Fortnite's battle royale mode is a constantly changing experience, with Epic Games often making sweeping changes to the map and experimenting with new game modes. Epic also tweaks the Fortnite experience by removing certain weapons and items from the game and placing them in the "vault" - sometimes forever, and sometimes temporarily. Usually the goal is to try to better balance the weapon or item before adding it back to the game, but other times vaulted items are never seen again.

To date, numerous weapons, items, and traps have been added to the vault, returned to the game, added back to the vault, and so on. As of the time of this writing, there's quite a few weapons and items in the vault, and some Fortnite enthusiasts may be curious to see what has been removed and if any of them stand a chance at making a comeback.

Items

• Impulse Grenade
• Remote Explosives
• Smoke Grenade

At the time of this writing, there are three items in the Fortnite vault: the Smoke Grenade, the Impulse Grenade, and Remote Explosives. Smoke Grenades were put in the Vault due to a lack of use by players, but it's less clear exactly why Epic decided to do away with Impulse Grenades and Remote Explosives. It's possible that the developers felt the items were too powerful, and are working to make them more balanced before reintroducing them to battle royale.

Traps

• Bouncer Trap
• Ceiling Trap
• Jump Pad (Up)
• Jump Pad (Directional)
• Wall Dynamo

Epic has also removed a number of traps from Fortnite's battle royale mode for various reasons, with five traps currently in the vault. Some of these traps appear to have been removed due to redundancy, like the Ceiling Trap and Wall Dynamo, which are made redundant by the Spike Trap. Meanwhile, we know that the Bouncer Trap was removed due to Fortnite adding more mobility options, and one has to imagine that same reason is why the Jump Pad (Up) and Jump Pad (Directional) have also been given the boot.

Weapons

• Crossbow
• Drum Gun
• Light Machine Gun
• Revolver
• Submachine Gun (original)
• Suppressed Submachine Gun (original)
• Tactical Submachine Gun
• Zapotron

Since launch, Fortnite has added and removed a wide variety of weapons. Sometimes these weapons come back completely retooled, like we saw with the new submachine guns, but other times they are seemingly gone forever. One of the earliest weapons removed from Fortnite battle royale was the Zapotron, a supply drop-exclusive weapon that Epic removed because it was overpowered. Being overpowered seems to be the reason why other weapons were removed from the game, like the Drum Gun, for instance.

In the future, Epic Games is sure to put more items and weapons in the vault. It's also likely to remove some and add them back to the game as well, so fans should keep that in mind. Nothing in Fortnite is necessarily permanent, not even the map layout, so it's possible it will be a much different game months from now, with a completely different list of vaulted weapons and items.

Fortnite is out now in early access for iOS, Android, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

Source: Gamepedia