Finally, the 7.40 update is now out. It includes lots of changes and balances, as well as other improvements. The 7.40 update also includes lots of surprises, and overall they’re quite sounding I’d say. This is probably the best patch including a good set of balance between weapons.
We know we’re a bit behind with all the news and we’re trying to catch up. Therefore, do not mind grammatical errors and stuff because we’re in a rush and trying to discover what else this update brings.
The response we’ve seen to the #SharetheLove event has been amazing. And with the arrival of Valentine’s Day, we’re here to share one more surprise.
Everyone who completes 13 free Overtime Challenges by February 27 will receive the upcoming Season 8 Battle Pass for FREE! If you don’t have an outfit, now is your chance to get several for free. With the Battle Pass, you’ll receive two Season 8 Outfits instantly and you can earn up to five more. Save your V-Bucks, this one’s on us!
Gifting is back in Fortnite
Gifting is now becoming a thing once again. It will be available for a limited time. Starting today, gifting will be available until February 22. Valentine’s day allows us to send the Heartspan Glider for free to someone special too.
Now let’s take a look to the core gameplay changes, the ones we’re all here for.
Infantry Rifle
The M1 Garand looking like a weapon, the Infantry Rifle is making an entrance to Fortnite.
Take aim and deliver accurate fire downrange with this precise semi-automatic weapon.
For more detailed patch notes, take a look below:
LIMITED TIME MODE ROTATIONS
As mentioned last week, we’re continuing with rotate through LTMs at a faster pace throughout the week moving forward. The first mode is detailed below, check the in-game client on Thursdays and Saturdays to see what other modes are available!
LIMITED TIME MODE: CATCH!
Summary
In this mode, all guns have been removed. The only weapons are grenades and other items that can be thrown or tossed. Get in there and throw the enemies back to the lobby!
- Available grenades/items:
- Smoke Grenades
- Clingers
- Remote Explosives
- Port-a-Forts
- Impulse Grenades
- Shockwave Grenades
Mode details:
- Chest spawns and Floor Spawns set to 100.
- Can only get consumables out of Chests, Floor Loot, and Supply Drops.
- Increase Supply Drops throughout the game.
- Faster circle times.
- Increased drop stack counts.
LIMITED TIME MODE: TEAM RUMBLE
Summary
Two large teams fight for the Victory Royale in an action-packed mode where the first team to get 100 eliminations wins!
What’s New?
- Reduced likelihood of Storm ending up near the center of the map.
OVERTIME CHALLENGES & REWARDS
Looking to earn a free Season 8 Battle Pass? Starting with the v7.40 release, complete 13 free Overtime Challenges by February 27 to receive the upcoming Season 8 Battle Pass for FREE! Additionally, unlock 5 new rewards including the Valentine Wrap and Vines Contrail for completing these Challenges.
And for current Battle Pass owners, the Overtime Challenge rewards will include new unlockable styles for the Trog, Powder, and Onesie outfits.
WEAPONS + ITEMS
- Infantry Rifle
- Available in Common, Uncommon and Rare variants.
- Deals 41, 43, 45 damage. 2x headshot multiplier.
- Can be found from Floor Loot, Chests, and Vending Machines.
- Uses Medium Ammo.
- Fires quick-moving projectiles without damage falloff.
- Available in Common, Uncommon and Rare variants.
- Improvements to the Bush consumable.
- Now absorbs one instance of weapon damage before being removed from the owner. Fall damage will not remove the Bush.
- Now translucent (for the Bush wearer only!) in order to allow for better visibility of surroundings.
- Hand Cannon
- Epic rarity
- Reduced environmental damage from 150 to 100.
- Legendary rarity
- Reduced environmental damage from 157 to 105.
- Epic rarity
- Rocket Launcher
- Shifted availability of Rocket Launchers out of Chests and into Supply Drops.
- Removed Rocket Launchers from Chests.
- Increased the chance of receiving a Rocket Launcher from Supply Drops from 25% to 50%.
- Epic rarity
- Reload speed increased from 2.66 to 3.42.
- Now only available from Vending Machines
- Legendary rarity
- Reload speed increased from 2.52 to 3.24.
- Shifted availability of Rocket Launchers out of Chests and into Supply Drops.
- Unvaulted
- Clingers
- Cupid’s Crossbow – Limited Time Item
- Epic Rarity.
- Infinite ammo.
- Bodyshot Damage: 79.
- Headshot Damage: 197.
- Can be found in Floor Loot and Chests.
- Does 1 environmental damage.
- Vaulted
- Grenades
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue causing projectile weapons to fire inaccurately when aiming at other players from very close range.
- Fixed an issue that was causing explosive splash damage to be blocked when players didn’t actually have cover.
GAMEPLAY
- Added Pop-Up Cup settings to default playlists
- We’re introducing a few larger changes into the default Fortnite playlist as a test. We’ve seen these settings in pop-up cups result in more engaging fights and allowing players to gain more consistent rewards for the risk of engagement.
- Based on the positive feedback we received during these specific Pop-Up cups, we’re implementing the following adjustments:
- 50 Health (or Shield) based on your health when the Elimination occurs.
- 50/50/50 materials dropped on Elimination
- 500/500/500 Cap on materials
- Harvest rate increased by 40%
- We’ll be closely monitoring feedback on this change – play a couple matches and let us know what you think!
- Removed the ability for the X4 Stormwing to break through structures and large objects.
- Small props will still be destroyed from direct hit from an X4 Stormwing.
- Changes to Ziplines
- Ziplines are now interact to engage.
- Ziplines grant fall damage immunity.
- Ziplines now have an audio visualizer icon.
- Final Circle adjustments
- Increased the travel distance by 48%.
- Shrink time has been increased from 45 seconds to 75 seconds.
- PC, Mac, and console players can now crouch while in Edit Mode.
- Gamepad players can assign this through custom gamepad controls.
- Note: This functionality is coming to mobile soon.
- Turbo Building
- Reduced the initial timer for turbo building from 0.15 to 0.05.
- Added the ability to swap the item in the currently selected slot with a new item by holding interact instead of tapping.
- Added UI text to show players they’re able to use swap.
- Not available on touch input.
- Floor traps will automatically build a floor piece for you if needed. You must have the required resources.
- Logitech and Razer RGB peripherals will now react when doing emotes.
- Sneaky Snowmen will be destroyed if they fall from a high distance.
- Stand on the head of a Sneaky Snowman to avoid fall damage.
- Removed HUD bar for the minigun overheating mechanic.
- Adjusted the distance of the Bottle Rocket sound indicators so that they match the max distance of the sound effects.
- Added a Bottle Rocket sound indicator for the explosion of rockets.
Bug Fixes
- Aim Assist “Snap-To” Adjustments
- We’ve added a compounding time delay to the aim assist “snap-to” feature when spamming the Aim Down Sight button. Each button press after the first will apply a time delay, up to 5 seconds, before the aim assist “snap-to” effect is applied.
- We are making this change to prevent situations where players would spam the Aim Down Sight button on enemies, which caused the crosshair to stay locked on to targets indefinitely.
- This change should prevent the lock-on mechanic from being abused while retaining the same Aim Assist feel. We’ll be closely monitoring feedback about this change.
- Fixed an issue where Bottle Rockets would not align to specific slope angles.
- Cozy Campfire logs no longer block movement.
- Prevent weapon auto-reload from canceling emotes.
- Fixed an issue that allowed traps to trigger through lab tunnel walls in Dusty Divot.
- Fixed auto pickup not occurring when landing from skydiving.
- Fix issue where a player with no traps would switch to the build tool if they hit the button to equip traps.
- Fixed an issue where glider items could be triggered right after teleporting with a Rift-to-Go which would block subsequent skydiving.
- Fixed an issue that would block building beneath a mounted turret.
- Fixed an issue where Snowmen placed on the map would appear invisible or under the map.
EVENTS
- New Tournament Series – ‘Share The Love Series’ (Solo & Duo)
- Available from February 14 until February 24.
- Players will compete across any of four division tournaments:
- Open Division
- Prospect Division
- Contender Division
- Champion Division
- Earning enough points during any nightly session to receive a pin will unlock the next highest division.
- Earning a pin during a Champion Division session will advance to Round 2 – the Champion Division Finals!
- ‘Share the Love Series’ Sprays will be granted based on the highest division achieved, including the Champion Division Finals.
- All divisions run simultaneously and share the same tournament schedule. The full schedule for your server region can be viewed from the Events tab.
- New Tournament – ‘Trios One Day Cup’
- Available on February 17
- Grab a couple of your best friends and join in for the Trios One Day Cup, going from a fully Open tournament to an intense final round with the best Trios in a single day.
- The tournament takes place across three rounds – earn a pin during each round to advance.
- The full schedule for your server region can be viewed within the Events tab.
- Tournaments can now take place across multiple rounds, with players needing to earn a pin in order to unlock the next round of the tournament.
- Multiple tournaments are now able to be running at the same time.
- Reduced the maximum matchmaking time for tournaments from 5 minutes to 4 minutes.
- This value limits the amount of time a player can wait for a match in a tournament before they create the best match possible at that time.
- Increased the minimum amount of players for tournament matches from 80 to 90.
- Streamer Mode can now be used during tournament play.
- In-game leaderboards are now fully available in all regions, for each tournament session. These can be accessed inside of the tournament page by clicking on any tournament session.
AUDIO
- Add audio when squadmates ready up in the lobby.
- The following audio improvements have been made for Mobile/Switch platforms:
- Improve skydiving wind audio.
- Add more variation to gunshot environment impacts.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed the Air Horn emote only having 1 variation on Mobile/Switch.
UI
- Stats v2
- The ability to track all of your play in one place and view it across all platforms.
- This includes the ability for mobile and Switch players to view their stats in-game.
- Breaks up stats by each individual Limited Time Mode.
- Players now receive a pop-up prompt informing them if a player they recently reported has had action taken against their account.
- When eliminated by the Storm, instead of saying “You Eliminated Yourself”, the text now says “Eliminated by the Storm”
- Improved look and implementation of Bad Network Indicator and updated Bad Connection Indicator UI to track bad vs severe ping.
- Yellow indicates poor status, red indicates severe status, flashing red indicates dropped signal
- Slash commands have been improved and re-enabled in chat windows.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where you could switch between different tabs in the background if you were in the Player Feedback menu.
- Fixed missing Remove Marker map icon on Mac.
- Fixed Battle Pass info not displaying properly in the lobby in certain cases.
- Fixed an issue where elimination counts and names for teammates were not calculated properly in large team modes.
REPLAY
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue causing weapon animations to sometimes play twice for each shot fired in replays.
SOCIAL
- Gifting returns for a Limited Time
- The Gifting feature is back for a limited time! You’ll be able to send or receive presents from friends until February 22.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue that would result in incorrect or duplicate party suggestion text bubbles to appear in the lobby.
MOBILE
- Adding an optional Targeted Edit button to allow you to edit without having to touch the screen. This allows the player to edit using their crosshairs, similar to other platforms.
- The Targeted Edit button can be found in the extra buttons section under the HUD Layout Tool.
- Edit and Edit Reset Buttons will now capture touches.
- No more editing through the edit button.
- Adding visual feedback to many mobile buttons to allow for better instant feedback and help us better diagnose issues seen in the community.
- Now backing up the most recently saved hud layout to the player’s cloud save.
Bug Fixes
- Fixing an issue with the input blocked message appearing on mobile when leaving a game.
- Fixed an issue causing some key-bind widgets to display incorrectly on mobile with controllers.
- Quick switching from a weapon to a consumable no longer briefly fires the equipped weapon.
- Fixed multiple issues with Turbo Building or weapon firing stopping when switching weapons or switching between Build, Edit, Combat mode.
- Fixed an issue with touch input causing controllers to stop responding when scrolling.
- Fixed multiple issues to support more controller hardware as well as fixed many issues related to parts of the UI that may not be properly navigable by controllers.
