19 December 2023 , 11:50
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Fortnite has received a surprise pre-Christmas patch today, here's everything included in the update including some pretty significant movement changes.
Fortnite servers went down this morning ahead of the second major update of Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1, but after just a few hours, Fortnite is now back up and running, with players able to jump into battle royale, Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival once again. With Winterfest 2023 launching two weeks ago, there's still loads of holiday-themed content for players to enjoy in-game, and it's a good thing too, because this week's update is short on content, but big on gameplay changes.
Epic Games has introduced some big movement improvements in the latest Fortnite patch notes in both battle royale and Rocket Racing; in BR, movement speed has been increased when crouching and running, and thanks to reduced camera movement and a tweak to the change in view when sprinting, it'll feel a lot smoother was well.
Over in Rocket Racing, car-on-car collisions have been a hot button topic but today's Fortnite patch notes will make them less jarring, and Epic promises to keep on improving collision in further updates. Following the Fortnite patch, we recommend you go into your settings and adjust your custom settings, as some have been reset following the update.
Lego Fortnite has had its fair share of changes too, including making the snacks more filling and making select critters easier to beat. No matter which mode you're playing, there are a decent amount of changes that should improve the gameplay for you, and you can delve into all of the details below.
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Here are all the Fortnite patch notes from today's major update, with impacts battle royale, Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival.
Fortnite patch notes
Here are all the Fortnite patch notes for today's update, as confirmed by Epic's blog post, with the patch featuring changes to battle royale, Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival.
Fortnite battle royale
Movement improvements
Movement speed has been increased when crouching, and running. We also reduced camera movement and adjusted the change in view while sprinting to encourage a smoother experience. Plus, we updated the movement animations to better match the adjustments in speed.
To help you get adjusted to these updates, we’ve reset everyone’s “custom diagonal movement” settings, so please log in and reconfigure your settings to what feels best.
Medallions readability
Society medallion icons now stand out more on the map and should be easier to spot at a glance. We also reduced the visual noise present in the minimap when several medallion zones are near one another, especially in the later storm circles.
Night visibility
We’ve brightened certain areas of the map where it was a little too dark during night.
Storm visibility
The visibility of the storm’s edge has been improved so it’s more apparent how close it is, as we heard from the community it could be difficult to see.
Weapon icons
We’re aware of feedback that the frenzy auto shotgun and the thunder burst SMG weapon icons were too similar, making it hard to differentiate them. These icons have been updated to be more visually unique and legible.
Recent balance changes
- Last week, we also released a lot of balance changes to battle royale. Here’s a recap!
- Flowberries now grant more shield.
- Increased damage for the ranger pistol, shield breaker emp, and ballistic shield's pistol.
- Snowball launcher mag size reduced.
- Thunder burst SMG mag size increased.
- Reduced the drop rate of the Reaper sniper rifle.
- Striker ar deals less damage.
- The circle indicating a society medallion holder is smaller.
- Society medallions now have a brief delay before shield regen begins. They also have slightly reduced regen rates and no longer refill 100% shield (unless you have all five).
Lego Fortnite
Hungry? More filling snacks!
We heard feedback that food in Lego Fortnite wasn’t reducing hunger very much, so we made adjustments to make your snacks more filling!
Elimination while cavin’
We fixed a bug that might have made you lose your items after being eliminated in the transition between aboveground and belowground. Thanks for your patience as this was being worked on — we understand it was frustrating to lose your items (we were losing our items too!).
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ICYMI, last week we also made the following changes before today’s update:
Durability
The durability of non-rare/non-epic tools and weapons has increased by 30%. For rare/epic tools and weapons, the durability has increased by 60%!
Damage
- Reduced damage of the brute’s poison area for all three brutes.
- Reduced damage of the frost scorpion explosion.
Critter changes
- Sand scorpions, scorpions found in caves, regular scorpions, crabs on the shoreline, sand spiders, and alpine frost spiders are slightly easier to defeat.
- Rams now give heavy wool.
- Other tweaks and improvements
- Grapplers now hold 30 charges.
- Spiders won’t jumpscare you as often when turning over rocks.
Rocket racing
Long queue times
We heard feedback that high-ranked racers have been experiencing long queue times in rocket racing, and our team is working on incremental improvements to help you get into your races faster. We’ll continue to monitor queue times and make adjustments if necessary.
Car collisions
Car-on-car collisions have been a major topic among players, especially when a bump from behind spins your car 180 degrees. Today's update will make those collisions a bit less punishing, and should help keep your car facing the finish line. We’ll continue to work on collision improvements for future updates too.
Jackie outfit quest
The reach gold rank in Rocket Racing quest to unlock the jackie outfit was rewarding players for reaching gold ii instead of gold I. We’ve patched this so that racers who have hit gold I now just need to complete one full race to complete the quest and receive the jackie outfit.
Fortnite Festival
Missing song library
We fixed an error that caused players to see an empty song library in the main stage after suspending Fortnite on their device. This should also improve the pauses some players were encountering before a song starts.
Fall damage disabled
Fall damage has been disabled in the main stage’s backstage. Jump off all the balconies you’d like, rockstars!
Restart song
We’ve disabled the “restart song” functionality (available to solo players) temporarily while we fix an error that was causing the game to become unresponsive.
Incorrect posting to leaderboards
We fixed an issue where some scores may have been posted to the wrong leaderboard. We will continue to monitor (and potentially audit) leaderboards moving forward to ensure their accuracy.