A new Fortnite update adds weapons, smoke grenades, and two more leaderboards

Epic's latest update to the zombie survival shooter Fortnite brings some handy new toys to both the Battle Royale and Save the World modes (and in case there's any question, by "toys" I mean mostly guns), plus a pair of new Battle Royale leaderboards and the return of "Mutant Storms."

Mutant Storms are special storms in the Save the World mode that grant unique modifiers to enemies and heroes, and drop "useful rewards" for dealing with them. They were introduced in the 1.5 patch, and with the Fortnitemares event now concluded, they're back. New Mutant Storm-specific Event Quests have been added, and tickets from missions can be earned up to ten times per day. Nine new Vindertech weapons are also now available from event quests and event llamas.

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Over on the Battle Royale side of things, kill-or-die contestants will now be able to lob smoke grenades, which are used in the same way as frag grenades but lay down sight-obscuring smoke instead—a handy way to get from here to there without anyone seeing you do it. Smoke grenades will be available in all container types, and will also spawn as random floor loot. And finally, the two new leaderboards: One for Global Wins, "spotlighting the top 50 players for the selected match type," and the other for Score, based on total experience.

The update also makes the usual array of bug fixes, tweaks, and other changes you may not notice if nobody draws you attention to them. The full list is up at epicgames.com.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.