Fortnite Patch Notes (8.20 And 8.20.1 Updates): Changes To Floor Is Lava Mode, And Everything New

The weekly rollout of new content in Fortnite: Battle Royale continued this week with the release of content update v8.20 (which has since been followed by another incremental update, v8.20.1). This new patch is out now and introduces a new limited-time mode centered around avoiding lava that is constantly rising. It also adds a new type of trap and makes numerous adjustments to other areas of the game, including weapons and the recently added Baller vehicle. Read on for a full breakdown of what's new, as well as a look at the patch notes. Meanwhile, you can also now take on the Week 5 challenges, which have just been introduced; we also dive into what the 8.20.1 update does further below, along with some changes to the new LTM.

As you can probably guess, The Floor Is Lava LTM involves players avoiding lava while gathering loot and taking on enemies. The lava starts out covering the low areas of the map and starts to rise a few minutes into the match. Once that begins, it will gradually rise and cover the entire map, forcing players to scramble for weapons and then seek the safety of the high ground. If you touch the lava, your health will be directly damaged and you'll be bounced up into the air, so avoiding it is essential. However, you can build on the lava, and you'll actually receive a "small number" of building materials throughout the match without having to scavenge for them.

On Friday, Epic rolled out some changes to tweak how Floor Is Lava works. The basic premise is unchanged, but some of the particulars are different: cannons now work, every weapon will be of Uncommon rarity or better, the first Storm wait time has been increased by 30 seconds, and lava now deals 15 damage (down from 20).

Back to update 8.20, Epic has also introduced the Poison Dart Trap, which can be placed on floors, walls, ceilings. It can be triggered from three grid cells away and, when activated, will fire darts horizontally. Anyone hit by a dart will get damaged over time. The damage is applied directly to health, as poison bypasses shields.

Also added are several new foraged items: bananas, coconuts, and peppers. These provide a combination of health, shields (in some cases), and a speed boost, depending on the item. You'll find them in specific biomes, as outlined in the patch notes below.

The patch also makes changes to the way the Baller vehicle works and introduces new foraged items, among other tweaks and changes. The Baller no longer damages players when they collide, although they will still be knocked back. There's also a notable adjustment to the Infantry Rifle, which now functions as a hitscan weapon. Coinciding with that, its damage has been reduced slightly.

As is often the case, a variety of issues emerged after the patch's release. This has prompted Epic to roll out another follow-up patch that deals with some of these nagging problems. Update 8.20.1's patch notes consist exclusively of bug fixes. Some of these are more serious than others--one involves the spectator count not updating when players leave, while another would cause the new Poison Dart Trap to be hidden. The problems extended to Creative and Save the World as well.

Take a look at the full 8.20 patch notes for Battle Royale below. You can head to the official Fortnite website to see how the update changes the Creative mode and Save the World.

Fortnite Update 8.20 Patch Notes

Limited Time Mode: The Floor Is Lava

Summary

Lava gradually rises from the lowest parts of the map, and it’s hot! Drop in and quickly loot and gather materials so you can be the first to reach the high ground.

Mode Details

• A few minutes into the match, the lava will begin to rise.
• The lava moves at a steady speed until the entire map is covered.
• Touching the lava will apply damage directly to your health and bounce you up in the air.
• You can build on the lava.
• Players will be given a small number of materials every second, to help out in those "entire map is on fire" situations.

Weapons + Items

• The Baller no longer applies damage to players on collision.
  • The knockback/bounce effect will remain unchanged.
• Future Baller Iterations
  • We’ve noticed a lot of discussion around the Baller, so here’s an update!
  • We’re not satisfied with the current use of Ballers, specifically in the late game. With the v8.30 update, we will release a change that will allow players to shoot through the glass of The Baller.
    • Non-glass parts will still have collision and block damage from bullets.
• Siphon/Material Changes
  • In v7.40 we implemented a few Pop-up Cup settings as a test in core modes. After monitoring a combination of gameplay, data, and feedback, we’ve gathered necessary info to conclude this initial test. We feel it has resulted in an unhealthy level of aggressive play, diminishing other viable strategies. The following changes have been reverted in all core modes:
    • 50 Health (or Shield) based on your health when the Elimination occurs.
    • 50/50/50 materials dropped on Elimination.
    • 500/500/500 Cap on materials.
    • Harvest rate increased by 40%
    • That said, these mechanics have proven to be positive in our competitive playlists. All changes above remain enabled in the new Arena Game Mode.
• Infantry Rifle
  • Converted to hitscan, meaning this weapon no longer fires projectiles (snipers) and now fires the same as other Assault Rifles.
  • Base damage reduced from 45/42 to 42/40.
  • Uses the same damage fall off profile as existing assault rifles.
• Poison Dart Trap
  • Available in Uncommon Rarity.
  • Can be placed on walls, floors, and ceilings.
  • Found from Floor Loot.
  • Can be triggered up to three grid cells away.
  • Fires Poison Dart projectiles a distance of three horizontal grid cells (four vertical grid cells).
  • Targets hit by darts will receive a damage-over-time effect that applies damage directly to health, bypassing any shields.
    • 10 health damage per tick.
    • 8 total ticks over 7 seconds for a total damage of 80.
    • Subsequent hits will refresh the duration of the effect, but the amount of damage per tick does not change.
• New Foraged Items
  • Bananas
    • Instantly grant 5 health when consumed.
    • Can be found in the tropical biome.
  • Coconuts
    • Foraged by damaging palm trees.
    • When consumed, Coconuts grant 5 points of effective health over a short time. That means it will replenish shields if the player is at max health.
    • Can be found in tropical and desert biomes.
  • Peppers
    • When consumed, peppers instantly grant 5 health and also increase the player’s movement speed by 20% for 10 seconds.
    • Can be found in the desert biome.
• The Buried Treasure directional indicator is now attached to the player and emanates from the area of the treasure map in order to improve visibility, especially while moving.
  • The indicator will continue to pulse every 3 seconds while the item is equipped.
• Pirate Cannon adjustments
  • Adjusted the collision of the Pirate Cannon to ensure the driver's seat is always enterable without needing to nudge the cannon.
  • Moved the seat prompt locations for easier entry into the cannon.
  • Increased the radius of cannonballs and player land explosions from 200 units to 250 units.
  • Reduced cannon impulse/knockback when firing a cannonball while driving or when launching a player. This is unchanged when coasting.
• Adjusted the equip time of the Epic / Legendary Pump Shotgun to match the Uncommon / Rare versions.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Clingers were damaging players through walls when stuck to another player.
• Fixed an issue preventing Glider item pickups from displaying their stack count.
• Smoothed out the motion of grenade projectile trajectories, which were lagging behind by a tick.
• Balloon Fixes
  • Entering a vehicle no longer plays the release sound of balloons if you have no balloons.
  • The balloon rope will no longer remain on your back when you run out of balloons.
• Pirate Cannon Fixes
  • Fixed an issue where players were flying out of a Pirate Cannon in a different direction than expected.
  • Fixed an issue preventing the ability to enter a Pirate Cannon when close to other geometry.
  • Fixed the ability for players to finely tune Pirate Cannon’s ability to aim side to side.
• Fixed an issue causing Buried Treasure to spawn loot on the Starting Island.

Gameplay

• Marker pings are now allowed while DBNO.
• Added a unique elimination message when eliminated by a Lava surface.
• Increased relevancy distance for players being able to see explosions.
• That’s not all! Increased infinite dab from 13 hours to 14 hours in the lobby.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the icy feet effect remaining on indefinitely while emoting.
• Traps now do damage directly to The Baller vehicle instead of dealing damage to the driver.
• Fixed issue causing some traps to be inside thicker structures, making them hard to see.
• Fixed a rare occurrence of a player being invulnerable while DBNO.
• Fixed the camera sometimes traveling too far when cycling to another player.

Events

• New Feature: Arena Game Mode (Solo & Duos)
  • Compete any time and gain ‘Hype’ to advance to higher leagues and unlock exclusive tournaments, such as the Fortnite World Cup Online Opens.
  • Each League is broken up into several Divisions, with players working their way from Open League to Contender League to Champion League.
  • Scoring will update from division to division, with an increasing amount of Bus Fare lost with each match at higher divisions.
  • Note: Matchmaking in Arena is based on players with similar Hype. As a result, players in higher divisions may experience longer than normal wait times before a match is found.
• New Tournament: Luxe Cup (March 30th & 31st) [$100,000 in Cash Prizes!]
  • Duos Game Mode
  • Participation in this event requires players to have reached Contender League in Arena play prior to the start of the event.
  • The prize pool will be distributed across all server regions, with official rules and details released later this week.
  • Format:
    • March 30th - Round One: All Eligible Players
    • March 31st - Round Two: Top 3000 Players from Round One

Performance

• Fixed an issue where poor server performance could cause undesired effects on clients such as unnecessary movement corrections.
• Added a fix for a rare server crash.
• Made a small server performance improvement related to the Baller vehicle.
• Updated animation budgets to be more performant on higher scalability settings.
• Improved file I/O performance on PS4, this reduces the occurrence of late streaming buildings.
• Improved file I/O performance when skydiving on all platforms by changing what data we prioritize loading first.

Art + Animation

• Adjusted lighting in Battle Royale.
  • Increased lighting contrast in areas with shadows.
  • Increased vibrancy in colors.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the destruction effects were not playing on the Baller when it’s destroyed.

Audio

• Re-scaled audio volume settings to avoid clipping artifacts.
  • What used to be the 0.5 setting is now mapped to 1 (maximum loudness)
  • If your volume was previously above 0.5 you will need to adjust the volume on your television or whichever device you're playing on to achieve the same level of loudness.
• Footsteps from spectated players' teammates are now played at a reduced volume.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where some items didn’t have proper audio when dropping them from inventory.

UI

• Changes to the ping graph for the net debug HUD.
  • Red vertical lines added that indicate packets were reported lost that frame.
• There’s now a setting to control if pinging while ADS/Targeting places a danger marker.
• On the Battle Pass page, scrolling down on the mouse wheel moves the contents right and scrolling up on the mouse wheel moves the images left.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue with Main Menu icons becoming off-center.
• Fixed a bug that was causing a player's Squad Fill preference to reset to "Fill".
• Fixed an issue where scopes would be missing reticle lines on low settings.

Spectating

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an occasional awkward camera movement that would occur when switching to different view targets while spectating.

Mobile

• Dedicated use buttons now support hold to swap.
• Voice Chat has been reactivated on iOS.
• Emote button now supports hold to replay last emote.
• Updated the Baller button icons.
• Updated the battery icon to indicate the device is charging. Refreshes visibility every 2 seconds.
• Cycle left button added to the HUD layout tool.
• Added loot pickup stream UI.
  • This is the part of the UI that tracks how many resources and ammo you're picking up.
• Net Debug Stats is now movable in the HUD Layout Tool.
• Enabled Squad Communication and Emote buttons while DBNO.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed field of view on 21:9 devices.
• Fixed an issue with quickbar and extra buttons that made it possible to cause fire state to be stuck on a continuous loop.
• Fixed an issue causing the camera to jump on initial touch input.
  • This will also fix the issue where HUD control buttons are missing when starting a match on some Android devices.
• Fixed an issue causing incorrect building pieces to gain focus when editing.
• Fixed missing outline effect for squad members.
• Fixed minimap remaining on screen during Victory Royale sequence.
• Fixed not being able to select building material while being a passenger in a vehicle.

If you're still working on completing any of this season's previous challenges, make sure to check out the tips and guides in our full Season 8 challenges roundup. The Battle Pass is full of cool unlocks, but to get them you'll need plenty of Battle Stars. Our guides will help you get the trickier challenges done very quickly.