'Fortnite': Leaked Heavy Sniper Rifle Will Change Everything — Here's Why

In late July, data miners discovered a new, powerful sniper rifle in the Fortnite: Battle Royale files. After weeks of speculating on when Epic Games will add it to the game, an update from the developer confirms that it’s coming and a video shows how absolutely devastating of a weapon it is.

Players who logged into Fortnite: Battle Royale on Sunday were greeted with an update about the new Heavy Sniper. The description states, “New Epic and Legendary sniper rifle capable of dealing high damage to structures.” To display the power of this new weapon, data miner FNBRLeaks tweeted a video Sunday of the rifle in action.

He also added another tweet hours later showing he was banned from playing the game, possibly due to his use of the weapon in-game prior to its release.

In the video, the Heavy Sniper –- based on the real world Barrett M82 .50 caliber sniper rifle – destroyed walls made of wood, brick, and metal with just one shot. The legendary version of the weapon has 157 damage making it a one-hit kill on practically any player. Since it can shoot through walls, it’s unclear on whether that will reduce the damage or not. Still, a weapon with this kind of precision, speed, and power can change how the game is played all together as forts will not provide the kind of protection that they used to.

The expectation is with the new Heavy Sniper will be a return of the Sniper Shootout Limited Time Mode. In this LTM, players can only use rifles and scoped assault rifles during a match.

Epic will update Fortnite: Battle Royale on Tuesday. Players can expect the new Heavy Sniper to be included in the update, which will lead to some interesting changes to the game’s meta.

Also coming this week is a new set of Weekly Challenges on Thursday. One challenge for Week 6 will finally answer the big question on what all those Stone Heads are doing on the island.