Fortnite’s giant mechs, called Brutes, have been an unpopular addition to the game’s season 10. In a blog post today, developer Epic announced that the mechs will be staying in the game’s competitive mode, but with a tweak. Many players still don’t feel that tweak is enough.
Some Fortnite players believe the Brutes are overpowered, given their high health and ability to destroy buildings and player structures.
In an competitive update today, Epic wrote that it will be adding a targeting laser to the Brute’s missiles, which will indicate to players if they’re in the line of fire.
The post also confirmed that Brutes will remain in Fortnite’s competitive Arena mode, despite players’ concerns that they’ll have too much of an effect. Epic wrote:
We’ve been monitoring the impact of the B.R.U.T.E. in gameplay and are investigating ways to enhance combat feedback when interacting with the vehicle. In v10.10, we will add a targeting laser that will show the direction the B.R.U.T.E. is aiming its rockets while they are being charged. This laser will have directional audio to help indicate when it’s being pointed at you, even if you’re behind a structure. We’ve also fixed a few mobility bugs that was allowing players to exploit its boost mechanic.
The B.R.U.T.E. remains within the core game modes (Solo, Duos, and Squads), select Limited Time Modes, and in competitive Arena and Tournament play. We’ll communicate any future iterations to the vehicle as we’re continuing to investigate a few more areas where we can improve combat interactions.
A targeting laser doesn’t do much to address players’ concerns that the mechs are overpowered, especially in competitive play.
One player wrote on Reddit, “This is actually insane that they’re not changing it. I figured this would last a week, tops, once the challenges were over. I don’t even enjoy winning this way, let alone losing.”
Others worry this nerf is meaningless, with one writing, “First of all, ‘competitive’ is hilarious given the mech is in Arena. Secondly, your grand idea for nerfing the mech is adding a fucking LASER to it?!”
Another adds, “This BRUTE ‘nerf’ does literally nothing LMAO. When a BRUTE is attacking you, you already know where the rockets are aimed.”
Responses on Twitter have been equally angry, with many players calling for the Brute to be removed from competitive play.
One tweeted, “It’s understandable for the Brutes to be in core game modes, as they are a key feature of Season X. The Brutes, however, do NOT belong in Arena/competitive playlists. They do NOT promote a competitive play style by any means.”
Nicks, a player for esports team Luminosity, tweeted, “Have you not seen the hundreds of tweets from your biggest creators and best players showcasing how unbalanced it [the Brute] is?”
Content creator CouRage simply tweeted a frown emoji in response to the news.
The competitive update also gave more details about the game’s Champion Series, which was first announced during the Fortnite World Cup. The series will have a $US10 million ($15 million) prize pool and will feature Trios mode, with top teams in each region advancing to the finals in September.
It’s similar to how the World Cup qualifiers ran, but there will also be a leaderboard. Standings on the board will be affected by match placement points, through which players can also qualify for the finals.
Epic wrote, “This format values consistency over the course of the season, but still rewards the outstanding performance players make when competing in individual weeks.”
Combining these two pieces of information into one post is confusing, as is putting information about the mechs in a competitive update given how vocal casual and competitive players alike have been in their distaste for the new addition.
As Season 10 continues and the Champion Series gets underway, it’s possible Epic will give players the more dramatic overhaul to the Brute that they’re clamouring for. For now, competitive players will have to keep finding ways to deal with the new robots. At least lasers are cool?
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