Next ‘Fortnite’ Update Has Huge Changes for Ziplines, Planes, and RPGs

Epic Games’ next Fortnite update will make good on some of the community’s most requested changes with the Planes, Hand Cannons, and Rocket Launchers all getting nerfed amid some other welcome features.

Downtime for the v7.40 update hasn’t yet been announced, but the patch is scheduled to roll out some time this week. Ahead of that release, Epic Games previewed some of the balance updates the patch has in store for players.

The preview of those notes can be found below with six different areas touched on ahead of the new update’s release:

v7.40 Update

• Planes will no longer be able to smash through structures
• Zipline interact prompt added, and using a Zipline will grant fall damage immunity
• Hand Cannon structure damage reduced from 150 to 100
• Turbo Build delay decreased from 0.15s to 0.05s
• Rocket Launcher reload time increased from 2.52s to 3.24s
• Added the ability to crouch while in Edit Mode

It’s difficult to choose just one of the changes that’ll be the biggest takeaway from this patch as pretty much all of them have been suggestions from the community in some form or fashion. Planes are nerfed since pilots can no longer plow through an enemy’s structure to send them crashing down, anyone who takes a Zipline won’t have to worry about fall damage, and players can soon crouch down instead of standing tall while they’re trying to edit a structure.

Aside from the Plane nerfs, the Hand Cannon and Rocket Launcher will both be in less powerful positions after the update rolls out. Hand Cannons won’t be able to obliterate structures as easily and neither will Rocket Launchers since the latter will take longer to reload. Less than a second added to the reload time might not seem like a tremendous difference, but seeing fewer rockets fly in late-game fights should be noticeable to people trying to build up their defenses.

The update isn’t out yet though, so some of these changes are still subject to change. Some players within the announcement post on Reddit and in the replies to the tweet above joked that the community-requested changes were a result of Apex Legends’ success, though these adjustments were likely in the works for some time before being released. Apex Legends has proven itself to be a highly watchable game on Twitch already with the game beating Fortnite and other titles in terms of Twitch viewers, though it remains to be seen if it can continue to hold the spot as its newness wears off.