Fortnite Season 9: Here’s everything that’s new with update v9.00

Hello Combat Shotgun, Goodbye Pump Shotgun

Part of entering the future means saying goodbye to primitive weapons, like the Pump Shotgun. Sadly, the player-favorite, slightly overpowered weapon has been sent to the Vault where it will remain indefinitely (or at least until the next Unvaulting event).

in its place comes the Combat Shotgun, a new semi-automatic weapon with a “tight spread and fast fire rate.” The Combat Shotgun fires nine pellets per shot and comes in Rare, Epic and Legendary variants with 73/77/81 damage, respectively. It also packs a 1.70x headshot multiplier. The Combat Shotgun holds 10 shells and reloads two shells at a time.

Shortly after the update dropped, Epic Games published a blog post in which they explained the reasoning behind sending the Pump Shotgun to the Vault.

"Specifically when it comes to Pump Shotguns, they stand out significantly: they currently account for over 26% of eliminations in default playlists, with the next weapon type not even coming close. Rather than nerfing the Pump Shotgun to a point where it no longer lives up to its fantasy, our preference is to return it to the vault, giving us an opportunity to revisit the general balance of the item, while introducing a new shotgun."

While technically the only new weapon to be introduced at the start of Season 9, Epic Games did just bring back the Drum Gun as part of last weekend’s Unvaulting event, in which players voted on what weapon or item from the Vault they wanted to be brought back.

While the Drum Gun returned to action last weekend, it was not available in Tournament Play. Epic says players can expect it in this weekend’s Tournament playlist with an adjusted spawn rate “more in line with other similar items.”

Also brought back from the Vault with Season 9 were grenades, a common explosive that deals damage and staggers enemies. Grenades were sent to the Vault in February of this year with patch v7.40.

The full list of weapons and items sent to the Vault includes Clingers, Buried Treasure, Pump Shotgun, Dart Trap, Scoped Revolver, Suppressed Assault Rifle, Thermal Assault Rifle and Balloons.