Fortnite’s v7.10 officially went live on December 18, introducing numerous quality of life changes and significant overhaul to the X-4 Stormwing plane. Here’s everything you need to know.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for Fortnite fans since the release of the massive Season 7 update on December 6 and the plethora of changes it brought with it.

The significantly smaller v7.01 update, which was released on December 11, tackled some of the early Season 7 complaints but added the mythic melee weapon known as the Infinity Blade – an item that was so controversial that it was vaulted in less than a week.

The controversial Infinity Blade was in the game for less than a week.

With the Infinity Blade out of the way, all eyes were set on what was coming next – something that the release of the v7.10 patch notes answered. 

What’s changing in the v7.10 patch?

The v7.10 patch introduces a number of major changes, including a new ’14 Days of Fortnite’ event for the Christmas period.

“Explore new Challenges, play in new and old LTM’s, and unlock rewards in this seasonal event, starting December 19!”

Here’s everything you need to know about the 14 Days of Fortnite event.

X-4 Stormwing

The X-4 Stormwing is Fortnite’s first flying vehicle and was released as part of the Season 7 update. The developers have been trying to find a happy medium ever since as many fans and pro players alike have pointed out how powerful it can be.

The v7.01 patch made it so that players inside a plane when it blows up will all take 25 damage but the community still felt this wasn’t enough. On December 13, Sean ‘MrPopoTFS’ Hamilton confirmed that this stat would be bumped up to 50 damage with the v7.10 patch.

He followed up with a post on Reddit on December 17 where he outlined all of the changes that will be implemented. These include 50% more damage from hitting objects and more.

The official patch notes for the Stormwing are as follows:

• Stormwings now take 50% more damage from hitting objects.
  • Boosting now reduces the damage taken from impacts by 50%, previously boosting prevented all impact damage.
• Damage done to players that are in a Stormwing when it’s shot down has been increased from 25 to 50
  • Damage is dealt directly to health.
• Stormwings will now take more damage from destroying structures by running through them.

The Stormwing plane could still do with some balancing.

New Limited Time Modes

A rotation of the Limited Time Modes has become expected from virtually every Fortnite update in recent seasons, but it looks like we’ll have even more for Week 3 of Season 7:

“The 14 Days of Fortnite event will feature both new and returning LTMs. Large team modes switch every two days and small team modes rotate every 24 hours.

Starting December 19, log in each day at 9 AM ET(1400 UTC) to find out which modes are available to explore. Let us know which LTM is your favorite on our social channels!”

Map Changes

The most exciting map change to come out of the v7.10 patch is undoubtedly the Ice King’s castle at Polar Peak.

The ice and snow covering the hill has continued to melt away, revealing yet more of the castle, inside and out.

You can find images of the Polar Peak changes, including the awesome new throne room inside the castle, here.

Data mining and leaks

If you’re a fan of the numerous skins, items and other cosmetics that get leaked after every major update, you might be disappointed by v7.10 as Epic Games’ crackdown on data miners continues.

On December 13, one of the most popular outlets for leaked Fortnite content, FNBRLeaks, announced that they would be shutting down all of their social media at the request of an Epic Games Attorney.

This news seemed to explain why so many prolific data miners had gone to ground in recent months and seems to spell mark the end for most forms of Fortnite leaks going forward.

Despite all of this, a number of skins and cosmetics have been leaked following the release of the patch, including some cool looking winter-themed outfits.

What happened to the all-new Driftboard?

We got our first tease at yet another new vehicle on December 17 when the Driftboard popped up on the in-game news feed. 

“Hop on board and boost past your competition with this new single player vehicle!” read the description. 

Unfortunately, an update shortly after revealed that we will have to wait a while longer to see it in-game as the developers will be concentrating on quality of life changes for the time being.

Fortnite fans will be waiting a while longer for the introduction of the Driftboard.

Patch notes

The full patch notes for the December 18 v7.10 update are as follows:

WEAPONS + ITEMS

• Heavy Assault Rifle Changes:
  • Reduced the effectiveness of the Heavy Assault Rifle while not aiming down sights; aiming down sight gameplay remains roughly the same
    • Increased ADS accuracy bonus by 10%
    • Increased accuracy while standing still by 10%
    • Reduced vertical recoil by 6%
    • Base accuracy reduced by 30%
    • Reduced accuracy while jumping and falling by 60%
• Improved Balloon controls
  • While in the air, Balloons can be released by pressing the ‘Crouch’ keybind(formerly the ‘Jump’ keybind).
  • Players can again use Alt-Fire to release a Balloon when the Balloon item is selected.
• For modes it’s available in, the height at which glider redeploy is available has been decreased from 1000 units to 576 units.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where players were able to pick up live Dynamite through structures.

GAMEPLAY

• Ground vehicles now slide on icy surfaces.
• Eliminations from “no-scoping” enemies with Sniper Rifles now shows up in the elimination feed.
• Sticking a landing on all 4 wheels with a vehicle will no longer damage the player inside.
• It’s now easier to pick up items dropped near a Mounted Turret.
• Stormwings now take 50% more damage from hitting objects.
  • Boosting now reduces the damage taken from impacts by 50%, previously boosting prevented all impact damage.
• Damage done to players that are in a Stormwing when it’s shot down has been increased from 25 to 50
  • Damage is dealt directly to health.
• Stormwings will now take more damage from destroying structures by running through them.

Bug Fixes

• Holding a movement key while confirming an edit will no longer force the player to continue moving in the direction of the key they were holding.
• Mounted Turrets will no longer be briefly teleported under the map and then returned to their original location.
• Various Zipline fixes
  • Zipline animations no longer briefly play every time a player jumps after building underneath a Zipline.
  • Players should retain proper momentum when latching onto a Zipline. This will fix the issue where it appears a player is “jittery/rubberbanding” or receives a perceived speed boost immediately after latching onto the Zipline.
  • Players will no longer lose the ability to sprint if they emote while on a Zipline.
  • Fixed an issue that caused players to become detached from the Zipline right after seeing the animation above their head.
  • The Zipline pulley will no longer remain in the world after eliminating a player while they were riding on it.
  • Fixed an issue where players would get flung across the map.
  • Added sounds and effects when a ziplining player smashes through structures.
  • Improved attach collision around Ziplines.
• Fixed regressions with the “Auto Pick Up Weapons” option

EVENTS

• Added additional dates for Explorer Pop-Up Cups and Friday Night Fortnite
• Explorer Pop-Up Cups
  • Resource caps adjusted from 700/500/300 to 500/500/500 for wood/stone/metal.
  • Resource gains on eliminations adjusted from 100/50/50 to 50/50/50 for wood/stone/metal.
  • We’re continuing to make adjustments on these values in an attempt to find a healthy balance, please let us know your feedback!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Traps were not granting elimination rewards in Explorer Pop-Up Cup.

PLAYGROUND

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that would prevent time trial Challenges from recording player completion times.
• Players should no longer see an occasional “Please Wait” message that blocks them from starting Challenge games in Playgrounds.

PERFORMANCE

• GPU performance improvements when view distances are far. This should improve resolution on consoles and in some cases, frame rate.
• Minor improvements were made to performance for emote music playback.
• Addressed movement corrections sometimes are seen when players jump
• Improved the performance of some gliders

AUDIO

• Improved winter biome ambient audio.
• Reduced the volume of Quad Crasher boost sounds.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Victory Royale sound effects being different on mobile/Switch.

UI

• Players can now preview loading screen cosmetics in the  front end by pushing the key bound to the “preview” action “Full Screen”
• Added a vehicle health bar above the player shield bar.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where a short snippet of the currently equipped Music item could be heard when previewing a different Music item
• Fixed an occasional crash when viewing event tiles on the consoles.

ART + ANIMATION

• Zenith has his own idle animation in the lobby.
• Lynx has her own idle animation in the lobby.
• Phone It In now plays for 15 seconds in the lobby
• Dab for days with the new emoting power of the Infinite Dab in the lobby!
  • Lasts 10 hours.

MOBILE

• UI buttons updated.
  • Made the HUD settings tab visible for mobile players.
  • Updated icons to be more visible in snow.
  • Moved the Exit Vehicle button to a new location
• 60 FPS option enabled for iPad Pro – second generation (10.5” & 12.9”) (select inside Settings).
• Enabled support for Snapdragon 710 chipsets (such as; Samsung A8S, Xiaomi Mi 8SE, Nokia 8.1, Oppo R17 Pro).
• Enabled support for Snapdragon 670 chipsets (such as Oppo R17, Vivo Z3).
• Enabled support for Samsung A9.

Bug Fixes

• Added a warning when Accessibility settings for Zoom are enabled, which interfere with tapping the screen and cause missing actions.
  • This caused players to experience unresponsive interactions.

CREATIVE

WHAT’S NEW?

Winter Themed IslandsA cold front brings in 4 new Winter themed Islands you can select from the player Rift on the starter island.

Winter Village PrefabsAdd seasonal touches to your Islands with 6 new Winter Village Prefabs.

This is an early release so you may experience client crashes, loss of progress, or other unexpected errors.

ISLANDS

• Added 4 new Winter Islands –
  • Selectable from the player Rift on the starter island
• Players now have 2 total “The Block” Islands instead of 1.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed multiple issues with Island Rift Portals not behaving as expected.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Featured Island Rift Portals not functioning when more than 8 players joined a server.
• Fixed player animation issues occurring after the “Reset Island” feature is used.
• Fixed an issue that allowed players to build above the height limit, causing them to become stuck.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a visiting player to lose the ability to select a Rift location if they leave and return to a host’s server.
• Fixed issues with editing structures and placing Traps on other player’s Islands.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Switch players to be removed from a server when one or more players max out their available Island memory

GAMEPLAY

• Added new “Glider Redeploy” Island setting.  
  • Controls whether players can glide after falling.  
  • Default: On

Bug Fixes

• Explosives are no longer able to destroy structures when the “Building Damage in Game” setting is turned off.
• Fixed players not sprinting after being in Fly Mode when both the “Auto Sprint” and “Toggle Sprint” settings were enabled.
• Fixed an issue that would prevent a player’s health and shields from resetting when starting a game in Creative Mode.
• Fixed an issue that could cause “Building Damage in Game” and “Block Building in Game” knobs to not function correctly.
• Fixed issue that could sometimes cause repaired structures to revert back to their previously damaged state when a player leaves and comes back to their island.
• Fixed a crash that occurred when selecting “My Island” from the in-game menus immediately after being eliminated.
• Fixed players being spawned over the water when entering an Island in some cases.
• Fixed an issue where players would be unable to jump after falling through the world.

CREATIVE TOOLS + PHONEBUG FIXES

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issues where props could pass through the foundation structure of The Block Island.
• Fixed rotated props becoming attached to the phone at strange angles when you interact with them.
• Fixed props being unexpectedly dropped after carrying them far distances.

PREFABS

• Added 6 Winter Village prefabs.
• Added Holiday prop packs.
• Added new cube colors to the Cube Gallery prefab.
• Added logs and stumps to the Nature Gallery.
• Added Winter Nature Gallery.
• Added additional ramps and floors to the Obstacle Gallery.

Bug Fixes

• The “Peg Hop” prefab no longer spawns with a blocked staircase that requires players to destroy/build around it.

DEVICES

• New Devices added:
  • Gunner – Stands and shoots at any player within a 2 tile radius.
    • Choose between Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, or Rocket Launcher.
• Added new options to Player Spawners:
  • Added an option to hide the Player Spawner during Game.
  • Added an option to prioritize which Player Spawn to use when there are multiple to choose from.
  • Modified Island Start option to allow spawning for both Island and Game.
• New Item Spawner settings:
  • Added an option to hide the Item Spawner during Game.
  • Added an option to customize the rate that items are spawned.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed players being unable to access Item Spawner options.
• Fixed a visual issue that occurred if a player picked up a new trap while another was equipped.
  • This issue would cause the UI to update with the new trap but would place the original trap instead.
• Fixed a visual issue causing the Ice Block to appear in-game as the Cozy Campfire model when looted from a chest.

WEAPONS + ITEMS

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Grappler was not respecting the Infinite Ammo Island Setting.
• Fixed an issue with player created chests would spawn on top of a structure above the player rather than in front of the player.
• Fixed issues with players not being able to loot chests on another player’s island while in Game.
• Fixed chests and Llamas being openable even if you didn’t have edit permission on another player’s island.

SOCIAL

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could prevent players from joining the party of a Switch player in an active Creative server.

PERFORMANCE

• Initial loading improvements.
• Optimized performance when players throw Playset Grenades.
• Optimized networking memory usage.

When did the v7.10 downtime begin??

While Epic Games initially announced that the update would be released on December 18, it was later delayed and then put back on schedule once again. Downtime for the update begins at 5am ET / 2am ET / 10am UTC.