Shields, Shotguns, and a New Grenade Launcher: Fortnite v9.21 Patch Notes

Fortnite v9.21 is here and features the new grenade launcher, a new LTM, and a buff to the availability of shields and shotguns.

A new week means a new patch for Fortnite, and this one brings us some much-needed changes - namely increasing the availability of shotguns and shields.

Here is everything that patch 9.21 brought us.

Proximity Grenade Launcher

• Fires an arcing, bouncing, explosive projectile that explodes when in proximity of an opponent.
• Available in Epic and Legendary Rarities.
• Found from Chests, Loot Carriers, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines.
• Semi-Automatic.
• Uses Rocket Ammo.
• Holds 2 Explosive Rounds.
• Rate of Fire: 0.65 shots per second.
• Player Proximity Radius: 250 units (about half the width of a tile).
• Explosion Radius: 300 units (about 60% of the width of a tile).
• Explosion damage:
  • Player: 67/70
  • Environmental: 131/138
• Reload Speed: 2.8s/3s
• Projectiles explode automatically after 10s or if it has nearly come to a stop.

Horde Rush LTM

Horde Rush looks a lot like Save the World and will likely coincide with a sale on the base Fortnite game. This is a classic horde mode and looks to be a lot like CoD Zombies.

• Four player Squad mode divided up into multiple stages.
• Prepare to defend an area by searching for weapons & items, scavenging materials, and building defenses.
• Rack up points by fighting Fiends, collecting score multipliers, and destroying Fiend Spawners.
• Recover from the battle and search for more equipment.
• Travel across the map to the next defense point.
• Respawning is enabled until the last stage when players have to destroy a Boss Fiend and his horde of minions.
• Keep an eye out for special loot chests, which contain powerful weapons & provide a scoring bonus.

Other Changes

Here are all of the other changes made in the 9.21 patch, including enhanced availability of shields and shotguns

• Shield Potion
  • Increased the availability from Chest loot from 11.3% to 12.09%
• Small Shield Potion
  • Increased the availability from Chest loot from 16.95% to 18.13%
  • With items being added and removed, we’ve noticed that Shield Potions and Small Shields have been less available in Chests. So we’ve increased the chance to find Shields from Chests to compensate for that.
• Shotguns
  • Increased the overall chance to find from Floor loot from 8.50% to 9.77%
  • After seeing the community’s feedback about Shotgun availability, we’ve increased the Shotgun availability from Floor Loot to make finding them in the early phases of the game easier.
• Infantry Rifle Epic and Legendary variants
  • Increased the availability from Floor loot from .067% to .105%
  • Increased the availability from Chest loot from .414% to .645%
• Heavy Assault Rifle Common variant
  • Decreased the availability from Floor loot from 2.04% to 1.715%
  • Decreased the availability from Chest loot from 12.47% to 10.46%
• Mounted Turret
  • Decreased the availability from floor loot from .59% to .46%
• Storm Flip
  • Adjusted Storm Flip to cause flat damage instead of being based on which Storm Phase is currently active.
    • Causes 5 damage every second.
    • This change may not be immediately available at the time of release. It requires a server update and will become active at some point later in the day.
    • We noticed with scaling damage that players held onto their Storm Flip later into matches, creating undesirable effects. This change gives players more value in using it earlier in matches.
  • Reduced the availability from Chests from 3.39% to 1.69%
  • Reduced the availability from Floor loot from 3.32% to 1.66%
  • Added back into the Arena and Tournament playlists.
    • We have visual effect changes coming in v9.30 that will help improve readability.
    • Audio
      • Audio was sounding muffled due to a filter optimization issue.

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