Once again, a major change made to Fortnite Battle Royale has drawn the ire of many of the game’s top competitive players and content creators.
The new explosive damage system, introduced in the v6.21 patch on November 1, allows for 25% of all explosive damage to penetrate through structures and the environment.
This means that players who are behind structures are susceptible to taking health damage when fired upon by an explosive item or weapon, regardless of whether the structure was built by the player or spawned naturally.
The change has received largely negative feedback from many in the community, including some of the biggest and well-known competitive players, streamers, and YouTubers.
These big Fortnite influencers have since taken to social media to express their dismay at this recent update, with many calling it non-competitive and unbalanced.
The feedback has been so wholly negative, that Epic Games were compelled to further clarify their intentions in a post they put up on Reddit hours after the update went live.
Ironically, they revealed in the post that the whole motivational factor for the implementation of this change was because the developers felt that there was an unbalance between aggressive and passive play-styles.
Here are some of the best tweets from popular players and content creators in reaction to this new explosive damage, including a massive thread from Team SoloMid Fortnite captain Myth, in which he breaks down why he doesn’t think the change is acceptable.
Myth – TSM Fortnite team captain
Thread is done – TL:DR : Fortnite needs a *MECHANIC* not an *item* that everyone has access to that promotes aggression and stops turtling. https://t.co/n7QxmiVTIy
— Myth (@TSM_Myth) November 1, 2018
High Distortion – Fortnite player and streamer for TSM
"25% of explosive damage will now penetrate through structures and the environment."
A buff to explosives? My jaw has literally dropped
— TSM HighDistortion (@HighDistortion) November 1, 2018
RPGs could heal you 25% through walls and they still be OP with all the structures one rocket breaks. https://t.co/fq6V47IPVJ
— TSM HighDistortion (@HighDistortion) November 1, 2018
Chap – Fortnite player for Team Liquid
"25% of explosive damage will now penetrate through structures and the environment." OH FUCK ME
— Chap (@LiquidChap) November 1, 2018
CouRage – Fortnite content creator for OpTic Gaming
As of right now, if someone loots a rocket and I don't then they can just do damage to me by default without having any sort of counter play possible.
There is nothing currently in Fortnite that counters this update. Nothing should do damage through structures like that.
— OpTic CouRage (@CouRageJD) November 1, 2018
MoNsTcR – Competitive Fortnite player
Wow this new explosive buff is insane. You literally can't charge anyone without taking damage. holy pic.twitter.com/2eB2wqsUTe
— Chance Duncan (@MoNsTcR) November 1, 2018
Thiefs – Fortnite player and content creator for FaZe Clan
I'm not the type to publicly complain about updates, but this new explosive damage doing 25% damage thru walls has to be the least competitive thing i've ever seen.
Literally takes 0 skill to just shoot explosives or throw nades now. Hoping it gets reverted ASAP.
— FaZe Thiefs (@Thiefs) November 2, 2018
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MrMuselk – Fortnite YouTuber
WTF IS THIS UPDATE LOL! IM SO CONFUSED.Im always 95% positive with Epics weird game changes.
But Glider re-deploy staying + 25% of explosive damage penetrating walls is NUTS.
— Muselk (@MrMuselk) November 1, 2018
King Richard – Competitive Fortnite player and streamer
25% of explosive damage penetrates walls. My heart is in pain!
— :crown:KingRichard:crown: (@KingRichard) November 1, 2018
Avxry – Fortnite content creator for FaZe Clan
Explosive damage through layers is annoying but not bad. I personally like it but think the quad RPG needs to be vaulted.
The typical loadout I use now is an RPG , shotgun , smg, sniper. A good balanced loadout for all situations. Grabbed many W’s today
— FaZe Avery (@Avxry) November 1, 2018
Svennoss – Fortnite player for NRG Esports
25% of explosive damage penetrates walls?? OMEGALUL
— Svennoss TwitchCon (@Svenosss) November 1, 2018
WizKay – Competitive Fortnite player
1000% agree but like you said, this will be extremely hard to achieve. How do you feel about a potential reward incentive instead of an item? Example : you kill a player and you gain 100 of each material or somethin like that
— WizKay (@WizKayTV) November 1, 2018
FaZe Tennp0 – Fortnite player for FaZe Clan
There are 2 things wrong with this clip. :upside_down_face: pic.twitter.com/7VWGNRHm61
— FaZe Tennp0 (@FaZeTennp0) November 1, 2018
Dakotaz – Fortnite content creator for TSM
Is it April fools? Because that explosive change…
— dakotaz (@dakotaz) November 1, 2018
SpaceLyon – Fortnite player for FaZe Clan
Rocket launchers right now are unbelievably broken :confused:
— FaZe SpaceLyon (@SpaceLyon) November 1, 2018
I_AM_WILDCAT – Fortnite YouTuber
Not sure what this is. Seems to be just a glitch.
— Tyler (@I_AM_WILDCAT) November 2, 2018