Fortnite 9.21 Patch Update Includes New Grenade Launcher and Storm Flip Item Nerf

Fortnite continues their season 9 patches with the newest 9.21 update, launching this week with a new weapon. Fornite’s new Proximity Grenade Launcher is an explosive weapon that launches a series of grenades that detonate after a period of time of them being shot. The Proximity Grenade Launcher’s grenades trigger when they are near a target. The weapon is only available as Epic (purple) and Legendary (gold). The damage isn’t that significant for such a high caliber weapon, with 67 on Epic and 7- for Legendary. The weapon is semi-automatic and uses rockets as ammo. The grenade is an arching explosive that bounces and seems to have a mind of its own. It can be found in Supply Drops, chests and vending machines throughout the map. The magazine capacity is just two rounds.

Epic Games have also introduced a new mode called Horde Rush Mode. The creators have had modes like this in their past games such as the Gears of War series that introduced its own version of Horde Mode back in Gears of War 3. In Fortnite, however, it has its own take. The mode has the ability to play with up to you and three of your friends or other players, teaming up in a PvE mode against multiple stages of zombie “Fiends.” In this mode, building is still capable as you can scavenge materials and other weapons throughout the map. The score will keep count for every Fiend you defeat. There is a boss battle at the end of a certain amount of rounds that need to be completed.

Other news from the patch includes a nerf for the Storm Flip item that was introduced into the game last week, allowing players to essentially flip the storm. If you threw the item in an area where the storm has not yet reached, it would create a small radius of the storm and vice versa. If you were to throw the storm flip while inside the storm, you would create an essential safe zone for a short time. The item was introduced to eliminate the “slowness” of the endgame in each battle royale. There were a major amount of complaints from pro players that said the weapon was too powerful. Epic Games heard their complaints and called for a flat 5 damage for each second you were in the storm flip, and made the item much more rare to find.