The latest ‘Fortnite’ event is an all-around explosive good time

By Steven Petite July 31, 2018

Epic Games has added a new limited-time mode to Fortnite, and it’s sure to be an explosive good time. Fly Explosives is an explosives-only variant that emphasizes fragging your opponents with high-powered rocket launchers. Don’t worry, though, you’ll have a trusty jetpack to evade incoming missiles.

This means you’ll only find rocket launchers, grenade launchers, and grenades on the map. So, yeah, everyone will have something in their hands that can blast you and your cover to smithereens. Rocket ammunition caps out at 120, but that’s a ridiculously high number of rockets, even if you don’t have that great of aim. Jetpacks found on the map will have quicker fuel regeneration and a lower consumption of fuel while airborne. Basically, you can fly around longer, which should help players from both an offensive and defensive perspective.

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To keep the action going, the gap between storms will be shorter. This is because everyone will be able to find the only type of loot on the map very quickly. Epic estimates that a round of Fly Explosives will last less than 20 minutes. Fly Explosives has stat tracking, including kills, deaths, and wins.

Additionally, the much-maligned guided missile comes back to the battle royale experience. Guided missiles were notoriously overpowered during their first stint in the game, leading Epic to remove them. The weapon has been tweaked to be not as powerful. It’s available in Epic and Legendary variants. Missiles now have a reduced movement speed, higher reload time, lower distance allotment, and dole out much less damage to both players and buildings. Player damage from guided missiles is down from 105/110 to 74/77. Meanwhile, structure damage has been drastically reduced from 1100 to 400.

Playground mode also benefits from the updates. The Vaulted Jetpack will be available throughout the Fly Explosives event, and guided missiles home their way into the creative mode. Epic has also removed bandages from Playground to increase the chances of finding better healing items such as health and shield potions.

The new patch is now live on all platforms. It’s unclear how long Fly Explosives will be featured, so you would be wise to try it out as soon as possible.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…

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