Can Fortnite’s Junk Rift counter the B.R.U.T.E.?

The new consumable item Junk Rift has just joined Fortnite: Battle Royale in the v10.10 Content Update and it seems to be promising in the game’s current state. It’s a throwable item that marks the location where it lands for a huge object, either a car, a dinosaur statue, or an anchor, to land and deal damage to whatever is there.

What makes Junk Rift a special item is that it instantly destroys any vehicle, regardless if it’s a direct hit or a hit from the object’s shockwave. That means we might be looking at a B.R.U.T.E. counter that can quickly and easily destroy these menacing and player-controlled giant robots.

Players have been begging for Epic to either nerf or remove the B.R.U.T.E., but the company instead added Junk Rift to act as a counter to it. We ran a few tests and we’re not sure how good of a counter it really is, though.

There’s a delay between the time when the Junk Rift lands on the mech and the object falls from the sky. The object deals direct damage to anything that’s in the same tile as it lands, and it deals shockwave damage to those in a one-tile radius from it. It’s a small area of effect that isn’t enough to destroy the B.R.U.T.E. in some cases.

If it’s a direct hit, the object will also eliminate any player inside the B.R.U.T.E.

If your opponent is moving in a B.R.U.T.E. and you throw a Junk Rift on their robot, they’ll likely be able to avoid both the object and its shockwave by simply walking forward. If they use the boost, it’s even easier. The only moment when you get a hit is if your opponent isn’t moving and takes too long to realize you hit them. That’s a guaranteed one-hit destruction of the mech and elimination of your opponent.

That’s why the best way to use the Junk Rift against the B.R.U.T.E. might be throwing the item in front of the robot, but still close to its feet. That way, if your opponent has no boost and is moving toward the grenade, they’ll get hit for sure.

But we’re in the initial moments of the introduction of the Junk Rift. Players will surely find new ways of optimizing its use and discover how to effectively counter the B.R.U.T.E. with it.