It was a huge day for Fortnite today as the fan-favorite game not only celebrating its first anniversary but also receive a massive update that introduced a ton of gameplay changes. Update v5.10 was released today and with it came the popular Playground LTM, celebratory in-game events, a new weapon, and a slew of balance tweaks.

First up is Fortnite's first birthday. As previously detailed, Epic is celebrating the game's anniversary with birthday challenges in Battle Royale and a special questline in Save the World. The following challenges are now live.

• Deal 1,000 damage to opponents to unlock the Fortnite Birthday! Emoticon
• Dance at different birthday cakes (10) to unlock the Happy Birthday! Spray
• Play 14 matches to unlock 5,000 XP.
• Complete all 3 challenges to earn the Birthday Cake Back Bling

Completing the Save the World questline will unlock Birthday Brigade Ramirez. Additionally, finding and eating birthday cakes littered across the map will reward you with tickets to be redeemed on the limited time Birthday Llama. Speaking of Save the World, the update has added the desert of Canny Valley and Thunder Route 99, both of which are set in the new Arid Biome.



An updated version of Playground Mode is also slated to return on Wednesday, July 25, with new team select options that let you and your squad set up team battles for practice and training. A complete list of what's new in the updated Playground Mode can be seen in the patch notes below.

Fortnite's popular Battle Royale mode received a ton of changes today, most notably with the addition of the new Compact SMG. This "high capacity, fast firing" new weapon is perfect for close quarters combat. It's available in Epic and Legendary variants, uses light ammo, and comes with a 50-round capacity magazine.



Slurp Juice has also been majorly reworked and now grants 1 health every 0.5 seconds, up to a total of 75. If your health is full, any remaining points will grant shield. Other notable gameplay tweaks include Supply Drop loot rate adjustments, Storm Circle changes, and perhaps the biggest - changes to building materials. With the nerf to most building materials and the addition of the new SMG, there have been plenty of complaints on that Epic has ruined building in Fortnite. 

All of the Battle Royale changes in update 5.10 can be read in more depth below.
 

GENERAL

• New default keybindings for new players.
  • All keyboard layouts will continue to default to the QWERTY bindings for new players or those who reset their back to default.
• Changed countdown timers to display more useful information
  • Shows hours left instead of days when under 72 hours.
  • Shows hours:minutes: seconds left when below 13 hours.
• Changed the background of the loading screen bullet points area to be partially translucent.
• Removed the “static noise” when switching tabs.
• The “Restore” button has been removed from the settings screen. Also, the “Reset Defaults” button has been renamed to “Reset”.
  • Leaving the settings screen before applying changes will give the option to apply changes and exit or discard changes and exit. 
• Double clicks now register as two clicks on a button, allowing for faster navigation through Next/Previous type buttons

 Bug Fixes

• Items on the ground will properly have their stack counts updated if the stack size changes while the player is currently looking at them.
• Fixed a frame delay on some text layouts, which would cause large blocks of text to reflow their wrapping one frame after seeing them.
• Corrected text shadows that were appearing incorrectly in certain areas of the UI.

 

BATTLE ROYALE

BIRTHDAY EVENT

• You can now find birthday cakes placed around the map with consumable slices next to them. Enjoy those tasty treats!
  • Cake slices give +5 health and +5 shield instantly when consumed.
• Complete three birthday event challenges to unlock a new emote, spray, and Backbling.
• The Battlebus and Supply Drops have been decorated to celebrate #Fortnite1st.

LIMITED TIME MODE: PLAYGROUND

Summary
Playground is a low-pressure environment where friends can let their creativity run wild. Build massive structures. Practice with the weapons and items. Fight against your friends. This mode returns with improvements for a limited time on Wednesday, July 25. Have fun!

What’s New?

• Players can now switch teams in-game. Join the same team to work together creatively, join separate teams to practice fighting each other!
  • Note: Voice chat will remain on across all teams, future iterations of the mode will offer more customization. 
• Aim assist will work when using a gamepad against players on an opposing team.
• Matches will no longer end if one player leaves the server.
• Golf carts have been added and spawn 100% of the time.
• Ammo cans spawn 10x the amount of ammo.
• Removed grey vending machines, increased the chances of higher-tier machines spawning.
• Increased launch & bounce pads spawn likelihood.
• Lowered forced glider deploy height, so players can get back into the action more quickly.
• Increased max rocket ammo cap to 60.
• Increased rocket ammo drop rates.
• Added 100 Supply Drops.
• Chests now spawn 3 weapons and more ammo & consumables than normal.
• Floor loot now spawns 3 items.
• Increased Chug Jug and Slurp Juice spawn chances, decreased Bandages.
• Added Chug Jugs to floor loot.
• Respawn timer lowered from 10s to 3s.

Mode Details

• Drop into the Battle Royale map alone or with up to a full squad for an hour.
• Players respawn immediately unless eliminated by the Storm.
• The Storm doesn't start closing in for 55 minutes and takes 5 minutes to close in.
• Resources gained from harvesting increased by ten times the normal amount.
• 100 Llamas will be spawned on the map.
• Chests & ammo boxes spawn 100% of the time.

WEAPONS + ITEMS

• Compact SMG added.
  • Available in Epic and Legendary variants.
    • 23-24 base damage.
  • Uses Light Ammo.
  • 50 round capacity.
  • Can be found from floor loot, chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines.
• Slurp Juice now grants 1 health every 0.5 seconds, up to a total of 75. If health is full, shield will be granted instead.
• Supply Drop loot rates adjusted.
  • Weapons (drops 1)
    • Assault Rifles to 25% from 14.2%.
    • Explosives to 25% from 28.5%.
    • Compact SMG 14.58%.
    • Sniper Rifles to 14.58% from 28.5%.
    • Heavy Shotgun to 10.42% from 7.1%.
    • Minigun to 10.42% from 14.2%.
    • Removed Hand Cannon, Dual Pistols, and Silenced Pistol.
  • Traps (drops 2)
    • Launch Pad to 44.44% from 9.6%.
    • Cozy Campfire to 33.33% from 7.5%.
    • Bouncer to 22.22% from 15%.
    • Removed Damage Traps.
  • Consumables (drops 2)
    • Shield Potion to 20% from 19.1%
    • Small Shield Potion to 17.50% from 12.7%
    • Med Kit to 13.75% from 6.3%
    • Slurp Juice to 11.25% from 5.11%
    • Clinger to 10% from 6.3%
    • Remote Explosives to 10% from 3.3%
    • Impulse Grenade to 10% from 4%
    • Chug Jug to 7.5% from 2.1%
    • Removed Boogie Bombs, Grenades, Bandages, Stink Bombs, Port-a-Forts, and Bush.
  • Materials (drops 2)
    • Wood to 33% from 47.6%.
    • Stone to 33% from 35.7%.
    • Metal to 33% from 16.6%.

GAMEPLAY

• Changes to building materials.
  • Wood wall starting health to 80 from 100.
  • Stone wall starting health to 80 from 90.
  • Wood wall max health to 150 from 200. 
  • Metal wall max health to 500 from 400.
  • Metal build time to 25s from 20s.
• Storm Circle changes.
  • Safezone 2 wait time to 120 from 150.
  • Safezone 2 shrink time to 120 from 90.
  • Safezone 4 wait time to 90 from 120.
  • Safezone 6 wait time to 60 from 90.
  • Safezone 7 wait time to 45 from 60.
  • Safezone 8 wait time to 30 from 60.
  • Safezone 9 wait time to 30 from 45.
  • Added moving circle to Safezone 6.
• Added "Sprint By Default" option, when enabled this makes sprint the default movement. The sprint key will now be used to transition into walking.
• Newly-placed building pieces will now appear in a different color while players are still overlapping the structure.
• Improved handling of collision when building pieces are placed right on top of a player. It's much more likely for players to be moved outside of newly-placed structures.
• Pickaxe damage against enemy and ally player built structures increased to 75 base damage and 150 critical damage.
• The slow motion and confetti effects for a Victory Royale will now play for the winner regardless of how they win the game.
• Changing the gyro motion of the Nintendo Switch to rotate around the roll instead of the yaw.
  • This is intended to allow for the users to be able to hold the device in any situation and always have the motion react according to the screen direction instead of being in the Switch's world space.

 Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing bullets and projectiles to be blocked by invisible collision.
  • This was being caused by player placed map markers
• Autorun can now be used while in vehicles. Fixed a logic issue in the autorun canceling code.
  • This should also fix autorun canceling when releasing the stick while using a gamepad.
• Changed the button layout for Old School and Quick Builder configs so that the “change seat” action button is not the same as the “powerslide” button.
• Sniper rifle bullets no longer incorrectly stop when passing through certain trigger volumes.
• Eliminating players will now properly grant challenge progress.
  • If the same player knocks out and eliminates an enemy with two different weapons, they will get elimination quest progress for both weapons.
• Players will no longer get stuck in the coasting state if they change seats while in a vehicle.
• Pickaxes will no longer stretch and appear incorrectly if the slow-motion effect plays while players are riding in a vehicle.
• Fixed an issue where a player would not have a weapon out if hitting a bounce pad into a jump pad under certain network conditions.
• Players will no longer hold weapons while emoting if they’re riding in an All Terrain Kart.
• Players will no longer fall through floor or pushed through walls when placing or editing structures.
• Remote Explosives will now only show damage numbers when damage is done to players.
• Vehicles can no longer be flipped while standing on top of them.
  • This fixes the issue where players would sometimes become stuck or teleported if standing on a vehicle that flipped.
• Crouching is no longer allowed while emoting.
• The Wave emote, emoticons, and sprays will now continue to play even if you’re moving.

PERFORMANCE

• Various server performance improvements focused on the 50v50 LTM.
• Server performance improvements were made to the custom matches used during competitive events.
• Significant All Terrain Kart (ATK) performance improvements.

AUDIO

• Added spatialization to the sound played when a marker is placed on the map. Now you will hear it coming from where the in-world marker was placed.
• All Terrain Kart (ATK) audio improvements
  • Improved All Terrain Kart (ATK) audio attenuation fall-off.
  • Added a unique sound when the All Terrain Kart (ATK) is destroyed.
  • Added sounds for when the All Terrain Kart (ATK) is in water.
• Improvements have been made to grenade bounce audio so they don’t sound as spammy under certain conditions.
• Lowered the volume of the AC/DC pickaxe.
• Added a unique sound for bouncing off a diving board.
• Added a unique sound for destroying cacti.
• Audio panning logic for Switch has been changed. Sources panning from one side to another will be more dramatic.

Bug Fixes

• Conquest glider’s open and close sounds no longer stack when spamming the action.
• Twist emote music no longer overlaps with other emote music.
• Re-added metal impact sounds when shooting or pickaxing Shopping Carts.
• Weapon fire audio no longer cuts out when low on ammo for some weapons.

UI

• Adjusted lobby nameplate arrangement to better account for long player names.
• Added the ability to combine stackable items in player inventory if the stack sizes aren't already capped.
• The Game Mode Select screen now sorts in the following order from left to right:
  • Solo, Duo, Squads

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue preventing players to select nothing as an Outfit and Backbling.
  • Removed the ‘Save and Exit’ option for items without variants.
  • Double tap the accept hotkey/button to confirm your selection.
• Fixed an issue in the locker where the shuffle icon for randomized outfits was drawn slightly differently to other shuffle icons.
• Removed an error message when trying to purchase the Battle Bundle while at tier 76 or above.
• The correct actions are now shown on the HUD when you get into a Shopping Cart for the first time after being in an All Terrain Kart (ATK).

ART + ANIMATION

Bug Fixes

• Prevented sprays from affecting the eyes of the Rainbow Smash pickaxe.
• The Toilet Paper contrail animations now appear correctly.

REPLAY SYSTEM

• Changed the icon when a player has been downed to an exclamation mark.

Bug Fixes

• Battle Bus positioning now appears correctly in replays.
• Fixed an issue with focus distance when changing cameras in replays.
• Fixed issues with drone cameras when viewing players in vehicles during replays.
• Fixed an issue where the camera controls would not display when toggling the HUD visibility.

MOBILE

• Downloading patches will now continue when you switch to a different app. When the download has completed, you’ll receive a notification.
• Fire mode selection now has preview videos to better illustrate the functionality.
• Added new placeable individual quick bar buttons to the HUD layout tool. Can be set to either locked Combat, locked Build, or Automatic mode to switch based on the player’s currently selected mode.
• Tapping a currently selected build item from the quick bar will now build the item.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed texture streaming issues with the battle bus.
• Audible pops will no longer occur on iOS during loading screens and gameplay.

SAVE THE WORLD

MISSIONS + SYSTEMS

• New Canny Valley Campaign Quests are now available:
  • These new quests continue the storyline into Canny Valley and will appear on the quest map.
  • All players with access to Canny Valley and Twine Peaks will be able to complete this new storyline.
  • Storm Shield Defense and Launch the Rocket quests are unchanged and are still required to unlock new difficulties within Canny Valley.
  • You can now advance directly from one Storm Shield Defense to the next, without doing every story quest in between.
  • The storyline includes new quests that ask you to complete the old Storm Shield Defense quests. These will give retroactive credit if the Storm Shield Defense has already been completed. 
  • Old Canny Valley quests are still present and have been converted into a series of optional side quests.
• Dupe Prevention added to ALL Llamas!
  • After the Llama has determined the rarity and type of drop (IE - an Epic shotgun, a Legendary event hero, etc) it will select an item from that category that is not already in your inventory or Collection Book.
  • This change applies to Epic, Legendary and Mythic schematics and heroes.
• Quest progression changes for Twine Peaks:
  • You can now advance directly from one Storm Shield Defense to the next, unlocking new areas without doing the quests in between.
  • New quests have been inserted into the Twine Peaks main questline that require completion of the Storm Shield Defenses and give retroactive credit.
• Missions in Canny Valley and Twine Peaks have new Required Power Ratings:

 

Required Homebase Power	Recommended Mission Power Rating
28	46
34	52
40	58
46	64
52	70
58	76
64	82
70	88
76	94
82	100

• The leader of your party must be at or above the Required Power Rating before your party can join a Mission of the listed recommended Power Rating.
• This requirement applies to Mission Alerts as well as normal missions. It does not apply to Storm Shield Defenses.
• New Fortnite Birthday quests!
  • Find and eat Birthday Cakes to earn event tickets.
  • Eliminate Cake Sploders to earn a Birthday Hero.
• New Mission Control
  • We’ve begun implementing a new system for mission activation and voting. For now, we've added it to Retrieve the Data and Ride the Lightning missions. This new system replaces the Difficulty Pylon in the world and allows for both mission start and difficulty increase at the mission location.
  • In games with more than one player, increasing difficulty requires a majority vote.
  • In Ride the Lightning games with more than one player, starting the mission before the mission ready timer has expired also requires a majority vote.  The default time for mission ready is currently set to 10 minutes.
  • Ride the Lightning mission will now show the storm direction on locating Lars's van instead of on depositing BluGlo.

HEROES

• Birthday Brigade Ramirez, Legendary variant of Sergeant, is available from the limited-time birthday quest. 
• New Mythic Constructor: Steel Wool Syd, has been added to the Act 1 Canny Valley questline.
  • New Subclass: Kinetic Beats - Steel Wool singer that uses hardware to drop kinetic beats.
  • New Perks:
    • Software - Increases hardware heavy attack energy efficiency by 150%.
    • Lightweight - Increases hardware attack speed by 24%.
    • Maximum Overload - Increases damage of Kinetic Overload by 110%.
• Urban Assault Sledgehammer Soldier is available in the Event Store
  • Available July 25 at 8PM Eastern Time (July 26 at 0000 GMT).
• Collision has been removed on Plasma Pulse for other players.
• Changed wording in Hammer specific abilities from "Blunt" to "Hammer"
• The following heroes can now be recycled or collected, and consume inventory space:
  • Rabbit Raider Jonesy
  • Wukong
  • Chromium Ramirez
  • Diecast Jonesy
  • Raven
  • 8-Bit Demo
  • Snuggle Specialist Sarah
  • Shamrock Reclaimer
  • Archaeolo-Jess
  • Note that all players will receive 25 free inventory spaces as a free Birthday gift, so this change should not cause overflow.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the following tooltips, using incorrect values:
  • Base M.D. now heals for the correct amount.
  • The Base M.D. tooltip has been corrected to show "The Constructor's BASE regenerates 30 health every 3 seconds while allies are inside."
  • The Ain't Done Yet tooltip has been corrected to show “Increases the duration of Goin' Commando's active effect by 5 seconds.”
  • The Combatants Might tooltip has been corrected to show “Reduces energy cost of War Cry to 20.” 
  • The Phase shield tooltip has been corrected to show “Phase Shift forces the shield to regenerate for 2 seconds.”
  • The Tail of the Dragon tooltip has been corrected to show "Dragon Slash leaves a persistent trail of energy, damaging for 12% of Dragon Slash damage, every 0.5 seconds, and slowing enemies by 30% caught within the tail for 3 seconds."
  • The tooltip for Corrosive Stars has been corrected to show "Throwing Stars Afflict their targets, doing 25% of Throwing Stars damage every second, for 6 seconds."
  • The tooltip for Nice and Slow has been corrected to show "Kinetic Overload applies a 40% slow to affected targets, reducing their movement and attack speed for 5 seconds."
• The trigger radius for the Constructor Supercharged Plasma perk has been corrected.
• Beetle Jess' stats now match the base Ranger subclass.

ENEMIES

• New Zapper Husk enemy added!
  • The Zapper Husk is a ranged attack enemy who fires a single, moderately powered beam at players.
  • Damage and health for this husk put it midway between the Pitcher and the Blaster in difficulty.
  • The Zapper Husk will be able to spawn with elemental modifiers.

WEAPONS + ITEMS

• Be sure to check the Store daily. You never know what may rotate in!
• Birthday Llama
  • Awards past event items from Llamas and Event Store, but not from Quest Rewards.
  • Collection book pages have been added for these items based on which event they originally were available.
  • Cost: 1,000 Road Trip tickets.
• Many freebies and special offers will appear in the Loot tab for the duration of the Birthday event.
• Reduced Defender XP leveling costs by 50%.
• Reduced the evolution cost of Defenders by 50%.
• Upgrade Llamas are now limited to 50 quantity per day.
• We’ve reduced the amount of Nuts & Bolts and Mineral Powder used on a variety of traps:
  • Floor Launcher
    • Uncommon crafting recipe changed from 4 Nuts & Bolts to 4 Rough Ore.
    • Rare crafting recipe changed from 5 Nuts & Bolts to 5 Rough Ore. 
    • Epic crafting recipe changed from 5 Nuts & Bolts to 6 Rough Ore.          
    • Legendary crafting recipe changed from 6 Nuts & Bolts to 7 Rough Ore.
  • Flame Grill                              
    • Rare crafting recipe changed from 9 Nuts & Bolts to 7 Rough Ore.     
    • Epic crafting recipe changed from 10 Nuts & Bolts to 8 Rough Ore.    
    • Legendary crafting recipe changed from 11 Nuts & Bolts to 9 Rough Ore.    
  • Freeze Trap                          
    • Rare crafting recipe changed from 9 Nuts & Bolts to 7 Rough Ore.    
    • Epic crafting recipe changed from 10 Nuts & Bolts to 8 Rough Ore.
    • Legendary crafting recipe changed from 11 Nuts & Bolts to 9 Rough Ore.
  • Falling Ceiling                              
    • Rare crafting recipe changed from 9 Nuts & Bolts to 7 Planks.
    • Epic crafting recipe changed from 10 Nuts & Bolts to 8 Planks.
    • Legendary crafting recipe changed from 11 Nuts & Bolts to 9 Planks.
  • Wall Dynamo
    • All recipes changed from 2 Mineral Powder to 2 Batteries.
    • No longer costs Rough Ore to craft.
    • All recipes now require 3 Mechanical Parts.
  • Campfire
    • Crafting recipes changed from 2 Mineral Powder at all rarities to 2 Twine at all rarities.
  • Healing Pad Handmade
    • No longer costs Nuts & Bolts to craft.
    • Reduced Flowers from 6 to 4.
• Ranged weapon reticle changes:
  • Several energy weapons which used a triangular 3-hash crosshair now use the standard 4-hash reticle.
  • Scoped snipers no longer have a reticle while not scoped.
  • Reticles now have a center dot.
• The following weapons can now be recycled or collected, and consume inventory space:
  • Bobcat 
  • Dragonfire 
  • Dragon's Fist 
  • Easter Egg Launcher 
  • HackSAW 
  • Heartbreaker 
  • Lynx 
  • Mercury LMG 
  • Neon Sniper Rifle 
  • Noble Launcher 
  • Obliterator 
  • Quad Launcher 
  • Ralphie's Revenge 
  • Tiger
  • Note that all players will receive 25 free inventory spaces as a free Birthday gift, so this change should not cause overflow.

Bug Fixes

• Adjusted the rocket from the Tiny Instrument of Death to account for player movement and home in towards the player's reticle more aggressively.
• Replaced heavy attack efficiency perk tooltips with “energy” instead of "stamina".
• Lefty and Righty, Founder's Revolt, Quickfire Pistol, Haywire, Haywire Storm, and Bobcat no longer snap up and down when shooting.

GAMEPLAY

• Gold reward doubled across all Horde reward tiers.
• Perk Combobulator resource rewards increased +50% across all Horde reward tiers.
• Greatly reduced camera shake for Air Strike Gadget and in world Rift Impacts.
• Removed the "Loot Llama" quest.
  • Homebase Storm Shield Defense 1 now grants Constructor Leadership. 
  • Kyle Constructor and Hero XP quest rewards are now granted by Homebase Storm Shield Defense 1. 
  • Updated Founders quests to require Homebase Storm Shield Defense 1 to be completed instead of Loot Llamas. Updated Quest text to reflect this update. 
  • Removed Copper Knight Shotgun quest reward from Homebase Storm Shield Defense 1.
  • Updated the Stonewood quest map to reflect that the Loot Llamas quest has been removed.
  • Removed first Loot Llama quest requirement from Constructor Leadership node.
• Added cosmetic items for Battle Royale to all Founder's Packs. All current and new founders have been granted the following:
  • Warpaint Outfit
  • Warpaint Backbling
  • Rose Team Leader Outfit
  • Rose Team Leader Backbling 
• Player input for jumping is now the same as Battle Royale. It is no longer needed to hold down spacebar while jumping to reach max jump height.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause players to become stuck on the Loot Llama Tutorial quest.
• Fixed issue with holding down O or B on a gamepad on the Horde Deployable Base would open the UI for the Base, instead of casting Hoverboard or editing any nearby walls.
• Changed elemental enemy callouts before encounters to use the correct images.
• Fixed issue with not taking fall damage when on the Hoverboard.
• Fixed an issue where Banner could be left floating in the air if the building under it was edited before being destroyed.
• Power 100 Horde Challenge Quest has been renamed to Power 76 Horde Challenge.
  • This was purely a visual issue and the difficulty hasn’t been altered.
• Fixed the number of normal AI staying too low for the entire wave of Mini-Boss horde waves.
• Fixed an issue where some Horde hexes were giving Horde Skill Points that were one tier lower than intended.
• Fixed an issue that caused there to be one fewer Mission Alert on the Horde map than intended.

UI

Bug Fixes

• The pop-up to select to open one or all unopened pinatas no longer appear if you only have one to open.
• Fixed the issue where a Llama from your inventory queue could be opened rather than a purchased or claimed Llama you just obtained.
• Moved the button to open unopened pinatas to be next to the unopened pinata count indicator.
• Fixed Llama count displayed while opening Llamas to correctly show the number of unopened Llamas.
• Fixed an issue where the menu music wouldn’t repeat after leaving a game lobby.
• Fixed an issue where the unopened pinatas indicator was behind other UI elements.
• Added keyboard key prompt for the Decline button of the recycle/retire dialog box.
• Corrected the tooltips for Tactical Practiced in Combat and Tactical Assassination perks.
• Updated the tooltip for Wild West Soldier Practiced.
• Fixed issue with tooltips where weapons could show double the amount of damage they actually do.

ART + ANIMATION

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with certain areas not playing water visual effects while running or jumping in water.

AUDIO

• New ambient and combat music for Thunder Route 99.