, players will do battle using sniper rifles. May the best aim win!
- Only weapon drops are Sniper Rifles.
- Floor Loot spawners reduced by 50%
- Reviving “Down But Not Out” teammates in Duos & Squads is deactivated – be careful peeking!
Events – Arena
- Fixed an issue that caused players to be unable to queue for Duos when the party leader was in a lower division.
- Fixed an issue which caused players to not be promoted to the next division while playing in Duos with a player in a higher division.
- Note: Hype was still being earned correctly, this was a visual issue only.
- Fixed an issue where players in Duos were charged Bus Fare based on the party leaders division, rather than their own.
Creative
Weapons and items
- Boom Bow
- Fires Arrows with a Shotgun Shell tip, which explode on impact.
- Uses Shotgun Ammo
- The longer you hold the fire keybind down, the stronger the shot! This increases both projectile speed and direct impact damage.
- Explosive damage is consistent regardless of the power of the shot.
- The Boom Bow will achieve maximum power after 1.6 seconds of charging.
- A direct hit will cause both the direct hit damage and the explosion damage to the enemy player it impacts.
- Direct hit
- Base damage scales from 18 (minimum) to 54 (maximum)
- Headshot Multiplier: 4x
- Explosion
- 54 base damage
Prefabs
- Non-Right Square Pyramid Gallery Large
- Non-Right Triangular Pyramid Gallery Large
- Right Triangular Prism Gallery Large
- Seven Point Cube Gallery Large
- Square Pyramid Gallery Large
- Triangular Prism Gallery Large
- Upright Triangular Prism Gallery Large
Save the World
Weapons and items
- Cannonade Launcher
- A chaotic, rapid-fire, automatic launcher that shoots small explosive rounds.
- Available in the Weekly Store from April 3 at 8 PM Eastern Time until April 10 at 8 PM Eastern Time.
v8.20.1 resolved issues
Battle Royale
- Fixed an issue where spectator numbers would not update, even after the spectator had left the game.
- Fixed an issue that caused players to be unable to queue in the correct division level in the Arena game mode when the party leader was in a lower division.
- Fixed an issue which caused the Poison Dart Trap to be hidden behind certain wall assets.
- Fixed an issue where trap placement on walls would be blocked if a stair structure was attached to the wall.
- Fixed an issue that prevented players from getting removed from the Baller when hit by a Boogie Bomb.
- Fixed an issue preventing friend invites from displaying in the social panel.
Creative
- Fixed an issue where Creature Spawners wouldn’t activate within the correct range after it has been resized.
- Fixed an issue where the Phone Tool would emit two beams rather than one after copying multiple times.
- Fixed an issue that prevented non-damaging traps (Ice Block, Bouncers, etc) from functioning if the Game was not started.
- Fixed an issue where any Baller vehicle that was placed on an Island prior to v8.20 could not use the boost.
- Fixed an issue that prevented vehicles from being damaged by Music Sequencer when damage was turned on.
Save the World
- Re-enabled the X Marks the Spot sub-objective.
- Fixed an issue where the X Marks the Spot objective was removing items from player inventories.
- Fixed an issue that was causing B.A.S.E to incorrectly hover over player built structures.