Weaponry (Battle Royale)

Weapons are the primary method for dealing damage and eliminating players in Fortnite: Battle Royale. Weaponry is found scattered across the map, and the types of weapons available to the player span across all ranges and rarities.

Weaponry Navigation

Weaponry

Function

Weaponry refers to a type of item which can be aimed, reloaded or uses a magazine, or in the case of a Melee Weapon, used to deal damage at close range. The primary function of most weapons is to deal damage to players or structures.

Weapons come in all rarities, and often deal more damage as the rarity increases. Weapons which are Mythic or Exotic sometimes have different functions or better statistics. Weapons can be upgraded using an Upgrade Bench or interacting with certain NPCs while the function can be changed by sidegrading in the form of crafting.

Weapon Rarity
Common	Uncommon	Rare	Epic	Legendary	Mythic	Exotic

Function

Weapons are designed to deal damage to opponents or structures. Most weapons are ranged, meaning they can attack players from great distances, but some are closer ranged, such as Shotguns or Melee Weapons. Weapons will often, but not always have the following characteristics:

• Weapons are used to deal damage to opponents at range. They are also able to deal damage to structures and vehicles.
• Weapons can be aimed using the alternate fire button, allowing for players to achieve greater accuracy with them. Some weapons have a different function when this button is pressed.
• Weapons use an Ammo Type and can be reloaded, however some will be discarded after use.
• Weapons will affect opponents in some way, whether it be disrupting their movement, damaging them, or just showing a physical impact from the weapon's use on them.

As such items such as Grenades, or Firefly Jars are not considered weapons, as they are destroyed upon use, and do not have an ammo type, even if they can damage opponents and structures. Furthermore, items such as the Hunter's Cloak or Prop-ifier are also not weapons, as although they are not consumed, they do not use an ammo type, and cannot affect players.

Statistics

Weapons have several characteristics which define how they operate, and how effective they are at doing so. These are referred to as Statistics.

Statistic	Description	Notes
Rarity	The chance the weapon can be found, alongside its uniqueness.	The higher the rarity, the more effective an item is within its own weapon. Some Common weapons may have better statistics than an Uncommon version of another weapon.
Damage	The amount of health taken away from an opponent, when attacked with the specified weapon.	Damage is only a measurement of damage to opponents. It does not account for damage dealt to structures, nor does it account for headshot multipliers, or falloff damage.
Fire Rate	The amount of times a weapon can attack in one second.	This stat is applied to weapons which don't 'fire' anything. It simply applies to the amount of uses per second, ignoring reload times.
Damage per Second	The fire rate of a weapon, multiplied by its damage.	Damage per Second (DPS) ignores reload times. Weapons with a Magazine Size of 1 will reload after every attack, but still have a set Fire Rate, even though it is inapplicable to the actual weapon.
Magazine Size	How much ammo can be fired before needing to reload the weapon.	For weapons which do not reload, such as Melee weapons or those with cooldowns, the statistic is listed as infinite.
Reload Time	The time it takes to fully reload the weapon.	For weapons which do not reload, this stat is not mentioned. If the weapon uses a cooldown system, they are listed as reload times. Shotguns reload 1-2 shots at a time, and as such reload time is calculated using an empty magazine.
Structure Damage	How much damage the weapon will deal to structures.	Structure Damage for a majority of weapons is the same as their regular damage outputs. As such, it is often not included.
Bullet Type	The type of bullet fired, such as if it will instantly connect to a target, its speed, how it is affected by gravity.	Not to be confused with Ammo Type. Bullet type refers to the type of attack used by the weapon, such as the instantly connecting Hitscan, or the physically moving Projectile, along with its speed. Some bullets such as those fired from many Sniper Rifles, will be affected by gravity.
Ammo Type	The type of ammunition used by the weapon.	Not to be confused with Bullet Type. All weapons aside from Melee have an Ammo Type. Many weapons which cannot be reloaded use an internal Ammo Type which does not appear as a pickup.
Damage Fall-off	If the weapon's attacks deal less damage at longer ranges.	Damage falloff will cap at a certain negative multiplier (such as 0.5x damage). It is often only applied to hitscan weapons to balance their effectiveness at long range.
Critical Hit Multiplier	The damage multiplier applied to the attack from a weapon, if the attack hits the critical hit (usually head) hitbox of an opponent.	Yellow damage indicator number and a specific sound indicate a Critical Hit. Many weapons cannot critical hit, especially those that use Rockets.
Drop Rate	The chance the weapon can be found in specific scenarios	Rarity sometimes affects drop rate, but only within the weapon itself. A certain Common weapon may not be easier to find than an Uncommon version of another weapon.
Horizontal/Vertical Recoil	The horizontal/vertical kick to the crosshair after firing a shot.	Weapons of higher rarity typically have lower recoil. This is, however, not the case with Gunnar's Stinger SMG, which has a stronger recoil than all its versions of lower rarity.
Weapon Spread	The area in which bullets will be randomly placed, in relation to size of the crosshair. Also referred to as Bloom.	Shotguns use this stat differently, spreading 10 pellets at once in a random arrangement, versus each shot having one randomly placed bullet.
Impact Area	The radius in which bullets/projectiles are effective.	Only differs among Explosive Weapons and other weapons or items that create an explosion. Set to 0 for all other weapons, meaning that they will only deal damage on direct hit.
First Shot Accuracy	If the weapon's first shot after a small cooldown will be 100% accurate.	Scoped weapons are always accurate on every shot, ignoring the kick of the weapon.

• Zoom Level: Some weapons, such as the High Tier Burst Assault Rifle have a higher level of zoom when aiming with the weapon, than with other weapons in its class.
• Weapon Switch Cooldown: All Shotguns have a short cooldown between switching to another Shotgun after firing.
• Spin-up time: The time it takes for the weapon to start firing after being equipped. Only applies to Miniguns.
• Projectile drop: Height fall-off on the weapon’s projectiles. Doesn’t apply to hitscan weapons.

Extras

Some weapons have prefixes which dictate how they will function

Statistic	Description	Notes
Listed Effect	Exotic weapons vary in their unique uses.	Many Exotic weapons include a prefix to show their effects, such as the Marksman Six Shooter, implying it requires accuracy to be efficiently used.
Listed Owner	Mythic weapons vary in their unique uses.	Many Mythic weapons include the name of which AI drops the weapon on elimination. It does not have a bearing on how the item functions.
Burst	The weapon fires several bullets with one press of the attack button.	Holding down the attack button still fires automatically, but tapping the button will fire multiple shots. Automatic fire will be in short burst intervals.
Dual	Two weapons are present, each one fires once when the attack button is pressed.	Dual weapons act similar to burst weapons, but usually fire only two bullets and are automatic. Some weapons such as the Dual Fiend Hunters do not fire two shots per attack.
Suppressed	The weapon will not show as a Blip on an enemy player's compass.	Not all suppressed weapons are labelled as such. The Shadow Tracker does not have the prefix, but is suppressed. Suppressed Weapons often deal less damage per shot.
Scoped	The weapon forces the player into a first person scope view when aiming	Scoped is only applied to weapons which are not Sniper Rifles or Crossbows, as Scopes are common on those types of weapons.
Thermal	The weapon uses thermal imaging when scoped.	This prefix only applies to the Thermal Scoped Assault Rifle, to differentiate it from the Scoped Assault Rifle.
Heavy	The weapon attacks slower than its regular counterpart, but deals more damage.	Heavy is only added to a weapon's name if it is a version of an existing weapon (Heavy Assault Rifle versus Assault Rifle).
Dragon's Breath	Bullets fired will ignite wooden structures.	Dragon's Breath weapons will not ignite other materials, or deal any extra damage to a player.
Makeshift	Lower damage and less accurate version of a Primal Weapon	Makeshift weapons are used to upgrade to Primal or Regular weaponry.
Primal	Higher damage, and still less accurate than a standard weapon.	Primal weapons are not strictly defined, but they are always the upgraded (via crafting) version of Makeshift weapons.
Sideways	Can be upgraded using Cube Monster Parts, also only found in the Sideways.	Sideways weapons are also defined by their ability to be upgraded into Mythic.
Automatic or Semi - Automatic	Dictate that the weapon fires differently from other weapons in its category.	Only the Automatic Sniper Rifle and Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifle have these suffixes, the latter of which isn't even Semi-Automatic.
Combat	Tight weapon spread and higher damage, but strong recoil resulting in less accurate shots after the first.	The Combat Shotgun only has a tight weapon spread, this is because it was introduced before the Combat prefix was officialy defined.

Trivia

• Tactical is a suffix applied to several weapons, but ultimately means very little.
  • For example, the Tactical SMG, Tactical Assault Rifle and Tactical Shotgun have very little similarities, or differences between their regular counterparts. As such, it is only used to differentiate weapons within their individual classes.
• Lever-Action is a suffix applied to several weapons, but it only dictates the animation of the weapon, and has no real bearing on gameplay.