What we know about Fortnite’s Tactical Assault Rifle

The Tactical Assault Rifle could be coming to Fortnite: Battle Royale soon. It should be the first gun of its category to be introduced since the great purge of season nine, which sent two Assault Rifles to the vault along with the fan-favorite Pump Shotgun and five other items.

There’s no confirmation that the Tactical Assault Rifle is coming, even though Fortnite data miners found full information about it in the game files after the v9.00 update yesterday. The gun should come in Rare, Epic, and Legendary variants that deal 22, 23, and 24 damage per shot to players and 25, 26, and 28 to structures, respectively.

One thing it has in common with other Assault Rifles is its 30-bullet magazine size. Unlike them, it uses Light Ammo instead of Medium Bullets. That makes the Tactical Assault Rifle sound like a Submachine Gun, especially like the Suppressed SMG that’s still available this season.

But the Tactical Assault Rifle’s stats, which Fortnite website Storm Shield One revealed in detail, show how the gun is different than an SMG. The Tactical Assault Rifle has a higher shot range, a longer damage falloff range, and less bullet spread when shooting both from the hip and while aiming down sights. Its fire rate is lower than that of an SMG, but it’s still higher than the standard Assault Rifle.

That means the Tactical version is likely a hybrid between the Suppressed SMG and the standard Assault Rifle regarding accuracy, fire rate, and damage.

Whenever this new gun joins Fortnite: Battle Royale, it’ll have tough competition. Being the middle ground between two categories of weapons can make it bad at what Assault Rifles and Submachine Guns do well. For long-range combat, its damage won’t be as good as an Assault Rifle, and for close-quarters engagements, its fire rate won’t be as high as a Submachine Gun. It could also be the perfect balance between them, on the other hand, and become a two-in-one gun that will replace these others in the meta.

But the addition of the Tactical Assault Rifle has yet to be confirmed by Epic Games. Until then, all we can do is theorycraft and hope it doesn’t wreak havoc on the Fortnite meta.