Fortnite developer Epic Games has rolled out a new patch for the hit battle royale game. Update v11.40 is now live across all platforms and introduces a new way to upgrade certain weapons called “sidegrading.”
Thanks to this new feature, you can now modify the Assault Rifle into the Heavy Assault Rifle at upgrade machines in non-competitive playlists. Additionally, Epic has reduced the amount of material it costs to upgrade weapons, while the Flint-Knock Pistol, Shockwave Grenade, and Impulse Grenade have all been added to the Battle Lab.
On top of that, update 11.40 resolves a handful of bugs and other issues in the game. Among other things, Star Wars Achievements display again on the Legacy timeline, and a bug preventing the “visit different bus stops in a single match” challenge from properly tracking progress for certain bus stops has been fixed. You can see the full patch notes, courtesy of Epic’s website, below.
Beyond the v11.40 update, Epic has also announced a new line of skins for the game called the Icon Series, the first of which is based on popular Fortnite streamer Ninja. The skin will be added to Fortnite’s in-game shop on January 16 alongside a Ninja’s Edge Back Bling, Ninja Style Emote, and Dual Katanas Pickaxe.
Season 1 of Fortnite Chapter 2 runs until February 6, so there’s still some time to complete any weekly challenges from this season that you may not have gotten around to. If you need help clearing them, you can find maps and guides for the trickier ones in our Fortnite Chapter 2 challenges roundup.
Fortnite: Battle Royale v11.40 Patch Notes
- Introducing Sidegrading: the Heavy Assault Rifle returns.
- In non-competitive playlists, you can now use Upgrade Machines to “Sidegrade” your Assault Rifle into a Heavy Assault Rifle.
- Reduced material costs for upgrading weapons at Upgrade Machines.
- Added the following items to Battle Lab:
- Flint-Knock Pistol (Common and Uncommon)
- Shockwave Grenade
- Impulse Grenade
- The iPad Pro (2018 release) now supports 120 FPS.
- Clickable thumbstick buttons (L3 and R3) are now usable on supported iOS controllers.
Bug fixes
- Players’ Star Wars Achievements have returned to the Legacy timeline.
- Resolved an issue involving the “F” key not enabling proper movement after direction was remapped to it.
- Resolved an issue involving editing quickly causing players to remain in Edit mode.
- Falling into a Hideout no longer causes the Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle’s crosshairs to disappear.
- Resolved an issue involving the “Visit different bus stops in a single match” Remedy vs. Toxin Challenge not tracking progress for some bus stops.
- The Spectrum Contrail again changes colors while in motion.
- Continued to make improvements regarding FPS drops and hitching on mobile devices.
- Resolved an issue involving mobile players getting stuck in a loop on the Select Fire Mode screen.
- Resolved an issue involving console players being unable to progress through the gifting process if they did not have Two-Factor Authentication enabled.
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