Fortnite Season 6's Big New Item, Shadow Stones, Removed Again

Epic kicked off Season 6 of its popular battle royale game, Fortnite, but as is to be expected with an update of this scale, things haven't gone completely smoothly. A number of issues have cropped up following the release of the game's 6.0 update, including one that rendered it pretty much unplayable on Xbox One. That has since been resolved, but another bug has been found, this one relating to Shadow Stones, one of the new items Epic introduced to the game this week. [Update: The issue with Shadow Stones was resolved and were re-added, but Epic has had to temporarily disable another item, the Port-a-Fortress, due to a separate problem. Since then, Shadow Stones have again had to be pulled, and they remain unavailable.]

On Twitter, the developer announced that an issue has been discovered with the new consumable items. As a result, Epic has temporarily disabled the stones until it can roll out a fix. The studio didn't provide an estimate as to how long that would take, so it's unclear when players can expect the stones to return to the game.

Epic didn't elaborate what the issue relating to the Shadow Stones was, but it appears players have discovered an exploit that allows them to shoot their weapons while being invisible. Normally, when you consume a Shadow Stone, you'll turn into Shadow Form, which allows you to appear invisible to other players when standing still, but at the expense of being able to use your weapon.

The Shadow Stone isn't the only item Epic has removed from Fortnite; the developer also vaulted a handful of weapons with the start of Season 6. The Impulse Grenade, Suppressed Submachine Gun, Light Machine Gun, Bouncer, and the Remote Explosive are all no longer available in Battle Royale, although players can still find them in the sandbox-style Playground mode. The developer also made tweaks to several other weapons, including the recently added Grappler.

With Season 6 now underway, players can purchase another Battle Pass to level up and, in turn, unlock rewards, such as Pets, a new type of cosmetic item Epic introduced this season. You can see all of the new skins and cosmetics in our Season 6 rewards gallery. If you need help unlocking them, you can also find guides on how to complete Fortnite's latest challenges in our Season 6 challenge roundup.