Fortnite updates: Loot Hot Spots and the return of the Semi-Auto Sniper in v9.10

Welcome to our Fortnite update tracker! We’ll be collating all of the official Fortnite Battle Royale update/patch notes and breaking down all the new features added to Epic Games’ phenomenon for Android and iOS phones and tablets, as well as PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch platforms.

More: Fortnite Season 9 guide: Battle Pass, skins, map changes, Fortbytes, and more!

If you want to stay up-to-date with all the new skins, map updates, weapon changes, and additions, new modes, and much more then be sure to bookmark this page for future reference!

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Victory Royale! Check out the rest of our Fortnite content:

• Fortnite on Android first look
• Fortnite on Android: All the info on its unconventional release
• Fortnite for Android interview – Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney on breaking away from Google Play
• Fortnite Mobile tips and tricks: How to build, shoot and win
• Fortnite cross platform guide: Play with nearly everyone
• Fortnite Mobile on Android: Here are the compatible phones
• Fortnite vs PUBG: Ten mobile differences between the two biggest battle royales

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Fortnite update: The latest

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Fortnite v9.10 update overview

Release date: May 22, 2019.

Just in case you thought Fortnite was getting stale, update v9.10 introduces a Hot Spots that bring extra loot to certain parts of the map. These are remarkably similar to the Hot Zones found in Apex Legends, but this time the loot is found in flying Loot Carriers that need to be shot down. 

This Fortnite update also brings back the Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifle, which should add more variety to mid/long-range weapon choices. Take full advantage of the unvaulted weapon in the limited time mode Sniper Shootout Duos, or play will all vaulted weapons in Unvaulted Squads.

Fortnite v9.10 update patch notes

What’s New

Hot Spots

• Randomly selected locations on the map that have a high loot rate with an increase of Supply Drops!

Limited Time Mode Rotation

Sniper Shootout Duos

• Sniper Rifles only. Downed players are eliminated instantly. May the best aim win!

Unvaulted Squads

• Battle Royale gameplay with a limited set of weapons made up entirely of items that are vaulted in the standard modes.

Close Encounters Squads

Close quarters combat with Shotguns & Jetpacks!

Weapons + Items

• Shadow Bombs
  • Reduced availability from floor loot from .835% to .677%
  • Reduced availability from chests from 4.65% to 3.98%
  • Reduced drop count from 3 to 2.
• Unvaulted Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle
  • Available in Vending Machines, Chests, and Floor Loot
  • Available in Uncommon and Rare variants
• Combat Shotgun
  • Reduced the availability from floor loot from 2.015% to 1.409%
  • Reduced the availability from chest loot from 2.183% to 1.846%

Bug Fixes

• Dropping part of a consumable item stack no longer interrupts using the consumable.
• Shadow Bombs correctly leave the players inventory when no charges are left.
• Shadow Bombs are consumed properly when quickly picking up a replacement item during activation.
• Combat Shotgun now applies appropriate environmental damage falloff.
• Ability to move is no longer lost if Rift-to-go was used with Balloons.
• The Bush now correctly attaches to players in specific animations, such as skydiving.
• Resolved inconsistent behavior while using Flint-Knock pistol during crouch.
• Air vent audio is now correctly removed upon on destruction.
• Boogie Bombs now properly prevent affected players from skydiving.
• Camera issues when exiting a Mounted Turret have been resolved.
• Remote Explosives will now open and close with doors they are stuck to.

Gameplay

• Introducing Hot Spots!
  • Every match, select named locations will be marked in gold text on the map.
    • These Hot Spots represent the presence of Loot Carriers. Shoot down the carriers for additional high-quality weapons.
      • Minimum of one Hot Spot
      • 25% chance for 2 Hot Spots
      • 5% chance for 3 Hot Spots
    • Loot Carriers
      • Loot Carriers drop a weapon of Rare or higher quality along with two stacks of ammo.
      • Hot Spots will have between 12 and 16 Loot Carriers depending on the size of the location.
• Equipping the blueprint to start building has improved in high latency situations.
• Added crosshair dot while skydiving to allow for more precise map marking.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with auto material swap canceling turbo build if the client can’t predict the material amount quick enough.
• Updated Environmental and Cozy Campfire Trap collision to better allow players to walk over campfires.
• Players can no longer fire/reload weapons while reviving a DBNO teammate.
• Contrails are no longer stuck on the player if they dropped from the bus directly into a Slipstream.

Performance

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a regression in level streaming performance introduced in v9.0. This should significantly improve loading times for buildings, and reduce instances of players landing on low-LOD meshes.
• Reduced hitches shortly after landing, especially on lower-end hardware (e.g Switch).

Audio

• Improved enemy jump sounds.
• Reduced the time that it takes the enemy in-air audio loop to kick on, for better awareness of an enemy dropping in on you from above.
• Boosted the volume of nearby footsteps and landing sounds of enemies not in line of sight.
• Tighter spatialization of close-range pickaxe sounds from other players.
• Added clearer sound when an enemy confirms an edit on a building piece within ~2 tiles of your position.
• Removed glider audio tell for players traveling through a Slipstream.
• Your emote music is now prioritized over other players emotes in the front-end.
• Emote music is now full stereo when in the front-end.
• Added a new Headshot + Shield Break sound, for when the two events occur at the same time.
• Lowered the minimum velocity required to trigger a landing sound.

Bug Fixes

• Walking up on the edge of a building piece plays correct material specific footstep audio.
• Enemy pickaxe sound now plays correctly from impact point and not from player using the pickaxe.
• The Boom Bow’s fire sound has been fixed to not cut off when switching weapons immediately after shooting.
• Firing weapons no longer lowers building sounds.

UI

• Changed “Return To Lobby” to “Leave Match”.
• Adjusted the “damage” color when taking shield damage back to an increased-contrast version of the original.

Bug Fixes

• Party Leaders who left their party’s current match could start a new match and take the entire party with them.

Spectating

Bug Fixes

• Focus no longer changes when watching a server replay during the bus phase.
• Watching live games will no longer change players when joining the Battle Bus.

Mobile

• Removed the HUD when respawning.
• We’ve made improvements to the UI by adding an exit button to the following:
  • Squad Formation in the lobby
  • Playground Match Options
  • Events screen
• Removed vibration toggle settings for devices that do not support vibration.

Bug Fixes

• Players ammo count now correctly displays in all languages.
• The Mini Map has been adjusted to fit correctly in large team LTM’s.
• Bluetooth headset sound quality has been improved.
• The interaction loading bar no longer progresses counter-clockwise.
• Start Game widget in Creative no longer overlaps with the inventory hot bar.
• Phase Mode Button now correctly displays in Creative.
• FPS counter not being fully displayed on curved screens.
• Emote audio now plays for the full duration on the Nintendo Switch.
• Scoped weapon fixes:
  • ADS perspective could remain on-screen when switching weapons.
  • Player’s view could be inverted when aiming.
• Fixed duplicate voice indicators appearing for the same speaker

Performance

• Optimized the eye adaption rendering effect
• Optimized animation performance for ControlRig (Werewolf, Krampus).

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Fortnite update history

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Fortnite v9.01 update overview

Release date: May 15, 2019.

This minor Fortnite update comes just after the start of Season 9, and it finally addresses the elephant in the room: the Drum Gun. Its base damage has been reduced significantly, which should make it easier to deal with on the battlefield.

Yet another new fully automatic weapon called the Tactical Assault Rifle is dropping in, with rare, epic, and legendary versions. To pare down the number of rapid-fire weapons available, the P90 Compact SMG has been vaulted.

Fortnite v9.01 update patch notes

What’s New?

Tactical Assault Rifle
Tactics take the day! This robust and precise assault rifle is the ideal option for tight quarters.

Weapons + Items

• Tactical Assault Rifle
  • Available in Rare, Epic, and Legendary variants.
  • Available from Floor Loot, Chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines
    • Fully Automatic
    • 30 Round Magazine
    • Deals 22/23/24 damage
    • Headshot Multiplier of 1.75x
    • This weapon has a tight spread in close quarters but is less effective at long range when compared to other Assault Rifles.
• Reduced Baller health from 200 to 150
  • The primary goal of the Baller is to provide fun and exciting mobility. We feel that it still has a little too much defensive agency – this change should reduce the effectiveness there while not impacting its strengths.
• Drum Gun adjustments
  • Reduced base damage from 26/27 to 22/23
    • Since its unvaulting, the Drum Gun effectiveness has been slightly higher than we wanted. This change should reduce its combat effectiveness while still retaining its flavor.
• Vaulted Compact SMG
  • Due to the recent addition of the Drum Gun and the brand new Tactical Assault Rifle, we wanted to reduce the availability of high rate-of-fire weapons.

Gameplay

• Slipstream adjustments
  • Slipstreams no longer block building.
    • Trying to build up to get into a Slipstream should be an easy & intuitive experience. We noticed some cases where players would build up to the Slipstream, but due to build restrictions would take a ‘leap of faith’ and not make the jump. This should make getting into a Slipstream easier.
  • Players flying in a Slipstream will destroy player built objects when they collide.
  • Slipstreams are now disabled after storm phase 5.
    • We’ve seen a number of cases where Slipstreams caused issues during late game circles – primarily around getting pulled into the storm unexpectedly. Since the value of Slipstream mobility is limited in those scenarios, we felt it’s better to simply disable them.

Performance

• Improvements made to level streaming performance on all platforms.
  • This will reduce cases of buildings not loading in.
• Physics optimizations to improve performance in conduits

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Fortnite v9.00 update overview

Release date: May 9, 2019.

The new season of Fortnite is finally here! With it comes tons of map changes and a new Battle Pass, which you can read all about in our Fortnite Season 9 guide.

There are tons of changes to the map, as well as a new weapon called the combat shotgun. The pump shotgun, balloons, and others have been vaulted, but grenades have been brought back.

Fortnite v9.00 update patch notes

What’s New?

Season 9 – Battle Pass

New Season, new Battle Pass. 100 levels, over 100 new rewards. Available in-game right now for 950 V-Bucks.

Slipstreams

Get around locations quickly with the new Slipstream wind transportation system.

New Locations

Explore new points of interest that emerged from the destruction of the Volcano like Neo Tilted and Mega Mall.

Weapons + Items

• Added Combat Shotgun
  • Semi-Automatic
    • Holds 10 Shells.
    • Fires 9 pellets per shot for 73 / 77 / 81 base damage.
    • Tight spread and fast fire rate.
    • Headshot multiplier of 1.70x.
    • Reloads 2 shells at a time.
  • Available in Rare, Epic, and Legendary variants.
  • Available from Floor, Chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines
• Adjusted Tactical Shotgun damage
  • Base damage increased from 66/70/74 to 71/75/79
• Reduced Drum Gun availability from 16.732% to 7.155%
• Reduced Boom Bow availability from 1.292% to .755%
• Unvaulted Grenades
• Vaulted Clingers
• Vaulted Buried Treasure
• Vaulted Pump Shotgun
• Vaulted Poison Dart Trap
• Vaulted Scoped Revolver
• Vaulted Suppressed Assault Rifle
• Vaulted Thermal Assault Rifle
• Vaulted Balloons

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Turbo building after gliding now works correctly.
• The stink bomb damage audio and effects were not playing if you damaged yourself.
• Fixed the Shadow bomb occasionally not making the player invisible on the Xbox One the first time it’s used.
• Misplacement of Launch Pads in mid-air has been resolved.
• Pirate Cannon camera issues due to network latency have been resolved.
• The Reboot Card deposit sound effects no longer play in replay mode while the Van is on Cooldown.
• The Reboot Van card sound effects will no longer be heard when a squadmate disconnects.

Gameplay

• Slipstreams
  • These tunnels of wind passively carry players down the stream.
    • Players can move faster and change direction when actively trying to move down the Stream.
    • Use directional input to gain extra velocity. Experiment with bobbing up and down for higher speeds.
  • Players are launched when exiting the tube based on their movement speed and exit angle.
  • Projectiles and Vehicles can also enter the Slipstream.
• Air Vents
  • The powerful gusts of air from these environmental items can launch players short distances and grant immunity to fall damage.
• Fortbytes
  • Fortbytes are a series of 100 collectible computer chips available to Battle Pass owners. As you collect Fortbytes, you’ll decrypt a mysterious image. Collect them all to unlock rewards and uncover the secrets of Season 9.
  • On the first day of Season 9, there are 18 Fortbytes available to find. At least 1 new Fortbyte will be unlocked each day. Check the Challenges Tab for detailed information on which Fortbytes are currently available and when the others unlock.
  • Fortbytes cannot be collected after Season 9 ends.
• Disconnected players will stay in the world for 60 seconds. They still take damage and count for elimination points.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Resolved an issue with the UI showing health gains incorrectly if the player canceled the consumable close to completion time.
• PS4 controller lighting not always matching your pin color when in Squads.
• Players not able to use Hold to Swap if they previously picked an item up normally
• Adjusted turbo building to be more forgiving under poor network conditions
• Fixed cases of jittery movement under certain conditions.

Limited Time Mode Rotation:

Trios

Classic Battle Royale with Three-Person Squads.

Solid Gold

Fight to the finish using Legendary weapons!

One Shot

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

Events

• Players who have already qualified to be in the World Cup will be marked with a World Cup badge on the event leaderboards
• Leaderboards now have a button to sort games by the number of top leaderboard players in them. This will help identify the most critical active games from a leaderboard standing view.
• The in-game HUD now has different icons for points for Arena matches and weekend tournament matches.

Performance

• Improved frame rate on Nintendo Switch, particularly when large numbers of characters are onscreen.
• Addressed some cases of invisible characters after skydiving.

Audio

• Better tactical audio when inside player-built structures:
  • Enemy Pickaxe impact within ~one building tile radius has new, louder sound.
  • Wallbreak by enemy close/behind player much clearer/louder.
• Explosion audio improvements- shorter, higher dynamic range sounds that will make explosion audio clearer and punchier.

UI

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• “Swap” text appearing in the pickup UI will no longer appear when picking up more resources than the player can carry.
• The initial storm warning timer was incorrectly showing as 0.
• Spectators and replay watchers can now report users.
• Fixed party invites not showing up in the UI if the user logged out and back in again.

Spectating

• Spectating a player’s match will now automatically follow that player.

Mobile

• Auto fire will now trigger on vehicles.
• Added option for increasing elimination feed line count in the HUD Layout Tool.
• Dragging/Dropping from the quickbar is now allowed while jumping.
• The location of the boost button on Android for the X-Stormwing has been moved to avoid triggering the Home button.
• Squad formation is now accessible.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• The delay with interacting when using the quickbar slots has been resolved.
• Weapon icons now correctly display icons on the quickbar.
• Fixed sliders that were broken in the Dead Zone tab of the Controller Options.
• Auto fire adjustments:
  • Semi-automatic weapons now fire correctly.
  • Increased acquisition delay for shotguns.
• Dynamite trajectory indicator is now correctly displayed during use.
• Ziplines can no longer be ridden past their endpoints.
• Autorun no longer takes more than two taps to initiate after jumping from Battle Bus.
• Cooldown Timer visual for boost buttons on vehicles is now displayed correctly.
• The camera no longer shakes when entering the X-Stormwing.
• Left virtual thumbstick no longer becomes invisible when holding left or right and pressing the fire button.
• The Harvest Tool UI button in HUD layout is no longer invisible.
• The stair railing in Pleasant Park no longer clips through the door.
• Variant numbers partially hidden in the preview screen by the “X” button.
• The Dream cosmetic is now correctly displaying:
  • The butterfly
  • Eye glow effect
• Widow’s Bite pickaxe visual effect issue has been resolved.
• The Cooldown ring timer showing briefly when switching seats in Cannon.
• Interact Icon is no longer missing with certain consumables.
• Input Blocked text will no longer appear when opening the inventory.
• The Item Shop arrows now display correctly on iPhone XS Max.

General

• Reworked default button layout to be consistent across vehicles (Enter, Exit, Switch Seat and Boost)

UI

• Sub-game select screen has been refreshed.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Improved visibility of squad icons on lobby player pads in large parties
• Squad icons in large parties can no longer show an empty slot as ready
• Selecting a highlighted team member in the lobby with a controller can no longer show options for a different member
• Players will now appear correctly as a hologram, when joining a player currently in match
• Reworded Squad formation messaging to be more clear
• Fixed invisible character parts of players who are still loading into the match.

Social

• Players now remain in the Party voice channel by default when entering a match. The Game channel is still available, but the switch is no longer automatic.
• Added a setting for the display of voice chat indicators.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Suggested friends in the social panel match the suggestions in the launcher
• The “Sit Out/Jump In” button in Squad Formation is now displayed correctly
• Sending a friend invite to a suggested friend no longer fails
• Can now still send party invites after joining and leaving a party while set to “Friend” party privacy
• Fixed potentially incorrect notification message when joining a channel
• Voice indicators are no longer stuck on screen when leaving a party while members are speaking

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Fortnite v8.51 update overview

Release date: May 2, 2019

Fortnite V8.51 introduces a new item, the shadow bomb, giving players temporary invisibility, increased movement speed, and double jump and wall jump capabilities. 

WEAPONS + ITEMS

Shadow Bomb

• Shrouds yourself in shadow, briefly becoming invisible to enemies.
• 6-second duration
• User becomes more visible to others near the end of the effect.
• Increases your movement speed, provides the ability to double jump, and wall jump.
• Players are unable to attack, build, or loot while under the effects of the Shadow Bomb.
• Rarity: Uncommon
• Can hold a maximum of 6
• Can be found from Floor Loot, Chests, Supply Drops, and Supply Llamas.

GAMEPLAY

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Sound effects for Jetpacks were occasionally playing much louder than they should be.

UI

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• The Victory Royale UI animation was displaying for all players in Limited Time Modes with respawning enabled.

SAVE THE WORLD

WHAT’S NEW?

Duet

• Create a Duet between you… and the Husks!

WEAPONS + ITEMS

Duet

• A high damage assault rifle that’s good for sustained fire due to its large magazine capacity.
• Available in the Weekly Store from May 1 at 8PM ET until May 8 at 8PM ET.

CREATIVE

WHAT’S NEW?

PREFABS

• New Prefabs and Galleries based on Fortnite Battle Royale’s restaurants and diners.
  • Durrr Burger Prefab
  • Uncle Pete’s Pizza Pit Prefab
  • SofDeez Ice Cream Shop Prefab
  • 4 Diner Galleries

SOCIAL

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Any Suggested Friends could not be added to friends.

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What would you like to see in future updates to Fortnite? Let us know in the comments.

from Android Authority http://bit.ly/2ELBsrh