This 'Fortnite' Grappler Bug Is Making Players Lose Games

Fortnite's Grappler item appears to be bugged in a way that's costing players games when they need the tool the most.

The item is supposed to shoot out a plunger on the end of a rope to allow players to grapple to a new location and quickly traverse terrain, but the bug that's affecting it simply won't let that happen. Players will shoot out the Grappler like normal with the item's ammo count going down by one to reflect the usage, but it won't stick to a surface and pull players in.

Some players have noticed the bug in the past few weeks, but professional Fortnite streamer Nick Eh 30 found out about it in the worst possible way when he needed a Grappler to escape the storm. In the video above that starts at the exact moment where the Grappler let him down, the streamer tried to use the item to cross over the ground and get himself out of the storm. With no healing items in tow, he was clearly relying on the Grappler to get himself out of that situation

After firing off not one or two but five Grappler shots, the streamer tried dropping the weapon and picking it back up to see if it worked any better, but it still didn't work. He left one shot unused so as not to get stuck with the gun if it became even more bugged, but it didn't matter in the end since his game was tragically ended by his last health point ticking down right when he was at the storm's edge.

It might've been the first time that the streamer came across the issue, but other Fortnite players commented that they'd encountered the same problem in their games. One player said the same bug happened to them around 3 weeks ago with nothing they did resulting in their Grappler being fixed. Eliminating an opponent and taking the downed foe's Grappler from the loot yielded one that worked, so it could be that the bug is only tied to specific items at a time. Others backed up this anecdote by saying they, too, encountered the bug, some of them finding it during equally unfortunate moments when they got near the end of a game.

Epic Games hasn't listed the Grappler bug on the Trello board that tracks community issues, but the developer will likely inform players if and when the bug is resolved.