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.   

More Fortnite

What's new with the latest Fortnite season
The best Fortnite creative codes
The optimal Fortnite settings
Our favorite Fortnite skins
The best Fortnite toys

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.

TOPICS
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

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.

Latest in Survival & Crafting
Three sheep with big guns in Palworld.
It was 'super popular to hate Palworld' after launch, says community manager: 'A lot of companies might crumble under the threats, under the pressure'
Palworld Ancient Civilization Parts - Grizzbolt with a minigun
'It was a very depressing day': Palworld community manager reveals studio's reaction to Nintendo lawsuit
Ark: Lost Colony teaser still.
Ark 2 is still on: The next Ark expansion 'leads into the events of Ark 2,' says Studio Wildcard
Crying laughing emoji with disturbing realistic elements for REPO
REPO's first update will add a new map and a 'duck bucket' so we can finally give that pesky quacker a time out
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Sunset in the desert in Hello Sunshine
Hello Sunshine is a desert survival sandbox where you live in the literal shadow of the colossus
Latest in News
A cat gets an affectionate head-scratch in miHoYo's Zenless Zone Zero.
Zenless Zone Zero developer finally embraces its divine domain as the god of jiggle physics, goes mad, adds them to cat balls
Image for
Space Marine 2 CEO puts the boot into the Saints Row team's twitching corpse from his private jet: 'Who's going to fund them for the next game after that disaster?'
Yeston RX 9070
Chinese graphics card maker claims RX 9070 supply will be 'stable' from April while AMD commits to more MSRP graphics cards though admits it's something 'we don't directly control'
Sennheiser HD 550 on a white box.
Sennheiser says it 'will not become a gaming brand' but its new HD 550 are a good excuse to use audiophile headphones for gaming
Virtual human head divided into horizontal layers in various skin tones.
The future of robots is looking ever more meaty as MIT researchers grow first bidirectional muscle tissue machine
Three sheep with big guns in Palworld.
It was 'super popular to hate Palworld' after launch, says community manager: 'A lot of companies might crumble under the threats, under the pressure'