‘Fortnite: Battle Royale’ Sneaks In Crossbow, Shooting Test Changes With Latest Update

The weekly Fortnite: Battle Royale updates continue with a new patch released Thursday to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The 100-player multiplayer shooter has another new weapon added to the loot pool plus Epic Games continues to tweak the new shooting model currently undergoing testing.

Fortnite: Battle Royale patch 2.4.2 is now available to download across all platforms and kicks off a Valentine’s Day theme for the title. New holiday-themed skins are available from the store and there is also the addition of the Cupid-ish crossbow. Players should expect a new limited time event next week, likely featuring a certain new weapon.

Crossbow

The crossbow is available from floor loot and treasure chests in the game world and comes in both Rare and Epic variants. The Rare version does 75 base damage so there is a chance to get a one-shot kill with headshot against an unarmored player. This is especially true with the Epic version.

As expected, the crossbow is slow-firing but completely silent. It fires only one shot and the reload time is comparable to the bolt-action sniper rifle. The main drawback for the new weapon when compared to the bolt-action sniper rifle is less damage and no zoom on the scope.

Shooting Test

Epic Games set up a new limited time mode last week to test the new shooting model coming to Fortnite: Battle Royale. This mode has been tweaked with today’s update to only support Solo mode. Meanwhile, Shotgun headshot damage was increased to 200 percent while the Scope Assault Rifle received a major buff. The weapon now has no damage fall-off and is 100 percent accurate when zoomed in.

There are some minor fixes included with Fortnite: Battle Royale 2.4.2. Players will no longer slide off rooftops, a hole near Retail Row was fixed along with collision inconsistencies in some basements.

Upcoming Fixes

A member of the Epic Games team also confirmed some of what the development team is working on for future updates via a Reddit post. More performance improvements are coming to the PS4 and Xbox One. Meanwhile, the studio is working on improving the weapon switching and building. They are trying to ensure any changes don’t introduce critical bugs this time and will release it one it has undergone a thorough testing.

Finally, Epic Games acknowledged opening a chest in Fortnite: Battle Royale and receiving nothing is extremely disappointing. They have a fix coming in the next couple of updates.