09 January 2023 , 14:49
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The Shockwave Hammer has been temporarily removed from Fortnite after devs discovered it was responsible for several in-game glitches and a game-breaking bug.
The Fortnite hammer has quickly become controversial with many hating the fact it can deal so much damage if you are in close proximity to an attack. Predictably, a number of players have been quick to take advantage of the bug. This, in turn, has forced Epic's hand, with the dev vaulting the weapon – at least for the time being.
It was discovered a few days ago that you can break the Shockwave Hammer by executing a slam attack in mid-air, and maintain the Shockwave effect even while not using the hammer. Epic quickly decided it had to act to stop the swarms of teams leaping around the map causing huge amounts of damage to anybody in the vicinity and so, for now at least, the Shockwave Hammer is no more.
When is the Shockwave Hammer coming back to Fortnite?
The Fortnite Status Twitter account confirmed that the Shockwave Hammer has been disabled, but did point out it was only temporary, stating, “Our intent is to re-enable the Shockwave Hammer in the next game update when this issue has been resolved.”
There is no timeline as yet on that game update but it is unlikely to take longer than a week. Players are hoping it not only gets fixed but also gets nerfed in the process. Even without the bug, many Fortnite players have been calling for the Shockwave Hammer to be vaulted as it is so overpowered they feel it is spoiling the game.
Fortnite has made it impossible for new battle royale games to succeed
Over the course of the Fortnite's history, we've seen many weapons come and go; generally, it's the player base that ultimately decides what stays and is popular. So the writing is potentially on the wall for the Shockwave Hammer, regardless of when and how it returns.
It’s not the first time Fortnite has had to pull a feature in recent times. It’s not that long since Spiderman’s web-slinging antics had to be dropped in Chapter 3, Season 1 after grinding the game to a standstill as players rushed to try them, so Fortnite has form for quickly removing items in order to fix up the code.