Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode has been a great success, with over ten million unique players so far. Guess that proves there’s room for more than one large scale, loot-fueled killing field simulator. Anyway, we can expect Epic to support this game for a very long while, and in Fortnite’s version 1.71 patch, they’re doing plenty of work to both Battle Royale and its co-op PvE Save the World mode – if you care about that.
Not familiar with Fortnite’s PvE mode? Get up to speed with our Fortnite guide.
The patch addresses cheating and balancing in both modes, as well as adding player stats to Battle Royale. Your stats will be backfilled, and you can check them out via the new Stats tab on the home screen. Leaderboards are still coming, though their initial release date has been missed. You’ll also notice an in-game report button so you can flag cheaters for Epic’s attention, and they’ve added BattlEye, a third-party tool, to their existing anti-cheat detection.
In Save the World, ability damage, health, and shield values have been increased for all heroes. This has a modest effect at lower levels, but should have a significant impact for players who have progressed a long way in their campaign. Monsters at the high end have also received a slight buff to their health and damage.
There are dozens more tweaks to Battle Royale’s gameplay, weapon balancing, UI, and world map. Highlights include raised damage for the semi-auto sniper (by 50%) and SMG (by 10%), and nerfs to the damage for the scoped assault rifle (by 33%), and the environmental damage of explosive weapons – so bases are harder to destroy now. The Battle Bus’s speed and skydiving terminal velocity are both increased, so as to offer an alternative strategy to jumping at the first opportunity.
Full patch notes are available on Epic’s blog here.