Fortnite’s Newest Update Adds New Events to the Game

Update 7.1.0 for Fortnite is now out, and it continues rolling out the season 7 content. The newest update actually adds two new events to the game—the first is Frostnite, for Save the World (the completely forgotten PvE side of the game, where you and three other players team up to take on zombies and the like); this event is basically a new mode where you and other players need to survive the chill by constructing and lighting a lamp comprised of BluGlo.

The other event is 14 Days of Fortnite, and it will be available across both modes, adding new challenges, rewards, and quests. Battle Royale also gets a bunch of bug fixes and tweaks with this update. Meanwhile, new islands, features, and items have also been added to the game’s new Creative Mode. The full patch notes are ridiculously extensive, and I encourage you to check them out for yourself on Epic’s website. However, you can find a selection of them below.

Fortnite is out now for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android.

WEAPONS AND ITEMS:

• Heavy Assault Rifle Changes:
  • Reduced the effectiveness of the Heavy Assault Rifle while not aiming down sights; aiming down sight gameplay remains roughly the same
    • Increased ADS accuracy bonus by 10%
    • Increased accuracy while standing still by 10%
    • Reduced vertical recoil by 6%
    • Base accuracy reduced by 30%
    • Reduced accuracy while jumping and falling by 60%
• Improved Balloon controls
  • While in the air, Balloons can be released by pressing the ‘Crouch’ keybind(formerly the ‘Jump’ keybind).
  • Players can again use Alt-Fire to release a Balloon when the Balloon item is selected.
• For modes it’s available in, the height at which glider redeploy is available has been decreased from 1000 units to 576 units.

GAMEPLAY:

• Ground vehicles now slide on icy surfaces.
• Eliminations from “no-scoping” enemies with Sniper Rifles now shows up in the elimination feed.
• Sticking a landing on all 4 wheels with a vehicle will no longer damage the player inside.
• It’s now easier to pick up items dropped near a Mounted Turret.
• Stormwings now take 50% more damage from hitting objects.
  • Boosting now reduces the damage taken from impacts by 50%, previously boosting prevented all impact damage.
• Damage done to players that are in a Stormwing when it’s shot down has been increased from 25 to 50
  • Damage is dealt directly to health.
• Stormwings will now take more damage from destroying structures by running through them.

Bug Fixes

• Holding a movement key while confirming an edit will no longer force the player to continue moving in the direction of the key they were holding.
• Mounted Turrets will no longer be briefly teleported under the map and then returned to their original location.
• Various Zipline fixes
  • Zipline animations no longer briefly play every time a player jumps after building underneath a Zipline.
  • Players should retain proper momentum when latching onto a Zipline. This will fix the issue where it appears a player is “jittery/rubberbanding” or receives a perceived speed boost immediately after latching onto the Zipline.
  • Players will no longer lose the ability to sprint if they emote while on a Zipline.
  • Fixed an issue that caused players to become detached from the Zipline right after seeing the animation above their head.
  • The Zipline pulley will no longer remain in the world after eliminating a player while they were riding on it.
  • Fixed an issue where players would get flung across the map.
  • Added sounds and effects when a ziplining player smashes through structures.
  • Improved attach collision around Ziplines.
• Fixed regressions with the “Auto Pick Up Weapons” option

EVENTS:

• Added additional dates for Explorer Pop-Up Cups and Friday Night Fortnite
• Explorer Pop-Up Cups
  • Resource caps adjusted from 700/500/300 to 500/500/500 for wood/stone/metal.
  • Resource gains on eliminations adjusted from 100/50/50 to 50/50/50 for wood/stone/metal.
  • We’re continuing to make adjustments on these values in an attempt to find a healthy balance, please let us know your feedback!

PERFORMANCE:

• GPU performance improvements when view distances are far. This should improve resolution on consoles and in some cases, frame rate.
• Minor improvements were made to performance for emote music playback.
• Addressed movement corrections sometimes are seen when players jump
• Improved the performance of some gliders

CREATIVE:

Devices:

• New Devices added:
  • Gunner – Stands and shoots at any player within a 2 tile radius.
    • Choose between Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, or Rocket Launcher.
• Added new options to Player Spawners:
  • Added an option to hide the Player Spawner during Game.
  • Added an option to prioritize which Player Spawn to use when there are multiple to choose from.
  • Modified Island Start option to allow spawning for both Island and Game.
• New Item Spawner settings:
  • Added an option to hide the Item Spawner during Game.
  • Added an option to customize the rate that items are spawned.

SAVE THE WORLD

Missions and Systems

• Frostnite is a new experience in 7.10, testing player’s survival in a long winter night.
  • Frostnite introduces a new objective. Keep the Burner filled with scavenged BluGlo. When it runs out, so does the heat. That means a whole bunch of frozen Heroes.
  • As the burner health decreases the Storm Shield shrinks, so keep that thing filled!
  • Survive as long as you can without your gear or resources, using your survival skills, schematics, and basic starting weapons.
    • Get double the resources from searching and harvesting objects.
    • Watch for Airdrops between waves for some much-needed supplies.
    • You don’t keep any weapons or traps when the experience concludes, so use those Legendary weapons and traps as if your life depends on it!
  • Keep an eye out for the Krampus Smashers who dwell in these cold regions. They’re dangerous but drop some much needed BluGlo.
  • When a player is knocked out they enter spectator mode until the remaining players complete the wave.
  • The longer you survive the more Snowflake Tickets you will earn! Tickets can be spent on the new Winter Llama.
  • Added several event quests that can be completed by playing Frostnite.
  • Be on the lookout for weekly challenges in the coming weeks!
• Down Tier Crafting is now available!
  • Schematics that have been evolved to higher tiers can now also craft all the lower-tier versions of the weapon/trap.
  • The lower-tier versions of the schematic are lower level, but also cost lower-tier ingredients to craft.
  • Use up old crafting ingredients and save the rare stuff for when it counts! In particular, transitioning into a new location should go much more smoothly.
• The 14 Days of Fortnite are upon us! Starting Dec 19 at Midnight GMT, the first Holiday-themed quest will appear in the Quest Journal.
  • Every day we will add a new Holiday-themed quest to the player’s quest log.
  • Complete the quests to earn valuable rewards!
  • Quests will remain active until the 7.20 release.
• Added a new stat called Armor which replaces Damage Resistance. Any Hero or Weapon Perks that granted Damage Resistance have been updated to grant Armor.
  • Individual Perks have become stronger as a result, but the benefits of stacking have been reduced.
  • In the near future, all Heroes and Weapon Schematics affected by this change will be eligible for an evolution refund. You may choose to return the affected item to level 1 and reset all attached perks to their starting rarity, recovering all invested resources in the process.
• The Storm King is now considered a Group Mission, which allows players to summon 1 Defender each (for a total of 8 characters) while fighting the boss.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the empty message box that sometimes showed when joining the storm king mission
• Tracks in Deliver the bomb mission will now correctly link to the Depot and Launcher.
• Fixed an issue where during the Storm King fight, incorrect objectives could be displayed.
• Deliver the Bomb will now always have valid paths in Ghost Town sub biome.
• Deliver the bomb now allows you to reverse direction on first created bomb.
• Missions that are temporarily unlocked during a campaign quest are no longer eligible for Mission Alerts. This prevents the creation of “hidden” Mission Alerts that can not be seen by the majority of players.
• Some missions were unlocked by completing quests that are no longer Main Quests. These missions are now unlocked by completing the appropriate quests in the story campaign instead.
• Medkit search area can no longer be destroyed.
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to build inside of BluGlo pylons
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to place a B.A.S.E inside of BluGlo pylons
• Mimic chests can no longer be destroyed before the mimic wakes.
• Fixed issue with players getting stuck at end screen with “Waiting for results…”
• If using R.O.S.I.E. at the end of the match, it is no longer possible for the character to end up missing at the final score screen.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a server crash when loading into a Storm Shield.
• Fixed issue with players being able to increase difficulty during the “Build Off” quest.