Fortnite Season X, which kicked off last month, introduced a new two-player armoured mech vehicle to the battle royale – the B.R.U.T.E. Since its arrival, some players have voiced their concerns about its perceived dominance in the game. Developer Epic Games previously announced that the B.R.U.T.E. would be get a slight nerf, with things like a new targeting laser and directional sound added to give players a better chance against it. However, it now looks like they’re going to go further – the mech’s now been given a pretty big nerf.
In a post on its website called “B.R.U.T.E. Balance Adjustments”, Epic reveals that it’s made some changes to the mega mech, most of which are already live in the game. There are quite a few adjustments, which alter things like how much damage it can deal with its rockets, how frequently it spawns, plus some other aspects like dashing, boosting, and material collection.
The changes mean that there’s now a lower cap on the B.R.U.T.E.’s rocket firing rate, which has been decreased by 56%, and the number of rockets it’s allowed to fire in one charge, now six rather than ten. Epic says the goal of these adjustments is to “increase the back and forth between the users of the B.R.U.T.E. and the players they face. These changes allow the players on the receiving end of the missile volley to have more time to react and protect themselves.”
Other changes include an adjustment to how often the B.R.U.T.E. will spawn for storm phases 1, 2, 3, and in core modes, with Epic providing a percentage-based comparison for each phase against the previous spawn rates.
We’ve made adjustments to the B.R.U.T.E. in all game modes and temporarily removed the Junk Rift from Arena and Tournaments playlists.
This update is rolling out to all servers now, read the full details on these changes here: https://t.co/Xm3YIQJBaI
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 22, 2019
Plus, while there was previously a minimum number of B.R.U.T.E.s that would appear in a match’s early stages, Epic is now adding “a little more variance” to this – the average number of B.R.U.T.E.s per match has now gone down slightly. However, Epic says that spawn rates for the game’s Arena mode won’t be altered along with these changes.
In addition to the above, B.R.U.T.E.s will no longer gain materials from “stomping or dashing” through the game’s scenery for their riders (though this change will follow shortly after the others). The dash cooldown time has increased from three seconds to five, and the velocity you’ll get by boosting mid-air is reduced by 33%.
However, one small tweak Epic’s made to the B.R.U.T.E. which gives it a bit of a helping hand is that its health has now increased from 1000 to 1250. Epic says that “with the above changes, users of the B.R.U.T.E. need to play a bit more strategic[ally] than before, so we want to give a little bit longer of a window to do so.”