Fortnite Gets a Spirited Halloween Update That Includes a Pumpkin Rocket Launcher

Fortnite from Epic Games is taking the world by storm, especially with the addition of its [...]

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Fortnite from Epic Games is taking the world by storm, especially with the addition of its PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds-esque Battle Royale mode. That has certainly helped the game shoot to the top of the Xbox One charts, even past the almighty Destiny 2.

But now things are getting spooky for the game, as Epic Games has just released a new update that brings some interesting new content, including new Leaderboards and Season Levels, along with a number of cool little Halloween touches.

By playing in Seasons, you have a chance to level up and earn some great seasonal rewards for your character, including weapons and skins that are definitely on the ghoulish side.

The full list of updates are below, including cool new Halloween skins and…slurp juice? Yep, slurp juice!

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Introducing "Slurp Juice," a regeneration potion that grants 1 health and 1 shield per second for 25 seconds.
  • You can now customize your character, banner, and equip any cosmetics in the new Locker menu.
  • Voice chat comes to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
  • Players will now auto-pickup ammo, building resources, and traps.
  • New graphics are visible to players who are caught outside the Storm safe zone, and the storm wall visuals have been updated.
  • New Halloween skins are on sale in the newly implemented store, and will only be available until 11/4.
    • Use V-bucks to purchase items from the store.
    • Character Skins
      • Skull Trooper
      • Ghoul Trooper
    • Weapon Skins
      • Reaper Skin - Pickaxe
    • The new "Combat Pro" controller config is aimed at keeping the user's thumbs on the sticks as much as possible so they can make fast weapon swaps and build quickly.

SLURP JUICE

Slurp Juice is a regeneration potion that grants one health and one shield per second for 25 seconds. Slurp Juice can heal players all the way up to 100 health. These can be found in the same locations as other consumables and you can stack up to two of them.

ITEM SHOP

  • Players can now purchase a unique array of outfits, gliders and pickaxes in the new item shop.
    • Offers will rotate on both a weekly and daily basis
    • All items sold are cosmetic only and do not grant any competitive advantage
    • Purchased items can be equipped in the new locker screen prior to starting a match

LOCKER

  • Players can customize their character's appearance in the new Locker menu with the following options:
    • Set your banner image and color
    • Equip any purchased outfits, gliders or pickaxes

LEADERBOARDS

  • Rank up against other players and friends in the following categories:
    • Total Wins
    • Solo
      • Top 10
      • Top 25
    • Duo
      • Top 5
      • Top 12
    • Squads
      • Top 3
      • Top

There are currently two types of leaderboards:

  • Division leaderboard
    • A division is a group of 50 active players competing against each other to see who will take top the spot.
    • You are automatically assigned to a new division each week.
    • Each match type (Solo, Duos and Squads) gets its own separate division.
  • Friends leaderboard
    • Compare yourself to your friends by turning on "Friends Only" on the leaderboard screen.

All leaderboards reset weekly on Wednesdays. Only players on your platform are included in the rankings. Expect improvements in upcoming releases.

SEASON LEVELS

  • Seasons will give the player a chance to level-up their character and earn unique seasonal rewards and banner flair.
    • The first season will give players a chance to level up to 100, with player level displayed on their banner.
    • Banner flair is awarded in levels 2-49, giving players an additional way to show off their mastery.
    • There are 2 unique rewards that will be provided in the first season. These will only be earned by seasonal progress and cannot be obtained by other methods at this time:
      • Level 10 – Unique seasonal banner
      • Level 25 – Unique seasonal glider
    • Players can boost their seasonal levels by participating in Daily Challenges.
      • A new challenge will be provided each day with the ability to have up to 3 active challenges in total
      • Completing Daily Challenges will provide the player with seasonal level XP

TEAM VOICE CHAT - PLAYSTATION 4 AND XBOX ONE

If you have a microphone, you can now chat with your squad mates on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

  • PC players have push to talk enabled by default. Bound to the Y key.
  • PlayStation 4 and Xbox One player's mics are voice activated by default.
  • Voice chat is enabled by default, but you can turn it off in the Audio Options menu.
  • Note that PC players also have the ability to team voice chat, which we added in the previous update.

SEASONAL ROCKET LAUNCHER!

Tis' the season to be scary! The Rocket Launcher now has a creepy cosmetic variant to celebrate Halloween.

NEW STORM EFFECTS

Players caught inside the Storm zone may be in for a fright! New effects and visuals make for a much more intense experience. The Storm wall has been updated as well. Run to safety!

"COMBAT PRO" CONTROLLER CONFIGURATION

The new "Combat Pro" controller config is aimed at keeping the user's thumbs on the sticks as much as possible so they can make fast weapon swaps and build quickly. We're trying to add a familiar feel for shooter players, placing the map as a button in the middle of the gamepad and taking crouch off a bumper button.

  • Access the new controller config from the "Controller" tab in the settings menu.
  • Be sure to select the "Apply" button to save the change.

GAMEPLAY

  • Added auto-pickup for ammo, building resources, and traps.
    • Your player will loot these items automatically when walking over them.
    • Note that dropped items will not be automatically picked up, but you can still manually pick them up.
  • Reduced Supply Drop balloon health from 2000 to 1250.
  • Items which are spawned from treasure chests or ammo boxes are now less likely to be clustered together.
  • Reduced the chance of Storm safe zones appearing at the edges of the island.
  • Fixed supply drops not falling from structures in various cases.
  • Fixed a bug which caused stacked items not to automatically add to the quick bar when picked up.

WEAPONS

  • Adjusted Submachine Gun characteristics. (Does not affect the Tactical variant.)
    • Common/Uncommon damage increased from 11 to 12.
    • Rare damage increased from 12 to 13.
    • Decreased reload time by 15%.
  • Sniper Rifle projectiles now leave a visual trail behind.
  • Assault Rifle
    • Reduced accuracy penalty while moving.
    • Does not affect Burst or Scoped variants.
  • Scoped Assault Rifle
    • Updated visuals while zoomed in.
    • Tracer effects and smoke now match the weapon's behavior.
  • Fixed an issue which caused the transition from the hip fire position to targeting to rotate the player cam downwards.
  • Fixed an issue which caused recoiled weapons not to recover if you began reloading while recoiled.

CONTROLS

  • Aiming sensitivity on controllers now scales with your weapon's zoom, similar to how it does with the mouse.
    • This change replaces the previous sensitivity adjustment we made to scoped weapons.
  • Changed some default keyboard bindings for quick slots.
    • The 4th quick slot has changed from the Z key to 5.
    • The 5th quick slot has changed from the X key to 6.
  • Improved analog stick responsiveness when rotating the camera.
    • It should now be easier to make fine adjustments to your aim on controllers.
  • Improved how interactions such as teammate revives, pickups, and opening doors are prioritized when there are multiple possible options.
  • Smoothed out the camera transition between riding the Battle Bus and beginning to skydive.

WORLD

  • Added more loot to the area with containers south of Tomato Town and shifted the containers to better align with the building grid.
  • Fixed issues where grass could be hidden on certain types of terrain.
  • Various fixes for terrain seams and floating objects.
  • Fixed some objects that were previously indestructible.

AUDIO

  • Voice Chat now works while spectating teammates and after the match ends.
  • Decreased the distance players can hear ceiling and wall trap audio.
  • Added ambient "zap" audio to placed wall traps.
  • Fixed issue which caused footstep audio to be drowned out while other sounds were playing.
  • Fixed an issue which could cause footstep sounds to trigger multiple times per step.

UI

  • Added several new ways to access the Item Shop, Locker and other new features.
  • Added a "Season Shop" tab.
    • This is a preview of a feature still in development, that will be implemented in a later update.
  • Changed how the "Message of the Day" news is displayed.
    • This message now pops up before you enter the matchmaking lobby, but only if there is new information added since the last time you saw it.
  • Improved the look and feel of the "Stats" interface.
  • Adjusted rarity color for consumable items. The chances of finding these items in chests or in the world remains unchanged.
    • Med Kit is now green (Uncommon).
    • Shield Potion is now blue (Rare).
  • Added a highlight background behind the currently active building resource.
  • The menu can now be opened while spectating.
  • Resources can now be dropped while using a controller.
  • Removed "Show Grass" from the Options menu in Battle Royale. Grass and foliage is always intended to be visible.
  • Fixed an issue which caused your weapon to continue firing after opening the fullscreen map.
  • Fixed an issue which caused the final damage done to an enemy not to display hit effects.
  • Fixed an issue which caused the reticle to remain faded out after reloading or when out of ammo.

PERFORMANCE

  • Trees and foliage will no longer cause very low frame rates when Material Quality is set to anything lower than High.
  • Implemented profile guided optimization to help overall CPU performance on consoles.
  • Improved thread affinities on console to help overall CPU performance.
  • Improved animation system performance.
  • Reduced hitching issues on all platforms.
  • Fixed grainy visual artifacts on trees with certain graphics configurations.

KNOWN ISSUES

  • Selecting a party member in the lobby will display an incorrect banner.
  • Other player's gliders may appear lopsided if a glider cosmetic is equipped.

Fortnite is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

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