Fortnite’s Heavy Sniper Rifle has had a tumultuous history, with it being removed and added back into the game a number of times. The nail in its coffin, however, came with patch 13.00, where the weapon was seemingly vaulted for good after it was deemed still too overpowered after nerfs and was replaced with the Hunting Rifle and Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle. But after almost two years, the Heavy Sniper Rifle is back.
According to a blog post on the Epic Games website, update v20.10 reintroduces the Heavy Sniper Rifle into Fortnite, but this time in a reworked form. “The Heavy Sniper Rifle is back in business and has been overhauled to combat the recent rampage of vehicles,” the post says. “Its high-caliber rounds now deal bonus damage to vehicles, making it the perfect tool to dismantle a Titan or breach an opponent’s defenses from long range.”
Judging from the patch notes, the new version of the scoped weapon is focused around its role as an anti-material rifle, with the development team intending it to deal more damage to structures and vehicles as opposed to being solely used to pick off distant players. This is backed up by Fortnite news pundit ‘Hypex,’ who tweeted out the revised statistics of the weapon.
While the overall weapon damage stays the same as before, headshot damage and builds damage have been nerfed. The weapon now deals 640+ damage to vehicles according to Hypex.
This comes after the recent Fornite Chapter 3 Season 2 update that brought with it some significant changes to the battle royale’s best weapons, as some Chapter 2 weapons were vaulted and others reworked.
Will the Heavy Sniper Rifle be one of the weapons that ends up being vaulted again in a future chapter because it is too powerful? Only time will tell, but for now it’s here to help you destroy other players’ vehicles with reckless abandon.