'Fortnite' Update 5.30: Shotgun Buff Teased by Lead Game Designer

Shotguns in Fortnite: Battle Royale are probably the most popular weapons in the game. They’re plentiful and do a lot of damage. For those reasons, the weapons are constantly rebalanced by Epic Games and it appears players are in store for another change coming.

Eric Williamson, design lead for Epic Games, tweeted Tuesday about a possible change to the Pump Shotgun. Next week, the developer will release its v5.30 Update for Fortnite: Battle Royale, and it appears this version of the weapon will get a faster equip time. This could make the Pump Shotgun a favorite for players once again.

“Regarding shotgun equip times: current thinking is to reduce Pump Shotgun equip time slightly in update 5.30 next week,” Williamson tweeted. “Other shotguns will remain unchanged for now.”

The timing of this tweet from someone on the Fortnite: Battle Royale developer team is interesting. On Sunday, the company tweeted a poll asking what shotgun players would grab with “enemies closing in.” A majority picked the Heavy Shotgun while the Pump Shotgun received 13 percent of the votes, barely surpassing the newly released Double Barrel Shotgun. Some players viewed the poll as a disguised way of Epic learning what version of the weapon to alter.

If Epic does speed up the equip time of the Pump Shotgun, this would mean it would take slightly less time to fire the weapon when switching from another gun. Back in April, the company added equip times to all the weapons in the game in order to help balance fights between veteran players, who quickly switch from one gun to another, and lesser-skilled players.

Fortnite: Battle Royale players will learn if the Pump Shotgun gets buffed next Tuesday with the release of update v5.30.

Tuesday saw no content update from Epic or a message stating if it was delayed or pushed to another day. When the update does happen, there are some changes that could alter how Fortnite: Battle Royale is played.