Fortnite Battle Royale and Save The World are getting updated Jan. 18 with huge Battle Royale map changes and a brand new city. Epic Games released the patch notes ahead of the release date. Here’s everything we know so far.
Experience the Map Update tomorrow! New places to explore, a battle pass bundle and a bonus for current pass owners, all in Patch 2.2.⚽️https://t.co/LbxTaj5F8I pic.twitter.com/Kke0MXCAsN
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) January 17, 2018
MAP UPDATE
- Includes a new city, underground mine and other new locations in the Battle Royale map’s western area. Biomes also make environmental extremes more noticeable across the entire land mass.
BATTLE ROYALE PATCH NOTES
WEAPONS
- Removed the Scoped AR from Supply Drops
- Updated the scope for the Scoped AR. New reticle with improved crosshairs.
- The Snowball Launcher has been replaced by the normal Grenade Launcher.
- Slightly increased the size of the grenade (loot)
- Fixes : Grenades, Boogie Bomb and explosion effects tweaked
GAMEPLAY
- Friendly fire disabled for now
- Players will now immediately aim their weapon upon landing on the ground if they press and hold the aim button while in the air.
- Pickups no longer take priority over reviving DBNO squad members.
- Empty chests and metal street lights will no longer block players from building.
- Corn stalks are now destroyed upon taking any damage.
- Fixes: Ammo drop animations, emote animations, looting other players, clipping, trap damage, Cozy Campfire, glider deployment
WORLD
- The map has been updated with many new points of interest, biomes, and more.
- Players now interact with grass and foliage as they walk through it.
- Added water effects when entering and exiting water
- Added a new post-process effect for when your camera goes below the water surface
- Added Ammo Boxes to Dusty Depot
- Increased the amount of metal harvested from shipping containers
- Fixes: Water no longer blocks bullets and projectiles
ITEM SHOP
- Starting on Jan. 17, 2018, players should see six daily store slots instead of four.
- Starting on Jan. 21, 2018, the Weekly Item shop is changing to the Featured Item Shop.
UI
- Sniper elimination feed messages now include elimination distance in meters.
- When spectating a far away player, a “loading” message may be displayed for a short time, and the game world will appear after loading completes. You cannot switch to another spectated player until the load completes.
- The "Reset Building Choice" option now defaults to "Off" in Battle Royale.
- Added a new option to select which voice chat input device to use
- Fixes: Select mode buttons, player reporting, voice chat icons, revive icons, lobby ui, leaderboards
PERFORMANCE
- Added level streaming, which loads the world on-the-fly as you move around, enabling a richer map and improved performance. Should result in major load speed changes.
- Reduced the amount of system and GPU memory used
- Optimized the visual effects played when distant buildings are hit
- Improved overall frame rate by optimizing how player animation and footsteps are handled
- Cozy Campfire and Boogie Bomb items no longer cause a hitch when seen the first time in a match.
- Encountering players with specific skins for the first time in a match no longer causes a hitch.
ANIMATION
- Greatly improved the visual quality of distant trees by using impostor billboards instead of regular meshes. This also improves overall frame rate and reduces visual popping as you approach the trees.
- Fixes: Issues with animation stops, “Ride The Pony” tweaked, launch animations, shield colors, Cozy Campfire effects
SOUND
- Added new audio for pickaxes that were previously using default swing sounds
- Added a pick-up sound effect for the damage trap
- Fixes: Errors in bullet sounds, footsteps and volume reduction of loud audio
GENERAL
- Voice chat now supported in the pre-game lobby
- Cosmetic items can now be rotated in the locker and store pages. Left-click and drag or use the right thumbstick on the controller to rotate them.
- Removed the winter theme from the pre-game lobby
SAVE THE WORLD PATCH NOTES
GAMEPLAY BUG FIXES
- Shielders will now properly drop quest items for “Loks Book of Monsters” quest.
- Fixed an issue with the Grenade Generation perk. The player is now rewarded with a grenade after eliminating 20 enemies rather than 21.
- Fixed an issue where the pickaxe heavy attack was not harvesting resources
- Fixed an issue where the Shielder enemy would flicker after the Husk it was shielding was defeated
- Fixed an issue that caused quest highlights on objects to disappear when building near the object
- Fixed an issue that caused some parties to disband after a game
HEROES
- Added clarification to the tooltip of the Constructor ability, “DECOY”
- Impact from abilities will now properly scale with Hero Ability Damage. As a result abilities will now correctly stagger, stun, and knockback enemies at high levels.
- Fixed an issue where proximity mines wouldn’t disappear when the player who placed them left the match or died
- Fixed an issue where frag grenades could still be used even when the player didn’t have enough stamina to use it
- Fixed an issue where the Soldier's “Advanced Tactics” health bonus wasn’t properly scaling in the late game
- Fixed an issue where the Frag Grenade perk “Cluster Bomb” was triggering twice rather than just once
- Fixed the tool-tip for Air Strike which incorrectly stated that Air Strike drops 12 bombs, instead of 13
- Fixed an issue where the Outlander Fragment abilities TEDDY and Shock Tower weren’t receiving the energy damage bonus from the Energized support perk
UI
- The Commander XP curve has been inflated to make way for front-end crafting. This is to ensure that low-value items (e.g. ammo) are worth at least 1 Commander XP when crafted in the main menus.
- Squad screens will no longer show health and shield as being buffed at all times. It will instead properly show the buff/debuff arrows on health and shield stats when previewing slotting.
- Fixes: Localization, backgrounds, loss of menu functionality
OTHER
- Corrected flame animation rotation on the Lobber head
- Searched chests and containers will no longer block players from building
- Cornstalks are no longer searchable.
- Your game window will now properly appear on the primary monitor.
- Xbox One crash fixed
Much like the last update, this one focuses more on the free Battle Royale mode as opposed to Save The World. That being said, a series of bug fixes across the entire game should offer a more stable Fortnite experience in 2.2 and beyond. The new city and map biomes are clearly the biggest draw here, though, having been been a hot topic in the community since November. It’s a great showcase of how this massively popular game continues to evolve. Previous holiday loot caches will be removed, but the new city should compensate for the loss.
Fortnite ’s 2.2 update is expected to go live Jan. 18 across PS4, Xbox One and PC. Version numbers will vary, but features remain the same. You can watch a trailer for the patch’s aesthetic changes above.
Are you excited to see what Fortnite 2.2 brings to Battle Royale? Do you want to see more attention paid to Save The World? Tell us in the comments section!
