Fortnite Season 9 Changes Brings New Guns, Slipstreams, New Map Locations, and More

Fortnite Season 9 has officially kicked off and brings with it a very Speed Racer meets Tron vibe with its new skins, new slipracers, and even more additions overall. 

“The volcano has erupted and forever changed some long lasting locations – from the ashes, Neo Tilted rises,” boasts Epic Games in their latest blog post. “Grab the squad to explore the bright lights of new attractions like Peely’s Banana Stand and Nugget Hut. Catch a ride and quickly traverse areas by flying in and out of the new Slipstream wind transportation system. Use the new Air Vents to quickly navigate from building to building. Take a glide over to the new Mega Mall to do some shopping before the storm hits. The future is yours in Season 9!”

As for what all is new, check out the patch notes below for everything new in Fortnite battle royale: 

WEAPONS + ITEMS

• Added Combat Shotgun
• Semi-Automatic
• Holds 10 Shells.
• Fires 9 pellets per shot for 73 / 77 / 81 base damage.
• Tight spread and fast fire rate.
• Headshot multiplier of 1.70x.
• Reloads 2 shells at a time.
• Available in Rare, Epic, and Legendary variants.
• Available from Floor, Chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines
• Adjusted Tactical Shotgun damage
• Base damage increased from 66/70/74 to 71/75/79
• Reduced Drum Gun availability from 16.732% to 7.155%
• Reduced Boom Bow availability from 1.292% to .755%
• Unvaulted Grenades
• Vaulted Clingers
• Vaulted Buried Treasure
• Vaulted Pump Shotgun
• Vaulted Poison Dart Trap
• Vaulted Scoped Revolver
• Vaulted Suppressed Assault Rifle
• Vaulted Thermal Assault Rifle
• Vaulted Balloons

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Turbo building after gliding now works correctly.
• The stink bomb damage audio and effects were not playing if you damaged yourself.
• Fixed the Shadow bomb occasionally not making the player invisible on the Xbox One the first time it’s used.
• Misplacement of Launch Pads in mid-air has been resolved.
• Pirate Cannon camera issues due to network latency have been resolved.
• The Reboot Card deposit sound effects no longer play in replay mode while the Van is on Cooldown.
• The Reboot Van card sound effects will no longer be heard when a squadmate disconnects.

GAMEPLAY

Slipstreams

• These tunnels of wind passively carry players down the stream.
• Players can move faster and change direction when actively trying to move down the Stream.
• Use directional input to gain extra velocity. Experiment with bobbing up and down for higher speeds.
• Players are launched when exiting the tube based on their movement speed and exit angle.
• Projectiles and Vehicles can also enter the Slipstream.

Air Vents

• The powerful gusts of air from these environmental items can launch players short distances and grant immunity to fall damage.

Fortbytes

• Fortbytes are a series of 100 collectible computer chips available to Battle Pass owners. As you collect Fortbytes, you’ll decrypt a mysterious image. Collect them all to unlock rewards and uncover the secrets of Season 9.
• On the first day of Season 9, there are 18 Fortbytes available to find. At least 1 new Fortbyte will be unlocked each day. Check the Challenges Tab for detailed information on which Fortbytes are currently available and when the others unlock.
• Fortbytes cannot be collected after Season 9 ends.
• Disconnected players will stay in the world for 60 seconds. They still take damage and count for elimination points.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Resolved an issue with the UI showing health gains incorrectly if the player canceled the consumable close to completion time.
• PS4 controller lighting not always matching your pin color when in Squads.
• Players not able to use Hold to Swap if they previously picked an item up normally
• Adjusted turbo building to be more forgiving under poor network conditions
• Fixed cases of jittery movement under certain conditions.

LIMITED TIME MODE ROTATION:

TRIOS

• Classic Battle Royale with Three-Person Squads.

SOLID GOLD

• Fight to the finish using Legendary weapons!

ONE SHOT

• Low Gravity. Every player has 50 health. Sniper weapons are the only weapon, Bandages are the only healing item. Jump high and aim well!

EVENTS

• Players who have already qualified to be in the World Cup will be marked with a World Cup badge on the event leaderboards
• Leaderboards now have a button to sort games by the number of top leaderboard players in them. This will help identify the most critical active games from a leaderboard standing view.
• The in-game HUD now has different icons for points for Arena matches and weekend tournament matches.

PERFORMANCE

• Improved frame rate on Nintendo Switch, particularly when large numbers of characters are onscreen.
• Addressed some cases of invisible characters after skydiving.

AUDIO

• Better tactical audio when inside player-built structures:
• Enemy Pickaxe impact within ~one building tile radius has new, louder sound.
• Wallbreak by enemy close/behind player much clearer/louder.
• Explosion audio improvements- shorter, higher dynamic range sounds that will make explosion audio clearer and punchier.

UI

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• “Swap” text appearing in the pickup UI will no longer appear when picking up more resources than the player can carry.
• The initial storm warning timer was incorrectly showing as 0.
• Spectators and replay watchers can now report users.
• Fixed party invites not showing up in the UI if the user logged out and back in again.

SPECTATING

• Spectating a player’s match will now automatically follow that player. 

MOBILE

• Auto fire will now trigger on vehicles.
• Added option for increasing elimination feed line count in the HUD Layout Tool.
• Dragging/Dropping from the quickbar is now allowed while jumping.
• The location of the boost button on Android for the X-Stormwing has been moved to avoid triggering the Home button.
• Squad formation is now accessible.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• The delay with interacting when using the quickbar slots has been resolved.
• Weapon icons now correctly display icons on the quickbar.
• Fixed sliders that were broken in the Dead Zone tab of the Controller Options.
• Auto fire adjustments:
• Semi-automatic weapons now fire correctly.
• Increased acquisition delay for shotguns.
• Dynamite trajectory indicator is now correctly displayed during use.
• Ziplines can no longer be ridden past their endpoints.
• Autorun no longer takes more than two taps to initiate after jumping from Battle Bus.
• Cooldown Timer visual for boost buttons on vehicles is now displayed correctly.
• The camera no longer shakes when entering the X-Stormwing.
• Left virtual thumbstick no longer becomes invisible when holding left or right and pressing the fire button.
• The Harvest Tool UI button in HUD layout is no longer invisible.
• The stair railing in Pleasant Park no longer clips through the door.
• Variant numbers partially hidden in the preview screen by the “X” button.
• The Dream cosmetic is now correctly displaying:
• The butterfly
• Eye glow effect
• Widow’s Bite pickaxe visual effect issue has been resolved.
• The Cooldown ring timer showing briefly when switching seats in Cannon.
• Interact Icon is no longer missing with certain consumables.
• Input Blocked text will no longer appear when opening the inventory.
• The Item Shop arrows now display correctly on iPhone XS Max.     

GENERAL

• Reworked default button layout to be consistent across vehicles (Enter, Exit, Switch Seat and Boost)
• Sub-game select screen has been refreshed.
• Bug Fixes & Improvements
• Improved visibility of squad icons on lobby player pads in large parties
• Squad icons in large parties can no longer show an empty slot as ready
• Selecting a highlighted team member in the lobby with a controller can no longer show options for a different member
• Players will now appear correctly as a hologram, when joining a player currently in match
• Reworded Squad formation messaging to be more clear
• Fixed invisible character parts of players who are still loading into the match.
• Players now remain in the Party voice channel by default when entering a match. The Game channel is still available, but the switch is no longer automatic.
• Added a setting for the display of voice chat indicators.
• Bug Fixes & Improvements
• Suggested friends in the social panel match the suggestions in the launcher
• The “Sit Out/Jump In” button in Squad Formation is now displayed correctly
• Sending a friend invite to a suggested friend no longer fails
• Can now still send party invites after joining and leaving a party while set to “Friend” party privacy
• Fixed potentially incorrect notification message when joining a channel
• Voice indicators are no longer stuck on screen when leaving a party while members are speaking
• Fixed duplicate voice indicators appearing for the same speaker
• Optimized the eye adaption rendering effect
• Optimized animation performance for ControlRig (Werewolf, Krampus).

The latest update is now live on all platforms.