Fortnite Update's Patch Notes (6.0): Pets, New Map Areas, Vaulted Weapons, Shadow Stones

Fortnite: Battle Royale Season 6 has finally been released and, alongside it, developer Epic Games rolled out patch 6.00 for the game. The arrival of a new season means there's new Battle Pass content to unlock, as well as some changes to the game world's map and how you play the wildly popular battle royale title. To give us a complete breakdown of everything new or changing with the latest update, Epic has released the Fortnite 6.0 patch notes, which you can read below.

The headliner is the new Battle Pass, which delivers 100 levels and over 100 new rewards, according to Epic. It is available to purchase in-game for 950 V-Bucks. You can also choose to just stick to the free Battle Pass, but some challenges and reward are exclusive to the paid tier. The other big new addition is Pets, which allow you to adventure around the island with an adorable friend by your side. Beyond those new additions, Epic has also introduced a consumable called Shadow Stones and updated the map with new locations such as the Floating Island, Corn Fields, and Haunted Castle. [Update: Shadow Stones have been removed from the game temporarily due to an issue for a second time. There's no ETA on their return.]

In terms of weapons, the Impulse Grenade, Suppressed Submachine Gun, Light Machine Gun, Bouncer, and Remote Explosives have all been thrown into the Vault. However, all of the weapons and items added to the Vault as part of patch v6.0 are available to use in Playgrounds for now. Take a look at the full patch notes below to see what else is going on with the battle royale mode. You can find details on how patch 6.0 impacts the Save The World mode here.

Fortnite Update 6.0 Patch Notes

General

Performance

• Fixed a rare crash that occurred when taking focus off the game, such as “alt-tabbing”, and then bringing focus back into the game.
• Reduce hitching on Mac caused by graphics allocations.

Known Issues

Mobile

• Shadow Stone icon appears in empty slots of inventory upon dispersal on mobile.

Weapons and Items

• Shadow Stones
  • Consumable typically found around corrupted areas of the map.
  • Using a Shadow Stone will apply ‘Shadow Form’ for a brief period.
  • While in Shadow Form:
    • Unable to use weapons.
    • Become invisible to enemies when stationary.
      • You become more visible and leave behind a Shadow Trail when moving.
    • Gain increased movement speed, jump height and fall damage immunity.
    • Gain a new ability, Phase, can be activated by pressing the Primary Fire button.
      • Phase: Propels you in the direction you are facing, and allows you to pass through objects.
    • The effect lasts 45 seconds but can be exited early by holding down Alt Fire button (aim down sights).
• Vaulted Impulse Grenade, Suppressed Submachine Gun, Light Machine Gun, Bouncer, and Remote Explosives.
  • All of the weapons/items added to the Vault in patch v6.0 will currently remain available in Playgrounds.
• Added momentum functionality to Grapplers. When hitting a moving object (vehicle, player), its momentum will be added to your launch force.
  • This only happens when the momentum would be a net gain, you cannot lose momentum.
• Grappler charges reduced from 15 to 10.
• Double Barrel damage reduced from 143/150 to 114/120.
• Reduced Dual Pistol floor loot drop chance from 1.49% to 0.88%.

Bug Fixes

• Players will no longer be launched with greater force than intended when using the Grappler in a vehicle.
• Using a Grappler while using a Launchpad will no longer cause inventory functionality issues.
• The top half of a players model will no longer clip through walls when using the Grappler while crouched.
• Fixed a visual issue that could cause the plunger to be visible on the Grappler while the projectile is active.
• Players are no longer prevented from changing equipment when firing the Grappler while switching weapons.
• Adjusted the timing of the Heavy Sniper reload animation to match more closely to when the bullet is reloaded.
• Reduced the amount of force applied when shooting a vehicle with a Shotgun.

Gameplay

• New Locations
  • Floating Island
  • Corrupted Areas
  • Corn Fields
  • Haunted Castle
  • Drop in and find the rest in-game!
• Custom Controller Bindings
  • Choosing your configuration has changed to a selector on the left side of the menu.
    • After selecting Custom, the right side of the menu becomes buttons that are selectable. When a button is clicked, it opens a list of actions that can be assigned to that button.
    • Mode selection (Combat, Build) has changed to selectable by triggers. When in either Combat or Build mode, the actions for that mode and the actions that span between modes will appear in the “actions list” to select from.
• Console - Input-Based Matchmaking
  • Players using a keyboard and mouse on PS4 will now be put into the PC matchmaking pool.
  • Start matchmaking with your preferred input device. You will be queued with the input type you press the “Play” or "Ready" button with.
    • If you start matchmaking with a keyboard and mouse, then you'll be queued in the PC matchmaking pool. However, you'll be able to switch to a controller mid-match if you'd like.
    • If you start matchmaking with a controller, then you'll remain in your platforms normal queue. However, you'll be unable to switch to a keyboard and mouse mid-match.
  • PC players are unaffected by this change. If you use a controller on PC then you'll remain in the PC matchmaking queue.
• Storm Circle Changes
  • Safe Zone 4
    • Wait time reduced from 90 seconds to 80 seconds
    • Shrink time increased from 60 seconds to 70 seconds
  • Safe Zone 5
    • Wait time reduced from 90 seconds to 70 seconds
    • Shrink time increased from 40 seconds to 60 seconds
  • Safe Zone 6
    • Wait time reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds
    • Shrink time increased from 30 seconds to 60
  • Safe Zone 7
    • Wait time reduced from 45 seconds to 20 seconds
    • Shrink time increased from 25 seconds to 50 seconds
    • Radius increased from 1250 to 1650
  • Safe Zone 8
    • Wait time reduced from 30 seconds to 15 seconds
    • Shrink time increased from 25 seconds to 40 seconds
    • Radius increased from 625 to 1090
  • Safe Zone 9
    • Wait time reduced from 30 seconds to 15 seconds
    • Shrink time increased from 25 seconds to 40 seconds
  • Moving Safe Zone circles in the late game now move 50% further from the previous safe zone.
• Moved the ATK horn to down on the D-pad to allow for autorun.
• Traps can no longer be placed on wire fences.

Bug Fixes

• Increased the precision and frequency of rotation values sent over the network so that changes to other player rotations and aim direction appear to be smoother.
• Improvements made to prevent players from appearing to have jittery movement, especially during skydiving.
  • Caused by incorrect acceleration values being sent over the network.
  • This was also sometimes causing other players to appear to be using the wrong skydiving animation.

Performance

• Optimized texture binding rendering code on Switch. This improved CPU and GPU performance, resulting in smoother gameplay and higher resolution rendering.
• Optimized performance when many players are on screen.
• Game thread optimizations
  • Optimized movement for supply drops.
• Improved performance and memory for Android devices running Vulkan.
  • This affects the S9+ Adreno, Note 9 Adreno variants.
• Memory optimizations for mobile to reduce the chance of encountering low performance when many apps are in the background

Audio

• Players will now have an option in the Locker to select their preferred music choice. Unlock new music from the Season 6 Battle Pass.
• Changed the processing of footsteps to add more contrast between above/below. Below steps now sound more “echoey” like they’re coming from the basement.
  • Footsteps will decrease in pitch the farther they are below you, and increase in pitch the higher they are above you.
  • The volume of footsteps blocked by terrain, buildings, or player built structures has been increased slightly.
  • Find more information on footstep audio updates here.
• Increased the distance that you can hear open/close Glider sounds.
• Increased the audio range for players skydiving to match that of players gliding.
• Added a doppler pitch effect to the gliding audio.
  • This creates that “car pass by” effect as players fly overhead.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed and added audio for the Plunja and Tat Axe pickaxes on mobile and Switch platforms.

UI

• Updated the Locker layout to fit more item types.

Bug Fixes

• Removed trailing periods and added "the" in the appropriate place in the privacy screen.
• The display of the purchase button area in the Battle Pass screen will no longer briefly show incorrect information on first entry.
• Challenge headers will no longer show the wrong category name and style after scrolling.

Art and Animation

• Added improvements to Storm visualization, including rain & lightning effects which will increase as the Storm intensifies.

Bug Fixes

• A minor visual change has been made to the mesh shirt underneath the arms of the Power Chord Outfit.
  • This is to fix visual issues caused by the mesh shirt during certain animations and emotes.

Replay System

• Replay playback speed can now be adjusted with a controller when the replay HUD is hidden.
• Moved "High-Quality FX" flag to Lens settings, and automatically hide certain aperture & focus settings if the depth of field effect isn't active.
• Replays now correctly use the movement keys set in the Input settings.
• Inverted the default direction of the third person camera to make the controls consistent with all the other cameras.

Bug Fixes

• The third person camera now works with the inverted Y axis option.
• Alt will no longer open the inventory screen while in a replay.
• The "Skip Forward" button will no longer stop working during a paused replay.
• Health bars no longer incorrectly animate when enabled while in replays.
• Health bars no longer turn green when a downed player is eliminated.
• Replay follow cameras no longer change targets every time the timeline changes or refreshes.
• The drone attach camera position is now correct after the timeline has reset/refreshed.

Mobile

• Item tooltips in-game will now display more consistently.

Bug Fixes

• The Guided Rocket turn rate is now consistent with other platforms.
• Touch controls on the map will now function correctly.
• Video settings now display correctly on the Note 9.

In related news, Sony surprised everyone by announcing that PS4 cross-play is finally happening. For select third-party games, players on PS4 will be able to connect with people on other platforms. Fortnite happens to be one of these games, and a beta for cross-play is available now. Fortnite will allow for "gameplay, progression, and commerce" across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, Mac, Android, iOS.

"We recognize that PS4 players have been eagerly awaiting an update, and we appreciate the community's continued patience as we have navigated through this issue to find a solution," John Kodera, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, previously said. "We see the beta as an opportunity to conduct thorough testing that ensures cross-platform play is best on PlayStation, while being mindful about the user experience from both a technical and social perspective."