Fortnite Battle Royale v20.40 Update: Sideways Showdown Week + Shield Bubbles vs. Balloons

The Resistance has won the Battle for Tilted Towers! Use this POI as a base for Resistance operations. And no matter where you go on the Island, wield the returning Sideways weapons:

Sideways Showdown Week

The Sideways may be nowhere in sight, but Sideways weapons have made a return! In Sideways Showdown Week — running now until May 24, 2022, at 8:59 AM ET — the Sideways Rifle and Sideways Minigun are out of the vault. Not their first time in a battle involving the Island’s fate, you can find these weapons in Chests and on the ground. How to upgrade Sideways weapons without Cube Monster Parts? Just take 'em to an Upgrade Bench!



Earn extra XP by showing your Sideways weapon skill: Sideways Showdown Week Quests are active for this whole themed week! Look out for a new batch of special Quests when the next themed week begins May 24 at 9 AM ET.

Begin Shield Bubbles vs. Balloons

Speak with your Bars — the Shield Bubbles/Balloons trial period has ended and now it’s time for a vote! Funding Stations pitting the two items together can be found at all major POIs, so head to a Funding Station and contribute Bars to your preferred choice. The first choice to reach 100% Funded based on everyone’s global contributions will win and enter the loot pool immediately!

Continue Utile Tactics in Zero Build

Last week, to coincide with the trickshot unvaults, the drop rate of utility items was increased for a limited time. In Zero Build, the drop rate of Shockwave Grenades, Rift-To-Gos, and Cow Catchers will stay increased indefinitely! Keep the traversal and combative transportation going.

V-Bucks Purchased on PlayStation Join Fortnite Shared Wallet

Starting with v20.40, V-Bucks purchased on PlayStation may be used across platforms that support Fortnite Shared Wallet (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, Android, and cloud gaming services). As always, V-Bucks earned on any platform through the Battle Pass, Quest Packs, or Save the World are shared across all other platforms. See our recent blog post on Fortnite Shared Wallet for more information.

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S Latency Reduction

We've made performance improvements to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles running in 60 FPS that reduce input latency for players who select “Low Input Latency Mode” in the settings (Settings > Game > Extra Game Options). Low Input Latency has been enabled by default.

PlayStation 5 - Change to How to Enable 120 FPS in Fortnite

It’s now easier for PS5 players to enable 120 FPS in Fortnite. 

To enable 120 FPS in Fortnite on PS5, players no longer need to go to the console settings. Instead, 120 FPS can be enabled by doing the following:

1. In Fortnite, open the Settings menu from the Sidebar menu.

2. Click on Video.

3. Toggle 120 FPS Mode to ON.

4. Click Apply.

Note: The 120 FPS option will not appear if your TV or AV receiver doesn’t support 120 FPS output. 

Middle East Server Region Change

Networking options for the Middle East server region have changed. To ensure all players in the region have the best experience — if you had manually selected the server region to Middle East — it has now been reverted to Auto.

This means that some players who are normally connected to Middle East servers will now connect to Europe or Asia. Competitors, be sure to check the Compete tab in-game for Cup starts times.

Players are able to switch back to the Middle East server region if they choose to do so, but remember that this will likely result in high ping.

Competitive Notes

• Arena Fill has been enabled.

• The Sideways Showdown unvaults are not included in competitive playlists.

• The winner of the Shield Bubbles vs. Balloons vote will not be unvaulted in competitive playlists.

Major Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue involving players not receiving social notifications if they were in a match in a party with another player.

• Fixed an issue involving the UI of the Anvil Rocket Launcher not appearing.