New Fortnite Update Unvaults Sideways Weapons

A new Fortnite update, v20.40, has been released by Epic Games for the popular free-to-play battle royale video game. The update has unvaulted some weapons, added a new Funding Station choice between Shield Bubbles and Balloons, increased drop rates permanently in some cases, and more. In short, there’s a little bit of everything included in the latest Fortnite patch but nothing huge.

More specifically, Fortnite v20.40 has unvaulted both the Sideways Rifle and the Sideways Minigun. The two weapons are now available in chests and on the ground in the video game and will be through May 24th at 8:59AM ET/5:59AM PT. They can also now be upgraded via an Upgrade Bench without using Cube Monster Parts. There are also special quests active during this Sideways Showdown Week for folks to earn extra XP.

Additionally, all major points of interest now have Funding Stations pitting players between Shield Bubbles and Balloons. Bars can be contributed to either and the first one of the two to reach full funding based on global contributions wins and will be available to find in the video game immediately. And speaking of loot, Zero Build recently had drop rates increased for a limited time to utility items but the drop rate increase for Shockwave Grenades, Rift-To-Gos, and Cow Catchers has not been permanently increased.

There are also some console-specific odds and ends to the new update. V-Bucks purchased on PlayStation are now part of Fortnite‘s Shared Wallet, and the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S have been hit with performance improvements to reduce latency for anyone running the game in 60 FPS under “Low Input Latency Mode,” which can be enabled in the settings.

As noted above, Fortnite‘s v20.40 update for battle royale is now available. Fortnite itself is more broadly currently in the midst of Chapter 3 Season 2: Resistance, and is available on most major platforms in its latest form save for the iOS version — though there is a way to get around this with Xbox Cloud Gaming. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Fortnite right here.

What do you think about the new update to Fortnite? Have you been playing the latest season of the popular free-to-play battle royale video game? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!