Epic Caves And Seriously Gimps BRUTE Mechs In All Fortnite Game Modes

Epic Games has finally caved to the backlash and has nerfed the BRUTE mech that has been angering Fortnite players so much since it was introduced. The devs announced this week that major changes to the BRUTE had been applied in all game modes. No patch needs to be downloaded to implement the changes. However, it remains to be seen if players will embrace the BRUTE now that its power and impact has been significantly reduced.

Epic has changed the rockets fired in a single charge from 10 to six. The rate that rockets can fire from the mech has been decreased by 56%. The radius of the rocket explosions has been decreased by 42%. The dash cooldown has been increased from three seconds to five seconds.

The devs have also decreased the velocity gained by boosting while in the air by 33%. The driver and passenger no longer get materials when they are stomping through the environment. Spawn rates for the BRUTE have changed with spawn chances decreased significantly while old spawn rates for the BRUTE in Storm phase 1 were 33% chances for 2, 3, or 4 BRUTES to span, those rates are now 14.3%. The chance to spawn no BRUTES is 29%. Storm Phase 2 and Phase 3 spawn chances are 25% across the board.

Epic notes that in the past, the early stages of the match were guaranteed a minimum amount of BRUTES, but that is now changing. The number of mechs per match has been "decreased slightly." While most of the changes nerf the BRUTE, there have been some improvements to the mech since players will need to be more defensive. The changes include reducing the material cost of the gunner's overshield from 200 to 75.

The health of the BRUTE has gone from 1000 to 1250. Epic has also removed the Junk Rift from arena playlists due to an audio issue; the weapon was only introduced earlier this week. Epic had maintained the BRUTE was there to give less skilled players a chance at scoring a win.