New Fortnite Update Adds Crossbow And More This Week

A new update for Fortnite is on the way soon, and it features new content for the explosively popular, free-to-play Battle Royale mode on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Epic Games has provided a full rundown on what to expect from update 2.4.2, as well as a look at what's coming soon. [Update: The new Fortnite update is out now.]

For Battle Royale players, new Valentine's Day-themed skins are being added, as you can see in the image below. More significantly, the update marks the addition of the new "silent" weapon that's been teased by the New Updates screen recently. That's turned out to be the Crossbow, which fires arrows, a new ammo type that is unlimited in supply. It can be found in treasure chests or as loot on the ground; Rare and Epic versions are also available.

This patch also features some bug fixes for Battle Royale, such as preventing players from sliding off of rooftops and dealing with a collision issue related to corners in basements. It also updates the recently launched Shooting Test #1 Limited-Time mode. Rather than being a squad activity, it'll now only be playable solo. Headshots with shotguns will now do 200% damage (rather than 150%), and the Scoped Assault Rifle gets some buffs. Additionally, Epic notes that it's aware that stat and challenge progress is not saved when playing the mode, so you may not want to bother with it in the meantime if that's a concern for you.

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As noted recently, the Valentine's Day event for Fortnite's co-op mode, Save the World, had to be pushed back. The upcoming 2.5.0 patch will see the launch of its Valentine's Day event, which includes a new questline described as "a love story, told the Fortnite way." There are new heroes tied to the event, as well as the Cupid Crossbow weapon. Separate from that, there's a new "reactive" quest type and an option to increase the difficulty to receive better rewards.

Subsequently, update 3.0.0 will launch the Spring It On event and bring an overhaul to the game's music, while patch 3.1.0 will bring another week of Sprint It On content, improvements to the quest map, and more. You can check out the full patch for update 2.4.2, as well as previews of the following patches, on Epic's website. In the meantime, you can see the newly added Fortnite skins.