Another new season of Fortnite means another shakeup to the whole game. This has gone for better and worse in the past, but this season should please longtime fans of the battle royale. For starters, Primal and Makeshift weapons are out. That should tell you already we’re off to a good start. Let’s dig into everything else worth taking note of as far as weapon changes in Season 7 of Fortnite.
The arrival of aliens means that alien weapons have, of course, come with them. However, all there is at the moment is the Kymera Ray Gun. It’s not a bad weapon, but it only deals nine damage per hit (13 with headshot damage). This shortcoming is made up for by a very high rate of fire, high accuracy, and unlimited ammo. It’s actually a very good weapon for damaging enemies at mid to close range. This weapon takes about a second to charge up though, so it might not be for everyone. A few extra things to note about the Kymera Ray Gun is that it overheats with sustained fire, it’s very ineffective against structures, it fires an invisible beam, and is only available as a rare weapon at the moment. It makes cool sounds though! Shoot down a UFO and kill the pilot to try the Kymera Ray Gun for yourself.
Epic also teased the Pulsar 9000 Shotgun, but it’s not in the game at the moment. Seeing as there isn’t much of an alien presence on the island at the moment, we might see that gun and the teased Tractor Beam Rifle arrive alongside more powerful extraterrestrial threats. The Season 7 trailers seem to suggest as much.
Check out the Kymera Ray Gun in action.
Imaginary Order, real firepower
Surprisingly enough, most of the new guns actually come from the IO Order this season. If you’re unfamiliar with them, the IO is a shadowy organization with a lot of power and technology. They show it all of in full this season with the Rail Gun, Pulse Rifle, and Recon Scanner. These weapons all come in different rarities, but we’ll cover the Rare (blue) damage stats and basic weapon characteristics for each.
The Rail Gun is the most interesting new weapon. It has a charge up time that unleashes a high velocity round. You can hold down the fire button to delay shooting for another second or so. However, one thing to note about the weapon is that it projects a red beam that everyone can see. The Rail Gun does 85 base damage and 178 for headshot damage. Two interesting things to note about it is that it can fire through weak builds to hit players within. You can also cancel the charge by swapping weapons.
The Pulse Rifle is an accurate rifle that has two firing modes. Hipfire is automatic with a medium rate of fire while the ADS mode is semiautomatic. The Pulse Rifle manages 33 base damage and 47 headshot damage. You can acquire this gun from loot drops or by killing IO Guards. One boss even has a Mythic version.
The Recon Scanner looks like a special variant of the classic Grenade Launcher, but it’s a utility weapon now. It will do five damage upon a direct hit, but the real reason for using it is to mark enemies within proximity of its scanning projectile. It will briefly mark enemies with a red diamond like past marking mechanics.
Look what got unvaulted in Fortnite for the Season 7 weapon roster
Let’s cut to the chase. Bolt Snipers, Hand Cannons, and Heavy Assault Rifles are back. I think the reputations of these weapons are well known by this point. Enjoy more precision damage again. Minus the obnoxious Bow effects.
Pistols, SMGs, the classic Shotgun variants, and more complete the Season 7 weapon roster for Fortnite. There’s more to it, but we’ll get to that in the crafting section next.
Crafting made simple
Last season introduced crafting mechanics that required players to find and collect different kinds of materials. Epic streamlined things this season by making Nuts and Bolts the only crafting material you need. Better yet, you only need x1 Nuts and Bolts material to enable crafting on eligible weapons. However, unlike the previous season, upgrades can no longer be done through crafting. You’ll need to find a Weapon Upgrade Bench to improve your guns. Side-grading is the only crafting option available now.
Side-grading is nothing new. It basically allows players to convert weapons into those with different properties. It’s pretty basic to understand at the moment. You can convert Assault Rifles, Shotguns, and SMGs into alternate variants. Rarity will remain the same, but some side-grades are clear upgrades over the standard weapon versions.
Assault Rifles and Heavy Assault Rifles can be side-graded into Burst Rifles. Burst Rifles aren’t necessarily better than the other rifle variants, so personal preference matters most.
Tactical and normal SMGs can be converted into Burst Fire SMGs. These are arguably upgrades over the normal variants for damaging enemy players with better DPS. The normal SMGs have higher damage per hit and larger clips though.
Pump Shotguns and Tactical Shotguns can be side-graded into Lever-Action Shotguns. These are also arguably upgrades over the standard weapons since Lever-Actions have the highest damage stat and decent rates of fire. Competitive players that have good headshot accuracy will likely still prefer the Pump Shotgun for obvious reasons, but the Lever-Action is a great upgrade over the Tactical Shotgun.
