The Pros and Cons of the Railgun and the Recon Scanner

Fortnite has brought back the Railgun and the Recon Scanner, but each has issues.

Fortnite has brought back the Railgun and Recon Scanner for this week as part of a new line of quests but the game brought back two great in concept, but horribly flawed weapons. The Railgun is powerful and can tear apart pieces of a structure when you’re tracking opponents with the Recon Scanner.

A clear shot can cause 180+ points in damage, while the Recon Scanner has limitless ammo, allowing you to tag your opponents as necessary.

Yet, despite the Railgun being as powerful as it is, and the Recon Scanner being limitless in the number of times you can use it, both have fatal flaws that make these weapons more novelty than necessary.

The issues with the Rail Gun and the Recon Scanner in Fortnite.

First, let’s look at the Rail Gun. The Rail Gun is a heavy rifle that can produce a rail blast that can rip through structure walls while still hitting the target. It can’t go through anything, but you can get a good shot at someone if they’re hiding behind wood walls. That’s the positive. The negative is that it’s not entirely accurate. Due to the fact the gun takes several seconds to charge, your target is bound to move and then it’s a guessing game to figure out where they’ll move to.

Then the gun only has one shot per clip, so if you miss, you’re looking at four or five seconds to rel-load and fire again. It’s a slow, immobile, and frankly impractical weapon.

The gun works best with the Recon Scanner, as you can pinpoint your opponents who are hiding, and in doing so you can find your target just about anywhere. Yet, the recon scanner takes a long time to reset once used, assuming it pings anything. The problem there is that a tagged opponent won’t stay pinged if it leaves the bubble the scanner generates, but your weapon will register them despite no longer being able to show them.

If the weapon permanently pinged them as long as you had the weapon on your person, that would really help with tracking. Otherwise, it’s not as effective as it could be.