Epic Games is bringing the heat to Fortnite with update 8.20, literally.
The latest update for the popular battle royale game has added the "Floor is Lava" Limited Time Mode. Inspired by the childhood game we all grew up playing, Floor is Lava sees lava gradually rise from the lowest parts of the map. The lava will continue to overtake the map at a steady speed until the entire map is covered. Touching lava will result in direct damage to your health; you'll also be bounced into the air. To stay safe, you are able to build on the lava, and you'll be given a small number of materials every second.
"The Volcano has sprung a leak...Drop, loot, RUN! Hold the high ground and be the last one standing in this spicy new LTM," the description reads.
As far as the standard battle royale mode,
Fortnite update 8.20 has added the Poison Dart Trap and new foraged items. The Poison Dart Trap can be placed on walls, floors, and ceilings and can be triggered up to three grid cells away.
It fires Poison Dart projectiles a distance of three horizontal grid cells (four vertical grid cells), applying a damage-over-time effect that deals damage directly to the target's health. Each tick does 10 health damage, and there are a total of 8 ticks over 7 seconds (80 total damage). Being hit by more than one Poison Dart will result in the duration being refreshed, but does not compound the damage.
Another new addition to battle royale are foraged items. These come in the form of bananas, which are found in the tropical biome and grant 5 health when consumed; coconuts, which are found in tropical and desert biomes by damaging palm trees and grant 5 points of effective health over a period of time; and peppers, which are also found in the desert biome and instantly grant 5 health and increase player movement speed by 20% for 10 seconds.
Of course, the update also contains plenty of balance changes and bug fixes, but the most noteworthy among them is a change to siphon/materials.
In v7.40 we implemented a few Pop-up Cup settings as a test in core modes. After monitoring a combination of gameplay, data, and feedback, we’ve gathered necessary info to conclude this initial test. We feel it has resulted in an unhealthy level of aggressive play, diminishing other viable strategies.
In
Fortnite's core game modes, the 500 cap has now been reverted back up to 999, but the harvest rate has been decreased by 40%. More materials will also be dropped on elimination, rather than the 50/50/50 rate. It should be noted, that these changes only apply to core modes; the new Arena Game Mode still features the updated mechanics from v7.40 of the 500 material cap, 40% increased harvest rate, and 50/50/50 materials dropped on Elimination.
Speaking of the Arena Game Mode, this new competitive option is available in Solos and Duos, allowing players to compete to gain "Hype" and advance into higher leagues and unlock exclusive tournaments. Here is the breakdown for ranks:
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Each League is broken up into several Divisions, with players working their way from Open League to Contender League to Champion League.
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Scoring will update from division to division, with an increasing amount of Bus Fare lost with each match at higher divisions.
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Note: Matchmaking in Arena is based on players with similar Hype. As a result, players in higher divisions may experience longer than normal wait times before a match is found.
Check out
the full patch notes to see all of the bug fixes and balance changes in
Fortnite update 8.20 - including what's new in the Save the World and Creative modes.