As the eighth season of Fortnite comes to a close, Epic Games is gearing up for the ninth. How has the world changed following the volcano’s eruption? Well, technology has advanced, as suggested by the tagline: “The Future is Yours.”
New areas are coming, namely the Mega Mall and Neo Tilted, the latter replacing the now destroyed Tilted Towers. Nugget Hall and Peely’s Banana Stand are two new attractions players can look forward to, and the new wind-powered slipstream system and air vents will allow easier access across the map.
And because a new season is starting, players will be able to procure a new Battle Pass for 950 V-Bucks should they elect to. Over 100 rewards can be unlocked though it, including tools like dual pickaxes, and purchasing the Pass will automatically grant you the Sentinel and Rox progressive Outfits.
Version 9.00’s patch notes can be seen below. It’s a lengthy list, meaning Fortnite aficionados should take the time to study it.
SPECTATING
- Spectating a player’s match will now automatically follow that player.
MOBILE
- Auto fire will now trigger on vehicles.
- Added option for increasing elimination feed line count in the HUD Layout Tool.
- Dragging/Dropping from the quickbar is now allowed while jumping.
- The location of the boost button on Android for the X-Stormwing has been moved to avoid triggering the Home button.
- Squad formation is now accessible.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
- The delay with interacting when using the quickbar slots has been resolved.
- Weapon icons now correctly display icons on the quickbar.
- Fixed sliders that were broken in the Dead Zone tab of the Controller Options.
- Auto fire adjustments:
- Semi-automatic weapons now fire correctly.
- Increased acquisition delay for shotguns.
- Dynamite trajectory indicator is now correctly displayed during use.
- Ziplines can no longer be ridden past their endpoints.
- Autorun no longer takes more than two taps to initiate after jumping from Battle Bus.
- Cooldown Timer visual for boost buttons on vehicles is now displayed correctly.
- The camera no longer shakes when entering the X-Stormwing.
- Left virtual thumbstick no longer becomes invisible when holding left or right and pressing the fire button.
- The Harvest Tool UI button in HUD layout is no longer invisible.
- The stair railing in Pleasant Park no longer clips through the door.
- Variant numbers partially hidden in the preview screen by the “X” button.
- The Dream cosmetic is now correctly displaying:
- The butterfly
- Eye glow effect
- Widow’s Bite pickaxe visual effect issue has been resolved.
- The Cooldown ring timer showing briefly when switching seats in Cannon.
- Interact Icon is no longer missing with certain consumables.
- Input Blocked text will no longer appear when opening the inventory.
- The Item Shop arrows now display correctly on iPhone XS Max.
GENERAL
- Reworked default button layout to be consistent across vehicles (Enter, Exit, Switch Seat and Boost)
UI
- Sub-game select screen has been refreshed.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
- Improved visibility of squad icons on lobby player pads in large parties
- Squad icons in large parties can no longer show an empty slot as ready
- Selecting a highlighted team member in the lobby with a controller can no longer show options for a different member
- Players will now appear correctly as a hologram, when joining a player currently in match
- Reworded Squad formation messaging to be more clear
- Fixed invisible character parts of players who are still loading into the match.
SOCIAL
- Players now remain in the Party voice channel by default when entering a match. The Game channel is still available, but the switch is no longer automatic.
- Added a setting for the display of voice chat indicators.
Bug Fixes & Improvements
- Suggested friends in the social panel match the suggestions in the launcher
- The “Sit Out/Jump In” button in Squad Formation is now displayed correctly
- Sending a friend invite to a suggested friend no longer fails
- Can now still send party invites after joining and leaving a party while set to “Friend” party privacy
- Fixed potentially incorrect notification message when joining a channel
- Voice indicators are no longer stuck on screen when leaving a party while members are speaking
- Fixed duplicate voice indicators appearing for the same speaker
PERFORMANCE
- Optimized the eye adaption rendering effect
- Optimized animation performance for ControlRig (Werewolf, Krampus).
KNOWN ISSUES
- Want to track the top community issues? Head over to our Fortnite | Community Issues Trello board here.
DEVICES
- Added the Creature Manager device to the creative inventory. This allows you to customize the attributes of the creatures that the Creature Spawners create.
- Use one Creature Manager per creature type that you want to customize.
- Type: Fiend, Red Fiend, Brute, Red Brute, Ranged, Megabrute
- Health: Default, 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000
- Score: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, 100
- Damage to players: None, Default, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, 500
- Damage to the environment: Default, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, 500
- Added the Hover Platform device.
- This can be placed anywhere and allows building in the air.
- Make sure you place the hover platform first; placing it on an existing building can cause the building to be destroyed.
- Known issue: Using Multi-Select with a Hover Platform causes anything built on it to be destroyed when placed.
- Added the Air Vent device.
- Boosts players into the air.
- Added Bacon to the Challenge Gallery.
- Added new options to the Capture Area device.
- Added Team option to restrict item captures to a specific team.
- 1-16 or All (Default: All)
- Added Accent Color option to help visually distinguish Capture Area devices from one another.
- White, Sky Blue, Red-Orange, Golden, Apple Green, Fuschia, Orange, Aquamarine, Beige, Purple, Neon Green, Cerulean, Aqua, Pink, Green (Default: Aqua)
- Added new options to the Objective device.
- Added “Show Damage Numbers” option to show how much damage is dealt to the Objective when it is damaged.
- Updated the health bar on the Objective Device; it now shows whether it’s a Friendly or Enemy target by its color (Friendly shows blue, Enemy shows red)
- Added new option to the Explosive Barrel.
- Added “Show Damage Numbers” option to show how much damage is dealt to the Explosive Barrel when it is damaged.
- On, Off (Default: Off)
- Added new option to the Coin.
- Added “Collecting Team” option to specify which team can collect the coin
- All, Team 1-16(Default: All)
Bug Fixes & Improvements
- Objective Device health bars will now always display correctly based on settings.
- Creature Spawners should now abide by their Wave Timer settings more accurately at lower values.
- Creatures no longer take excessive fall damage when spawned on Sandbar Island.
- Objective Device no longer changes to the generator model when leaving and rejoining an island.
UI + SOCIAL
- Matched the color for the in-world markers of attack/defend objectives to the color variations in their respective HUD elements.
- Friendly shows blue, Enemy shows red
- Renamed “knockdowns” to “eliminated” in the scoreboard
Bug Fixes & Improvements
- The top 2 teams are now placed correctly when there is not a tie.
- Real-time scoreboard columns are now updating after changing the tracked stats between games.
- The default HUD type no longer shows the text “Objectives Remaining” even if there were no Objective Devices.
- The final round Scoreboard of a game is now titled the round number instead of “Scoreboard”.
- The round Scoreboard now shows progress towards the total number of rounds (e.g. “Round 2” will now display as “Round 2 / 3”).
- The health bar of the Objective Device no longer disappears when respawning.
- Black bars at the start of a game now span across the entire screen on Xbox One and Switch platforms.
PERFORMANCE
- Resolved some big hitches when using the Barrier device, Music Sequencer, or Driftboard Spawner.
- Improved the performance of some Phone interactions to reduce hitching.
PERFORMANCE
- Reduced hitches related to players connecting to a match while other players are already in zone.
- Reduced in-zone asset loading around Hoverboard use, gameplay effects, and audio.
- Improved framerate when rendering the HUD.
- Reduced cost of supporting interaction with quest items.
- Resolved a source of big hitches due to loaded abilities
- Improved rendering performance on Xbox One
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an audio hitch when a player is sent an idle message.
HEROES
- We’ve added a new Hero to the Event store!
- Black Knight Garridan, a new Mythic Constructor!
- New Team Perk: Kinetic Overdrive
- Kinetic Overload occurs an additional time.
- Requires 3 Constructors with 3 or more stars
- New Ability: Goin’ Constructor
- Equip a hammer which deals an enormous amount of physical damage and a shield that reduces 95% damage from the front. Lasts 16 seconds.
- Standard Perk: Knight’s Impact
- Increases Hardware Impact by 33%.
- Commander Perk: Knight’s Impact+
- Increases Hardware Impact by 75%. Additionally, Goin’ Constructor can trigger Kinetic Overload.
- Available in the Event Store May 9th at 8 PM Eastern Time
- We’re introducing a new Dinosaur Hero!
- Paleo Luna, the new Dinosaur Ninja!
- Standard Perk: Saurian Claws
- Adds 5.5% of Current Health to Melee Weapon Damage.
- Commander Perk: Saurian Claws+
- Adds 16.5% of Current Health to Melee Weapon Damage.
- Obtainable from the “Tales from Beyond” Questline.
- New Team Perk: Blast From The Past
- Acquired upon acquisition of any Dinosaur hero
- Requires 2 Dinosaur Heroes
- Removes all shield and increases Max Health by 200%.
- Visual update to Kinetic Overdrive.
Bug Fixes
- Suppressive Fire will no longer gain unintended bonus damage from critical hits.
- Grenade Generation no longer only counts ranged weapon eliminations.
- Commando Renegade will no longer appear as Special Forces Ramirez on PS4.
- Miss Bunny Penny can now properly be retired.
- Players can no longer heal themselves by passing through allies with Phase Siphon.
- Hunter’s Instinct will now properly life leech off melee weapons only.
- Bullrush will no longer push defenders.
WEAPONS + ITEMS
- Steam Skewer – the Steampunk Spear!
- A spear that uses long range thrusting attacks to deal high damage and impact.
- Available in the Weekly Store from May 9th at 8PM ET until May 16th at 8PM ET.
Bug Fixes
- Weapons no longer visibly eject energy shells after changing the effects quality settings.
- 1 bullet reload for weapons now reload properly.
GAMEPLAY
Bug Fixes
- Visual effects will now show on players who are standing in Slowing Pools.
ENEMIES
- Blaster
- All new art and animations!
- Blaster is now more resistant to being interrupted and knocked back by weapon and trap impacts.
- Blaster blast attack accuracy has been adjusted.
- Fewer Blasters are allowed to show up at any one time.
- Poison lobbers have returned to their old skull-throwing selves.
- Lobbers will now appear less frequently in low level zones as they did before the Love Storm arrived.
ART + ANIMATION
Bug Fixes & Improvements
- Fixed a small hole that could appear in Autumn City maps.
AUDIO
Bug Fixes & Improvements
- Hoverboard’s mount audio no longer plays at an increased volume.
- Music will no longer restart when tabbing in and out of game.
- MedBot revive audio now respects player volume settings.
- Pickaxe impact audio now plays correctly after swinging multiple times.
- Added Autumn ambient music to Autumn maps.
- Updated Deliver the Bomb manufacture and launch sounds.