Patch Notes for v5.40 - High Stakes event, Grappler item and more

Limited Time Mode: The Getaway

Mode Details

• Jewels
  • Jewels can be found in special supply drop safes, located along the edge of the first storm circle. The safes take a long time to open, so make sure the area is clear before attempting to claim a Jewel!
  • Four Jewels will be in play on the map AT ALL TIMES. If a player escapes with a Jewel or one is lost in the storm, a new supply drop will bring a replacement.
  • When a Jewel is picked up, it will be visible on the map to everyone for 30 seconds.
  • Carrying a Jewel will give players health & shields over time, but also slow them down by 10%.
• Getaway Vans
  • Four TOTAL Getaway Vans will be in the map, three that arrive early in the match and one more that shows up near the end.
  • Getaway Vans float in mid-air, Jewel carriers must build up and then interact with them in order to complete a Getaway.
  • The goal is to find or steal a Jewel and take it to one of the vans in order to secure a Victory Royale.
  • Once they arrive, safe drops and Getaway Vans will be visible on the map at all times.
• 12 red "Pursuit" Supply Drops land at the very beginning of the match. These carry a variety of longer-range weapons and other items, and are the only way to obtain the new Grappler in this mode.
• Resource harvesting amounts increased by 50%.
• Only Rare weapons or higher will be found in this mode.
• Rifts, Rift-To-Go and Launchpads have been removed to reduce mobility for Getaway Van engagements.
• Profile Stats (K/D & Wins) are tracked in this mode, but Umbrellas are not awarded for wins.

Weapons + Items

• Grappler added.
  • Fire at a nearby object to pull yourself towards it.
  • Can be found in Vending Machines, floor loot, Treasure Chests, Supply Drops, and Supply Llamas.
  • Chain multiple shots together to travel great distances.
  • Has 15 charges. Discarded when charges are depleted.
  • Epic rarity.
• Vaulted Revolvers
• Rarity color adjustments (NOTE: The original percentages for drops were incorrect. We have since updated the percentages to clarify the exact change to the weapons).
  • Some items have been removed or modified to better reflect their effectiveness. This only affects their colors and other characteristics are unchanged.
  • Removed Common Suppressed Submachine Gun
  • Removed Rare Rocket Launcher
    • Availability of Epic and Legendary Rocket Launchers increased slightly to compensate.
      • Increased Epic Rocket Launchers drop chance from 0.11% to 0.73%
      • Increased Legendary Rocket Launcher drop chance from 0.03% to 0.10%
  • Removed Legendary Bolt-action Sniper Rifle
  • Removed Rare Pistol
  • Remote Explosives increased from Rare to Epic.
  • Port-a-Fort decreased from Epic to Rare.
  • Semi-Auto Sniper rifle decreased from Epic and Legendary to Uncommon and Rare.
    • Increased the frequency that the Semi-Auto sniper rifles drop to align more with their rarity class.
      • Increased Uncommon Semi-Auto sniper drop chance from 1.22% to 2.06%
      • Increased Rare Semi-Auto sniper drop chance from 0.13% to 0.96%
  • Dual pistols decreased in rarity from Epic and Legendary to Rare and Epic.
  • Suppressed pistol decreased in rarity from Epic and Legendary to Rare and Epic.
• Burst Assault Rifle accuracy adjustments.
  • When holding down the trigger, the first 2 bursts are more accurate.
  • Spread down sights benefit increased from 35% to 40%.
  • Crouch spread benefit reduced from 25% to 20%.
  • Jumping/Falling spread penalty reduced from 25% to 10%.
  • Sprinting spread penalty reduced from 50% to 30%.
• Increased drop stack count for Boogie Bomb from 1 to 2.
• Increased maximum stack size for Stink Bomb from 5 to 6.
• Increased maximum stack size for Shield Potions from 2 to 3.

• Fixed an issue that prevented audio and effects from playing on other players who are consuming a shield potion.

Gameplay

• In the moving storm phases, when the storm reaches its destination, it will cause a surge of energy that destroys player-built structures located on the storm wall.
• Motion controls now function uniformly across input types on Nintendo Switch and mobile. Options have been added to the settings to allow you to switch your motion turn axis.
  • Motion deadzone has been removed.

• Fixed an issue causing supply drop landing effects to play twice in some circumstances.
• Fixed inconsistencies with auto-pickup when landing on pickups, and when pickups are first thrown from containers.

Performance

• Improved loading performance on Nintendo Switch to reduce issues with buildings loading late (i.e. low-res buildings during skydiving).
• Fixed a large performance regression related to effects. This was causing poor framerate in the 5.30 release (especially on Nintendo Switch).

Audio

• Boosted volume of the Remote Explosives placement sound.
• Improve the quality of the sound played when dropping from the Bus on Mobile/Nintendo Switch platforms.
• Improve spatialization of the chest open sound for other players nearby.

• Reduced the spam of item pickup “bounce” sounds when pickups are sliding down hills.
• Fixed several UI sound issues.

UI

• Emote picker is now available in the lobby, no longer limited to just playing the first emote selected in your locker.
• Fullscreen map now supports touch on Nintendo Switch.

• Item shop now shows the item description when inspecting.
• Road Trip week 8 and 9 display the correct completion value now.
• Fixed issue where challenge bundles did not display the correct number of stars from the challenge tab.
• Fixed issue where style preview would sometimes not be centered in the view correctly.
• Banner rewards from the Battle Pass no longer show an empty description box.
• Fixed an issue wherein rerolling a daily quest in Battle Royale would not select the new quest.
• Style gift boxes will now show the 3D preview of the character with the style applied.
• Fixed an issue where navigating in the locker would cause some drop in performance.
• Fixed an issue where changing away from the Challenges Tab would cause some information to get stuck on the screen.
• Fix an issue where continuously clicking on the "Select Game Mode" page would prevent it from closing.
• Fixed an issue where using touch to open/close the map would cause d-pad controls to become unresponsive.
• Fixed an issue with the loading screen showing incorrect information for non-leader party members.

Art + Animation

• Fixed an issue that could cause player models to not appear while in game.
• Fixed an issue with spray quality temporarily appearing pixelated for some sprays.
• Fixed the Downshift Glider rear light trails from clipping with geometry.

Replay System

• Fixed duplicate elimination effects on the recording player.

Mobile

• Added VOIP to Android.
• Expanded device support to the Essential-PH, Motorola, HTC, Sony Xperia devices.
• Major memory optimization on Android devices with Adreno GPUs. This addresses the performance degradation seen due to memory pressure.
• Implemented a new Audio Mixer, which addresses issues with sound quality and consistency.
• Items on the ground now have tooltips.
• Custom HUD Layout Tool now has a more consistent apply/cancel flow.
• The player healthbar and squad healthbars are now moveable in the Custom HUD Layout tool.
• Dragging-and-dropping an item from the quickbar now drops the whole stack. To split a stack, drag-and-drop with the inventory window open.
• Dragging-and-dropping an item from the quickbar no longer stops consumable use.
• UI prompts now appear on vehicles for entering and switching seats.

• Corrected some issues with screen resolution in certain locales on Android.
• The screen will no longer timeout without user input on iOS.
• Adjusted steering sensitivity on vehicles.
• Players are now able to thank the bus driver.
• Gyro controls are now usable regardless of orientation on iOS.
• Resolved an issue with turbo-building sometimes being stuck “on” when using the quickbar to turbo-build.
• Fixed the challenges button to use large buttons on mobile.
• Fixed an issue where toggling between pickaxe/weapons wouldn’t properly change weapons.
• Exhaust problems with the Street Racer Bike Gliders for mobile have been repaired. The Bikes should run clean now.
• No longer able to interact with UI behind the challenges screen.
• Players who are experiencing issues with abruptly going to the Home Screen when pressing jump on certain Samsung Galaxy devices can do the following to fix the issue.
  • Go to Settings > Display > Navigation > Hard Press Home Button > Turn the feature off