In one of the latest patches, Epic changed the rarity levels and thus the color of the shotguns and tactical shotguns in Fortnite: Battle Royale. The damage of the weapons remained completely identical – the frequency with which the weapons appeared also stayed the same. Nevertheless, the developer has observed a significantly changed usage of the weapons. What is going on?
The usefulness of a weapon is primarily determined by its quality. These quality levels are color-coded. From unusual gray to legendary orange – players can immediately recognize which weapons are better than others by their colors in Fortnite.
The high suggestive power of colors has now been vividly demonstrated by Epic’s Senior Lead Designer Eric Williamson in a Twitter post. It’s about shotguns – and a simple color change trick.
How Epic Changed the Colors of the Shotguns
Before the patch, tactical shotguns were available in unusual (green), rare (blue), and epic (purple) quality levels, while pump shotguns were only available in common (gray) and unusual (green). Due to the seemingly higher quality, players mainly opted for the tactical shotguns.
With patch 3.4, Epic adjusted the colors of the shotguns:
- Tactical shotguns can now only be found in gray (common), green (unusual), and blue (rare) – meaning they have been downgraded by one quality tier across the board.
- Pump shotguns can now only be found in green (unusual) and blue (rare), thus they have been upgraded by one tier overall.
Interesting: Epic has made no changes to the frequency of the weapons. They also made no changes to weapon damage. A rare tactical shotgun functions just like the epic tactical shotgun did before the patch. Since the weapons are as effective as they were before the patch, there should be no change in usage, right? Far from it!
The patch was really only meant to adjust the colors of the weapons to better reflect their “effectiveness” in Fortnite.
Usage Numbers for Tactical Shotguns Have Plummeted – Pump Shotguns Are Soaring
Since this simple color trick, kills with the tactical shotgun have decreased by 23%, while kills with the pump shotgun have increased by an astonishing 36%.
In response to inquiries from Kotaku, Williamson explained that they anticipated a slight shift in the usage of the weapons – but not to this extent. Players seem to have a strong connection to the quality or color of a weapon and use higher quality weapons more frequently.
No balance adjustment made by Epic has ever resulted in such a significant effect as this relatively simple color adjustment.
The comments under Williamson’s tweet at least partially explain how the shift in weapon usage came about.
Changed Weapon Usage Likely Just a Reflection of Ignorance
Under Williamson’s tweet, there are comments that show players truly believe that an improvement in the rarity of the pump shotguns has also led to the weapon becoming stronger. However, this is not the case.
One player wrote that he felt “uncomfortable and weak with the gray (common) tactical shotgun.” Another tried to explain to his friends that the changed color had no impact on damage. They didn’t believe him.
It is intriguing to see how a simple color change can have such significant consequences.
Have you remained loyal to “your” shotgun? Or have you been fooled by the developers as well?
