Fortnite Battle Royale: Epic Games brought the SMG back down to earth

Fortnite’s two new SMG weapons were extremely powerful and Epic Games had to adjust these weapons accordingly. Here’s just how much they were reduced.

The new SMG and P90 (compact SMG) were introduced over the past two weeks and they quickly became the most powerful weapons in the game of Fortnite. Stacking any combination of these weapons increased your chances of winning tenfold.

Perhaps Epic Games wanted to push players away from shotguns completely, or perhaps they just wanted to boost the popularity of these new weapons but they were very soon corrected to reasonable levels.

This doesn’t mean you should stop using the new submachine gun or P90. They are still two of the better weapons in the game. The mid-range weapon is becoming a staple as the end-of-game storms promote movement and rushing in order to win.

Here is a full list of changes to the weapons:

• SMG and P90 accuracy bonus reduced from 35% to 15%
• SMG damage reduced from 19/20/21 to 17/18/19
• P90 damage reduced from 23/24 to 21/22
• SMG fire rate reduced from 13 to 12
• P90 fire rate reduced from 11 to 10
• SMG, P90 and silenced SMG damage falloff
• Range reduced from 2400/3500/5000 to 2000/3000/4000
• Percentage reduced from 100/80/65% to 100/70/40%
• Rare SMG and P90 drop rates slightly reduced

We expected this to happen. The new guns were far too powerful and not being used as they were intended (close range/rush weapons). Epic did a great job listening to the Fortnite community and adjusting these weapons accordingly.

Epic also noted on their Reddit page that the changes also apply to environmental damage. Gone are the days of melting enemy bases with the P90. This is especially important now that building has been nerfed as well.

All of this being said, you should definitely still carry at least one of these weapons in your loadout. The submachine gun and P90 are both great close-range end-of-game weapons and have the fire rate and extended clips needed to provide some forgiveness to anyone whose aim isn’t dead accurate (hand up).

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