The High Stakes event is here: Today’s update begins with an event, a new mode and a new item that lets you grab nearby structures and pull yourself toward them to move around the map quickly. There’s also a host of performance upgrades and adjustments to the game, making this one of the more robust Fortnite updates we’ve seen in the past few weeks. We’ll be exploring everything this update brings to the game over the next few hours, but for now, you can read through the patch notes below, direct from Epic Games, to learn about everything that has been added or adjusted today. GENERAL Bug Fixes Fixed an issue causing some unneeded assets to remain in memory when switching from Save the World to Battle Royale or vice-versa. Fixed an issue that caused camera jitter when simultaneously canceling sprint while reloading and aiming down sights. Fixed a rare server crash that could occur when a player edits a building. Fixed an issue that prevented weapons from firing when holding the fire button during a weapon swap. Fixed an issue causing the crosshair to drift if player rapidly presses aim down sights with sniper rifles. Fixed some buildings’ destruction effects being played twice. Fixed ammo quantity counts not updating properly on the inventory screen details panel. Fixed broken antialiasing in handheld mode on Nintendo Switch. LIMITED TIME MODE: THE GETAWAY Welcome to The Getaway! In this mode, players will race to find a Jewel and take it to a Getaway Van before everyone else to win the match! MODE DETAILS Jewels Jewels can be found in special supply drop safes, located along the edge of the first storm circle. The safes take a long time to open, so make sure the area is clear before attempting to claim a Jewel! Four Jewels will be in play on the map AT ALL TIMES. If a player escapes with a Jewel or one is lost in the storm, a new supply drop will bring a replacement. When a Jewel is picked up, it will be visible on the map to everyone for 30 seconds. Carrying a Jewel will give players health & shields over time, but also slow them down by 10%. Getaway Vans Four TOTAL Getaway Vans will be in the map, three that arrive early in the match and one more that shows up near the end. Getaway Vans float in mid-air, Jewel carriers must build up and then interact with them in order to complete a Getaway. The goal is to find or steal a Jewel and take it to one of the vans in order to secure a Victory Royale. Once they arrive, safe drops and Getaway Vans will be visible on the map at all times. 12 red “Pursuit” Supply Drops land at the very beginning of the match. These carry a variety of longer-range weapons and other items, and are the only way to obtain the new Grappler in this mode. Resource harvesting amounts increased by 50%. Only Rare weapons or higher will be found in this mode. Rifts, Rift-To-Go and Launchpads have been removed to reduce mobility for Getaway Van engagements. Profile Stats (K/D & Wins) are tracked in this mode, but Umbrellas are not awarded for wins. WEAPONS + ITEMS Grappler added. Fire at a nearby object to pull yourself towards it. Can be found in Vending Machines, floor loot, Treasure Chests, Supply Drops, and Supply Llamas. Chain multiple shots together to travel great distances. Has 15 charges. Discarded when charges are depleted. Epic rarity. Vaulted Revolvers Rarity color adjustments Some items have been removed or modified to better reflect their effectiveness. This only affects their colors and other characteristics are unchanged. Removed Common Suppressed Submachine Gun Removed Rare Rocket Launcher Availability of Epic and Legendary Rocket Launchers increased slightly to compensate. Increased Epic Rocket Launchers drop rate by 18.57% Increased Legendary rocket launcher drop rate by 2.05% Removed Legendary Bolt-action Sniper Rifle Removed Rare Pistol Remote Explosives increased from Rare to Epic. Port-a-Fort decreased from Epic to Rare. Semi-Auto Sniper rifle decreased from Epic and Legendary to Uncommon and Rare. Increased the frequency that the Semi-Auto sniper rifles drop to align more with their rarity class. Increased Uncommon Semi-Auto sniper drop rate by 9.29% Increased Rare Semi-Auto sniper drop rate by 9.29% Dual pistols decreased in rarity from Epic and Legendary to Rare and Epic. Suppressed pistol decreased in rarity from Epic and Legendary to Rare and Epic. Burst Assault Rifle accuracy adjustments. When holding down the trigger, the first 2 bursts are more accurate. Spread down sights benefit increased from 35% to 40%. Crouch spread benefit reduced from 25% to 20%. Jumping/Falling spread penalty reduced from 25% to 10%. Sprinting spread penalty reduced from 50% to 30%. Increased drop stack count for Boogie Bomb from 1 to 2. Increased maximum stack size for Stink Bomb from 5 to 6. Increased maximum stack size for Shield Potions from 2 to 3. Bug Fixes Fixed an issue that prevented audio and effects from playing on other players who are consuming a shield potion. GAMEPLAY In the moving storm phases, when the storm reaches its destination, it will cause a surge of energy that destroys player-built structures located on the storm wall. Motion controls now function uniformly across input types on Nintendo Switch and mobile. Options have been added to the settings to allow you to switch your motion turn axis. Motion deadzone has been removed. Bug Fixes Fixed an issue causing supply drop landing effects to play twice in some circumstances. Fixed inconsistencies with auto-pickup when landing on pickups, and when pickups are first thrown from containers. PERFORMANCE Improved loading performance on Nintendo Switch to reduce issues with buildings loading late (i.e. low-res buildings during skydiving). Fixed a large performance regression related to effects. This was causing poor framerate in the 5.30 release (especially on Nintendo Switch). AUDIO Boosted volume of the Remote Explosives placement sound. Improve the quality of the sound played when dropping from the Bus on Mobile/Nintendo Switch platforms. Improve spatialization of the chest open sound for other players nearby. Bug Fixes Reduced the spam of item pickup “bounce” sounds when pickups are sliding down hills. Fixed several UI sound issues. UI Emote picker is now available in the lobby, no longer limited to just playing the first emote selected in your locker. Fullscreen map now supports touch on Nintendo Switch. Bug Fixes Item shop now shows the item description when inspecting. Road Trip week 8 and 9 display the correct completion value now. Fixed issue where challenge bundles did not display the correct number of stars from the challenge tab. Fixed issue where style preview would sometimes not be centered in the view correctly. Banner rewards from the Battle Pass no longer show an empty description box. Fixed an issue wherein rerolling a daily quest in Battle Royale would not select the new quest. Style gift boxes will now show the 3D preview of the character with the style applied. Fixed an issue where navigating in the locker would cause some drop in performance. Fixed an issue where changing away from the Challenges Tab would cause some information to get stuck on the screen. Fix an issue where continuously clicking on the “Select Game Mode” page would prevent it from closing. Fixed an issue where using touch to open/close the map would cause d-pad controls to become unresponsive. Fixed an issue with the loading screen showing incorrect information for non-leader party members. ART + ANIMATION Bug Fixes Fixed an issue that could cause player models to not appear while in game. Fixed an issue with spray quality temporarily appearing pixelated for some sprays. Fixed the Downshift Glider rear light trails from clipping with geometry. REPLAY SYSTEM Bug Fixes Fixed duplicate elimination effects on the recording player. MOBILE Added VOIP to Android. Expanded device support to the Essential-PH, Motorola, HTC, Sony Xperia devices. Major memory optimization on Android devices with Adreno GPUs. This addresses the performance degradation seen due to memory pressure. Implemented a new Audio Mixer, which addresses issues with sound quality and consistency. Items on the ground now have tooltips.<doc-sep>Fortnite to launch ‘High Stakes’ challenge with new rewards FREE for the biggest new releases, reviews and tech hacks SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up forfor the biggest new releases, reviews and tech hacks When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Fortnite developer Epic Games is about to release update 5.4 on PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. And early patch notes have been revealed for Battle Royale update 5.40, which was delayed until September 6. The update will be released after a period of downtime from 9am UK time. The main new features include the Grappler Gun, the High Stakes event and the Getaway LTM. According to Epic Games, update 5.40 will fix an issue with player models not appearing in the game. "Player character models are sometimes not appearing in-game," reads an Epic post. "This causes what appears to be floating weapons to be the only thing visible." Nintendo Switch users can also expect a fix for broken gyro controls. "The X and Y axis for the Switch gyro controls are not functioning as intended after the v5.10 update," Epic continues. "The X-axis movement feels unnatural and the Y-axis is inverted." Fortnite update 5.40 will launch on September 6<doc-sep>Fortnite: Mysterious purple cube appears on Battle Royale map FREE for the biggest new releases, reviews and tech hacks SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up forfor the biggest new releases, reviews and tech hacks When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Fortnite fans from today will see some new map changes with the Dusty Diner area added and construction on Tilted Towers finally completed. Epic Games have rolled out a number of Fortnite Battle Royale map changes with the recently released Fortnite update 5.40. Fortnite update 5.40 was launched earlier today with the headline addition the new Fortnite High Stakes event. The latest Fortnite patch also brought with it the new Grappler gun as well as the Getaway limited time mode (LTM). And the new Fortnite update has in addition introduced some new changes to the Battle Royale map. Firstly, the construction site at Tilted Towers has finally been finished. Before Fortnite update 5.40 the area under construction had lots of equipment as well as a large hole in the floor. Now it’s been finished to house a building which has a big fish plaque on the outside as well as balloons from the birthday event decorating it. Fortnite map changes - Fortnite update 5.40 shakes up Battle Royale playing field Dusty Divot has also received a big shake-up, with the new Dusty Diner appearing in that point of interest. The area is still called Dusty Divot but the Dusty Diner has appeared right by the meteor crater. There is a large parking lot area next to the eatery which has a huge sign outside it. The sign shows a cup of coffee with Dusty Diner written on the side of the mug and the outline of a meteor just above it. Fortnite map changes - Dusty Diner has been added to the Dusty Divot area Right next to Dusty Diner Fortnite Battle Royale players can also find a museum where the factories and warehouses were. The latest map changes come after the previous major Fortnite update introduced a brand new point of interest. Fortnite update 5.30 launched two weeks ago and with it Epic Games introduced a major shake-up to one locale. With Fortnite update 5.30 Epic Games got rid of the Tomato Town POI and replaced it with Tomato Temple. Fortnite map changes - Construction in Tilted Towers has finally been completed Tomato Temple can be found in the same spot as Tomato Town, but the point of interest is a much larger locale. The recently added location in Fortnite features more vegetation than before and also has an underground section similar to those found in Shifty Sands. The addition of Tomato Temple has also seen the giant Tomatohead, which disappeared at the end of Fortnite season 4, make a triumphant return. However, the location it has now been placed is a bit more intimidating. Fortnite map changes - A new museum has been added in Dusty Divot<doc-sep>
Fortnite’s latest patch has arrived, and while most of the attention will rightly be placed on the new High Stakes event and the game mode that came with it, patch 5.40 also made a whole lot of weapon changes that are worth talking about. The first change, and likely the most important, is that the burst rifle received a few much needed buffs. Ever since first-shot accuracy was added to the game back in Season 3, the burst rifle has fallen behind its steady-firing counterpart. Thankfully, Epic has finally decided to take a look at the weapon and give it some of the attention it needed. The buffs start with a boost to the accuracy of the gun’s second shot which should help players more consistently take advantage of the burst rifle’s high damage — because it will be easier to land shots. The other buff is an increase in accuracy when aiming down the weapon’s sights. These buffs, along with the nerfs to the gun’s effectiveness while moving, cement the rifle’s place as a high quality mainstay of mid-range combat in Fortnite. That’s about it for actual weapon changes this patch, but there are several changes to other things about weapons like spawn rates and rarity that are important as well. First of all, the rare rocket launcher has been taken out of the game, while the epic and legendary versions of the same weapon will spawn a little more often to help offset the change. The legendary bolt-action sniper rifle is also gone, along with the rare pistol and the common suppressed sub-machine gun. Remote explosives are now epic, instead of rare, and Port-a-Forts are now rare instead of Epic. Semi-auto snipers also had their rarity decreased as they went from epic and legendary to uncommon and rare — they also should spawn a little more often now. Similarly, the dual pistols and the suppressed pistol all went from epic and legendary to rare and epic, respectively, without any other changes. While longtime players may not see much need for these kinds of changes, they actually go a long way in helping new players better understand the game. The weapon rarity is a quick and easy way to see if one gun is better than another, so it’s best for Epic to keep up with the trends of the community and let rarity colors reflect that to better help new players learn what people use. The final change worth mentioning that’s coming through with this patch is that the revolver is being vaulted. Chances are, you won’t miss it much. But, in a recent developer update, Epic Games reminded us that vaulting weapons is a way to work on those items quietly and possibly bring them back when they are in a better place overall. By and large, these weapon changes that came along with patch 5.40 aren’t a massive deal. But, they’re worth keeping in mind when you suddenly see that one of your favorite guns has a new rarity color; don’t worry, it’s no better or worse than it was yesterday.