Fortnite v9.10 Downtime and Audio Improvements Announced

Epic has announced the downtime for Patch 9.10, which is set to contain several major audio improvements. Check out what will change.

Audio issues are among the most common complaints players have in Fortnite. Too often can a player walk up behind you and shoot you without making a sound.

First, we'll start with the downtime. The patch will begin loading at 4 AM EST, and downtime will be longer than usual.

The lengthy downtime is likely due to the number of audio changes, along with all of the files relating to the recently announced Fortnite X Jordan event that will accompany tomorrow's patch.

Get ready to drop in ??

Update 9.10 releases tomorrow, May 22. Downtime begins at 4 AM ET(0800UTC). There will be extended downtime for this release.

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) May 21, 2019

Epic has been working on audio fixes for some time now, and have been releasing a couple of them with each patch. According to a Reddit post the Director of Audio Production made, the team was planning on implementing these fixes with the last patch.

The post details a long list of changes that will be coming tomorrow, including:

• Switch audio dropout issues fixed for real- apologies, this was meant to be in for 9.0 but we had unexpected technical problems.
• Fixed location of close-range enemy pickaxe impact sound, so it plays from the impact point and not the player that's pickaxing.
• Removed ducking of building sounds when firing your weapon.
• Lowered the minimum velocity required to trigger a landing sound; this helps prevent players from silently ‘bunny hopping’ up ramps.
• Added a new jump sound for enemies that's louder than your own.
• Increased jump sound attenuation to match enemy footsteps.
• Reduced the amount of time that it takes the enemy in-air audio loop to kick on, for better awareness of an enemy dropping in on you from above.
• Boosted volume of occluded footsteps and landing sounds.
• Tighter spatialization of close-range pickaxe sounds from other players.
• Added a clearer sound when an enemy confirms an edit on a building piece within ~2 tiles of your position.
• Removed glider audio tell for players travelling through a Slipstream.
• Added a new “Headshot + Shield Break” sound, for when the two events occur at the same time. If a shield break is "CHINGSHH" and a headshot is "PA-CHING" then the new sound is "PA-CHINGSHH".

These aren't the only audio issues in the game (some of these are outright changes instead of fixes), but it's clear that Epic is taking a step in the right direction. They're still testing and working on several specialized audio improvements that will likely be coming to the game in future patches.

We'll be ready to cover the patch notes when they release tomorrow, as well as any leaks that might come out. Follow us on Twitter @FortniteTracker.