Fortnite v8.40 Patch Notes Breakdown

Take a look at the additions, changes and fixes in the Fortnite v8.40 patch.

Patch 8.40 is here, with a new LTM and (of course) a new weapon to try. Here's what to expect when you load into your first match of the day.

Weapons & Items

The new weapon coming to the 8.40 patch is the Infantry Rifle in Epic and Legendary variants. Like the uncommon and rare versions, this gun takes medium ammo and can be found in vending machines, supply drops, chests, and floor loot.

The gun deals 42 and 44 damage, depending on its rarity.

The Infantry Rifle has become a lot more popular since Epic changed it from projectile to hitscan. This is going to be a powerful weapon, although most players will likely still prefer a Scar for its spraying capabilities.

The Egg Launcher is back as well, just in time for Easter.

Air Royale

Planes are back, but this time in a much more appropriate setting. Air Royale is a Duos mode that will grant players some unique rewards. Here are the rules:

• Each plane has 3 lives, players will respawn until they lose their plane's last life.
• Touching the ground will instantly eliminate players.
• Parking a plane on the ground for more than a few seconds will cause it to explode - stay airborne!
• Hijacking another team's plane will add that plane to your existing number of plane lives (and cost the team who lost the plane a life).
• The storm has a ceiling that gradually lowers during the match. Be careful not to fly too high late in the match!
• Loot chests of five different rarities will fall from the sky, allowing players to upgrade the guns they are carrying as well as boosting their plane's weapons for a short time.
  • To receive the contents of a Chest, simply fly through it.
• If players receive loot from a Chest containing a weapon they already have that's of the same or worse quality, they’ll receive additional ammo.
  • Chests with higher quality guns will automatically replace the lower quality weapon that’s being carried.
• Floating repair kits can also be found, these heal damaged planes and grant health & shields to players.

Gameplay Changes

The moment we've all been waiting for is finally here! No, the rule changes haven't been reverted; we can now pet our Pets! What a world, huh?

Player XP boosts you get from the Battle Pass have been upgraded as well. You can now receive the maximum (120%) boost much easier by playing with only one friend instead of needing a whole squad.

Bug Fixes

Here are the bug fixes Epic made to the core game:

• Fixed an issue where the Season 8 trailer wouldn't play in some cases.
• Fixed an issue where the embers from environmental Campfires would linger if the floor they were attached to was destroyed.
• Fixed issue where Coconuts could not be pinged.
• Fixed an issue where turbo building could stop if you ran out of the current type of material you were using.
• Fixed an issue with Traps being be placed inside walls, making them difficult to see.
• Fixed an issue with Traps being placed inconsistently when auto-placed.
• Fixed 'Emotes' not playing when bound to specific keys.
• Fixed an issue when using 'Replay Last Emote' before using any other emote, so it now plays the emote in the default slot.

Competitive

The Fortnite World Cup Online Open Week 2 starts April 20 and 21 with a $1,000,000 prize pool. This came along with the dreaded "stretched res" change, preventing players from utilizing this popular tool in competitive matches.

• Top performers in each server region will qualify to the Fortnite World Cup Finals in New York City. Full Fortnite World Cup details and official rules can be found here: https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/competitive/events/world-cup
• Duos Game Mode
• Participation in this event requires both players to have reached Champion League in Arena.
• Region Lock is in effect - players may only participate in the qualifier for a single server region each week of the Online Opens. The server region of the first match entered for that weekend’s tournament will be the one the player will be locked into for that entire weekend.
• Format:
  • April 20 - Round One: All Eligible Players.
  • April 21 - Round Two: Top 1500 Teams from Round One.

Other Changes

Here are some of the other changes listed in the patch notes

Performance

• Resolved a performance regression occurring on PCs with less than quad-core CPUs.
  • If you’re still experiencing performance issues on PC, try manually adding the “NoRHIThread” to the Epic Games Launcher settings for Fortnite.

Art & Animation

• Increased the size and intensity of the Boom Bow explosion effects to better represent the damage radius.

Audio

• Adjusted the attenuation of the Reboot Van cooldown and Reboot Chip ambient looping audio, so that it’s not as loud.
• Fixed an issue that would cause the Shotgun equip sounds to occasionally not play.Fixed an issue that would cause the Shotgun equip sounds to occasionally not play.

UI

• Mimic! When bringing up your emote wheel there’s now an option that appears if you’re looking at another player doing an emote you own, to allow you to play the same emote.
• When hiding HUD elements in the options, some of them now collapse to free up the space they were taking up - the minimap for example.
• There’s now a HUD UI option to hide the vehicle control hints.

Take a look at the full list of patch notes here, and follow @FortniteTracker for more Fortnite news.