'Fortnite' Update v3.6 is Live, and There's Two Big Additions in Store

Epic Games rolled out the latest update to Fortnite on Tuesday, and it makes a number of big changes to the existing gameplay. Following a brief downtime that started at 4 a.m. Eastern time, the game returned with two new weapons and a series of changes to fix bugs and tweak gameplay modes.

The patch notes reveal how the update makes a number of quality-of-life improvements to the Battle Royale mode, alongside a few new gameplay items. New to both gameplay modes is the Clinger, an uncommon grenade that sticks to any player or surface and detonates after 2.5 seconds, causing 100 player damage and 200 structure damage with radius of one tile. The Noble Launcher is a heavy weapon, new to only the Save the World mode, that fires a wave of piercing energy, and it’s available from Wednesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

The update also increases the Minigun’s accuracy by 10 percent, decreased the recoil by 10 percent and increased the damage from 16/17 to 18/19. Other improvements to Battle Royale include changes to the Port-a-Fort, improved hit rate for long-range Sniper Rifle and Crossbow projectiles, as well as a reduced chance of finding remote explosives in treasure chests. In the Save the World mode, bacon is now available in greater amounts, the Salvage the Drone mission has been adjusted, and numerous quality-of-life improvements have been made.

The development team managed to avoid the emergency downtime from its last update. Soon after the version 3.5 patch went live, Epic Games took the servers offline to undergo a database upgrade process that left players locked out of the game. The downtime saw Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins attract 130,000 viewers to his playthrough of comepting game Radical Heights.

Fortnite is set to launch Season 4 of content in the coming days, but a fied release date is unclear. With Week 9 of Season 3 content launched last week, the new launch could come as soon as Thursday, May 3, as part of the weekly challenge update.

One thing that has yet to become clear is the fate of Tilted Towers. A comet was expected to destroy the area after a morse code message was discovered in the game’s rumbles, but it still remains.