Fortnite Battle Royale fans might have thought that there was no chance that the revolver or heavy shotgun would be available in Season 9 after being vaulted, but there are two clues that suggest they will come back sooner rather than later.
Epic Games have shuffled around with the game’s list of available weapons and items on numerous occasions since it was first released in September 2017, but they are also known to drop some hints about those changes before they come to fruition.
That appears to be the case with Season 9, too, as the developer might well have dropped hints about a return for both of the weapons in some form.
Firstly, it’s worth mentioning that the heavy shotgun – which was vaulted in the 7.30 patch – actually features in the promotional material that Epic put out at the very start of Season 9.
This would suggest that the shotgun is indeed set for a return at some stage in the near future, but that’s not the only source of clues that fans need to keep tabs on. In fact, the Fortnite development team have also been tinkering with the statistics of the revolver, which has been a typical move in the process of preparing a weapon to return in the past.
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The image above was posted to the Fortnite BR subreddit by Lightning_Splash and suggests the fire rate of the revolver has been amended to give it a slight buff, despite the weapon having been vaulted since patch 5.40.
It was previously 0.9 and has been upped to 1.2. The other statistic that has been improved is the reload time. This used to be 2.2 seconds, but has been shortened to just 2.0 seconds.
While these are not two concrete pieces of evidence that categorically confirm their unvaulting, it does go some way to increasing the chances of it happening in the near future. Whether or not it will, though, remains to be seen.