Epic made the v9.00 a bloodbath for items in Fortnite. It vaulted several of fan-favorite items, such as the Pump Shotgun. This hasn’t changed yet with the v9.01 patch notes reveal, and the company has now vaulted the Epic and Legendary variants of the SMG, also known as Compact SMG.
That leaves the game with common, uncommon, and rare Submachine Guns and the uncommon and rare Drum Guns as the only SMGs available in default Fortnite: Battle Royale playlists.
The company wrote in the patch notes that “due to the recent addition of the Drum Gun and the brand new Tactical Assault Rifle, we wanted to reduce the availability of high rate-of-fire weapons.” In comparison with the Drum Gun, Compact SMGs deal less damage and had fewer bullets per magazine, but their fire rate was slightly higher.
Though the vaulting of the Compact SMG seems too sudden, it shouldn’t be hard for players to adapt. The Drum Gun is more effective, and, despite its recent nerf, it should still provide the pressure and raw damage per second that players would miss from the Compact SMG.
The new Tactical Assault Rifle should also help to fill the gap that the Compact SMG will leave. Its fire rate isn’t as impressive, but its damage is high enough to make up for it.
Players should see the Compact SMG in special limited-time modes that come in the future, such as in Solid Gold. The gun will be disabled from standard game modes once the v9.01 update is finished and servers are back online.
