Fortnite Season 4 Brings Hefty Changes to Both Battle Royale and Save the World

The moment we’ve all been waiting for is here: Fortnite Season 4 has finally made impact. With shards of the comet raining down and changing parts of Tilted Towers forever, players will not only find that the map has changed quite considerably from Season 3, but that there are brand-new items, new emotes, new sprays, levitating rocks, superheroes, new quests, and 100 tiers of Battle Pass rewards. 

It’s a lot to take in. So if you’ve not had the chance to jump in yet and see what the new Season has in store, continue reading to find out all the major developments with this huge Fortnite update (we even include a few tips and tricks along the way).  

Changes to Battle Royale

Most of us are here for Fortnite‘s BR mode, so let’s take a look at that first. Seeing as the update went live in the wee hours of the morning, we’re going to update this article throughout the day with more specifics on certain items such as Hop Rocks, as well as link out to some brand-new guides we’re whipping up. 

However, 99.999% of this patch notes roundup is good to go, so you won’t miss out on any of the essential info. 

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Hop Rocks

This is currently the item we know very little about. If you travel to Dusty Depot, you’ll find the area is now called Dusty Divot. And if you look around, you’ll find Hop Rocks, which allow players to levitate in a bubble of low gravity. The effect lasts about 30 seconds and is primarily for getting on top of buildings in the Dusty Divot area. 

Unfortunately, it looks like you won’t be able to take it to other parts of the map right now because of its short duratation. 

Weapon + Item Fixes (Tweaks)

The crossbow has been vaulted. RIP crossbow and early-game chicanery. 

As for everything else:

• The Rocket Launcher’s reticle is now a fixed size 
• You can see hit markers when looking down the scope
• Your pickaxe now deals 50 more damage to Supply Llamas 

Other issues laid out in the patch notes: 

• Fixed an issue where a weapon could have no ammo when dropping it immediately after picking it up.
• Improved pickaxe swing responsiveness when switching from a weapon to the pickaxe and immediately holding the swing button.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Hunting Rifles from auto reloading if it was fired immediately after a reload.
• Fixed an issue that allowed grenades to be thrown in rapid succession while sprinting.
• Fixed an issue where aiming a grenade throw and then switching to build mode wouldn’t cancel the throw.
• Fixed an issue with the Builder Pro configuration that caused the player’s weapon to fire while trying to build in some cases.
• Clingers will now properly cling to falling Supply Drops.

Gameplay Changes

If you’ve ever wanted to destroy the buildings on the starting island, now’s your chance. On top of that, viewing distance on the starting island has been increased by 3x, meaning you can see players and their structures from much further away.

Knocking players off the island now counts as “normal fall damage,” while fall damage values will be displayed in elimination feeds. 

You’ll also be able to see the amount of damage being inflicted upon a player when spectating; hitboxes for player hands have been reduced, and headshots are now a priority — even if “other body parts are in the way.”  However, there is some minutia to know about that last tweak. 

1. Headshots from above or straight on will always cause headshot damage regardless of the body part covering the head. 
2. Headshots from below will deal normal damage if blocked by body parts. 
   • Headshot damage will only count if you’re very close to your opponent. 

Replay System Tweaks and Fixes

The first Season 4 patch doesn’t change a whole lot about Fortnite‘s new Replay System. However, it does bring with it some quality of life and UI changes. For instance, leaving replays will now take you back to the browser, while player lists have been added to replays. 

The size of the name column in the browser has also been increased, and renaming replays is now limited to 32 characters. 

UI Fixes 

Although tweaks and changes to the User Interface are often no more than quality of life upgrades, Season 4 fixes a few things that are very much worth noting. 

Cosmetics

Players now have the ability to mark cosmetics as favorites, making searches through vast cosmetic collections easier. 

Emote Wheel Slots

The emote wheel now has more slots! According to the patch notes, you’ll be able to use any Spray or Emote in your Battle Royale matches — as long as you own them, of course. What’s more, Season 4’s new “Locker Emote Slot” key and button bindings mean it’s even easier to bust out your dance moves or trigger a Spray. 

Changes to Save the World

Epic has been giving Save the World a little more love lately, especially with the release of the Noble Launcher and Sticky Grenades in Patch 3.6. However, Season 4 brings a whole lot more to the table. 

Blockbuster Event — Part 1: Origin Story

If you’ve been paying attention to any of Epic’s Fortnite marketing over the last week or so, you’ve noticed that superheroes have played a prominent role. And while we don’t exactly know what they’ll bring to the table in Season 4, we do know they’ll heavily influence the events in Save the World. 

With Origin Story, you’ll join Spitfire and Lok on a journey to find Ray. Across five missions and one crazy Landmark Mission, they’ll recruit superheroes to their cause. With reports coming in that new husks have invaded the area, they’re gonna need all the help they can get. 

On top of that, you’ll have your choice of three Legendary weapons for completing Week 1’s quests:

1. Legendary Bald Eagle
2. Legendary Silenced Specter
3. Legendary Crossbow

Loot Drops

Get all ze loots. Enemies can now drop crafting items, as well as other ammunition and building materials. Kill patrolling enemies and packs for the greatest drop chance. To get the rarest loot, be sure to increase mission difficulty and fight larger enemies and bosses. 

Mini-Bosses Drop Caches

Caches are new items in Fortnite Save the World, and they come in two types: Schematic and Evolution Materials. Each Cache also comes in three rarities: Rare, Epic, and Legendary. 

• Schematic Caches — These contain a ranged or melee weapon schematic
• Evolution Material Caches — These contain Storm evolution materials 

To find better caches: 

• Fight tougher enemies
• Fight bosses
• Look for High-Rarity Chests
• Increase mission difficulty

Loot Llama Changes

Loot Llamas now cost less! 

• Upgrade Llama Cost: 50 V-Bucks
• Weapon Llama Cost: 200 V-Bucks
• Range Weapon Llama: 200 V-Bucks
• Melee Weapon Llama: 200 V-Bucks
• People Llama: 200 V-Bucks
• It’s a Trap Llama: 200 V-Bucks

The best part about the price reduction is that players who have purchased these specific Llamas before the Season 4 update will get free Troll Stash Llamas. 

If you have 1,000 Storm Tickets, you’ll get a Neon Llama, and Mini Llamas drop 30 to 50 gold. 

New Heroes, Classes, and Abilities

Season 4 brings quite a lot of changes to Save the World’s heroes. From new shadow ops heroes to new subclasses and abilities, here’s what’s important to know from the patch notes: 

• New Mythic Solder “Raven” — Subclass: Nevermore
  • Description — a Shadowy figure who screeches deafening War Cries before eliminating prey with his dual-wielded pistols.
  • New Ability
    • Lefty and Righty — Deploy dual pistols and light up your enemies!
  • New Perks
    • ‘Dual Debilitation’ — Lefty and Righty applies Debilitating Shots.
    • ‘Where’s Lefty’ — Eliminating enemies with pistols reduces the cooldown of Lefty and Righty by 1 second.
    • ‘Bang and Pow’ — Dealing damage with Lefty and Righty causes an explosion that deals Energy Damage in a 0.5 tile radius.
  • New Tactical Perk
    • ‘Explosive Rounds’ — Tactical variant of the Explosive Rounds Perk.
• New 8 “Shadow Ops” Heroes
  • Soldier — New Subclass: Double Agent featuring New Characters Vaughn and Evelynn
    • Description — Soldier that wields dual pistols with ease, creating an explosive outcome.
    • Utilizes the newly added ability and associated perks:
      • ‘Lefty and Righty’
      • ‘Dual Debilitation’
      • ‘Where’s Lefty’
      • ‘Bang and Pow’
    • New Tactical Perk
      • ‘Cluster Bomb’ — Tactical variant of the ‘Cluster Bomb’ dealing half the damage of its non-tactical counterpart.
  • Ninja — New Subclass: Piercing Lotus, featuring characters Edge and Luna
    • Description — Skilled spear warrior that makes a point to poison enemies with waves of shuriken before striking them down.
    • New Perks
      • ‘Pointy Fury’ — Increases spear combo attack efficiency by 150%.
      • ‘Poking Holes’ — The Ninja deals 28% more damage with spears to afflicted targets.
      • ‘Fan of Stars’ — The Ninja throws 2 additional throwing stars. All throwing stars are thrown instantly in a spreading arc.
    • New Support Perk
      • ‘Heaviest Attacks’ — Increases melee heavy attack damage by 10/20/30%
  • Outlander — New Subclass: Shock Gunner, featuring characters Grizzly and Buzz
    • Description — Weaves in and out of enemies, stunning them and finishing them off with close-ranged weapons.
    • New Perks
      • ‘Pump It Up’ — Increases shotgun rate of fire by 35%.
      • ‘In and Outlander’ — Eliminating 3 enemies within 10 seconds after using Phase Shift will refund the Phase Shift charge.
      • ‘Shocking Embrace’ — Increases the duration of Shock Tower by 3 seconds if placed with a Charge Fragment.
      • ‘Run And Stun’ — Passing through enemies with Phase Shift applies a 3-second stun.
    • New Tactical Perk
      • ‘Shocking Embrace’ — Increases the duration of Shock Tower by 3 seconds if placed with a Charge Fragment.
  • Constructor — New Subclass: Demolitionist, featuring Penny and Bull
    • Description — Explosives expert who corrals enemies with Decoy before finishing them with a hail of missiles.
    • New Perks
      • ‘Faster Explosions’ — Increases explosive weapon reload speed by 35%.
      • ‘Enduring Machine’ —  Your weapons take 60% less durability damage while on tiles affected by BASE.

Knockbacks can no longer interrupt Hero Ability locks; the Shockwave “crowd-surfing” has been removed; and myriad display value tweaks have been made. 

Changes to Fortnite Mobile Battle Royale

If you’re playing Fortnite on mobile, you’ll be glad to know that Epic has pushed some specific Season 4 updates for iOS and Android devices.

Major additions come in the additions of “Repair Building” and “Cycle Weapon” buttons; drag and drop for item inventories; and autorun. 

According to the Patch notes, this update also: 

• Made improvements to prevent finger creep.
• Slightly decreased aim-assist strength at further distances to allow for easier fine tuning when aiming.
• Grenade indicators are now displayed when grenades are equipped.
• Made improvements to low-end mobile performance by dynamically scaling background draw distances with player height.
• Reduced object draw distance for medium/lower-end iOS devices.

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Those are all of the major additions you need to know about Season 4 right out the gate. If you want to see everything that was tweaked in the newest Fortnite update, check out the official patch notes for smaller bug fixes, as well as performance, audio, and art improvements. 

And if you’re looking for tips and strategies to take your Battle Royale game to the next level, check out our Fortnite guides here.