‘Fortnite’ Updates to Add Heavy Shotgun & Replay System to Battle Royale

Fortnite update 3.4 is expected to release this week, and, if in-game news posts are any indication, it’s going to bring the Heavy Shotgun weapon to Battle Royale. The post doesn’t offer much detail, though, merely describing it as a “new shotgun with increased range.” GDC streams also introduced a Battle Royale replay system as well.

‘Fortnite’s next big weapon addition is the Heavy Shotgun. Epic Games

While Epic has yet to announce a release date for the Heavy Shotgun, it’s believed to debut later this week. Other possible additions to patch 3.4 include new Save The World quests, fuzzy Heroes and Combat Pro controller support.

If you want to capture all that new content in action, you can use Epic’s Fortnite replay system. For Battle Royale specifically, players can capture shield data, health levels and highlight key players. As seen below, the goal is to offer content creators the tools to turn their best Battle Royale moments into cinematic experiences. It’s coming to PC and console versions of the game “soon.” It’s unclear if the feature has any ties to update 3.4, but it remains a possibility.

This weapon addition is a curious one considering the controversy caused by the Pump Shotgun heading into Season 3. Prior to the game’s 3.0.0 update, the Pump was one of the most overpowered guns in the game. In order to combat player frustration, Epic introduced a force-reload after switching to another firearm. In Battle Royale’s early days, the gun’s slow fire rate could be counteracted with a quick weapon switch.

Here’s a world’s first look at the type of content you can create at home, using the new Replay System in Fortnite: Battle Royale! _

Thank you @EpicGames + @FortniteGame for working with me to create this awesome video to show off Replay to the world! __ pic.twitter.com/6IGCBlWDQP

— Ali-A (@OMGitsAliA) March 21, 2018

With those past failures in mind, it will be interesting to see just how well the Heavy Shotgun fits into the larger roster. Hopefully enough safeguards are in place to ensure the meta stays balanced. New gun additions, like the Hunting Rifle, only needed minor tweaks after their initial implementation, and we’d hope that’s the case this time around.

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Following its blockbuster debut on mobile, it’s clear Epic is fully committed to making Fortnite as big as possible. These two feature reveals pave the way for a bright future ahead.

Fortnite is in early access across PS4, Xbox One, PC and iOS.

What do you think of the Heavy Shotgun and Fortnite ’s new replay system? Will you be using it? Tell us in the comments section!