No place is safe anymore.
Fortnite: Battle Royale‘s v9.20 update has introduced the highly controversial “Storm Flip” item, which lets players create a large sphere-shaped Storm zone when thrown. If the item is instead thrown into the existing Storm zone, it will create a safe zone.
The Storm Flip deals the same damage as The Storm and the sphere-shaped zone lasts for 20 seconds before dissipating. The item is available in Epic rarity and can be found from floor loot, chests, and vending machines. It drops in a quantity of one and can’t be stacked.
The Storm Flip has already proven itself to be an extremely powerful item:
In fact, it’s so powerful, Epic has made the decision to disable it from competitive play this weekend.
Hey folks, we will be temporarily be disabling the Storm Flip for this weekend’s tournament. All regions will play the Week 9 Fortnite World Cup Online Open with the Storm Flip disabled. Additionally, the Storm Flip will be temporarily disabled in the Arena playlists until the weekend tournament concludes. This hotfix will be rolling out shortly later tonight, and you will not need to download or patch your client. All other modes will continue to have Storm Flip enabled during this weekend. Best of luck! — Matt “Loomin” Layman, esports manager at Epic Games
Along with the Storm Flip item, the 9.20 patch also includes a number of other changes. A new limited time mode called “Sword Fight” has been added, wherein treasure chests contain epic or better weapons as well as the occasional Infinity Blade.
Epic has also vaulted all hunting rifle variants due to them “being outclassed by the Infantry Rifle”.
The drop rate of Sniper packages and Explosive packages from Loot Carriers has been nerfed, from 12.5% to 8.45%, and 12.5% to 7.04% respectively.
Mounted turrets can now be used 20% more before they overheat and Boom Bow’s maximum charge time has been increased from 1s to 1.25s.
Lastly, players revived from a Reboot Van will lose invulnerability upon shooting or building, and Air Vents are now more forgiving in order to prevent fall damage when players jump on them from high places.
For the full list of changes in the v9.20 update, check the official patch notes.
