Epic Games has nerfed its newly-introduced SMGs, a few days after they both arrived in the game. Both the standard and Compact SMG were subject to changes in a hotfix that went out last night.
If you’ve been playing Fortnite in the past week or so, you’ll know how much of a threat the new weapons have been. The SMGs have slightly higher damage than their Tactical or Suppressed cousins, but maintain a lot of the accuracy and rate of fire associated with the weapon class. The Compact SMG in particular has been a nightmare, an almost must-have item if you’re hoping to contend that Victory Royale – something that’s not happened since Fortnite’s ill-fated Guided Missiles disappeared from the game.
In a post on Reddit, an Epic spokesperson said that the SMGs “are stronger than we would like at the moment,” and documents the changes to the weapons, which should be live in-game at time of writing. The changes aren’t necessarily the final iteration of the weapons, but they should help reign in some of their dominance.
The changes cover a lot of different aspects of the weapons – both SMGs and Compact SMGs are seeing their accuracy bonus reduced to 15% from 35%, and seeing adjustments to their range and damage fall-off.Compact SMGs in particular will see their fire rate and damage reduced slightly, while normal SMGs will see similar nerfs. Finally, Rare SMGs and Compact SMGs will both see their drop rates slightly reduced, making it less likely that you’ll come under siege in one of the final zones.
