Fortnite hotfix makes much-needed SMG balance changes
Following fan feedback and a massive uproar, Epic has made some much-needed changes to Fortnite’s Compact SMG (P90) and Submachine Gun.
Over the past few weeks, Epic has worked to make SMGs viable in Fortnite. Well, they succeeded, releasing two different SMG weapons that have since dominated the field of play in Battle Royale.
Earlier this month, Epic released the Submachine Gun, essentially replacing the Tactical SMG which was sent to the vault. Although the Submachine Gun only came in common, uncommon and rare variants, the new weapon actually did damage comparable to the epic Tactical SMG, so there wasn’t much of a dropoff. In fact, it could be argued that the submachine gun was actually stronger than the Tactical SMG. The weapon became even more popular as players discovered its strength.
Apparently still not satisfied with the SMG class of weapons, Epic released this week update 5.10 which contained the much-stronger Compact SMG (commonly referred to as the P90). To put it simply, this weapon was incredibly overpowered – like, game-breaking strong.
https://twitter.com/SypherPK/status/1021914043018358788
Combined with the changes to building materials, the Compact SMG simply dominated. It could melt a player from 200 health to 0 in less than two seconds. It got to the point where players were running five SMGs in a single loadout and nothing else just because how powerful they were.
Yeah so Fortnite's new Compact SMG is absurrrrrdly melty. Me likey. pic.twitter.com/y2mW8G7AuK
— Hutch (@hutchinson) July 24, 2018
It wasn’t just streamers either. The Compact SMG made even the most mediocre of players – like myself – incredibly deadly.
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I’m proof that the Compact SMG was ridiculously strong. I, a player with a 0.92 kill/death ratio and three percent win percentage, won my first squad game of the night when two of my teammates had Compact SMGs while I wielded a Scar. In two other games where I found a Compact SMG, I had triple kills in both games. In one of those games, I wiped out an entire squad by myself.
To call the Compact SMG strong would be an understatement. It was broken.
Thankfully, Epic Games has listened. And today they released a hotfix to address the weapon.
“We’ve heard your feedback regarding SMGs and that they’re stronger than we would like at the moment. We agree and have just pushed a hotfix live adjusting these values – bringing them more in line with where we want them,” Epic said in a statement.
Both the Submachine Gun and the Compact SMG received some much-needed balance changes nerfs. Here are the changes, via Fortnite‘s subreddit:
- SMG and Compact SMG accuracy bonus reduced from 35% to 15%.
- SMG damage reduced from 19/20/21 to 17/18/19.
- Compact SMG damage reduced from 23/24 to 21/22.
- SMG fire rate reduced from 13 to 12.
- Compact SMG fire rate reduced from 11 to 10.
- SMG, Compact SMG, and Silenced SMG damage falloff.
- Range reduced from 2400/3500/5000 to 2000/3000/4000.
- Percentage reduced from 100/80/65% to 100/70/40%.
- Rare SMG and Compact SMGs drop rates slightly reduced.
"One more point to add about the damage falloff:The new falloff values apply to environmental damage as well, meaning SMGs are now less effective at destroying structures as range increases. This helps further position SMGs as close-range weapons and keeps them from edging into engagement ranges where rifles should be the most effective option.Again, we’ll be keeping a close eye on SMG perform…"
I haven’t logged in to play a match yet with these new changes implemented, but Epic should be commended for how quickly they moved to fix the problem. Now I can go back to complaining about all of the other weapons that kill me unfairly.