Inside Seasonal Balance: How We’re Tuning the Loot Pool

The Chapter 7 Season 2 loot pool has landed well with the community. Players are locking in their main loadouts whether that’s with a Pistol or an Assault Rifle, and the four-shotgun rotation rewards different play styles, people are picking favorites and making the case for why their pick should stay in rotation. That kind of specific feedback is shaping how we approach loot pool updates longer term and we want to share more on that.

As Chapter 7 continues, here's a quick look at our approach to seasonal balancing, what we've seen so far this season, and where we'd love to hear your voice as we move forward on exciting things to come for Fortnite:

Balance Adjustments

The Battle Royale loot pool is seemingly in a healthy place right now - both in community feedback and in the gameplay data we use to evaluate weapon balance. We also recently adjusted the Reload loot pool based on community feedback to keep Reload matches fun. Most of our loot pool tuning happens proactively before a weapon hits your hands.

The Cube Rifle is the exception. We introduced this weapon to learn more about how you like to play with a unique weapon, and we've been deliberate and thoughtful about how we want to balance it. A few weeks in, the gameplay data and community feedback are pointing in the same direction, so here's where we're landing:

🟪 The Cube Rifle now deals more damage, has improved accuracy, fires faster projectiles, and has increased spread while jumping and sprinting.

Try it out, let us know what you think about this weapon’s balance, and keep the feedback coming!

Keeping the Loot Pool Fresh

We have updated the loot pool way more often during this Battle Royale season compared to previous ones with more unvaults alongside Milestones being reached, leading to new and interesting loadout possibilities as the BR season progresses. That pace is intentional. Right now, what's in the pool, and what coexists with what, is doing more of the balancing work than stat tweaks are. We’ve noticed that dropping in an extra weapon (or one fewer) almost always impacts the meta more than a number change.

This season's Shotguns are the clearest example. This season there are four active Shotguns which is the most we've run in a long while, and instead of overlap, each one has been carving out their own role:

💥 Chaos Reloaders reward a steady hand and a confident first shot for big damage.

🎯 Iron Pumps favor accurate players that have cover.

🔭 Super Shredders give you reach in open areas.

🔨 Dual Hammers keep the pressure on in extended conflict.

We've been hearing feedback on this direction of balance design this season, but let us know how you’re feeling about the vaults and unvaults, feedback is always welcome!

We Want Your Feedback!

Here's where you come in. We're looking into potential adjustments for the Battle Royale loot pool, and these are the questions we'd love to hear from you on:

1. Shotgun identities. Which of the four shotguns is your go-to, and why? Is there a specific role or scenario where one really shines for you? Please be specific on whether you are playing Battle Royale or Zero Build!

2. Loadout shape. When you pick up the Chaos Reloader, what are you pairing it with? An SMG or Pistol? Heals? We want to hear about your favorite loadouts and why that’s your go-to.

3. Standout moments. The fights, clutches, and clip-worthy plays from your games — those moments tell us a lot about what's working. Show us some clips!

Here’s a few ways on how to get your feedback to us:

📣 Reply here - we read the threads.

💬 The Fortnite Community Discord has channels dedicated to weapon feedback.

🎥 Clips. A 15-second clip from your game is some of the most useful feedback we get. Tag us!

📊 Surveys. Keep an eye out — we run surveys in-game continuously to understand how you’re feeling about the loot pool.

We're listening, and we appreciate every player taking the time to share what they're seeing out there. See you on the Island.

-The Fortnite Dev Team

I think I speak for most players when saying this but please either nerf the twin hammers or vault them and replace them with either the pump or the sharp tooth

I think that the twin hammer shotguns must be buffed and deal more damage in order to make people able to counter the chaos reloader shotgun. Generally I love chaos reloader shotgun and I compare it either with an AR or a pistol. Also we need the B.R.U.T.E. back in creative mode

I mainly play Zero Build BR now, I've loved running around with the burst SMG, twin hammer shotguns, pizza, new shockwaves and power gloves, the SMG is nice for close-medium range and the shotguns feel good, every shotgun this season actually feels fun to use, the pistol as well, the pistol is such a fun addition to the lootpool, often find myself using it in place of a follow up to the iron pump or chaos reloader, twin mag's felt kind of weak to me, personally, this season, but everything else feels really good, loving how much the lootpools changing too, the milestones have kept the season feeling really really fresh

The hammer pump and Duke shotguns are fine and well balanced. The chaos reloader needs a range nerdy or a body shot nerf, as it's a lil op. Super shredder is underpowered. It needs higher body shot, or 2.5 headshot multiplier. -builds player

Chapter 7 feels a bit like a rerun at times instead of bringing that fresh, exciting energy we love. It’s heavy on old weapons, which makes matches feel recycled and less special overall. Season 2 has about 60% of the loot pool from previous chapters, so it doesn’t quite land as a brand new season. The bosses have been tricky too—no map icons, inconsistent spawns at their POIs, and mythics not dropping reliably, which makes them less rewarding to go after.

We really enjoyed how strong Chapter 5 and 6 bosses felt with their epic medallions, solid fights, and good integration. For Season 3, please bring back that smooth Chapter 5-6 boss style with medallions, revive Loot Island with a boss spawn for that fun pacing, restore LOOT CACHES, add transformation bosses, include bigger map changes each season, and introduce more actual new weapons along with fresh mechanics. That would make Season 3 feel special and exciting again

Over all shout out to the whole dev teams that made this season more balanced than most of the other seasons. I believe I'm the rare few where my loadout is Nemesis and iron pump.

In ZB, the Nemesis needs much straighter hip-fire to better counter Pistol/SMG spam in close range fighting. Pistol/SMG should also get a damage nerf or added bullet drop at further range (its not a fair fight when a player is shocking or gloving towards you and you get triple headshot and the fight is over before both players square up. The Iron Pump needs its old consistent damage back to counter the chaos reloader. I have lost too many fight due to the inconsistent damage the iron pump delivers. I would also like to see gloves removed in zb Ranked or nerf the damage so players can stop jumping into a bunker or building and just spam the uppercut and the player is unable to counter this move. I would also like the aim assistance to be shut off when using the gloves feels like players are just being sucked into the gloves when playing against controller players. But these are my minor ideas and hope it helps! Thanks for listening!

1. Shotgun identities. my go-to shotgun in Zero Build is the Chaos Reloader. It’s not a shotgun I particularly enjoy using, but I choose it because picking up my actual favorite (the Iron Pump) and going up against a player with a Chaos Reloader feels a bit like bringing a knife to a gun fight - the Reloader just does so much more damage in situations where I can’t hit a perfect headshot (very unlikely with the amount of mobility/high movement speed in this season), that it feels awful to use a different shotgun in any rarity, hit for 50, and get a 150 damage body shot in return.

1. Loadout Shape. I pair the Chaos Reloader with a pistol. I feel the ability to finish fights quickly is critical for survival this season, so I opt for the gun with what feels like the most accuracy and high DPS for me, which has been the pistol. I’m also carrying Overdrive Grenades, Pizza, and Port-a-bunkers.

I agree with what one of the other guys was saying, I think the super shredder needs a buff in a few places. Either in clip size and reload or damage potential, I find that most times when I try to use the super shredder like a shotgun I tend to lose most fights cause the other shotguns are more dominant, I think a body shot damage increases or higher headshot damage potential would make it feel much better to use in closer ranges to make it feel like a true shotgun-sniper hybrid. Chaos reloader could also use a range nerf too ~Primarily a zero builds player

Both builds and zero builds player here. I personally think the Pistol, Thunder Burst SMG, and Chaos Reloader Shotgun are all my go to options, as I feel like they are just the best options and are the meta right now, and I feel like they should be looked into or somewhat nerfed in the future. I really enjoy seeing balance changes but have been wondering why they have been absent of CH7 S2 when there are a couple of things that I felt that were overtuned.

I haven't used an AR (besides the recently added Cube Rifle) since the start of this season as the Pistol feels like an entirely better option for long range scenarios compared to ARs. If we are comparing to other base pistols this is the most insane pistol we have ever gotten. Sidearm Pistol damages + quickest reload speed + 3 extra mag size + Lowest bloom and easy to control recoil. I feel as pistols as a whole need to be reevaluated, I think it should be a good option close to close mid range but it shouldn't always outclass an AR. I would personally revert this thing back to how it was before the buffs that was given this season.

For the Thunder Burst SMG, I do like the idea of having a precision gun but it deals too much damage and is insane while in the air. Matching the damages to be the structure damages could be a good start (22,23,24,25,26), maybe making the jump spread larger could also be a good change. There is lots of ways to go about balancing it without making it too week.

And for the Chaos Reloader, It just rewards shots too easily. The damage gap between common and legendary is way too large, and doesn't start damage drop off until 10 meters which is the same for iron pump and twin hammers. I think it would be interesting if Legendary was able to do about 145 damage and let the damage drop off start at something sooner like 5 meters.

As for the recently added cube rifle I already think its pretty insane to use. The headshot multiplier is especially insane as it already deals lots of body damage. I feel like the damage can be lowered to 45/47 and headshot multiplier can be x1.5 or x1.4

For healing items, I think the Flowberry Mist Grenade and Slapperoni Pizza are just the best healing items in the game currently. It feels really annoying going against someone using them during a fight because they can just heal everything too fast. The Flowberry Mist Grenade needs to have a stack size of 2 instead of 3, and the Slapperoni Pizza should heal 25 per slice instead of 30.

Bonus round: Some weapons that can be slightly tuned:

Assault rifle (can be obtained from Midas flopper): Should have a x1.5 headshot multiplier, feel like headshot DPS is a bit too much for an AR.

Vector 7 DMR: Hitscan range being 100m is sorta insane, I would change it to 50m

Ice King Gauntlets: Ice ball attack AOE should be lowered. It feels too big.

Super Shredder: Max Damage Cap should get a small increase for Rare and Epic rarities (140, 145, 150), but a slightly lowered headshot multiplier. (currently x3.25 right now, maybe could go for x3?)

Overall, I'm really interested to see any balance changes be put out. I want things to be as balanced as they can be, as I feel tired of running the same weapons every match over and over again. Not because I prefer it, but because of how powerful they are compared to other weapons.