The real battle royale in gaming is the constant one-upping between PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. Whenever one announces some new feature, the other isn’t far behind. So because PUBG introduced a new map recently, Fortnite was bound to deliver. Sure enough, here comes a game-changer in the form of a very mundane item: a vending machine. Now the biggest question for Fortnite players isn’t “where we dropping?” It’s “what am I buying?”
Fortnite’s patch v3.4 marks the start of a change for the game. According to the official patch notes, developer Epic Games is planning weekly “Content Updates” from here on out. These are separate from version updates, giving the team a chance to fix bugs without the pressure of a weekly deadline. Instead, new content will be delivered weekly while bugs will be addressed when ready. But enough about that, on to the vending machine!
So what exactly does this thing do? The short answer is that it allows players to exchange materials for one of three randomly-selected items. These three items will cycle, with each one costing a different material (wood, stone, or metal). It seems that the rarity of the items sold will all be the same, and chosen at random. The cost will go up in increments of 100, with white items costing 100 up to gold ones costing 500. There’s no word on how many vending machines will spawn per game, but they’re certain to shake things up.
Another fascinating gameplay change flies under the radar when packaged with the shiny new vending machines, but is oh-so-important. As of this patch, many weapons are being given First Shot Accuracy. This means that, when standing still and aiming with weapons such as the suppressed submachine gun or pistol, the first shot the player takes will be a guaranteed hit. This is huge for all the players who have a problem adjusting to Fortnite’s unique gun physics.
Finally, the update also adds version two of the High Explosives PvP mode as well as the Easter Egg launcher to PvE. Both are exciting, but the vending machines will probably be the most notable change from this update. It’ll certainly be nice to see people using materials for something other than building stairways to heaven the instant they hear gunfire.
