November 27 marks the release of Fortnite’s v6.31 update and the introduction of the highly anticipated Epic and Legendary variations of the Pump Shotgun.

Many players complained about the shotgun meta when it dominated Fortnite Battle Royale, but they soon found themselves missing it when the ‘spray and pray’ SMG meta replaced it.

For quite some time, the game’s developers have been adding and removing items in an attempt to find a better balance, and the announcement of new, more powerful, versions of the Pump Shotgun appeared to be another step in that direction.

“Additionally, ALL shotguns will have a minimum damage of 3 pellets (even if only 1 or 2 hit),” said Eric Williamson, design lead for Fortnite Battle Royale, earlier this week.

These promises appear to have been fulfilled, as the patch notes confirm any shot where 1-2 pellets hit the target will deal the damage of three.

The full v6.31 patch notes, which include information about the new ‘Team Rumble LTM’, can be found below:

GET PUMPED!

Drop into the fun in a brand new Limited Time Mode or pump it up with new rarities for the Pump Shotgun. Deploy R.O.S.I.E with the latest Constructor to make their debut and Canny Valley Act 2 arrives!

Team Rumble LTM (Battle Royale)
Are you ready to Rumble? Be the first team to eliminate 100 enemies to earn a Victory Royale in this Limited Time Mode.

Six Feet Under Shovel (Save the World)
Bury your fears and dig graves for your enemies with the newest melee weapon available! Even Husks deserve a proper burial.

Canny Valley Act 2 (Save the World)
Uncover treasures and explore mysteries in the long-awaited Canny Valley Act 2! Party up with your favorite Heroes and jump into the adventure now!   

GENERAL

SOCIAL

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where controller input would become unresponsive when trying to send a whisper to a friend.
• Fixed a crash on PS4 that happened when attempting to manually leave a party while in the process of joining another party.

KNOWN ISSUES

Wanting to track the top community issues? Head over to our Fortnite | Community Issues Trello board here.

BATTLE ROYALE

LIMITED TIME MODE: TEAM RUMBLE

Summary
Two large teams fight for the Victory Royale in an action-packed mode where the first team to get 100 eliminations wins!

Mode Details

• Two teams of 20 players.
• Players will respawn after 5 seconds when eliminated, keeping their inventory.
• Eliminated players spawn a random type of ammo upon elimination, as well as a random stack of either 120 Wood, 90 Stone, or 60 Metal materials.
• Only Uncommon weapons (or better) are available.
• The first team to 100 eliminations wins.

WEAPONS + ITEMS

• New Epic and Legendary Pump Shotgun
  • 105 / 110 maximum damage
  • Available from floor loot, chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines.
• Shotguns will now always apply at least 3 pellets worth of damage if only 1-2 pellets hit the target.
  • NOTE: Bonus pellets can never be critical hits.
• Pump Shotgun maximum damage and fall-off changes.
  • Pump Shotgun maximum damage increased from 80 / 85  to 95 / 100
    • Pump shotguns will do higher damage in shorter range buckets but damage falls off quicker. This means you’ll do more damage to closer targets but less damage to farther targets.
• Added Stink Bombs to Supply Drops
• Removed Double Barrel Shotguns from floor loot
• Mounted Turret
  • Adjusted Mounted Turret collision to make it easier to land shots against anyone occupying it.
  • Removed the ability to repair the Mounted Turret
  • Fixed players being able to clip into turret barrels and get stuck.
  • Supply drops will automatically open if landing on a Mounted Turret
  • Drop rate reduced from 1.719% to 0.915%

Bug Fixes

• The Mounted Turret can no longer fire through its own floor.
• Fixed an issue with players not having an audio cue while gliding after respawning.
• Fixed an issue with Chiller effects not applying properly to players’ feet.

GAMEPLAY

• Reduced the in-air speed when using the Glider Redeploy feature in supported game modes.
• Added functionality that allows the placement of map markers in the world without needing to go into the fullscreen map.
  • You’ll be able to look at a position in the world and use the “Place Marker” keybind to place a map marker. This command will only be available by default while in Combat Mode.
  • This command is defaulted to Left on the D-pad for controllers and the Middle Mouse button for PC and Mac.
  • For Mobile players, this command will be bound to an optional button in the HUD Layout Tool.
• Added the ability to pick up and throw back Dynamite with a lit fuse.
  • To throw the Dynamite with a lit fuse, get near it and use the interact key.

Bug Fixes

• Increased the Dynamite explosion height against players from 192 units to 300 units.
  • This was done to prevent players from being able to jump over the explosion area on flat ground without taking damage.

EVENTS

• New Tournament: Alchemist Pop-Up Cup
  • Pop-Up Cups are tournaments testing temporary, Limited Time Modes. Alchemist will continue our testing of several gameplay adjustments and may differ day to day.
  • Initial Mode Settings:
    • A material cap of 500 Wood, 500 Stone, 500 Metal
    • Harvesting Rate Increased by 40%
    • +50 Health on Eliminations
    • Storm Surge
      • If a certain amount of players are remaining by the time the Storm finishes closing, a Storm Surge will activate. This periodically deals damage to players who have the least amount of damage dealt during the match.
        • Circle 1: 60 Players Remaining
        • Circle 2: 44 Players Remaining
        • Circle 3: 30 Players Remaining
        • Circle 4: 20 Players Remaining
        • Circle 5: 16 Players Remaining
        • Circle 6: 14 Players Remaining
        • Circle 7: 12 Players Remaining
        • Circle 8: 6 Players Remaining
        • Circle 9: 2 Players Remaining
        • Your highest score or pin during any event session will now be displayed on the tournament poster in the Events tab.
        • Pins will now reflect tournament colors on the Event Details screen.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where players would receive points during warmup island which would be later removed.

PERFORMANCE

• Improvements to level streaming performance on Xbox One and Switch (improving building load times during skydiving)

AUDIO

• Player in-air falling audio cue volume has been increased.
• The Mounted Turret overheat audio loop volume has been reduced.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Glider in-air audio cue wouldn’t play for players who glide in after respawning.

SOCIAL

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash on Nintendo Switch that occasionally occurred when logging in for the first time.

ART + ANIMATION

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where player nameplates disappear after scrubbing a replay.  

MOBILE

• Map Marker button added to the HUD Layout Tool

SAVE THE WORLD

MISSIONS + SYSTEMS

• Canny Valley Act 2!
  • New quests, new Ghost Town sub-biome, new story characters!
    • 21 new quests and a new landmark mission tell the exciting new chapter of Canny Valley story
    • Ghost Town sub biome – visit old Wild West towns now turned ghost towns, converted to amusement parks or movie sets. See great canyons, old forts, R&R spas and much more!
    • Meet new story characters like the Global Storming Denier, Dr. Vinderman’s assistant Desiree or Carlos, the Steel Wool bass guitarist
  • Experience the high-stakes story of fighting the Storm, reuniting Steel Wool and delving into Ray’s past!
• Balance changes to mission and mission alert rewards:
  • Tweaked the overall chance of Schematic/Survivor/Hero XP vs Crafting Ingredients vs Evolution Materials vs Perk Materials appearing as a mission reward, to better match what players need at different points in the progression.
  • Significantly reduced the chance for Crafting Materials to appear as a mission reward, especially at higher difficulties.
  • Made Epic and Legendary Perk-UP much more likely to appear at the top end of Twine Peaks by removing the chance of Uncommon and Rare Perk-UP.

Bug Fixes

• Removed elemental modifiers from Mega Alert Missions near the beginning of Plankerton, as elemental enemies do not appear at those difficulty levels.

UI

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue where Lars might not appear in the Research Lab.
• Adjusted the proportions of portraits in-game for consistency.
• Fixed an issue where the player Account Level could incorrectly display as 0 in-zone.
• Fixed an issue where selecting Sort with a controller in the Defender menu would choose a Defender instead of Sorting the list.
• Fixed an issue where no gamepad icons appeared on the Upgrade preview arrows in the Upgrades screen.
• Fixed an issue which resulted in controller input losing proper focus when using More Options on the Manage Schematics page.
• Fixed weapon positions on the schematic board in the Armory.

HEROES

• Added Legendary Constructor – Airheart
  • An Energetic tinkerer who fills the heart of the Storm with lead!
  • New Ability: R.O.S.I.E.
    • Deploy the Rotating Omni-directional Sentry Integrated Exoskeleton on a friendly floor-piece!
      • Once deployed, all allies can enter and fire R.O.S.I.E.
      • There’s no time limit to how long R.O.S.I.E. can be fired as long as she still has ammo!
      • Once out of ammo, or if the floor it is attached to is destroyed, R.O.S.I.E. goes on cooldown.
      • Available in the Event Store on November 28 at 7 PM Eastern Time until the release of v7.00.
  • New Perks:
    • Campaign of the R.O.S.I.E. – Increases the damage that R.O.S.I.E. deals by 24%.
    • War of the R.O.S.I.E. – Increases the damage that R.O.S.I.E. deals by an extra 13%. Additionally, converts the damage type of R.O.S.I.E. to Energy.
• Added Legendary Soldier – Steel Wool Carlos
  • Legendary Variant of Shock Trooper
  • Added to the Act 2 Canny Valley questline.

WEAPONS + ITEMS

• Six Feet Under shovel added to the Weekly Store.
  • A creepy round-point shovel that looks like it has been used to dig up terrible secrets. The shovel handles like a lighter Sledgehammer, with better damage and less impact.
  • Up and Over: A two-strike heavy attack that deals significant damage and knockback.
  • Available Wednesday, November 28 at 7 PM EST until Wednesday, December 5 at 7 PM EST.