Season 3 of Fortnite is now live and it's brought with it a whole host of changes.

Firstly, the game has been upgraded to 60 frames per second on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox One X and PS4 Pro.

Battle Royale mode defaults to 60fps but players can switch to 30fps if you don't want to take the visual hit.

A new weapon, the Hand Cannon, has been added to Battle Royale, which takes Heavy Ammo and comes in Epic and Legendary varieties.

Double-pumping on shotguns has been nerfed so that players will now need to reload the shotgun after firing and switching weapons quickly. Uncommon and rare pistol drop rates have been increased, while Epic and Legendary Suppressed pistol drops have been decreased.

There's been big changes to the building system too, and of course the much-hyped new outfits, pickaxes, back bling, dances, emotes and skydiving trails are also part of the package.

Players of Save The World now have access to the new Hover Board, as well as the Bald Eagle Hand Cannon.

Fortnite Season 3 V3.0.0. patch notes

BATTLE ROYALE

• WEAPONS + ITEMS
• Hand Cannon added.
• Fires Heavy ammo.
• Epic and Legendary rarity.
• Found in Floor Loot, Treasure Chests and Supply Drops.
• Pump Shotgun behavior has been addressed. Firing the Pump Shotgun and quickly switching weapons will now require you to pump the Shotgun before the next shot.
• We will be monitoring any fallout from this and continuing to iterate on how this works throughout the next patches.
• Grenades no longer have the ability to Crit.
• Removed the Valentine’s Day skin from the Crossbow.
• Adjusted Pistol drop chances in floor loot:
• Increased Uncommon Pistol by 25%.
• Increased Rare Pistol by 100%.
• Decreased Epic Suppressed Pistol by 33%.
• Decreased Legendary Suppressed Pistol by 20%.
• Bug Fixes
• Fixed the colorful outlines around weapon pickups not showing up.
• Fixed the Crossbow not reloading if the fire button is pressed with an empty ammo clip.
• Fixed the Impulse Grenade sometimes not sticking to the environment.
• Fixed a recoil recovery issue that caused the reticle to be in a lower position than expected after switching weapons.
• PERFORMANCE
• 60 FPS mode added for PS4, Xbox One, PS4 Pro and Xbox One X.
• Battle Royale now defaults to 60 FPS, but you can switch back to 30 FPS in Settings if you prefer higher quality visuals.
• This replaces the Uncapped mode.
• Optimized weapon and building selection to be much more responsive under non-ideal network conditions.
• Several HUD elements have been optimized to improve performance.
• Bug Fixes
• Fixed hitching that occurred when jumping out of the Battle Bus.
• Fixed hitching that occurred when encountering certain skins for the first time in a match.
• GAMEPLAY
• Players now remain in control of their character for 10 seconds after earning Victory Royale!
• Players who do not have an Outfit equipped will now have the same Outfit both in-game and the lobby.
• Bug Fixes
• Fixed an issue where sometimes no weapon would be equipped on first weapon pickup.
• Fixed the crosshair reticle disappearing in certain cases.
• Fixed an issue where the wrong item was dropped after switching inventory slots immediately after picking-up a new item.
• Fixed an issue where Supply Drops were unable to be viewed from long distances.
• Fixed issue where other player models could appear giant in certain network conditions.
• Fixed wall traps not triggering if placed behind certain stair configurations that didn't visually block the trap.
• Fixed the wrong item stack sometimes being consumed when multiple instances of a stacking item are in the quickbar.
• Fixed a rare server crash when a player would join a match.
• Fixed an issue that would cause visual delays when acquiring pickups or opening chests.
• UI
• The fullscreen map can now be opened while spectating.
• The fullscreen map now displays information about what the buttons do in the top right.
• The path of the Battle Bus is now visible on the map prior to launch.
• When picking up items, we once again display the names and quantities on the HUD, with an improved appearance.
• Ammo count is now shown in the tooltip for weapons on the ground.
• Added new “Streamer Mode” setting to the Game Options menu, which anonymizes all names that aren't squad members.
• When spectating players, the number of players they’ve eliminated now appears under their name.
• Text notifications no longer appear when a spectator leaves.
• The "You placed X" message now appears for only 10 seconds instead of 20 while spectating.
• Added a Help button to the Battle Pass tab with a list of Frequently Asked Questions.
• Bug Fixes
• Fixed an issue where, after being eliminated, the banner rank of the opponent wouldn’t match their rank but would instead match your own.
• Fixed unclear description of the Emote key binding in the Input Settings menu.
• Fixed an issue where messages and popups were affected by the HUD Scale option.
• Fixed an issue with escape behavior where it was cancelling game actions rather than bringing up the menu.
• Downed players that were still in build mode could not open the menu.
• Fixed an issue where spectators would see the character model obstructing their view, if the spectated player was scoping a Sniper with their back to a wall.
• Fixed an issue where text notifications would show for spectators joining despite “Show Spectator Count” being disabled.
• Fixed not having enough visual padding between the current ammo in the magazine, and the amount left in reserve.
• SOCIAL
• Emoting is now available in the pre-game lobby.
• You can do this by clicking on your avatar > “Emote”.
• Banner, Boost Level, and Battle Pass Tier of party members are now shown in the lobby.
• The top menu in the lobby now shows expanded information on party members (similar to the in-match menu).
• Party Finder has been restyled with streamlined invite/join visuals.
• The actions you can take for each friend or invite request are now shown in-line.
• Ray no longer enthusiastically announces all friend invites.
• Bug Fixes
• Fixed several cases of players failing to receive Party Invite notifications.
• ART/ANIMATION
• Removed Depth of Field blur to greatly increase image sharpness for all players.
• Bug Fixes
• Lighting during all times of day/night now match the brightness across all Quality options.
• Lighting contrast + intensity have been adjusted to improve contrast in certain times of day that were flat and to reduce shadows in times of day that were too dark.
• Fixed an issue which caused downed players to become invisible if revived underwater.
• AUDIO
• Unique Audio coming to several Pickaxes + Gliders within the Battle Pass in V.3.1.0.
• Created new Semi-Auto Sniper world impact sounds, so it doesn't sound as overwhelming when shot at.
• Bug Fixes
• Implemented a fix that should resolve the stuttering and lagged audio issues that were introduced in the last update.
• Fixed an issue that caused the pickaxe equip sound to play when other players jumped from the bus.
• KNOWN ISSUES
• In rare cases, the game may crash in the frontend menus when ShadowPlay Highlights is enabled. To prevent this, please update to the latest version of GeForce Experience.
• After opening a Supply Drop that has been shot down, the loot will sometimes spawn in the sky and slowly fall to the ground.
• In rare cases, players may be unable to edit a player built structure.
• The current workaround is to press the edit button on an adjacent structure.

General changes

• Major Improvements to Building!
• Players can now build structures just about anywhere, even through trees, rocks and cars.
• This allows you more freedom when building (no more pesky trees stopping your ramps).
• Structural support still works the same way -- only terrain or other buildings will support your built structures, not objects you build through.
• If you run out of materials while building, you’ll now automatically switch to the next material with available resources.
• You can turn this feature off with the “Auto Material Change” option in the Game Settings menu.
• You can now continuously place the selected building piece by holding down the Primary Fire button.
• You can turn this feature off with the “Turbo Building” option in the Game Settings menu.
• Battle Royale: Switching between building pieces is now much smoother, especially using console controls or under non-ideal network conditions.
• New Orchestral Music Score!
• The score was created by film composer Marco Beltrami (Logan, The Hurt Locker, etc.) and Pinar Toprak (Krypton TV series, additional composition for the Justice League film, etc.). The hour long score was recorded in Nashville with an amazing orchestra.
• Save the World: All music has been updated with an entirely new soundtrack.
• Battle Royale: The Login, Launch, and Lobby menus have updated remixes from the new score.
• Added Color Blind Option
• This can be found in the new “Accessibility” tab in the game's options.
• There's a strength indicator so that you can find a level that works best for you.
• This feature is still in development. We'd love to hear your feedback, especially if you're unable to find a level that makes the colors better for you.

Save The World

• GAMEPLAY
• Hoverboard added.
• Hoverboards are granted by a new tutorial questline, available after Stonewood Homebase Storm Shield Defense 5 has been completed.
• Cruise across the map at high speed!
• Hoverboards take 3 seconds to summon, but consume no Energy while in use.
• Taking damage while on your Hoverboard will knock you off. Avoid husks!
• The Bald Eagle Hand Cannon is now available in the Weekly Store.
• This is the highest-damage hand cannon yet!
• Accurate and effective at short to mid-range.
• Spring It On! event chapter, “Luck Explosion” unlocks!
• Ring in the Lunar New Year with explosive new quests and activities.
• Get your Dragon Weapon of choice as the quest line reward.
• The Cozy Campfire no longer rewards the full Utility score every time it heals a player, instead spreading its total reward out over its lifespan.
• Plankhattan Project quest now only requires a single fully completed Siphon to succeed instead of 3. Players still must complete all three defense stages on the Siphon.
• Adjusted the cost of all BluGlo Pylons.
• Increased Wood/Stone/Metal harvesting rates. The exact amount varies by object, but is approximately 10-20% higher.
• Frontend crafting within Universal Inventory feature will be added.
• Reduced appearance rate of Ranged, Melee and Weapon Llamas by 20%.
• Bug Fixes
• Wall launchers once again push husks in the direction the trap is facing.
• Weak points will now spawn for all players when multiple players attempt to harvest a building or Outlander llama at the same time.
• The Cozy Campfire now requires tiered Mineral Powder to craft.
• Spring It On! Gold was incorrectly displaying as Sprint It On! Gold
• Fixed Wooden Wall Spike Traps to have no reload time.
• Fixed Wooden Wall Spike Traps to have proper damage at different tiers and rarities.
• Fixed an issue with Wooden Wall Spike Traps not properly reflecting damage.
• Survivor’s lost item should no longer spawn outside of the search area.
• If a Survivor Relay doesn't spawn a survivor, it will now fulfill related objectives and grant full rewards.
• Fixed the mailbox quest item from being searchable even if you're not doing the quest.
• Fixed “Summer” from spawning Outside the Storm Shield in Outpost.
• Vacuum Tube Launcher and Dam Buster will no longer roll headshot perks.
• Fixed an issue where new Dragon Weapon schematics could roll invalid perk configurations.
• Updated Melee “Durability Decay” perk descriptions to say "Longer Durability" instead of "Durability Decay"; updated values to reflect new descriptions.
• These tooltips were also displaying incorrect values - they are now correct.
• Crossbow Schematics will now craft weapons of the correct power level.
• The correct Crossbow model will now show when it is crafted, dropped or picked-up.
• Fixed a bug that caused multiple elemental enemy types to spawn in the same encounter after increasing difficulty. Only one elemental type should spawn at a time, except Minibosses.
• HEROES
• Valentines Ninja Snuggle Specialist Sarah has been added to the Event Store.
• New Legendary versions of the Lunar New Years heroes added to the Spring Llama:
• Berserker Renegade
• Riot Control Izza
• Flash A.C.
• Thunderstrike Mari
• Base movespeed has been unified across all heroes.
• Constructors now move at the same speed as Soldiers and Outlanders.
• The Ninja's Shinobi perk now grants 10% run and sprint speed, in addition to 10% fall damage reduction.
• Bug Fixes
• Fixed an issue causing the Outlander Flash Eagle Eye's support perk to show 12% damage increase at all hero evolutions. It now properly displays 12%, 18%, and 24% at Evolutions 1, 2, and 3.
• Fixed an issue where Dragon Slash wasn’t activating voice over.
• Fixed issue causing players to lose control of their character if a Troll Bomb was destroyed with Soldier's “Shockwave”.
• Fixed issue where “In The Zone” would sometimes trigger following one swing after switching weapons.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Soldiers to sprint while they were aiming their Frag Grenade.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Light Sword Heavy Attacks to be canceled early.
• Fixed a visual issue where the Flash Eagle Eye Outlander's backpacks of Epic and Legendary rarities were reversed.
• Fixed an issue where hero abilities, projectiles and visual FX would fail when cast in water.
• Fixed an issue where the Epic version of Sarah Claus had Crescent Kick as Tier 2 ability instead of Throwing Stars.
• Fixed an issue where Ranger BeetleJess was missing her face paint.
• Updated the “Rain of Death” Ninja perk to show the updated throw pattern.
• UI
• Updated Skill Tree backgrounds with new art and path labels to help player progression.
• Added new color backgrounds and labels to Research Trees to help player progression.
• Selecting the "Find in ..." option in the Heroes or Squads menu will now show the selected Hero, Survivor, or Defender when opening the appropriate Armory sub-menu.
• Clarified the behavior of the the Quick Chat key binding in the Input settings screen.
• Added a purple skull icon above Mini-Bosses.
• Spring it On! Gold icon has been updated:
• Bug Fixes
• Fixed an issue that caused “Connecting…” to appear when a teammate joined a match.
• Fixed the tooltip for Supply Drop.
• Clicking a locked squad now takes you to the "earliest" skill node that unlocks any slot in that squad, rather than the skill node that unlocks the leader slot.
• Fixed a case where weapon perks would disappear from the UI temporarily.
• Fixed a case where the item level display would fail to update.
• Fixed a case of overrunning text in the Store tab.
• Fixed some cases where controller navigation would become unresponsive.
• Fixed a hitch that could occur when navigating the Quests tab.
• Fixed some mission detail information not correctly updating when hovering over missions with a mouse.
• Fixed a case of cut-off text in the Armory menus.
• Tab navigation button callouts are now hidden if they cannot be used.
• Fixed the Mission Select button becoming overly large in some situations.
• Adjusted the layout of the Defender Squads button to better support having every squad unlocked.
• Fixed slotted Survivors not showing their correct power level in some situations.
• Fixed an issue with purchasing additional Llamas during the Llama store tutorial.
• Removed unnecessary blank rows in the tooltip information for “Bear Stare”.
• Corrected a typo in the description for “Quick Kick”.
• Fixed the tooltip for “Hearty Blows” to refer to base health values and “BASE MD” missing its display name.
• Fixed map and radar icons (including player icons) not displaying in some circumstances.
• The Ralphie's Revenge Sniper Rifle now correctly displays tier information.
• Remove unused stats in Patrol Ward tooltip .
• Fixed a case of overrunning text breaking the layout of the Daily Rewards menu.
• Updated "Air Strike Upgrade: Damage" node to accurately reflect bonuses.
• Updated the description of “Hover Turret Upgrade: Fire Rate” node in Skill Tree 4 to accurately reflect bonuses.
• Fixed an issue where console players were unable to select a skill in the skill tree.
• AUDIO
• Added Plasma Stun sound to Decoy when you have the perk enabled.
• KNOWN ISSUES
• The "Import Friends" button is not available in the game menu for V.3.0.0 only.
• Can be found in the Epic Games Launcher in the meantime.
• Twitch quests are not giving out daily missions.
• Weapon designs and training manuals are not being fully refunded when recycling 2-star and above items.
• Recycling using the context menu does not preview the refunded items.
• Initial Black Box announcement of zone modifiers appears too briefly to read.
• Player can't edit building when a blueprint of a different building is selected.
• Explosive based weapons have AoE blast radius as Range in Stats page.
• Featured quests appear as only partially completed when finished.
• Hex Map rewards UI display gold as 'Seasonal Gold'.
• Owned Dragon Weapons could roll invalid perk configurations.
• The Play Now button for the "Want to Build a Hoverboard?" quest can take players to non-City zones. Play Now functionality will be removed from this quest in a future patch.