Author: Trafficblast

The latest Fortnite update has been successfully released, which means players that jump into game now will find a fresh crop of content to enjoy. This is all part of Fortnite Season 5, which introduces the All Terrain Kart, the Lazy Links and Paradise Palms locations, and has a new dessert biome for the map. It also adds in Rifts, which provide new adventures for players to take on.

Fortnite’s servers went down on July 12 at 4 AM ET / 1 AM PT / 8 AM GMT so that Epic Games could conduct the necessary maintenance to roll out the update. The downtime lasted around an hour and 30 minutes, but the update is now playable, and there’s plenty to check out. You can see the full Fortnite Season 5 patch notes here to read about what’s different in the Battle Royale and Save The World modes.

In the lead-up to this launch, Epic dropped hints at one of the update’s biggest features. Rifts that appeared after a missile launch were transporting objects in and out of the game world, which meant objects from our world popped up out of thin air inside Fortnite, and some Fortnite objects showed up in the real world. The update now gives players the opportunity to interact with Rifts, which is completely new to Season 5.

Of course, with the arrival of a new season, there’s also going to be more challenges, skins, and a Battle Pass. GameSpot will be bringing you updates on all this as we’re able to get our hands on them, so keep an eye out for that information.

Season 5 of Fortnite has finally arrived, with developer Epic Games updating the game to introduce new content and tweaks. The patch is currently being pushed out on all platforms across the world, and Epic has released the full Fortnite Season 5 patch notes for what’s included. For the battle royale mode, the highlights include the All Terrain Kart, a new vehicle that can carry an entire squad.

In addition to that, the map has also been updated with new locations such as Lazy Links and Paradise Palms, and a new desert biome. There’s also been some adjustments to the way the Storm circles work, as well as how the game performs as a whole.

“Viking ships, desert outposts, and ancient statues have appeared across the island,” reads the official description. “Hop in an All Terrain Kart (ATK) with your squad and uncover all-new mysteries and locations that await.”

In the battle royale mode, rifts have also appeared, seemingly to take players to different, new locations. “Test your courage and step through a Rift,” reads the description. “You’re in for a wild ride.”

Take a look at the full Fortnite: Battle Royale Season 5 patch notes below.

Battle Royale

Weapons and Items

• Shotguns will now indicate how many pellets hit, visible within the reticle.
• Adjusted shotgun spread patterns to be consistent with no random variation.
• Heavy Shotgun now fires 10 pellets rather than 5.
  • Maximum damage for the Heavy Shotgun remains unchanged.
• After firing a shotgun, another shotgun cannot be fired for a very short time.
• Reduced Hunting Rifle aim assist when targeting to match that of other Sniper Rifles with projectile bullets.
• Changed the damage drop-off profile for the Suppressed SMG to be the same as other SMGs.
  • Fall off starts at 24 meters from 28 meters.
  • Damage reduced to 80% at 35 meters from 85% at 47.5 meters.
  • Damage reduced to 65% at 50+ meters from 75% at 70+ meters.

Gameplay

• All Terrain Kart (ATK)
  • The new All Terrain Kart (ATK) has room for your entire squad.
  • Get a speed boost after drifting.
  • The roof acts as a bounce pad.
  • Work together as rear passengers to leap over obstacles with the All Terrain Kart (ATK). Lean back and release at the same time for a higher jump.
    • Lean back by holding S on keyboards or holding back on the thumbstick for controllers.
• Map Updated
  • New Biome: Desert
  • New Location: Paradise Palms
  • New Location: Lazy Links
  • A few unnamed POIs have also appeared across the island.
• The center of Storm circles 7, 8, and 9 can now shift in random directions (instead of simply shrinking). As the storm closes in, it will move & shrink to the new location.
• Starting in Season 5, progressive challenges will no longer be restricted to a single season. You can now complete progressive challenges at your own pace.
• Progressive challenges are now completed by acquiring a fixed amount of XP and is no longer dependant on your season level.
• Gyro/motion controls have been added to the Nintendo Switch. Adjust these options in the Settings menu.
• Weekly challenges are now split into two sections, free and Battle Pass. The first 3 challenges will be available for free while the last 4 are only available if you own the Battle Pass. The threshold to unlock the weekly challenge reward will remain at 4.
• Down But Not Out players now have smaller collision. Previously their collision was at the standing height which blocked DBNO players from crawling under doors and blocked building collision in some cases.
  • Players that were crouching when knocked Down But Not Out will be returned to a crouching state upon revival.
• Emoting will now interrupt sprinting.
• You now earn XP for reviving teammates in 50v50 and Teams of 20 LTMs up to three times per match (30XP, 10XP, 10XP).
• Weapon reticle will now fade slightly when reloading, out of ammo, or changing weapons.
• The player camera can now see out of the water when walking in lakes.

Bug Fixes

• Launch Pads and Cozy Campfires now destroy overlapping small objects when placed.
• Reduced trigger volume for floor Damage Trap to better match visuals and prevent triggering when standing on ledges above.
• Supply Llamas now fall to the ground if the object they were standing on is destroyed.
• Autorun will no longer cancel if you let go of the stick and it slightly flicks backward while using a gamepad.
• Fixed issue where Autorun could be active while using a Shopping Cart.
• The first Storm circle will now consistently do 1 damage.
• Players will no longer get stuck in a doorway if they were standing in it when the door closed.
• Fixed an issue that prevented some weapon animations from playing.
• Autorun can no longer be activated while walking backward.
• Textures will now consistently appear correctly while in Edit Mode.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when logging out.

Performance

• Improved performance of Shopping Carts on both the game client and server.

Audio

• Added unique ambient audio to the new desert biome. More unique ambient audio for the map will be coming in future updates!
• Lowered the volume of the Battle Pass Challenge success sound.
• UI audio has been redesigned, all button and interface sounds updated.

Bug Fixes

• Dual Pistol fire sound will no longer get cut off if you switch weapons immediately after firing.
• The True Love emotes audio will no longer overlap with itself if multiple players use it near each other.
• The funky electronic track to the Dance Moves emote on Mobile/Switch platforms has been re-enabled.

UI

• We now allow users to enable the same sound visualizer on all platforms that were created for mobile – however, while the visualizer is enabled, audible sound effects will be muted. Mobile platforms are unaffected by this change and will retain sound effects and the visualizer. You can find this new option under the Accessibility tab in the settings.
• Streamer mode no longer just says “Player###”, instead it now uses the player’s cosmetic character as their display name “Character[###]”. So instead of “Eliminated Player100” you may see, “Eliminated Rust Lord[100].” Anyone eliminating someone in streamer mode will now see Streamer[###].
• Added extra audio and visual fanfare to the Victory Royale end of match sequence.
• The “Dialogue Audio”, “Global Chat”, and “Auto Equip Better Weapons” options have been removed as they have no function in Battle Royale.
• Zooming in and out on the map is now twice as fast with the controller.
• The “Play Again” button will now allow players to preview pickaxe visual and sound effects in the Item Shop, Battle Pass, and Locker.
• New faster animation for displaying XP sources have been added to the end of match stats screen.

Bug Fixes

• Map markers will now re-appear if removed and added back to the exact same location.
• End of match stats now appears correctly on all platforms in their correct numeric format.
• Key bindings for weapon and structure sections in the HUD are now displayed properly.
• A typo was removed from the item description for the Victory Lap harvesting tool.
• Controller input will no longer fail when at the Main Menu.
• Fixed an inconsistency in the UI that was displayed when placing a trap in some cases.
• “Distance Traveled” is now reported correctly in the Match Stats screen.

Art and Animation

Bug Fixes

• Revive animations are no longer skipped if the player was reloading when downed.
• Effects now appear properly when jumping with the Pot of Gold Harvesting Tool.
• Prevented sprays from affecting props used in emotes (e.g., the basketball from Baller).

Replay System

• “Camera type” is now localized in the view settings header.

Bug Fixes

• Gamepads will no longer continuously rumble when a replay is paused.
• The Main Menu will no longer become unresponsive if the Friends List is opened while a replay is paused.
• Nameplates no longer block input on camera settings.
• Nameplates no longer disappear if the camera is directly above a player.
• The bottom portion of the nameplate will no longer become cut off.
• Nameplates on PS4 will now show team number & weapon.
• Weapon animations will now play in replays after scrubbing the timeline.
• Timeline markers no longer disappear on saved replays on PS4 and Xbox One.
• Shopping Cart visual and audio effects will no longer break in replays.
• The “Revive” and “Drive” prompt will no longer persist in replays if a player was eliminated while being revived or near a Shopping Cart.

Mobile

• Autofire has been added as an option on mobile platforms. Enabling this causes the player’s weapon to automatically fire when the reticle is over an enemy that is within range.
• Players will be given the option to select their preferred fire mode after launching. All players can change their preferred fire mode by navigating to Options, Custom HUD Layout, then choosing the ‘Select Fire Mode’ option and confirming their selection.
  • Tap-to-fire.
  • A dedicated fire button.
  • Autofire.

Bug Fixes

• The Thermal Scoped AR now has the proper visual effects on all devices.
• Vehicle passengers can now detonate Remote Explosives.
• Entering build mode while holding the “fire” button will no longer adversely affect your ability to build in the future.
• Health and Shield numbers will no longer be displayed as your own while spectating.

For those interested in seeing what’s changed in Save The Worl , here’s the patch notes for that mode:

Save The World

General

• Blockbuster is over and the Road Trip event begins! Blockbuster tickets have been converted to one Blockbuster Llama for every increment of 500, rounding up to one additional Llama for any leftover tickets under 500.
• Updated Persistent Weekly Store to offer RE-PERKs, Uncommon PERK-UPs and Rare PERK-UPs.
• Starting July 17, Save the World will be on sale on Xbox, PS4, and PC for a limited time. Super Deluxe and Limited Founders packs will return for the duration of the sale.
  • Friends codes from Founders packs have been removed and exchanged for Legendary Troll Stash Llama Tokens.
  • All existing founders will receive tokens based on their founders level in 5.0 as a thank you for being with us.

Missions and Systems

• Challenge the Horde is back!
  • Challenge the Horde comes to the desert! This map focuses on a tighter experience, with less running from base to base between waves, and more time to focus on your build and item-crafting.
  • Challenge the Horde introduces new Storm behavior. Beat back waves of enemies as the storm closes in.
    • Players take damage while in the Storm.
    • Storm resets every wave.
  • Challenge the Horde missions now become unlocked based upon your Storm Shield Defense progression or your Horde Quest progression in the Campaign. This means that players who are currently playing in Twine Peaks can expect the entire Challenge the Horde map to be unlocked. However, individual challenges within a Horde mission must still be unlocked in order.
  • Reduced the total number of Challenge the Horde missions available on the map from 16 to 9.
  • Set the total number of challenges to 5 for every Horde mission. Previously, the number of challenges varied from as low as 3, to as high as 8.
  • Reduced the number of waves per Horde challenge from 10 to 8.
  • Reduced the maximum time of a wave from 6 minutes to 4 minutes.
  • Enemy loot drops and item caches have been disabled for Challenge the Horde.
  • Challenge the Horde resourcing has been tweaked:
    • Challenge the Horde missions now grant a starter, first tier, uncommon Assault Rifle and Sword to help players hit the ground running in early Horde missions.
    • The initial ammunition grant has been increased to match the increased difficulty of the first Horde mission.
    • Building materials, ammunition, and crafting materials granted to players per skill tree upgrade have been reduced throughout the Horde Skill Tree.
  • Challenge the Horde Mission Alerts are available:
    • Award Road Trip Tickets used to purchase Road Trip Event Llamas.
    • Award Horde Skill Points used to purchase nodes in the Horde Skill Tree.
    • Quota: 10 per day.
  • Horde Progression quests appear under the Event: Road Trip quest journal category and award the following:
    • Road Trip Tickets.
    • V-bucks
    • PERK currencies.
    • A choice of Epic and Legendary Wild West Heroes.
    • Horde Exclusive Banners.
  • Repeatable quests for completing Horde content award a choice of Hero XP, Schematic XP, or Survivor XP.
  • Perk Recombobulator materials are now distributed in Challenge the Horde. Play Horde missions to earn RE-PERK! or PERK-UP! in larger quantities than found in Campaign missions.
  • Active Mutant Storm Mission Alerts have been turned on.
  • Elemental Mission Alerts are available as well.
• Road Trip Event Llama is now available. Costs 500 Road Trip Tickets per Llama. Guarantees at least one Epic or better limited time Flintlock weapon or Western Hero!
• Increased the following Mission Alert rewards:
  • FIRE-UP, AMP-UP, FROST-UP: Increased by 100%.
  • RE-PERK: Increased by 50%.
  • PERK-UP: Increased by 30-33%.
• Enabled RE-PERK and PERK-UP to drop in Storm Mission rewards.

Heroes

• Ability Rebalance!
  • We’ve adjusted the overall balance of how powerful we expect abilities to be in relation to guns, traps, and other damage/utility sources. Additionally, we’ve increased the strength of healing Perks. As a result, we’ve made the following adjustments:
• Soldier
  • Survivalist
    • Base heal increased from 3 to 5.
  • Warcry
    • Increased damage multiplier from 30% to 45%.
    • Reduced ranged attack speed multiplier from 40% to 30%.
    • Increased melee attack speed multiplier from 16% to 20%.
  • Combatant’s Might
    • Increased Warcry energy cost reduction from 15 to 20.
  • Fight or Flight
    • Fight or Flight now adds a 10% movement speed buff.
  • Shockwave
    • Increased base damage from 75 to 91.
    • Decreased cooldown from 30 to 25 seconds.
  • Power Impact
    • Increased radius multiplier from 38% to 50%.
  • Shock & Awe
    • Increased slow from 30% to 50%.
  • Lefty and Righty
    • Reduced cooldown from 150 to 100 seconds.
  • Bang & Pow
    • Increased base damage from 16 to 20.
  • Corrosive Clips
    • Increased base damage from 83 to 120.
  • Goin’ Commando
    • Cooldown reduced from 150 to 100 seconds.
  • Ain’t Done Yet
    • Increased duration extension from 2 to 5 seconds.
  • Easy Operation
    • Increased energy cost reduction from 15 to 20 stamina.
• Ninja
  • Smoke Bomb
    • Reduced base cooldown from 60 to 45 seconds.
  • Medicinal Fumes
    • Increased base heal from 3 to 19.
  • Up In Smoke
    • Increased movement speed bonus from 30% to 50%.
  • Tail of the Dragon
    • Increased damage per tick from 10 to 12.
  • Throwing Stars
    • Increased base projectile speed by 70%.
    • Increased base damage from 35 to 52.
  • Poison Stars
    • Now ticks every 1s to match other affliction sources, and adjusted damage accordingly.
  • Hearty Blade
    • Base heal increased from 12 to 30.
  • Hearty Strikes
    • Base heal increased from 10 to 24.
• Outlander
  • Phase Shift:
    • Phase Shift is an ability meant for quick movement. The following adjustments are intended to help it become more competitive with the other movement abilities that also deal damage.
      • Increased travel distance from 1.5625 tiles to 1.75 tiles.
      • Decreased cost from 20 to 10 stamina.
      • Decreased cooldown from 15 to 8 seconds.
      • Increased charges from 2 to 3.
      • Now adds 30% movespeed for 3 seconds.
  • Phase Forward
    • Increased distance traveled from 1.75 tiles to 2.5 tiles.
  • Phased and Confused
    • Increase quantity of additional charges from 1 to 2.
  • Phased Out
    • Adjusted cooldown reduction from 5 to 3 to correspond to new base cooldown.
  • Phase Shield
    • Adjusted duration from 4 to 2 to correspond to the new base cooldown.
  • Phase Runner
    • Now increases the bonus movespeed from Phase Shift to 50%.
  • T.E.D.D.Y.
    • Increased base damage from 10 to 16 per shot.
    • Reduced cost from 50 to 30 stamina.
  • Bear Stare
    • Increased base damage from 22 to 26.
  • Overbearing
    • Increased bonus range from 2 tile to 4 tiles.
  • Shock Tower:
    • Shock Tower should be a great tool for taking out groups of weak Husks, but it doesn’t quite get the job done. To address this we’ve given Shock Tower more damage and a much shorter cooldown. The duration is a bit shorter but you’ll be able to cast it more frequently. We’ve also reduced the stun duration slightly in order to make room for the other improvements.
      • Reduced cooldown from 60 to 20 seconds.
      • Reduced cost from 50 to 30 stamina.
      • Increased base damage from 9 to 12.
      • Lowered stun duration from 1 to .75 seconds.
      • Lowered duration from 6 to 3 seconds.
  • Electroshock
    • Increased impact bonus from 133% to 160%.
  • Capacitor
    • Adjusted duration increase from 2 to 1 second to correlate to new duration.
  • Supercapacitor
    • Adjusted duration increase from 2 to 1 second to correlate to new duration.
  • Shocking Embrace
    • Adjusted duration increase from 3 to 2 seconds to correlate to new duration.
  • Static Cling
    • Increased Damage Over Time damage percentage to 110% from 50%.
    • Decreased Damage Over Time duration from 6 to 3 seconds.
  • Anti-Material Charge:
    • We found that Anti-Material Charge’s resource gathering damage was being overvalued. As a result, we have increased the base while lowering its cost and cooldown to make it both an effective gathering tool and a relevant combat ability.
      • Increased width by 100%.
      • Increased base damage from 39 to 90.
      • Lowered cooldown from 30 to 12 seconds.
      • Lowered cost from 35 to 30 stamina.
  • Strike Cost
    • Adjusted cost reduction from 15 to 10 to correspond to the new base cost.
  • Fist of the South Moon
    • Adjusted the cooldown reduction from 13 to 5 to correspond to the new base cooldown.
  • Structural Strike
    • Adjusted the cooldown reduction from 7 to 3 seconds and the cost reduction from 7 to 5 to correspond to the new base cooldown and cost.
  • Kinetic Punch (Non-Support Variant)
    • Increased the knockback strength to knockback large enemies.
  • Charge Fist
    • Moved from a 3-star perk to a 2-star perk.
    • Adjusted the percent damage increase from a max 200% to a max 150% to correspond to the new base damage.
      • Resulting max base damage increased from 117 to 225 with default base damage taken into account.
  • Iron Knuckles
    • Removed vulnerability application.
    • Adjusted the percent damage increase from 500% to 150% to correspond to the new base damage.
      • Tooltip has been updated to fix misleading wording.
        • The previous tooltip implied that the damage was increased BY 500% rather than TO 500%.
        • The new tooltip continues to use “increased by”, however, this value is now correct in that it increases the base damage by 150% (250% of base damage).
        • When combined with the default base damage increase the resulting base damage is increased from 195 to 225.
        • This Perk has had an effective increase of damage based on its prior version.
• Constructor
  • Bull Rush
    • Increased base damage from 60 to 156.
    • Reduced cooldown from 30 to 15.
    • Reduced cost from 30 to 20.
    • Increased shield collision width by 43%.
  • China Shop
    • Increased base environmental damage from 282 to 688.
  • Bull Crush
    • Increased hardware damage from 45% to 55%.
  • Long Rush
    • New Functionality added: At the end of Bull Rush, movement speed is increased by 30% for 10 seconds.
  • Riot Shield
    • New Functionality added: While charging, the constructor will take 60% less damage.
      • Previous Riot Shield functionality has been removed.
  • Plasma Pulse
    • Base damage increased from 14 to 18.
    • Decreased lifespan from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.
  • Plasma Pulse Blast
    • Base damage increased from 125 to 145.
  • IFF Coding
    • Increased shield regen from 15% to 20% of shield.
  • Base M.D.
    • Increased health regen from 2% to 4% of maximum health.
  • Decoy
    • Hitbox reduced to match decoy model.
    • Decreased cooldown from 45 to 30.
  • Grease The Wheel
    • Decreased cooldown reduction from 15 to 10.
  • Kinetic Overload
    • Base damage increased from 50 to 140.
    • Removed cooldown.
  • Nice and Slow
    • Increased Slow from 30% to 40%.
  • Hearty Blows
    • Base heal increased from 12 to 49.
• Wild West Heroes have been added to the Road Trip Event Llama!
  • Soldier – New Subclass ‘First Shot’ featuring New Character Rio.
    • Description: Reloads to get a large initial hit of damage then follows up with high fire rate burst.
    • New Perks
      • Locked and Reloaded: After reloading, rate of fire is increased by 25% for 5 seconds.
      • Padlocked and Reloaded: Increases the rate of fire from Locked and Reloaded to 50%.
      • First Assault: The first bullet fired after reloading an assault rifle critically hits enemies. Removed on weapon switch.
    • New Tactical Perk:
      • Practiced In Combat (Tactical Variant).
  • Ninja – New Subclass ‘Explosive Assassin’ featuring Ken.
    • Description: Sword focused Ninja that stacks up Assassination to discharge an energy blast and utilizes Smoke Bomb to keep stacks up.
    • New Perks:
      • Assassination Juice: Smoke Bomb now generates a stack of Assassination every second when the Ninja is inside the affected area.
      • Endless Smoke: Increases the radius of Smoke Bomb by 45%.
      • Assassination Discharge: When Assassination reaches 5 stacks it will trigger an explosion, dealing energy damage in a 0.5 tile radius. After the explosion, all Assassination stacks are removed.
    • New Tactical Perk:
      • Assassination (Tactical Variant).
  • Constructor – New Subclass ‘Vintage-Tech’ featuring Penny.
    • Description: Constructor that uses plasma pulse to create plasma bomb zones.
    • New Perks:
      • Supercharged Plasma: Increases the damage radius of Plasma Pulse’s mini balls by 60%.
      • Malfunction: Plasma Pulse now spawns 8 plasma balls that deal 550% more damage. The plasma balls will be spawned all at once and explode after 10 seconds if not triggered.
  • Outlander – New Subclass ‘Wild Fragment’ featuring Deadeye.
    • Description: Mobile Outlander that gathers large amounts of Fragments to continuously place empowered T.E.D.D.Y.s.
    • New Perks:
      • Look What I Found: Start missions with 3 Charge Fragments.
      • Load Bearing: T.E.D.D.Y.’s damage is increased by 50% if placed with a Fragment.
      • Double Down: 50% chance to find an additional Charge Fragment when collecting a Fragment.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with Shock Tower that caused it to fire 1 shot less than intended.
• Fixed an issue which was causing Shock Tower to not scale Impact properly.
• Phase Shift tooltip now shows max charges.

Weapons and Items

• Walloper Hammer added to the Event Store:
  • A hammer that delivers a hefty punch with slow, wide swings.
  • Leap Attack: Heavy attack that jumps to the targeted foe and damages and knocks down nearby enemies.
• Added the Flintlock weapons set, available in Road Trip Llamas:
  • Ol’ Betsy: Accurate, high powered sniper rifle with a single round per magazine and a hefty kick.
  • Duelist: Slow-firing revolver with a powerful kick that deals heavy headshot damage and knocks back targets.
  • Dragoon: Heavy, short range shotgun that damages and knocks back enemies in a cone.
  • Fishing Hook: Slow, heavy scythe with a wide swing and Whirlwind Attack.
  • Sir Hootie: Slow, heavy club with large knockback potential and Home Run attack.
• Adrenaline Rush
  • Heal increased from 180 to 215.
• Air Strike
  • Cooldown reduced from 300 to 215.
• Hover Turret
  • Reduced Hover Turret base rate of fire from 6/s to 4/s, and the upgraded rate of fire from 10/s to 6/s.
  • Hover Turret shots now deal energy damage and no longer deal impact damage.
  • Increased the base damage of Hover Turret explosion from 114 to 162.
• Proximity Mine
  • Damage increased from 225 to 230.
  • Reduced recharge time from 240 to 200s.

Bug Fixes

• Weapons now correctly holster when player is downed.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Clinger to hang in the air on destroyed Anomaly Shards.
• Fixed an issue where the Shadowshard Krypton Sword had the wrong stats.
• Fixed explosion radius for all tiers of proximity mine, these are now set correctly to 1 tile, 1.25 tiles, and 1.5 tiles.

Gameplay

• Increased the effectiveness of Energy Damage against Elemental Husks from 67% to 75%.
• Increased base run speed from 365 to 410. Sprint speed is unchanged.
• Players can now move while downed.
• Adjusted visuals of the downed state to improve clarity.
• Trololo and Revenge of the Trolls quests now only require whacking 1 troll to complete.
• The following repeatable quests are available and award PERK currencies:
  • Danger in the Mist
  • Set the World on Fire
  • Forces of Nature
  • A Watery Grave
• Killer Storms repeatable quest is available and awards Gold.

UI

• Loot Llamas are now no longer automatically opened when going to the loot tab. Either pressing the Llama count button or bottom bar input will allow you to open Llamas in the inventory. Llamas purchased on the loot screen will still automatically open.

Bug Fixes

• T.E.D.D.Y has had his voice module upgraded and will now correctly pronounce Fortnite when analyzing player reports.
• Players will now see a message if they are banned while in-match.
• The Rejoin window now auto-closes when a player is banned.
• Recent Players who you only interact with in the main menus now show in the Report Player list.
• Daily details panel now updates when the quest is abandoned.
• Fixed controller input for the Defender Post trap.
• Fixed issues with switching building types quickly that could cause players to place the wrong building type, especially under bad latency conditions.
• Builder Pro control scheme will no longer place the wrong building due to players under pressing and holding a building type that’s different than what they had selected before.
  • These fixes actually affect how switching weapons and building types work under high latency across the board, so they should improve that feel for any control scheme (including mouse and keyboard).
• Builder Pro controller scheme now correctly selects tracks when pressing the Trap Picker while not looking at any building, and it will also place the tracks properly when pressing X / Square.
• Fixed Upgrade popup menu input temporarily breaking if used after controller is disconnected.
• Fixed gamepad joystick icon appearing when only a single tab item exists in the Resources menu.

Art and Animation

• Storm visual effects on the player no longer appear when downed.
• Removed purple trails from revive visual effects.
• Goin’ Commando’s equip camera animation has been improved.
• The barrel of Goin’ Commando’s minigun now glows when firing.
• New equip visual effects have been added to Goin’ Commando.
• Removed firework visual effects from the grenade launcher.
• Hats and Backpacks were added to Heroes that are in the Stars and Stripes set.

Bug Fixes

• Enemies highlighted by the Neon Sniper Rifle are now limited to those enemies within range of the bullet.
  • Please note at extreme distances impact effects may not be visible while scoped in.
• Adjusted HDR Intensity of the Neon Weapons down 20% to keep bloom problems from occurring in certain levels.
• Fixed an issue that caused Lobber’s Head Flames to blink on and off in medium quality settings.

Audio

• Audio mix update: Weapon volumes have been increased and ambient volume slightly decreased.
• UI audio has been redesigned, all buttons and interface sounds updated.
• Plasma Pulse perk sounds updated
• Smoke Bomb sounds updated
• Goin’ Commando’s sounds have been updated including unique sounds for Boomstick!
  • Including:
    • Wind Up
    • Wind Down
    • Firing
    • Firing Stop
    • Equip

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with T.E.D.D.Y’s laser beam sound volume and attenuation.
• Fixed an issue where See-bot launch audio volume was too loud.

The release date for Fortnite Season 5 is finally upon us, and that means another big patch is being rolled out. As part of the update process, the game’s servers have gone down for an indefinite amount of time while developer Epic Games introduces the new content. Once the staging is all finished the changes will finally be revealed. While the work occurs, you can take a look at the full Fortnite Season 5 patch notes to see everything that’s being added and changed. [Update] Fortnite servers are now live.

As indicated in a tweet from Epic Games, the server downtime started on July 12 at 4 AM ET / 1 AM PT / 8 AM GMT and it’s unclear how long the process will take. In a linked Reddit thread, the team also noted that this patch will be larger than normal, and recommends checking to make sure your auto-update settings are on. Plus, be prepared for possible slow download speeds, and save any content you want from your existing replays.

Epic has been dropping hints in the lead-up to the Season 5 launch. Rifts that appeared after a missile launch have been transporting objects in and out of the game world. That includes foreign historical objects popping up out of thin air inside Fortnite, and some Fortnite objects showing up in the real world.

Those clues have led to suspicion that this season will have some kind of time-travel or history theme, which seems supported by Epic’s choices of teaser images. You can see everything we know so far about Fortnite Season 5 while we not-so-patiently await to see what’s in store this time around.

Disney and Blizzard have announced a huge deal for Overwatch League broadcasting. As part of a deal announced today, the inaugural Overwatch League playoffs will be broadcast on Disney’s network of channels, including ESPN, Disney XD, and ABC. This kicked off on July 11 with playoff rounds and continues with the Grand Finals from the Barclays Center in New York on July 27-28. The competition will air on ESPN and Disney XD, along with mobile platforms in the form of the ESPN App and Disney Now.

On July 29, after the competition wraps up, a “recap show” will be broadcast on ABC in primetime, which represents the first time the championship of an esports tournament will be shown in primetime on ABC.

Disney and ESPN executive Justin Connolly said the Overwatch League Grand Finals represents the network’s “most comprehensive television distribution” ever for an esports tournament on a single weekend. There will be 10 hours of competition broadcast over three days. “This overall collaboration with Disney/ABC, ESPN and Blizzard represents our continued commitment to esports, and we look forward to providing marquee Overwatch League coverage across our television platforms for fans,” Connolly said.

The winning team of the Grand Finals will take home the inaugural Overwatch League trophy and the bulk of a $1.4 million prize pool.

It kicks off on Friday, July 27, at 7 PM ET with best-of-five matches on ESPN. The competition continues the next day on ESPN, starting at 4:30 PM ET, while additional matches will air on Disney XD. Matches will also be broadcast on Twitch, MLG.com, ESPN, and ABC. Here is the full programming schedule:

This deal between Disney and Activision does not negate the existing partnership that exists between Twitch and Activision. According to Sports Business Daily, Twitch paid Activision $90 million to broadcast some Overwatch League matches. Terms of the new deal with Disney were not made available.

The Overwatch League started in January. There are 12 teams in the league, and in a first for an esports organisation, they are based in cities just like traditional sports leagues. You can learn more about the Overwatch League playoffs here on the Overwatch website.