Fortnite v9.01 Patch Notes: P90 Vaulted and Drum Gun Nerfed

Fortnite v9.01 is the first patch of Season 9. Take a look at the changes it brought to the Baller, Drum Gun, P90, and Slipstream.

The first patch of Season 9 is finally here. It was a small patch but actually did a lot more than I expected. We saw a surprise vaulting, a new weapon, and nerfs to two of the most OP items/weapons in Fortnite.

Let's take a look.

Tactical Assault Rifle

The Tactical Assault Rifle is the first new item or weapon added to Season 9. We saw this one coming a mile away thanks to data mined information, that even gave us the stats of the new weapon.

Here it is - straight from the horse's patch notes:

• Available in Rare, Epic, and Legendary variants.
• Available from Floor Loot, Chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines
  • Fully Automatic
  • 30 Round Magazine
  • Deals 22/23/24 damage
  • Headshot Multiplier of 1.75x

As we predicted, this gun will be a close-quarters spray weapon. Epic knows that their game doesn't need another spray weapon, which is why they vaulted the P90.

Compact SMG Vaulted

The Compact SMG - better known as the P90 - saw the inside of the vault with patch 9.01. I think a lot of people would have liked to see the Drum Gun take its place, but at least Epic is taking one of the spray weapons out of the game. Of course, they're replacing it with the Tac AR.

According to Epic, "Due to the recent addition of the Drum Gun and the brand new Tactical Assault Rifle, we wanted to reduce the availability of high rate-of-fire weapons."

The P90 had a higher fire rate and larger clip, so the Tac AR isn't a direct replacement. Still, there probably won't be too much less spraying in the game - considering the Drum Gun is still going to be a must-have weapon post-nerf.

Drum Gun and Baller Nerfs

The most overpowered weapon and the most overpowered mobility item in Fortnite saw nerfs with this patch.

The damage of the Drum Gun was reduced from 26/27 to 22/23. Epic says, "Since its unvaulting, the Drum Gun effectiveness has been slightly higher than we wanted. This change should reduce its combat effectiveness while still retaining its flavor."

The damage nerf is a good start, but I don't see this change removing the Drum Gun from the must-carry category. Two Drum Guns is still an OP strategy.

The Baller's health was reduced from 200 to 150. "The primary goal of the Baller is to provide fun and exciting mobility," Epic says. "We feel that it still has a little too much defensive agency - this change should reduce the effectiveness there while not impacting its strengths."

A Baller nerf is a good idea, especially for competitive Fortnite. I think the health of the Baller could have been nerfed all the way to 100, though.

Slipstream Changes

A lot of people think that the new Slipstreams allow for too much mobility, and I'm inclined to agree. The most annoying part about them was that they blocked the ability to build around them.

This led to panic in the late game and several fall-damage deaths when you couldn't build close enough.

Thankfully, Epic saw this issue and changed it. You can now build through Slipstreams.

They work a bit like Ziplines, now, so you will crash through structures when you run into them. Hopefully, this doesn't lead to bugs the same way the Zipline did.

Epic is also disabling Slipstreams after storm phase 5. We saw some Arena games where players were effectively hiding in the Slipstream, so that won't be possible now.

Take a look at the full lists of patch notes here and follow us on Twitter @FortniteTracker.