Fortnite Battle Royale has received another round of balance changes, with a small patch released by Epic Games on Thursday to address concerns raised by players about the effectiveness of certain weapons in Chapter 4 Season 2.
One of the weapons being tweaked is the Combat Shotgun, which has been buffed to increase its damage per pellet. The weapon, first introduced in Season 9, has seen several iterations, with Epic Games vaulting it a few times before bringing it back in the latest season.
In addition, the Dragon’s Breath Sniper Rifle has been given a boost, with its rate of fire increased to make it more effective in combat. However, the weapon remains one of the rarest in the game, with players needing to find Holo-Chests and two unlocking keys to access it.
We've deployed a balance hotfix!
Weapon Improvements:
✅ Combat Shotgun's damage per pellet increased.
✅ Dragon's Breath Sniper's rate of fire increased.
🐛 Fixed an issue where the Havoc Suppressed AR had perfect accuracy while sliding.(1/2) pic.twitter.com/AwblVxP7wL
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) March 16, 2023
The latest patch also addresses a bug that caused the Havoc Suppressed Assault Rifle to have perfect accuracy while sliding. Meanwhile, two Reality Augments have been nerfed, with the Medium Ammo Amp’s magazine increase reduced from 33 to 20 percent. The rate at which players obtain medium bullets with the Munitions Slide perk has also been decreased, although the augment remains effective.
Epic Games has also fixed a bug that allowed the Chug Cannon to recharge faster when obtained with the Chug Gunner perk. These changes are expected to bring more balance to the game and make certain weapons and augments more effective.
Xbox Series S crashing issues fixed
In addition to adjusting weapon balances, Epic also released a hotfix to address a problem that was causing Xbox Series S players to experience crashes when playing in 120 FPS or split-screen mode.
On Twitter, the developer confirmed that the issue had been fully resolved with the hotfix and that the team has also committed to monitoring the situation to ensure improved stability across the board.
Prior to the fix, FortniteStatus had advised players to disable these settings to avoid any further disruption to their gameplay on the Xbox Series S console.
More from mid-season patch
Fortnite’s latest mid-season patch has brought a wealth of new content to the popular battle royale game, including a new cyberpunk-themed location in MEGA City and a Japanese-themed temple.
Players can explore these areas using new vehicles, such as a two-person motorcycle or four-seat drift racer, or by using Grind Rails. In addition to the new locations and vehicles, the patch also introduced several new weapons, including a kinetic blade and pulse rifle.
The patch also includes new items such as Legendary-tier Slurp Juice, which can restore a large sum of health and shield and seven new Reality Augments to find. These augments will give players new abilities and perks to help them survive in the game.
Finally, the patch also brought a new Battle Pass full of cyberpunk-themed characters and cosmetics, including an Eren Yaeger skin from the Attack on Titan anime. It remains to be seen how this character fits into the game’s cyberpunk theme, but anime fans will undoubtedly be excited to see this addition.
Starting with Chapter 4 Season 2, players must have Windows 10 or a more recent operating system to play the game natively on their PC with official support. Unfortunately, Windows 7 and 8 are no longer supported.
However, players who cannot upgrade to a newer operating system can still play Fortnite using NVIDIA GeForce NOW, which allows them to stream the game on their current Windows 7 or Windows 8 PC.
