Time to start gathering Brick and Metal.
Along with Fortnite’s usual Thursday afternoon weekly challenge update, Epic has also introduced two surprise tweaks. SMG effectiveness has been nerfed, while the initial strength of building materials has been buffed.
The news was confirmed in a blog post by Epic which says that it’s seen discussion on SMGs, building material changes and how weapons interact with these structures. Having taken on board this community feedback, its reasoning behind the new change are, “aimed at allowing for strengths and weaknesses between the SMGs, shotguns and structures during close range combat.”
Here’s a breakdown of all the changes that have gone live:
SMG Changes
Compact SMG
- Reduced damage from 22/21 to 21/20
- Reduced clip size from 50 to 40
Drum Gun
- Reduced falloff range damage from 80% to 70% at 3500 units
- Reduced falloff range damage from 65% to 55% at 5000+ units
- Added environmental damage fall off matching player damage fall off.
- Decreased jumping accuracy by 5%
- Decreased targeting accuracy by 10%
- Reduced spawn rate from chests and floor loot by 40%
Building Changes
- Wood wall initial HP increased from 80 to 90
- Stone wall initial HP increased from 80 to 100
- Metal wall initial HP increased from 80 to 110
Think back to the last few major patches and we’ve had a stream of submachine guns: the Drum Gun, Submachine Gun and the Compact SMG have found their way into Fortnite’s armory in the space of a few weeks. All able to rattle off shots at lightning speed, there was no real disadvantage to carrying around a weapon that could shred forts as fast it could delete enemies. Thanks to this update, they should have a slightly tougher time levelling them and encourage players to get creative with other tools in their inventory.
Perhaps the biggest change is the buff to health values when placing building structures. Wood had always been the best overall building material because you could pop it up in a pinch and be safe in the knowledge that it would tank at least two shotgun blasts before crumbling. It didn’t feel right that both Brick and Metal would shatter in just one.
Now both Brick and Metal will be much tougher to destroy when first placed, which could shake up the metagame a little as we imagine players will really start stockpiling more of these stronger materials both for sticky situations and to create huge endgame forts.
Not everything is set in stone though (sorry), so there could be some more buffs and nerfs in the works. We’ll be sure to cover any future updates on the site, keep us bookmarked for all the latest Fortnite news!
