Fortnite Online Test 6 Release Notes

OT6 is now live for Fortnite Alpha players! Returning players have two additional invites added to your accounts on Fortnite.com, so be sure to log in and send them out.

We also have a live stream today (12/15) at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Join us and check out OT6. There will be Fortnite codes!

12/15: We've released a couple of small updates since the soft launch of OT6. Be sure to check out the details unde the sections labeled 6.1 and 6.2 below.

The TL;DR

  • We’ve added a feature called Outposts. Outposts are located throughout the world map. These persistent spaces are built in phases and unlock new regions. Upgrade your Outpost with modules to get access to cool stuff.
  • Heroes have been upgraded with all sorts of badassery, including new/revamped abilities and gadgets.
  • There is now a Quest system! Check daily for your chance to earn some extra V-bucks and learn which missions will help you grow your Home Base.
  • We have a new, awesome tutorial that introduces you to the world and some of the new elements of Fortnite.

Major Features

Outposts

  • New Outpost mission created. Each location now has its own persistent Outpost that must be built in steps that unlock region progression and open the next location.
  • Added a new tabbed user interface for the Outpost structures: Storm Shield, Harvesting Optimizer, Storage, Crafting Table, and Fabricator.
  • Pickaxes are no longer crafted from schematics, instead you gain access to better pickaxes by using the Harvesting Optimizer.
  • Build and defend truly epic Outpost fortresses in this persistent building space.
  • Upgrade your Outpost with modules giving the player better pickaxes, storage space - or even the ability to transform one ingredient into another.

Hero Update

  • All Heroes have been revamped with brand-new updated gadgets and ability trees!
  • All Heroes now have three active abilities and brand new passive abilities.
  • Hero ability unlocks and ability progression has changed to use a new format :
    • From levels 1 to 10, Heroes unlock a fixed set of abilities and bonus.
    • Each level from 11 to 20, Heroes unlock one skill point to spend on their ability tree. Most abilities cost 1 point to unlock, while a few powerful ones cost 2.
    • There are now 4 ability lines with 5 abilities each in the Hero ability trees.
    • All Hero classes now have upgrades available for their Home Base buildings.
  • Hero abilities now apply and benefit from status modifications (Detailed below the Hero section).
  • See the Heroes section below for a list of the new active abilities with some pictures!

Quests

  • We’ve added Quests, and new Quest rewards. To check out your quests use the Journal tab in the Home Base UI.
  • Players automatically acquire Daily Quests (one per day) after completing the tutorial. Players earn V-bucks when completing Daily Quests.
  • Players can now use the Quest Journal to discover the best missions and rewards for expanding their Home Base.

New Tutorial

  • We’ve added a new introductory tutorial level and WIP cinematics for new accounts.
  • If you are Commander Level 3 or higher and have already completed the original tutorial, there are some new tutorial steps that will walk you through some of the new features like Quests and Outposts.
  • If you are Commander Level 1 or 2 your progress has been reset to before the new tutorial.

Weapon Schematic Stats & Variety

  • Weapons now support a variety of stat bonuses and effects to allow for more variety in schematics.
  • All existing schematics have been updated with some random bonuses.
  • Random stats on weapons are unlocked by upgrading the level of the weapon.
  • Rarely, weapons can also get special effects, such as converting bullets to incendiary rounds.
  • Rarer weapons tend to come with more and stronger random bonuses.
  • Reduced the base damage of all weapons slightly, but the added random stats can replace that damage and more.

  • New weapon art!
    • Ranger:

  • Raptor:

  • Exterminator:

  • Hydra:

  • Triple Tap:

  • Tiny Instrument of Death:

  • Longarm Enforcer:

  • Deathstalker:

  • Vigilante:

New Places to Explore

  • Location maps - There are now a total of four locations on the world map to choose from. The fourth location is called Twine Peaks. Each location has an Outpost that players can expand. Each outpost expansion quest unlocks access to a new group of missions. Completing all quests for an outpost unlocks the next location.
  • Missions now give bonus XP based on their difficulty! You can receive even more bonus XP for each tier above your expected content level you challenge, up to a few tiers above your current level.
  • Switched from 9 levels of difficulty to 20 levels with much smaller gaps between them. Each existing location now has 5 difficulty levels instead of 3.
  • Over 50 new buildings/landscapes to explore:

V-buck Rewards

  • We’ve moved around where we award V-bucks.  We’re changing it up to encourage more directed play of mission goals, versus just straight grinding.  This enables us to give income boosts to players when you play daily for an average amount of time, rather than having a trickle of income over a very long period of time.
  • Daily quests are a consistent source of V-bucks.
  • Helping other players with outpost defenses in Plankerton and beyond provides V-bucks.
  • Completing quests and progressing through the game grants V-bucks.
  • Missions give out a tiny amount of V-bucks as a boost until you reach a cap.

Home Base Progression

  • Unlocking and upgrading Home Base buildings has changed to integrate with Outposts and Quests.
  • Building upgrades are no longer as tightly controlled, so it’s easier to upgrade your favorite buildings to higher levels.
  • We’ve reset parts of your base and given you resources back in return. In order to fully rebuild your base, you’ll need to establish and upgrade outposts in each location!
  • See the Home Base section below for more details!

Release Notes

Art

  • New VFX for the Dragon Pistol
  • Added a visual for critical wall hits
  • Added first pass animations for new Assault Rifles
  • Added Sprint and Jog forward animations for Female Characters.
  • Animation pass on Vigilante Pistol
  • Updated the Male Ninja model

  • Updated many tree models & textures throughout the environment.

  • New art added for certain Survivors:

Enemies

  • Enemy health and damage increased at higher difficulties.
  • Control strength/resistance pass for weapons, players, and enemies.
    • Enemies categorized into small (Husk, Pitcher, Lobbers), medium (Blaster, Flinger), and large (Husky, Smasher, Taker) sizes.
    • Weapons and traps with knockback/stun only control enemies up to a given size:
      • Sword/Axe - Controls small normally, medium on a right-click combo move
      • Hammer - Controls medium normally, large on a right-click combo move
      • Pistol/AR - No control typically (some heavy pistols control small/medium)
      • Shotgun - Typically controls medium
      • Typical Sniper - Typically controls medium
      • Explosives - Typically controls large
      • Damage Traps (spikes, gas, etc) - Controls small
      • Jump Traps - Controls medium
      • Stun/Electric Traps - Controls large
    • Class abilities and gadgets with knockback will control large enemies.
  • Made Patrol timers more fair in Stonewood and Plankerton.
  • Make sure Patrols have Smashers and do not have Flingers or Takers.
  • Patrol end point icon is larger and brighter.
  • Reduced the number of enemies seen at the high end of Stonewood and low end of Plankerton, for 4 player groups.
  • Increased the number of enemies seen by 1/2/3 player groups relative to 4 player groups.
  • Adjusted enemy mix in encounters to increase the number of melee enemies relative to ranged/artillery enemies.
  • Adjusted the mix of enemies in combat encounters to ensure there are always Husky Husks around to break down walls so the basic Husks can more easily reach their objective.
  • Improved AI hunting behavior.
  • Fixed AI ranged attacks interrupting other movement behaviors when they shouldn't.
  • Fixed ranged AIs that would move back and forth without attacking.
  • Fix for Beehive Husks standing in front of some objectives and doing nothing.
  • Fix for Pitcher Husk bone not being able to target players through windows.
  • Husk Pitchers now run into the ATLAS if they do not spot a player.
  • Fixed some issues with the Husk being thrown by Flinger animation and flying.
  • Minor fix to make sure Dwarf Husk jump attacks will trigger/hit at very close range.
  • Increased the damage Husky Husks do to the environment (including player-built forts) significantly. Damage vs players was not changed.
  • 'Sploder propane explosion now damages everything all the time, regardless of who instigates the explosion.
  • 'Sploder will only drop his propane tank when struck with a melee attack that controls/interrupts him.
  • Fix for 'Sploder being able to throw his propane tank after it has been dropped in some instances.
  • Swapped Blaster to use an enlarged Husk model instead of Husky Husk model.
  • Smasher charge will typically choose distant targets so it will charge a longer distance.
  • Smasher can charge through more objects when targeting your fort.
  • Smasher has a new floor attack animation.
  • Elemental enemies have been adjusted so that they are vulnerable to one element, strong to another, and neutral to themselves.
    • Strong resist reduces damage taken by 90%.
    • Vulnerable resist takes normal damage.
    • Neutral resist takes 50% damage.
    • Non-elemental damage is taken at 75%.
  • Fire enemies are vulnerable to Lightning, Strong to Ice, and Neutral to Fire/Energy Damage. Fire enemies apply Afflicted.
  • Ice enemies are vulnerable to Fire, Strong to Lightning, and Neutral to Ice/Energy Damage. Ice enemies apply Slowed.
  • Lightning enemies are vulnerable to Ice, Strong to Fire, and Neutral to Lightning/Energy Damage. Lightning enemies apply Fatigued.

Gadgets

  • Proximity mine and bot turret damage now scales with Home Base
  • After using Air Strike and the Outlander's Fragment ability it will now return to your previous weapon
  • Fixed a bug where Stationary Hover Turret projectiles would sometimes stop in midair.
  • Remove some broken and outdated gadget items from players’ inventories.
  • The Teleporter now has a new holographic cooldown counter
  • Reworked the Loot Llama. It now avoids being placed in impossible locations and animates correctly in all situations.

Gameplay

  • Adjusted the hit points of all player-built structures.
    • Adding windows and doors to walls is now a smaller penalty to hit points.
    • Increased hit point gap between full height wall, 2/3 height wall, and 1/3 height fence.
    • Roof pieces and ramps now have equal hit points (increase for ramp/stairs, slight decrease for roof).
  • You now get more information about why you cannot interact with various objects when you aim at them.
  • Fixed a bug where charging up the Zapotron was not properly increasing its damage.
  • Fixed a bug where player sprinting was occasionally playing a standard walking animation.
  • Fixed a bug where players could get stuck walking very slowly if a weapon's durability depleted while aiming downsights.
  • Fixed a bug where Thunderbolt shotguns were not properly firing through windows.
  • Fixed grenade and other weapon fire from not passing through multiple targets.

Heroes

  • Class sub-buildings now feature bonuses that scale with the building's power.
  • Tech now increases all healing done by your character by 1% per point. This includes eating food, using bandages, using Adrenaline Burst gadget, etc.
  • Added a new Heroes UI for the new flow.

Constructor

  • Containment Unit : Changed to reflect damage at enemies that attack walls inside the BASE. No longer damages enemies standing on floors passively.
  • *New Ability* Bull Rush : Charge Forward dealing Blunt Damage to people in your way!

Ninja

  • The animation and cone of fire of Throwing Stars has been altered.
  • Updated visuals for throwing stars and smoke bomb.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented laser versions of edged weapons from getting damage bonuses from Ninja skills.

Outlander

  • Outlander's offensive fragment now deploys T.E.D.D.Y. Who is a bear.
  • Anti Material Charge has new visual and gameplay effects.

  • *New Ability* - Phase Shift : The Outlander phases out, briefly reducing damage taken.
  • *New Ability* - Gravity Sphere : Reduces gravity for any teammates that enter the sphere. Can be combined with other tools and abilities in a variety of ways!

Soldier

  • *New Ability* Shockwave : The Soldier knocks back and damages nearby enemies.
  • *New Ability* Goin’ Commando : Bring out a minigun that can deal massive damage!

  • Reduced Frag Grenade’s bounciness when it collides with an enemy.

Status Effects

  • Abilities, enemies, and some rare weapons now apply special status effects which modify gameplay. Use combinations of effects to increase your power!
    • Afflicted - Afflicted targets take damage over time.
    • Slowed - Slowed targets move and animated slower.
    • Fatigued - Fatigued targets lose Energy and deal less damage.
    • Vulnerable - Vulnerable targets take more damage from all sources.

Home Base

  • Adjusted stat distributions for home base buildings:
    • Distributed more Fortitude and Resist stats from Home Base buildings
    • Trap Workshop: Tech > Offense
    • Gym: Fortitude > Resistance
    • Explorer's Guild: Tech > Fortitude
    • Combat Academy: Offense > Tech
  • Changed unlock requirements and placement for Home Base buildings:
    • Hospital unlocks Explorer's Guild
    • Trap Working unlocks Firing Range
    • Gym unlocks Engineering School
    • Drone Manufactory unlocks Combat Academy
  • Warehouse capacity changed:
    • Warehouse capacity L1 240 > 500
    • Warehouse capacity L2 960 > 1000
    • Warehouse capacity L3 2160 > 2000
    • Warehouse capacity L4 3840 > 4000
    • Clarified Building Bonuses for the Warehouse
  • Building costs adjusted:
    • Reduced cost of Manufacturing Plant by 50%
    • Reduced cost of Power Station by 50%
    • Reduced cost of Command Center L2 by 50%
  • Reset Command Center and Class Buildings to level 1.
  • Reset all other buildings to not be constructed.
  • Granted Gold, Building Parts and Building Upgrade Plans based on Command Level for rebuilding the base.
  • Bronze, Silver and Gold Construction Plans are gone.
    • The first set of FORT stat buildings is now built with Construction Plans [Standard Building], acquired from completing Outpost quests in Stonewood.
    • The second set of FORT stat buildings is now built with Construction Plans [Advanced Building], acquired from completing Outpost quests in Plankerton.
    • Hero Buildings are now built from with Construction Plans [Hero Building], found in quests in Stonewood and early Plankerton.
    • All buildings EXCEPT the Command Center are now upgraded with Building Upgrade Plans, which are found rarely in quests and on Commander Levels 7 to 50.
    • The Command Center is now upgraded by Building Upgrade Plans [Command Center], acquired from completing Outposts.
  • Improved Homebase Overview screen to show all of your buildings and their slotted survivors.

  • You can now preview the next set of rewards gained for Commander level in the quest log.
  • Buildings now display all their power based effects, even if they're not yet activated, to inform you of what benefits you may activate in the future.
  • The building overview now displays all bonuses from the main building as well as sub buildings.
  • The building overview now supports scrolling when buildings have many bonuses active.
  • The building upgrades tab now updates the current unlocked number of upgrades immediately after an upgrade occurs.
  • Buildings now support 6 worker crew slots at max upgrade level.
  • Slotted survivors can now be upgraded or retired from the survivor picker.

  • The bonuses from matching worker sets now appear in the building overview.
  • When slotting a worker, matches with other slotted survivors and the buildings pulse golden to notify of the potential match.
  • Worker tooltips now provide flashing golden text to notify you of matching traits that provide bonuses.

Items

  • Renamed Personnel and Items to improve sorting in the Vault.
    • Personnel prefixes, such as Skilled, have been moved to suffixes.
    • All weapons that had the Premium prefix will now have the [Upgraded] suffix.
    • All suffixes are now displayed in the same format.
  • [Upgraded] and [Prime] weapon schematics no longer have increased damage. compared to standard versions. Instead, [Upgraded] and [Prime] have better and more overall unlockable stat bonuses, which can include damage.
  • Added [Upgraded] and [Prime] versions of all tier VI to X weapons.
  • Increased display rarity of chiefs to match their distribution rarity, since they are far more rare than indicated by their color. This makes chiefs all appear one rarity higher than previously.
  • Increased the rate at which personality matching bonuses scale with stronger chiefs. This results in overall higher bonuses for matching personality.
  • Removed XP Store Llama since it wasn't very good.
  • Replaced the starting axe schematic with a sword.
  • Removed the sword schematic granted on commander level 2.
  • Moved basic trap schematics to be granted at lower Commander Levels.
  • Increased overall value/quality of schematics granted on Commander Levels.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Ceiling Trap: Electric Surge to not show stats in the vault.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause tier 3 to 7 traps to deal nearly double damage.
  • Fixed a bug that occasionally caused a mismatch between the art of an ore node and the loot it provided.
  • Fixed art for some weapons that changed randomly based on weapon tier.
  • Renamed the FireCracker Gun to the Liberator.
  • Reduced Copper, Iron, Silver, and Platinum Ore requirements for recipes across the board, with more of an impact at the higher tiers.
  • Reduced recycling value of Upgraded and Prime schematics, especially at low end. They were two full steps ahead of normal, which conflicted with the increase to base recycle values.
  • Reduced search times for a few items that were out of line for their value. This mostly impacts toolboxes, ammo boxes and tin cans.
  • Rocket and Grenade Launchers can now be disassembled.
  • Updated crew and schematic XP descriptions to indicate where you can find the resources.
  • Increased number of items dropped in Super (previously called Vindertech) and Troll Stash llamas.

Platforms

Mac

  • Added a "Disable Mouse Acceleration" option on Mac OS X which disables the system mouse acceleration to provide more predictable mouse control.
    • This is off-by-default as it can make some high-precision pointing devices that rely on the system acceleration curve respond very slowly.
  • Significant improvements to the caching and loading of shaders for Mac OS X's OpenGL.
    • Do more work to prepare OpenGL shaders prior to running the game to reduce hitching in game.
    • Startup time reduced by only loading some of the shaders immediately on startup then loading the rest in the background.
    • Ensured that all shaders are loaded prior to entering a gameplay zone to reduce in-game hitching.
    • Fixed various bugs in the caching of shaders that were preventing effective reduction of hitching in some cases.
  • Fixed a crash loading the Mac shader cache caused by the game writing the wrong file-version on the previous run.

Primary Missions

  • Several optional Mission badges will now correctly grant better mission rewards.
  • Gate missions and Retrieve the Data missions can now have the Storm change directions at higher difficulty levels.
  • Enemy types that show up in Gate encounters will now shift approximately every 3 minutes in Stonewood, and every 2 minutes in later locations.
  • Tweaked AI spawning for some Missions
    • Launch the Rocket, Power the Reactor, and BluGlo Siphon all have shorter timers, but more intense Encounters.
    • Patrols, Encampments, and Power the Reactor Vantage Points converted over to burst spawning. This should improve timing and possible enemy variety.
  • Power the Reactor
    • Added mission notification to warn the player that there will be a final defense after all parts are installed.
    • Increased the amount of time required for a retrieved part to be installed to 60 seconds.
    • Reworked mission to have a final defense after all parts have been installed.
    • Husks no longer do damage to the reactor before it has been activated. Previously the reactor could have been destroyed by patrols before the player even started the mission.

Secondary Missions

  • Adjusted the Mimic's difficulty scaling and improved rewards
  • Mimic behavior is now significantly improved. If mimics are not damaged and do not hit a pawn with a melee attack for 15 seconds, they will fully heal, path back to where they spawned, and then turn back into a chest. Receiving damage en route back to their spawn will make them once again target the player. Also, after a mimic has been activated once, any damage dealt to the chest will wake it up again.
  • Adjusted the Encampment's difficulty scaling and improved rewards.
  • BluGlo Siphon is removed from single gate and retrieve the data missions.
  • Fix issue where anomaly mission might sometimes not give out rewards.
  • Fixed a bug that caused wood/stone/metal secondary mission rewards to not scale. properly, resulting in too much for easy missions and not enough for hard missions.

Store

  • You can now buy up to 10 Llamas at a time if you have the V-bucks. Updated presentation and animations during the reveal sequence.
  • You can now fast forward during the card reveal sequence after the Pinata is opened by holding down the left mouse button.
  • Disabled loading spinner for web purchase flow.
  • Fixed popup menus in payment flow not showing up when editing CC information.

UI

  • Daily rewards are automatically granted after login. No more forgetting to collect them!
  • Simplified the tabs to one row in the Vault user interface. Recycle and retire in the Vault now triggers a full-screen confirmation message.
  • The Vault UI for schematics now allows scrolling when a schematic requires many ingredients.
  • Displayed Repair costs are updated with damage in real time
  • Fix to stop user game input when user enters quick inventory
  • M-key map can be closed by pressing Escape.
  • M-key map closes automatically upon completing the primary mission
  • Fixed a few loading screen tooltips referencing old keybinds.
  • Fixed a networking bug that would sometimes prevent a player from creating a game.

6.1 Update

  • Fixed an issue with the 5th Outpost defense mission not completing correctly in Twine Peaks.
  • The 5th Outpost mission in Plankerton now grants the correct construction plan reward.
  • Fixed players sometimes not being able to access the Stonewood theater.
  • Fixed an issue with players not being able to reactivate the Atlas after failing it once.
  • Fixed an issue where the wrong quest would be given to players after exiting and reentering the Outpost in Stonewood.
  • Global chat now appears correctly after loading into a zone.
  • Fixed an issue where successful Outpost defenses would grant new Outpost quests.
  • Fixed a crash which could occur when attempting to chat while in the Storage menu in the Outpost.
  • Fixed the Constructor's Overclocking ability generating player build structures faster than intended.
  • Fixed an issue where players with items in their overflow inventory would not be given a harvesting tool after loading into a zone.
  • Fixed a crash which could occur when leaving a party after losing internet connection.
  • Fixed a crash which could occur when clicking on a worker while in building view.
  • Fixed an issue where weapons would sometimes fail to reload correctly.
  • Items no longer duplicate when putting them into the Outpost storage.
  • Fixed a crash which could occur when attempting to collect resources in Home Base.

6.2 Update

  • Fixed an issue with players not being granted V-Bucks when completing Outpost missions in Plankerton and Canny Valley.
  • Fixed a client crash.