‘Fortnite’ Servers Go Offline Ahead of 4.2 Update to Add New Rifle and More

Epic Games took the Fortnite video game servers offline Wednesday, as the network prepares to roll out the version 4.2 update. The new release adds a slew of welcome weapon changes, as well as bug fixes and a few surprises.

The 4.2 update adds a number of new features. These include new tasks available to players that have purchased the Season 4 Battle Pass, with the latest challenges for week three leaked late last week to reveal tasks including shooting rubber duckies and watching a match replay. The update also introduces an epic and legendary burst assault rifle, a perk recombobulator for the Save the World mode that enables users to upgrade and replace perks, a quad launcher with four times the punch of a regular launcher, and changes to the suppressed submachine gun.

One of the major additions in this update is the perk recombobulator. This is unlocked when you complete Plankerton Storm Shield Defense 2. Two side quests will open that will add a slew of extras to the loadout feature, giving players a head start with customization. Players can use the new system to acquire more perks than before, but each perk slot is limited with which items it can contain as a rebalancing mechanism.

Players irritated by slow loading times will also be pleased by the improvements to stability and performance. Server tick rate has jumped from 20 to 30 updates per second, enabling more responsive movement and shooting while also reducing ping time. Network bandwidth has also increased, while material loading has doubled in speed. Epic Games has also fixed a glitch where remote players appeared to jump too high during server issues.

New updates and improvements are set to launch on Fortnite in the coming weeks and months. Version 4.2 launched with a slight delay — downtime was expected Tuesday at 4 a.m. Eastern time — but expect future patches to follow a similar pattern.

The update adds a number of new features, but one key addition is gone — Thanos from *Avengers: Infinity War has been removed after the “Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup” came to an end.