Fortnite can now be considered one of the most single-important contemporary releases within the gaming sphere. The globally popular Battle Royale from Epic Games has shown no signs of slowing down, and it has essentially rewritten how gamers can expect to receive post-launch online content as a whole.
One of the keys to the sustained success of Fortnite lies within the consistent amount of updates that the title has received over the course of its near five-year lifespan. The game recently received its latest batch of changes and additions in the form of the wide-spanning 20.10 update, which is now live across all platforms.
The Battle For the Daily Bugle
One of the key changes brought about by this new update was the AI enemy presence within the Daily Bugle, a point of interest that was introduced with Fortnite's Spider-Man crossover event. The new update saw the ominous IO forces facing off against the Resistance in an AI-controlled skirmish within and around the Daily Bugle POI, with loot being awarded to players who helped the Resistance come out on top. Although this POI battle has now moved elsewhere, Funding Stations for an Armored Battle Bus and set of Turrets can now be found at the Daily Bugle instead.
Heavy Sniper Rifle Changes
Loyal fans of Fortnite will also be happy to learn that this new update sees the unvaulting of the Heavy Sniper Rifle, which is now once again available to find in chests and supply drops at varying rarities. The rifle has been reworked to better meet the ever-shifting meta and game mechanics that Fortnite fosters.
The Heavy Sniper Rifle has been given high-caliber rounds, with the added properties of doing bonus damage against the many drivable vehicles within Fortnite that recent updates have implemented. In this way, the Heavy Sniper Rifle very well may establish itself once more as a staple of players' loadouts with its increased effectiveness against what is otherwise the tricky threat that vehicles pose.
The Anvil Launcher
As a part of the Creative V20.10 update, a new and powerful weapon was introduced to Fortnite in the form of the Anvil Launcher. In a similar vein to the aforementioned re-implementation of the Heavy Sniper, the Anvil Launcher is a weapon that is primarily focused on destroying vehicles. The Anvil Launcher aims via the use of a scope, and offers a lock-on targeting system to aid in the dealing of huge amounts of damage to pesky vehicles.
Unvaulted Easter Items
In time for the Easter Holiday, two fan-favorite Easter themed items will return to the game with this new update, once again for a limited time. The first returning Easter item is the Egg Launcher weapon. Essentially just a re-skin of the Grenade Launcher, this Easter item instead has an Easter themed aesthetic, and launches Easter Eggs as opposed to the standard Grenades.
The second Easter item that will be unvaulted are the Bouncy Eggs item type. These Bouncy Eggs are a stackable consumable, which restore a small amount of shield as well as temporarily lowering the effect of gravity upon a player. These Bouncy Eggs can be found as ground loot across the map of Fortnite.
The Return of Jetpacks
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One of the other major additions to the wide-spanning set of changes that have come with the 20.10 update is the re-introduction of improved Jet Packs within Fortnite. Greatly improving the movement versatility of players who equip them, Jetpacks have been introduced as findable loot present within the IO Blimps that dominate the skies of parts of the Fortnite map.
The improvements to the Jetpack in this newly released state largely concern increasing the maneuverability that Jetpacks provide. Players can now hover and strafe while actively using the Jetpack when aiming down sights, making accuracy much easier to maintain during flight.
The Battle for Condo Canyon
Another skirmish brought about by this new update is now present, this time in the Condo Canyon POI. Closely following the same formula for the battle of the Daily Bugle, Condo Canyon is now littered with enemy AI that offer attractive rewards upon beating. Also in keeping with the Daily Bugle battle, the ominous Huntmaster Saber boss scours the area aboard his airship floating above the POI.
Weapon Balance Changes
Accompanying the aforementioned range of new content added as a part of the 20.10 update, many balance changes have also been made to a variety of weapons to better reflect a more balanced state of play throughout Fortnite as a whole. The Combat and Stinger SMG's have had both player damage and structural damage reduced, while the Combat SMG headshot damage has been brought down to match that of the Stinger SMG. MK-Seven and Combat Assault Rifle damage to players and structures has also been reduced, while the Titan tanks and Cow Catchers have been removed from competitive playlists.
Miscellaneous Changes
A litany of other small-scale but still interesting changes to the game are also present within this update. For one, the max health of Wildlife, Creatures and Guards has been increased almost ten-fold in some instances, while additional music has been added to both radio and speaker devices. Many bug fixes are also predictably present within the update. A lot of progress tracking issues for things like challenges and wins have been reportedly fixed, while vehicle stuttering issues have also been addressed. Additionally, the ziplines between the wind turbines on Windbreakers Island are now usable by players, while Performance Mode has been further optimized for specific drivers.
Fortnite is free-to-play on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.