There’s a brand new grenade launcher to get your hands on in Fortnite Battle Royale.
It comes with today’s version 9.21 update, which also addresses complaints about the lack of shields and shotguns in each match.
This week’s Fortnite update isn’t a particularly big one — but there are some notable changes and improvements to enjoy. Epic Games has listened to the community and made a number of tweaks to item and weapon availability.
Meet the proximity grenade launcher
The big change is the introduction of the proximity grenade launcher. This brand new weapon fires an arching, bouncing explosive projective that detonates when in the proximity of an opponent.
It can make for some pretty inventive eliminations — as you’ll see in the new video below.
The proximity grenade launcher is available in epic and legendary varieties, and you’ll find it in chests, loot carriers, supply drops, and vending machines. It’s semi-automatic but only holds two explosive rounds.
It’s not particularly powerful, either, with a base damage of 67/70 and an explosion radius of 300 (about 60% the width of a tile). But it does have greater impact against environmental elements, dealing damage of 131/138.
Item and weapon availability tweaks
Even if explosive weapons aren’t your think, there are other changes to look forward to this week. Epic has finally increased the availability of small shield potions and large shield potions in Battle Royale matches.
In addition, you should find it easier to locate a shotgun. The epic and legendary variants of the infantry rifle have also had their drop rates increased.
This update also decreases the availability of the common version of the heavy assault rifle and the mounted turret. The new Storm Flip item has been adjusted to deal 5 damage per second, rather than replicating the storm.
Drop into Fortnite 9.21 now
That’s about it in the way of notable changes. You can read the full patch notes for the version 9.21 release on the Fortnite blog. The update is available across all platforms now.
