Fortnite gets big shotgun balance changes

If you are a competitive Fortnite player, joining esports tournaments (such as Absa Gaming Festival and Doritos Crunch Cup series) for the ever-popular battle royale, then you should know about some serious balance changes to shotguns. Released this week on 3 May 2022, the Fortnite v20.30 update is a “good news, bad news” situation for most shotgun fans.

While we just focus on the balance changes for competitive players in this article, it is important to note there are Star Wars-themed quests and cosmetics in the update, the Battle for Tilted Towers, new bundles and more.

Fortnite shotgun balance changes

In essence, these balance changes to Fortnite’s shotguns will increase the damage for most shots. This includes headshot damage. There is a caveat, however, as there’s also a “max damage cap” which affects the maximum damage a single shot from a Fortnite shotgun can deal. This means that all shotguns in the Fortnite v20.30 update can no longer deal over 200 damage in a single shot, except for the Legendary Dragon’s Breath shotgun.

Check out the list of balance changes as per Epic Games’ latest post below. Please note some are in the battle royale mode and some are in Creative. The latter is also used for tournaments sometimes, such as Creative Boxfight.

Battle royale shotgun changes:

• Minimum pellet-hit count increased from 3 to 4 for the Striker Pump Shotgun, Auto Shotgun, and Drum Shotgun.
• Striker Pump Shotgun and Auto Shotgun pellet damage and headshot damage increased.
• Ranger Shotgun and Drum Shotgun headshot damage greatly increased, but no change to base pellet damage.
• Drum Shotgun damage falloff adjusted, shortening effective range.

Creative shotgun changes:

• Minimum pellet-hit count increased from 3 to 4 for the Striker Pump Shotgun, Auto Shotgun, and Drum Shotgun.
• Striker Pump Shotgun and Auto Shotgun pellet damage and headshot damage increased.
• Ranger Shotgun and Drum Shotgun headshot damage greatly increased, but no change to base pellet damage.
• Drum Shotgun damage falloff adjusted, shortening effective range.
• Charge Shotgun pellet damage decreased while the headshot damage increased.
• Heavy Shotgun pellet damage increased.
• Headshot damage increased for the following: Lever Action Shotgun, Makeshift Shotgun.
• Pellet damage and headshot damage increased for the following: Pump Shotgun, Primal Shotgun, Tactical Shotgun, Dragon’s Breath Shotgun, Combat Shotgun, Double Barrel Shotgun.

Hopefully, this article has given local Fortnite players an early warning about these shotgun changes, so they can plan their tactics accordingly in upcoming tournaments.

Header image via Epic Games.