Fortnite v4.4 Update Removes A Much-Hated Item And Adds A New Gun
It's time for yet another weekly Fortnite update, and while this one doesn't make a ton of changes to the game, it does make more than last week's patch. Players can look forward to a new gun that'll make it easier to locate hidden enemies and chests as well as the return of two popular limited-time game modes. On top of that, though, this patch also gets rid of a much-hated item by putting the jetpack into the vault.
Yes, the jetpack's reign of terror is over, at least for now. The jetpack wasn't around for very long, as Epic only added it to the game last month, but in that short amount of time, it managed to become passionately disliked by most of the player base. It was only intended to be a limited-time item, but one has to wonder if the community's outcry over the jetpack caused Epic to vault it sooner than it was initially planning to.
In any case, this week's new addition is the Thermal Scoped Assault Rifle. This rifle drops in epic and legendary variants and can be found as floor loot, in chests, or in supply drops. Players can use its scope to locate other players, chests, and supply drops, so from here on out, players no longer have the luxury of assuming that they're completely hidden from view when they're trying to avoid enemies.
Version 4.4 also changes the way traps work to allow them to be placed on ramps. For the moment, this functionality only works with the Bouncer trap, but assuming this roll out goes smoothly, we'll probably see the change come to the damage trap before long.
Finally, there are two limited-time game modes returning in this patch. The first is 50v50 – this new version is mostly the same as previous iterations, save for a few key changes. Storm circles will now bias more toward the center of the map, early-game supply drop totals have been increased, and bonuses to resource farming have dropped from 75% to a mere 25%.
Sniper Shootout is also returning with this update, giving the Thermal Scoped Assault Rifle a chance to shine. The crossbow has been removed from this newest version of Sniper Shootout, while epic and legendary sniper rifles can now be found as floor loot. Of course, there are also a number of bug fixes coming along with this update, so be sure to check out Epic's patch notes for more.