Epic Games has once again done a great job with another "Fortnite Battle Royale" season. Season 9 has just come out, and it has brought some massive changes to the popular battle royale video game. The video game developer has made a few changes to the in-game island to make it look different for the season. However, there are many gameplay changes players will have to adjust to as well.
The "Fortnite Battle Royale" creator has made a lot of changes to the item loadout players will be able to carry from now on. The latest update has vaulted eight different items from the game, and only one weapon has been unvaulted.
It will be interesting to see what the Season 9 meta is going to be, especially considering that the Drum Gun has been brought back to the game as well.
Vaulted weapons
Epic Games has vaulted the Buried Treasure item which was in the game for only one season. This makes sense considering that the eighth season had a pirate theme, and the item no longer fits it. Besides this, the Poison Dart Trap, another Season 8 item, has been vaulted as well. The game developer has removed Balloons from the game as there is no need for them with new mobility features that come with the latest patch.
Scoped Revolver has been removed from the game as well, which makes sense considering that not a lot of players have been using it.
However, the game creator has also reverted one of the Season 8 changes by unvaulting Grenades and vaulting Clingers. In addition to this, Thermal Assault Rifle is no longer in the game, as well as the suppressed variant of SCAR. These two weapons also make sense considering that they haven't been used a lot and that players still have similar alternatives.
The most surprising change is the removal of Pump Shotgun. This has been the most effective weapon in "Fortnite Battle Royale" for a long time, but its end has come. According to Epic Games, Pump Shotgun has been used for 26 percent of total eliminations, and the second place is not even close. Instead of nerfing the weapon once again, the game developer has tried a different approach this time, and we will see how the community will like this.
New weapon
Pump Shotgun has been removed from the game, but the Combat Shotgun has been added. This is a semi-automatic shotgun which holds ten shells and fires nine pellets per shot, dealing 73/77/81 base damage. This is the damage for Rare, Epic, and Legendary variants of the weapon.
The Combat Shotgun has a tight spread and a fast fire rate, which should make it a useful weapon in Season 9. Its headshot multiplier is much lower than on other shotguns, however, as this weapon will deal 70 percent more damage on these hits.