This article is part of our Fortnite series.
The balance changes are coming! While Season 6 of Fortnite might be a few weeks away, Epic just announced some upcoming balance changes that are sure to rock the boat. Epic has been keeping an eye on both the competitive and non-competitive scene, as these changes are set to shake up all aspects of the scene.
In the eye of the storm
We've seen plenty of balance changes hit in the last few weeks, but more than ever, this change is specifically aimed at the competitive scene. Thank heavens.
If you caught any of the Summer Skirmish events over the last seven weeks, you've no doubt noticed that these games frequently go down to the wire with the final zone closing in and creating some frantic situations. Once patch 5.40 hits, these fights will look much different. Oh baby.
When the final circle locks in, the edges will damage to all builds. And the damage comes in quick if the footage shown in the Developer Update is what it will look like in the actual patch. If there are any structures touching the edge of the circle, they will be destroyed instantly, bringing down any towers that were connected. Oh baby.
This is perhaps the biggest targeted change to hit the game in quite some time. As stated in the video, this is only going effect less than 10 percent of matches. But about 99 percent of that 10 percent likely comes from the competitive scene. This is going to completely change how players treat this final circle. Sky bases will become incredibly dangerous since you'll just instantly drop down in that final circle. How the competitive scene adjusts to this new meta will be very interesting to watch.
Good riddance, revolver
One of the most useless weapons in the game is getting booted into the vault. That's right, everyone's favorite (i.e. hated) grey revolver is going away. As evidenced in the update video where just every shot missed, the gun just isn't that great. To keep the weapon economy "fresh," it's going into the vault.
This change isn't the most important and won't have much of an effect on anything. It'll simply make sure that people can get their hands on the weapons they actually want during a given match.
One interesting tidbit that was mentioned is that Epic is looking to vault some more weapons during Season 6. As weapons and items are added in on a seemingly weekly basis, making sure that the bad weapons get locked away to make room for weapons that are useful is imperative to a healthy meta.
Gimme them item changes
Besides the storm changes, these are the ones that will have the most profound effect on the game.
Most importantly, C4 will be moving from rare to epic. This is an item that runs rampant through the competitive scene as it's the easiest way to destroy structures. With the item being a rare, you're bound to get one in almost every single game. The change to epic will drastically reduce your chances of getting it, though, which is a good thing. Rather than the game being dictated by whoever has C4, we can see some more old school buildfights on a regular basis.
Also seeing some slight changes are the stack sizes for the Boogie Bomb (lol) and Shield Potions. Boogie Bombs (lol) will now come in stacks of two instead of one and Shields will have a max size of three, up from two. The Shield change is the big one here. These are already some of the best healing items before the change and this only makes them even stronger. Mini Potions might be quick to use, but full Shields can get you to 100 and now come in stacks of three? These will certainly be the go-to before long.
If you look closely...
That was it in terms of official announcements, but if we take a closer look at the video, we see some new items that could come our way soon.
First, we have a rare variant of the Dual Pistols, which only come in epic and legendary at the moment. Then, we've got a rare silenced pistol, which also only comes in epic and legendary at the moment. There's no telling if these are actual items that will make their way into the official game at some point, but it definitely looks as though that's the case.
All in all, these are some solid changes and show that Epic isn't just resting on their laurels when it comes to Fortnite. How they continue to update and mold the meta will be a huge piece that determines the game's long-term success.
