Fortnite v9.01 update patch notes are out

The first post-release update of Fortnite’s season nine has just arrived. Players can now start downloading the v9.01 patch.

Epic Games has also released the update patch notes with the full list of changes introduced in v9.01. We were expecting the Tactical Assault Rifle to come and here it is, along with several bug fixes and nerfs to overpowered items that were still causing problems to players who were victims of them.

Here are the main points of today’s update.

Tactical Assault Rifle

Epic is introducing the Tactical Assault Rifle in v9.01. It comes in Rare, Epic, and Legendary rarities, deals 22/23/24 damage to players respectively and is a fully automatic Assault Rifle with a 30-round magazine.

According to Epic, the gun has a “tight spread in close quarters but is less effective at long range when compared to other Assault Rifles.”

Drum Gun nerf

The Drum Gun has finally been nerfed in damage, since the v9.00 nerf to its spawn rate was far from enough. Epic reduced its damage from 26/27 to 22/23, which will force players who use it to hit one more shot to take down opponents with full health and no shields. “This change should reduce its combat effectiveness while still retaining its flavor,” Epic wrote.

The Baller nerf

The Baller was still too strong, so Epic is tuning it down even further. After reducing its health from 300 to 200, the company has now reduced it to 150. The vehicle should be popular due to its mobility, not due to its defensive traits, Epic wrote. The company hopes this makes the vehicle a viable tool for mobility but makes it worse defensively.

Downtime for the deployment of the v9.01 update has already started, which means players can download the game files and wait a couple hours to jump into their first matches of the patch.