'Fortnite' Version 10.10 Patch Notes Adds a Brutal Way to Deal With Mechs

Sometimes the best way to deal with an overpowered enemy is to use weird space magic to teleport a giant dinosaur onto their head. This is the new norm in Fortnite: Battle Royale, where developer Epic Games has address player concerns about the overpowered B.R.U.T.E. mech by adding the perfect countermeasure as a new item in the version 10.10 update.

The new update added the Junk Rift to the game on Tuesday morning. “Heads up!” the patch notes read. “You can now deal with opponents by dropping heavy things on them. With the power of the Rift, summon anchors, cars, and more to fall from the sky.” Epic also released a video (featured at the top of this article) showing the single best use of this item: taking down B.R.U.T.E. mechs.

This throwable consumable item “breaks on contact and spawns a large object in the sky that plummets to the ground.” In practice, the explosion looks like a fusion of the blue rift energy and purple cube energy, it creates a lightning strike that creates a temporary rift, and through that rift comes a giant piece of junk to land on the target’s head. The point of impact is wherever the initial explosion hits, so it’ll seemingly track to a moving vehicle or player almost like a sticky grenade.

According to data-miner iFireMonkey, the four possibilities are an anchor, port-o-potty, police cruiser, and a triceratops dinosaur.

Per the patch notes, the falling object “destroys everything in its path” whether that’s a player, a structure, or even a vehicle. It even “creates a small shockwave upon landing that damages players and destroys everything in its radius.” Direct hits deal 200 damage and the shockwave deals 100, so the former really can kill anything, including the precious B.R.U.T.E. mech. They’ll drop at all loot spawn locations, come in stacks of two, and top out at four per stack.

As far as game-changing new items go, the Junk Rift will now be a necessity in the mid- to late-game for all players as the easiest way to deal with mechs. It won’t quite be a necessity, but it’ll be close.

The professional Fortnite esports scene is in an uproar over the B.R.U.T.E mechs added at the start of Season X, which severely unbalance the core battle royale experience. This feels like a necessary course correction that doesn’t involve removing the new vehicle outright.

What’s best for the future of Fortnite? That’s unclear, but this seems like a good change … for now.

The Fortnite: Battle Royale version 10.10 update is now live.