Fortnite Update 5.21 – New ‘Thora’ Character, Heavy Sniper Rifle and more!

The Fortnite Update 5.21 Update is here. This new update brings an all-new character along with challenges and updates to missions for Save The World, and an all-new heavy sniper rifle plus limited time modes for Battle Royale. It also fixes some bugs as always. Let’s have a look.

Fortnite – Battle Royale

The all-new Heavy Sniper Rifle & Minigun Update

The Heavy Sniper Rifle will be available in both Epic & Legendary variants, with the stats being in accordance to the rarity levels. It can be found in Vending Machines, Supply Drops and Floor Loot. The weapon has been described as being able to deal highly destructive damage to players with higher accuracy & less bullet drop compared to other players, all at the cost of long reload times.

The Fortnite Update 5.21 has also nerfed the Minigun, updating its headshot multiplier stat from 2.5 to 1.5. As for bug fixes, they’ve fixed the progression problems in the Week 5 Challenge where grenades wouldn’t grant progress for some players.

Limited Time Modes

The Fortnite Update 5.21 also brings two new limited time modes – Soaring 50’s and Sniper Shootout.

Soaring 50’s

The mode is a modification to the original 50 vs 50 mode, granting players with more mobility. Players will be able to find more Launch Pads, Impulse Grenades and Bounce Pads in the map, and on falling from a large height they can re-deploy gliders. Here are the Mode Details from the Patch Notes –

• 50v50 loot, ammo and resource levels
• When in mid-air and greater than 10m up, press Jump to deploy your glider
• Added Impulse Grenades to chests at double the standard spawn rate
• Added Impulse Grenades to floor loot
• Decreased Spike Trap spawn chances
• Increased Launch Pad & Bounce Pad spawn chances
• Profile Stats (K/D & Wins) are not tracked in this mode.

Sniper Shootout

In this mode, all players will only be able to find Sniper Rifles throughout the map. Other weapons have been removed, along with the floor loot spawns being reduced by 50%. Here are the mode details from the Patch Notes –

What’s New?

• Scoped Assault Rifles have been removed.
• The Heavy Sniper Rifle has been added.

Mode Details

• Only weapon drops are Sniper Rifles.
• Floor Loot spawns reduced by 50%.
• Profile Stats (K/D & Wins) are tracked in this mode.

Fortnite – Save The World PvE

New Character – Thora

Thora is a new Constructor Character. She’s been described as being able to ‘Lure Husks into traps and control areas when things get critical!’ by the Fortnite Team. She’s a new Constructor Hero subclass, and here are the characteristics for them –

New Missions & Systems

The update brings a new weekly challenge, and updates to the Challenge the Horde Missions. It also has several new bug fixes. Here are the details –

• Weekly Horde Challenge – Bullet Proof Husks
  • Features bulletproof enemies that must be defeated with melee weapons, traps, or Hero abilities.
  • One time completion Quest Reward
    • 1500 Gold
• Repeatable quest reward
  • 75 Tickets
• Removed the Power Rating restrictions on Challenge the Horde missions.
  • These restrictions were blocking some players from accessing the Weekly Challenge Missions even though their Power Level was at the necessary level.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the modifier between Challenge the Horde missions wasn’t appearing between waves.
• The Constructor Leadership quest will no longer fail to advance when purchasing the skill tree node.
• Atlas activation has been fixed in multi-gate Fight the Storm missions.
• Track completion now advances the mission properly in Level 28 Deliver the Bomb.
• Survivors and quest items no longer appear as orange boxes in the world.

Read the full patch notes here. What do you think about the new Heavy Sniper Rifle and Thora? Let’s discuss in the comments.