Fortnite Update Adds New Gun And Horde Rush Mode; Here Are The Patch Notes

We may be in the midst of E3 2019, but that hasn’t stopped Epic from rolling out another update for Fortnite. Patch 9.21 is now live on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices, and it introduces another new weapon to the popular battle royale game, as well as a new pair of limited-time modes. Here’s what it does along with the full patch notes.

This week’s new weapon is the Proximity Grenade Launcher, which fires an “arcing, bouncing, explosive projectile” that will detonate when near another player. The gun comes in Epic and Legendary varieties and can be found in chests, supply drops, vending machines, or from Loot Carriers. It also uses rocket ammo and can hold two rounds.

In addition to the Proximity Grenade Launcher, Epic has made some balance tweaks to an assortment of existing weapons and items in the game. The Storm Flip, which was added as part of last week’s update, now deals flat damage rather than being based on the current storm phase, Epic has decreased the availability of the Mounted Turret and common variants of the Heavy Assault Rifle.

Beyond that, the developer is adding two new limited-time modes to the rotation this week. The first is the low gravity One Shot Duos mode. Here, all players have only 50 health, the only weapons that will spawn are snipers, and the only available healing items are bandages. The second mode, Horde Rush, drops four-player squads on the island and has them defending areas against waves of Fortnite Fiends.

You can see all of the changes for Fortnite: Battle Royale below. This week’s update has also added some new items to Fortnite Creative and Save the World; the full patch notes for those can be found on Epic’s website.

Fortnite: Battle Royale Update 9.21 Patch Notes

Limited-Time Mode Rotation

One Shot Duos

Low Gravity. Every player has 50 health. Sniper weapons are the only weapon, Bandages are the only healing item. Jump high and aim well!

Horde Rush

Fortnite Fiends are back on the island and angrier than ever! Fight alongside your teammates to rack up your score by finding hidden score multipliers, opening special loot chests, and eliminating as many monsters as you can. Traverse across the map, survive all of the Defend locations and take down the Final Boss to win!

• Mode Details
  • Four player Squad mode divided up into multiple stages.
  • Prepare to defend an area by searching for weapons & items, scavenging materials, and building defenses.
  • Rack up points by fighting Fiends, collecting score multipliers, and destroying Fiend Spawners.
  • Recover from the battle and search for more equipment.
  • Travel across the map to the next defense point.
  • Respawning is enabled until the last stage when players have to destroy a Boss Fiend and his horde of minions.
  • Keep an eye out for special loot chests, which contain powerful weapons & provide a scoring bonus.

Weapons & Items

• Proximity Grenade Launcher
  • Fires an arcing, bouncing, explosive projectile that explodes when in proximity of an opponent.
  • Available in Epic and Legendary Rarities.
  • Found from Chests, Loot Carriers, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines.
  • Semi-Automatic.
  • Uses Rocket Ammo.
  • Holds 2 Explosive Rounds.
  • Rate of Fire: 0.65 shots per second.
  • Player Proximity Radius: 250 units (about half the width of a tile).
  • Explosion Radius: 300 units (about 60% of the width of a tile).
  • Explosion damage:
    • Player: 67/70
    • Environmental: 131/138
  • Reload Speed: 2.8s/3s
  • Projectiles explode automatically after 10s or if it has nearly come to a stop.
• Shield Potion
  • Increased the availability from Chest loot from 11.3% to 12.09%
• Small Shield Potion
  • Increased the availability from Chest loot from 16.95% to 18.13%
  • With items being added and removed, we’ve noticed that Shield Potions and Small Shields have been less available in Chests. So we’ve increased the chance to find Shields from Chests to compensate for that.
• Shotguns
  • Increased the overall chance to find from Floor loot from 8.50% to 9.77%
  • After seeing the community’s feedback about Shotgun availability, we’ve increased the Shotgun availability from Floor Loot to make finding them in the early phases of the game easier.
• Infantry Rifle Epic and Legendary variants
  • Increased the availability from Floor loot from .067% to .105%
  • Increased the availability from Chest loot from .414% to .645%
• Heavy Assault Rifle Common variant
  • Decreased the availability from Floor loot from 2.04% to 1.715%
  • Decreased the availability from Chest loot from 12.47% to 10.46%
• Mounted Turret
  • Decreased the availability from floor loot from .59% to .46%
• Storm Flip
  • Adjusted Storm Flip to cause flat damage instead of being based on which Storm Phase is currently active.
    • Causes 5 damage every second.
    • We noticed with scaling damage that players held onto their Storm Flip later into matches, creating undesirable effects. This change gives players more value in using it earlier in matches.
  • Reduced the availability from Chests from 3.39% to 1.69%
  • Reduced the availability from Floor loot from 3.32% to 1.66%
  • Added back into the Arena and Tournament playlists.
    • We have visual effect changes coming in v9.30 that will help improve readability.

Audio

Bug Fixes

• Audio was sounding muffled due to a filter optimization issue.