Fortnite v4.5 patch notes: dual pistols, fireworks launcher and Playground LTM finally arrive

The highly-anticipated Playground limited time mode has arrived in Fortnite, letting you build safely on an island with friends for up to an hour.

Playground LTM comes as part of Fortnite version 4.5, which also delivers a new weapon – dual pistols – and turns the grenade launcher into a fireworks launcher for a limited time.

Tactical and silenced SMGs have also had a tweak to damage and accuracy, and there’s a whole stack of bug fixes for building, the Boogie Bomb, trap damage and more.

Fortnite Battle Royale patch notes

LIMITED TIME MODES
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. Have fun!
Mode Details
You’ll have one hour to create, play and train as you wish. Hop in and try out version 1 of Playground!
Drop into the Battle Royale map with a squad of friends for an hour
Friendly Fire is on
Players respawn on death unless killed by the storm
The storm doesn’t start closing in for 55m, and takes 5 minutes to close in
Resources gathered grant 10x the normal rate.
100 Llamas will be spawned on the map
Chests & Ammo Boxes spawn 100% of the time
FINAL FIGHT TEAMS OF 12
Summary
Make it to the final circle and then fight for the Victory Royale!
Mode Details
Final Fight plays similar to standard Battle Royale, but instead of the storm circles closing all the way in, they stop part way through the match.
When the circles have finished closing in, the Final Countdown timer will begin.
The remaining teams will battle it out until the timer expires.
The team with the most players remaining at the end of the timer wins!
In the event of a tie, the two (or more) teams tied for the lead win the match.
WEAPONS + ITEMS
Dual Pistols Added
Available in Epic and Legendary variants.
41-43 base damage.
Uses Medium Ammo.
Shoots both pistols with one pull of the trigger.
Can be found from floor loot, chests, and Supply Drops.
Does not use first shot accuracy.
Significant jumps that are landed with the Shopping Cart now appear in the elimination feed (height, distance, and time).
Weapon damage to structures now correctly scales with rarity.
Shotgun damage to structures has been reduced by 50% for Pump Shotgun, and 25% for both Tactical Shotgun and Heavy Shotgun.
Explosions now damage all structures within range, whether or not they are visible from the explosion center.
We’re making the following changes to further solidify the identities and strengths of Tactical and Silenced SMGs.
Tactical SMG
Removed first shot accuracy.
Increased base accuracy by 25%.
Lowered the sprinting accuracy penalty by 15%.
Lowered the ADS bonus by 10 %.
Increased damage by +2.
Silenced SMG
Increased base accuracy by 10%.
Increased ADS accuracy bonus by 20%.
Increased damage by +2.
Shotgun ammo now drops in stacks of 4 instead of 5.
Grenade Launcher visuals have been temporarily changed to shoot fireworks instead. This is a cosmetic change only.
Bug Fixes
Boogie Bomb explosions are no longer blocked by vehicles.
Thermal Scoped Rifle will now consistently exhibit intended accuracy while in scoped in.
Clingers can no longer stick to players through the ceiling or floor.
Spike traps placed on a ceiling no longer damage players on the floor above.
The Thermal Scoped Rifle no longer highlights opened chests.
Weapons will no longer appear to fire while switching weapons under certain network conditions.
GAMEPLAY
Progress for elimination quests will now be granted if you down an enemy with the required weapon rather than needing to actually eliminate them with it.
In Build Mode, walls will now try to build at a closer location when placement is blocked due to lack of structural support. Stairs, Floors, and Roofs are not affected.
Auto-open doors no longer functions while in the Down-But-Not-Out state.
Pickaxes will no longer hit the Shopping Cart if you are riding as the passenger.
Players in the Down-But-Not-Out state can no longer enter Shopping Carts.
Improvements made to the auto pickup weapons feature to better handle picking up large groups of weapons.
Bug Fixes
Items dropped in water now stay above the water’s surface.
Excessive fall damage is no longer applied when under certain network conditions.
Supply Drop crates no longer briefly persist in the world after being opened if it was shot down.
Smoothed out the location of all soccer balls and basketballs while under varying network conditions.
Players are no longer able to hit building weak spots through other buildings.
Having the Sprint Cancels While Running setting turned on will no longer prevent players from auto-reloading their weapon after sprinting.
Fixed an issue that applied a constant force to players if they were hit by a Shopping Cart.
Doors that are interacted with multiple times rapidly no longer get out of sync with their state on the server.
Fixed an issue where if a player was using a consumable and then exchanged it for a different pickup, it would select the pickaxe instead of the new item.
Chests no longer create invalid pickups, such as a 2x Chug Jug instead of 2 individual Chug Jug pickups.
This created an issue that caused players to be unable to pick up building materials.
Players are now awarded an elimination if the opposing player bounced off terrain and took fall damage before taking enough damage to be eliminated.
Fixed a small number of accounts that had incorrect Week 5 Challenges.
Mushrooms no longer spawn on trees in Moisty Mire.
Fixed an issue that prevented the ability to open chests by preemptively holding the interact button while approaching the chest.
Fixed a gap in the terrain that was caused by the sporting goods store in Greasy Grove being slightly moved by accident.
PERFORMANCE
Improved performance of skydiving on all platforms (especially Switch), by reducing rendering related CPU hitches
Fixed a source of hitching on Xbox one. In rare instances, this was causing up to 2-second hitches for some players
Improved framerate around swing-sets by adjusting physics.
Improved performance by doing less work when players are moving outside of your view.
Improved performance for moving ammo and weapon pickups.
Improved player movement updates in large team games. This should make the movement of other players appear smoother.
Fixed skydiving rings ticking the entire match.
Improved framerate around swing-sets by adjusting physics.
AUDIO
Changes to enemy building audio (friendly building audio remains the same).
Increased volume of enemy building audio.
Increased range of enemy building audio by 2 building tiles.
Added variation to water footsteps on mobile and Nintendo Switch platforms.
Re-balanced bass content for surround sound mix.
Bug Fixes
Reallowed the first few milliseconds of audio to play if an emote is triggered while jumping.
Suspension audio on cars is no longer spammed when jumping or sliding off of them.
Shopping Carts no longer spam their collision audio if flipped upside down.
Fixed issue that caused doors to play an open and a close sound when opened.
Fixed the slowed audio for the Step it Up emote.
UI
The switch seat icon is now hidden when you can’t switch seats.
The minimap now draws the whole map and bus paths instead of nothing when on the Starter Island.
Existing map markers are removed when landing after jumping from the Battle Bus to reduce map clutter.
Custom voice chat output devices can be selected on PC.
Removed damage numbers from Shopping Carts and added a health bar.
HUD Elimination and Down-But-Not-Out notifications have received updated animations.
Bug Fixes
Damage numbers no longer overlap if damage is done to both shield and health.
Object stacks no longer appear as 0 ammo when looted.
Map marker icons now properly appear even while on the Starter Island.
Fixed an issue where sometimes map markers wouldn’t be removed when pressing right click and moving the mouse slightly.
Fixed an issue where the player was unable to drop or split an item after dropping a full stack of items.
ART + ANIMATION
The cape on the Battlehound* Outfit is now available as Back Bling.
Added capes to the Ventura* and Venturion* Outfits.
*Anyone who purchased these Outfits has been granted the Back Bling to be used on any other Outfit.
Bug Fixes
Visual effects for the Oracle Axe Pickaxe and Ominous Orb Back Bling now appear correctly on consoles.
Back Bling no longer appears in low detail while spectating players.
REPLAY SYSTEM
Removed ProAm replays from the Replay Browser.
Replay Browser entries will now scroll if text doesn’t fit.
Bug Fixes
The Replay Browser no longer loses gamepad focus if chat window is opened.
SPECTATING
Bug Fixes
The shield bar no longer incorrectly fills and empties when switching between players in spectator mode.
Storm effects no longer get stuck on players that were in the Storm while being spectated even after leaving the Storm or after switching to a new player.
MOBILE
Added settings on mobile for low power mode and scalability.
Improved touch interaction logic to be more consistent and reliable.
Touch rotation sensitivity in the locker has been reset.
Bug Fixes
Vibration setting no longer resets to the wrong value on mobile devices.
Fixed a bug where lower end mobile devices weren’t displaying the whole island while on the bus.
Volume on mobile devices will no longer occasionally become muted.