Fortnite studio Epic Games released a hotfix for Battle Royale earlier today that reverts a change with explosion damage affecting structures after the community severely criticized the update.
In the game’s 6.21 patch released on Thursday, the update added a new item, vaulted several weapons, and made one gameplay change: “25% of explosive damage will now penetrate through structures and the environment.” The change made it so that players would receive splash damage from explosive weapons even if protected by a wall or structure, instead of the building absorbing all damage as it was before the update.
The community was quick to criticize the change through many posts in the Fortnite: Battle Royale subreddit and in replies across the game’s official Twitter account. The most common complaint was that there was no way to counteract explosives unless the rockets or grenades missed, since playing defensively with building could still cause damage through the cover.
Epic Games wrote in a post to the subreddit today that it would be reverting the change after one day. “We’ve heard a lot of great input on how we can better incentivize aggressive play and will be keeping that input in mind while we consider other options,” the company wrote in the post.
It is not the first time that the studio quickly reverted a change in Fortnite: Battle Royale after community outcry. The developer made sweeping changes across all submachine guns in the game last July after a newly added SMG was deemed too powerful to the point of breaking the game.
