Fortnite Update Nerfs Building Materials

Fortnite’s building materials have been nerfed in the latest patch with the structures built from various resources now having less health.

The patch notes presented the building material nerfs front and center, but if you were skimming the notes while looking for the new Compact SMG or more info on completing the birthday challenges, you’d be forgiven for misreading the part of the patch that dealt with building. Under the “Gameplay” section of the patch notes, the changes were listed to show that the health of the wood and stone walls was nerfed, though part of the metal wall health did get buffed to have more health in exchange for a longer build time.

Gameplay

• Changes to building materials.
  • Wood wall starting health to 80 from 100.
  • Stone wall starting health to 80 from 90.
  • Wood wall max health to 150 from 200.
  • Metal wall max health to 500 from 400.
  • Metal build time to 25s from 20s.

The building nerfs have caught the attention of more than a few players so far with some lamenting the fact that building structures to defend yourself seems like a less viable strategy after the nerfs. Fortnite’s all about building, so that feature won’t go away anytime soon, but some have expressed concerns that the emphasis on building is being replaced by combat and explosives. One thread on the game’s subreddit was created after the patch went live with the post titled “What in the hell are you doing Epic?” alongside a now-removed screenshot of the patch building nerfs in the patch notes.

Similar opinions can be seen outside of the subreddit as well with players suggesting that nerfing building elements is the wrong way to go.

Remote Explosives aren’t around right now to blow up the weakened structures since they’ve been temporarily disabled, so players are at least safe from their building efforts being thwarted by that explosive, for now. The Compact SMG is proving to be quite the menace when taking down structures though, so if you build something against someone wielding that SMG, chances are it’ll be destroyed even quicker after these nerfs.