Fortnite’s patches are normally limited to one per-week, but Epic is breaking its pattern to make some big changes to the game. In a hotfix released on Thursday afternoon, Epic removed the Combat Shotgun, one of the best guns in the game, and introduced a few other balance changes.
This hotfix to last Tuesday’s patch removes three guns from Fortnite: the Combat Shotgun, the Drum Shotgun, and the Proximity Launcher. While each of these filled their own space in the game, the Combat Shotgun was one of the most sought-after guns, thanks to its high damage and long range. With both of these shotguns leaving, the game is back to only having the Pump and Tactical Shotguns now.
The Automatic Sniper, which was only added a few patches ago, also got a significant change in this hotfix. The gun was under-performing, according to Epic, so to help give it a boost, its damage has been increased by nine at each rarity level. Whether or not that’s enough to make it viable remains to be seen.
For a look at everything that changed in this mid-week hotfix, you can check out the full patch notes below.
Fortnite 9/5 Hotfix patch notes
Weapons and Items
Vaulted
- Combat Shotgun
- Drum Shotgun
- Proximity Launcher
Unvaulted
- Suppressed Assault Rifle (Epic/Legendary)
Automatic Sniper
- The Automatic Sniper was underperforming relative to some of the other Sniper Rifles. This adjustment to damage should make it more desirable as an alternative long-range weapon.
Increased damage from 31/33/35 to 40/42/44
Gameplay
B.R.U.T.E
Lowered the spawn rate of the B.R.U.T.E in Storm phases 3-6 in core modes. Arena spawn rates will remain unchanged.
With this change, we’re hoping to reduce the impact of B.R.U.T.Es on late-game scenarios, while retaining their presence in the early game.
Storm phase 3
- New spawn rates
33.3% chance to spawn 0
33.3% chance to spawn 1
33.3% chance to spawn 2
- Old spawn rates
25% chance to spawn 0
25% chance to spawn 1
25% chance to spawn 2
25% chance to spawn 3
Storm phase 4
- New spawn rates
50% chance to spawn 0
50% chance to spawn 1
- Old spawn rates
33.3% chance to spawn 0
33.3% chance to spawn 1
33.3% chance to spawn 2
Storm phase 5
- New spawn rates
83.4% chance to spawn 0
16.6% chance to spawn 1
- Old spawn rates
50% chance to spawn 0
50% chance to spawn 1
Storm phase 6
- New spawn rates
Will no longer spawn.
- Old spawn rates
90% chance to spawn 0
10% chance to spawn 1
Peppers
- Increased the duration of spiciness from Peppers to a 60-second duration from a 20-second duration.
Retail Row
This POI is intended to be a high-risk, high-reward drop location, but we feel the reward has outweighed the risk. By reducing the availability of Obelisks, gathering rare loot will require a little more time investment.
- Reduced the maximum number of Spawn Obelisks from 7 to 5.
- Increased the time before Spawn Obelisks respawn to a max of 30 seconds (previously a max of 5 seconds).
The respawn timer for Spawn Obelisks is on a loop and time may vary between 1-30 seconds.
- Decreased the chance to drop Rocket Launchers from destroyed Spawn Obelisks from 18.46% to 10%
- Decreased the chance to drop Jump Pads from destroyed Spawn Obelisks from 50% to 40%