Fortnite Patch 5.20 Improves Switch Performance, Adds New Weapon and LTM

Source: Epic Games

Epic Games released Fortnite patch 5.20 today, and the update brings significant performance improvements to the Nintendo Switch as well as a new Double Barrel Shotgun and a new Limited Time Mode (LTM) called Steady Storm that offers no respite from the storm’s inexorable crawl.

Many of Fortnite‘s most ardent fans hoped this patch would shake up the meta, which has quickly turned into spamming a Drum Gun or explosives until your enemy’s building materials have all been depleted. Critics have complained that recent changes to Fortnite have made shotguns obsolete, rendered assault rifles all but useless, and trivialized building to a point where it’s often better to shoot than to build.

This update seems unlikely to address many of those concerns–Epic didn’t nerf SMGs or improve building–but the Double Barrel Shotgun might address one complaint. As its name implies, the new shotgun holds two high-damage shots at a time, placing it somewhere between the Pump Shotgun and Tactical Shotgun in terms of fire rate. (At least based on the precious few seconds we spent with the gun before someone killed us.)

The Double Barrel Shotgun is basically Epic’s way of allowing the practice of running two Pump Shotguns without reverting several changes meant to prevent the strategy from working. It’s too early to tell if that will be enough to please those who want shotguns to return to the meta, but at least it’s clear that Epic hasn’t spent all its time working on new SMGs to encourage people to spray and pray whenever they see a foe.

Performance Improvements

Patch 5.20 does address some concerns that console players had, though, and that revolves around performance. Several prominent console players have recently complained about Fortnite suffering lag spikes, frame rate drops, and other technical issues after the last few updates. Epic said the patch offered “significant GPU optimization on Switch” by moving to a new “high-end forward renderer” to offer improved performance.

That doesn’t mean a whole lot for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players, but it does show that Epic isn’t merely focused on adding content to the game or improving the experience for those Fortnite players with a gaming PC. Fortnite is supposed to be a truly multi-platform game where anyone can play with anyone else and even console players have the chance to compete with their PC counterparts in official tournaments.

Steady Storm

The other big change…