Fortnite Sniper Rifle Gets Drop Rate Nerfed

We’re in the midst of the biggest events in Fortnite esports, the Fortnite Champion Series. That doesn’t stop Epic from making significant changes to the build of the game though. Once again, the Fortnite Sniper has been nerfed! One of the most powerful weapons in Chapter 5, Epic has been gradually down-tuning it to try and balance it out. Although, anyone hoping it won’t be a must-carry soon might be disappointed.

Even in the midst of major tournaments like an FNCS Major, Epic isn’t slowing down on changing up the game. Right now, we have a tournament and ranked build that’s completely different. It’s all making practice a bit tricky. Now, they’ve started making bigger balancing changes just days before the FNCS resumes. However, the changes to the Fortnite sniper rifle might not be as heavy as some players wish.

Source: Epic Games

Fortnite Sniper Nerfed Again, But Still Powerful

Since Chapter 5 began, the Sniper situation has been hard to ignore. It’s the best gun in the game, by a mile.

The new Sniper has the one-shot kills and accuracy that we’ve seen with the gun in the past. However, its drawbacks are significantly fewer compared to the past Fortnite seasons. Players don’t get just one shot like with old snipers, it has three to five. It’s not the slow-firing slug that it used to be, but it has a decent speed now. Over the last few updates Epic has gradually nerfed it, but not by much.

In the most recent Fortnite sniper nerf, they’ve reduced the drop rate for the second time. They already removed Green one-shots, a kind of ridiculous item in the first place. Now there’s no more blue snipers dropping from Olympian chests though. The Sniper is now only available in Epic and occasional Legendary rarity.

How much will this dampen the Fortnite Sniper? Probably not that much. It’s still remaining a very powerful gun, it’ll just be concentrated in fewer hands. It’s a way to balance things that don’t really get rid of a powerful force in-game, just makes winning Fortnite more RNG-dependent.

These alterations are fairly standard to what Fortnite pros expect at these points. It’s not a game where pros are used to having a stable build for each and every tournament Adjusting to sudden changes is part of what makes the best Fortnite players the best. However, it’ll be interesting to see if this new Sniper balance change makes things different at the weekend’s FNCS event.