Fortnite 9.30 patch notes update: Chug Splash, Vaulted weapons, Shotgun Swap Delay, more

Fortnite fans can download update 9.30, as Epic takes the game offline for server maintenance.

And according to the lengthy list of 9.30 patch notes, the latest Fortnite update is a big one.

The headline new feature is the addition of a brand new item called Chug Splash.

Ideal for squad play, this thrown item splashes liquid in a small area, which in turn grants 20 Health/Shield to any players in the splash radius.

According to the patch notes, it can heal allies, enemies and even extend the duration of the knocked state.

Unfortunately, however, it’s not all good news, because the Boom Bow, Dual Pistols and Dynamite have all been vaulted.

The Shotgun Swap Delay has also been removed from the game, although Epic will track its effectiveness.

Needless to say, update 9.30 also makes a number of quality of life improvements and bug fixes. 

It’s also worth noting that Playground mode will be unavailable after the game comes back online.

You can check out the full list of update 9.30 patch notes below…

LIMITED TIME MODE ROTATION:

Sniper Shootout Duos

• Sniper rifles only. May the best aim win!

Trios

• Classic Battle Royale with Three-Person squads.

Solid Gold Squads

• Fight to the finish using Legendary weapons.

WEAPONS + ITEMS

Chug Splash

• On impact, this thrown item splashes liquid in a small area. All players within the splash radius will be instantly granted 20 Health/Shield.

• Grants health unless you are full health, in which case it will grant Shield.

• Chug Splash can heal allies, enemies, and can extend the duration of the ‘knocked’ state for knocked players.

• Rare variant.

• Drops in stacks of 2.

• Max stack size: 6.

• Can be found from Floor Loot, Chests, Vending Machines, Supply Drops, and Llamas.

Shotgun Swap Delay Removed

• Shotgun cooldowns now only apply when the player is carrying multiple shotguns, regardless of Shotgun type.

• This is a Quality of Life change to prevent the swap delay system from interfering with players who do not have multiple shotguns in their inventory. As with all changes, we’ll be keeping a close eye on this and make adjustments if necessary.

• Reduced the Combat Shotgun’s long-range effectiveness

• Reduced damage at medium distances by 10%

• 2.44 tiles to 4.88 tiles

• Reduced damage at long distances by 20%

• 4.88 tiles to 9.76 tiles

• The Combat Shotgun’s accuracy uniquely enables players to hit shots from longer distances compared to other shotguns. However, the damage at those longer ranges was a little higher than desired..

Vaulted

• Boom Bow

• Dual Pistols

• Dynamite

• These Vaults are primarily targeted at adjusting the availability of explosives, putting them more in line with where we think they should be.

• Removed the ability to ride Proximity Grenade Launcher projectiles

• Due to the faster speed of this projectile, it was causing problems with level streaming. You can still ride rockets launched from Rocket Launchers.

• Added short delay to start damaging players from Storm Flip on entry, to mimic normal Storm gameplay

• Added Storm Flip to Audio Visualizer when it is activated

• Toys no longer will show up in the elimination feed on Starter Island

Bug Fixes and Adjustments

• Players could shoot immediately after using a Rift to Go.

• Supply Drones would sometimes spawn underground in areas with water.

• Adjusted the area of around the Reboot Van that players cannot build to prevent the placement of floors and traps under the Van.

• The Proximity Grenade Launcher was auto reloading while aiming down sights.

• This is fix makes it consistent with Snipers and will reload once unscoping or after next attempt to fire.

• Adjusted the timing for the effects of consumables to help situations where players would switch away from the consumable before it finished activating.

• Reboot Cards will no longer fall to the ground. They will remain where they spawn.

• Reboot Cards were remaining available on the map even after the timer had expired.

• Campfires could block explosion damage at specific angles.

• The Shadow Bomb double jump ability could be activated while under the effect of a Boogie Bomb.

• Boogie Bomb effects would continue playing on players while they were skydiving.

• Empty Shadow Bombs could not be discarded correctly if eliminated while the effect was active while in respawn game modes.

• Players that had a Rift to Go used on them at the same time they were being rebooted would sometimes not be put into the skydiving state.

• Storm Flip would deal incorrect damage if two were overlapped on each other.

• Storm Flip was able to stop a Supply Drop from falling

• Weapons were showing while using emotes while on a Driftboard

GAMEPLAY

• Made the “Hold to Swap” feature an option. This defaults as OFF.

• With the option OFF, pickup is now back on the initial button press instead of button release. This should result in more responsive pickup behavior.

• Made the Fortbyte Pressure Plate Puzzle NW of The Block easier to complete.

• Once unlocked the Fortbyte will be available for up to 15 seconds.

• Parking all vehicles on the pedestals will trigger them, except the Hoverboard.

• Slipstreams now fade out the visual effects and play audio cues to warn that they are shutting off before the collision and forces are disabled, to give players more advance warning.

• Added Storm Flip color switch effects, depending on Storm intersection points.

Bug Fixes and Adjustments

• Skydiving from the bus toward a slipstream was not auto-deploying gliders at the correct height.

• Storm Surge was not activating in Phase 8

• Player health could be improperly rounded when receiving damage.

• The health bar for structures could disappear when hitting a wall and swapping to build mode.

• Lava was dealing damage to players too quickly.

PERFORMANCE

• Rendering optimizations on player built walls to help end-game situations with thousands of building pieces.

• Added general optimizations for audio visual indicators.

Bug Fixes and Adjustments

• Resolved an issue causing poor performance in the lobby on Mac when in a large party.

AUDIO

• Improvements to Grenade Launcher and Grenade fuse sounds

• Added a close-range fuse loop that is attenuated based on damage radius.

• Sound ramps up as the projectile get close to exploding. If you hear this you’re going to take damage unless you block the explosion.

• Lowered the volume of vehicles in a Slipstream that doesn’t have a driver/passenger.

• Increase the range for the enemy 1×1 pickaxe impact sound from 1 tile to 1.5 tiles

Bug Fixes and Adjustments

• Fixed an issue with audio device hot-swapping when switching between outputs.

• One-shot sounds could re-trigger when walking into audio range.

• This was most noticeable with harvesting, explosion, and gunshot sounds.

• The Victory Royale sound no longer gets affected by the slow motion effect when a match is won.

• The Combat Shotgun had the wrong fire sounds on Mobile/Switch.

• The Baller suction sounds were playing 2d if someone piloted a baller that you’d previously dismounted.

• Sounds for consumables would not play if approaching a player while they were already using them

• Footstep audio for the “Take the Elf” emote wasn’t playing.

UI

• Hiding the vehicle health bar that appears above a vehicle if you are the player operating it to avoid two vehicle health bars from being displayed.

• The vehicle health bar that appears above a players health and shield will remain in the HUD.

Bug Fixes and Adjustments

• The direction-to-safety vector lines were not appearing properly on the map when in game modes where respawn was enabled.