The submachine guns in Fortnite were strong last night, but since midnight, Epic has significantly nerfed them. We explain how the patch hit.
What happened? Last night at 1 AM our time, Epic hit hard with the nerf hammer on the submachine guns. The patch was a hotfix, so it is already active. The submachine guns have been nerfed today, on July 26.
Submachine guns are now rarer, slower, less accurate, and deal less damage
How exactly were they nerfed?
- For the normal submachine gun and the new “P90” submachine gun (“micro submachine gun”), the hit bonus was reduced from 35% to 15%
- The damage of the submachine gun was previously 19/20/21 and is now 17/18/19
- For the P90, damage falls from 23/24 to 21/22
- The fire rate of the normal submachine gun decreases from 13 to 12
- The fire rate of the P90 decreases from 11 to 10
- For all three submachine guns, there is a damage drop at greater range – this affects the normal submachine gun, the suppressed one, and the P90
- The range of the three submachine guns drops from 2400/3500/5000 to 2000/3000/4000
- The percentage decreases from 100/80/65% to 100/70/40%
- Additionally, the drop chance of the rare submachine gun and the P90 has been lowered
Submachine guns should be an alternative to shotguns
When is the nerf active? It is already active. The nerf came via hotfix last night at 1 AM our time.
What does that mean? Submachine guns are to be weakened especially at longer distances, but they are also significantly weaker at close range.
What is the context? For a long time, shotguns were the overpowering weapons in close combat in Fortnite. The SMGs were supposed to be buffed to an alternative with the last patches. Apparently, it was overdone, and now measures are being taken against it. Especially the new submachine gun, the P90, was probably too strong and disrupted the balance of Fortnite.
Will it stay that way? Epic says that the changes are not set in stone. They will be monitoring the data and reacting accordingly.
After the nerf of the submachine guns, building might be next
This is what Epic plans next for the balance: Currently, Epic is working on making building weaker. There were already changes to the hitpoints of buildings in the last patch 5.10. Additionally, they are planning to introduce a sniper that can shoot through walls.
Interesting: The drum gun is also considered strong. It is not affected by the changes. It could therefore become the new trend weapon in Fortnite.
