The new Fortnite Shockwave Grenade has landed with Fortnite 5.30! Seen as something of a successor to the Impulse Grenade added at the start of the year, the Shockwave Grenade is set to shake up the meta. We expect it to level the playing field, but could it give too much of an advantage to veterans players?
The Fortnite shockwave grenade looks set to follow in the footsteps of the Impulse Grenade added for Fortnite at the start of the year. Fornite 5.30 is now live and, as teased by the official Twitter account, has added the new weapon to bring a little more bounce to your match. Although the shockwave grenade might sound like a terribly powerful offensive weapon, there’s plenty of reasons why we won’t be getting a shockwave grenade nerf, because this is more of a tactical item than anything else.
The new Fortnite shockwave grenade added in Fortnite 5.30 is set to freshen up the meta in a bunch of different ways. As you might have seen on the main menu already, the Fortnite shockwave grenade is billed as “Send yourself, allies, or enemies flying like a human cannonball!”.
Sounds like a great way to drop enemies from a high point for an easy kill, right? Wrong! Carry on reading the excerpt and you’ll see the finer detail; “Grants immunity to fall damage.” That’s a key point right there that limits the offensive power of the Fortnite Shockwave Grenade, but opens up a few other uses and strategies for a weapon you’ll be seeing a lot of from now on.
Rather than dropping your enemies from a cliff for a quick kill, the Fortnite shockwave grenade will likely be used either as a way to climb to hard-to-reach places with ease, or to retreat down a high point without snapping your legs at the end. Better yet, expect to see the shockwave grenade used to blast yourself or your opponents out of any fortress you might build to protect yourself. This thing will throw you far, so tossing it at a difficult target will surely knock them out of their safe space.
Personally, I think the shockwave grenade is a great new addition to the game and should be left alone for the time being. The weapon itself doesn’t deal any damage, so it’s nothing more than an annoying interruption if you’re caught on the wrong side of it. The fall damage immunity will simply open up new paths to old locations and allow for some slightly more adventurous strategy in both solo and squad play. Playing out like a good anime, enemies knocked away with a shockwave grenade will also destroy any object in their path as they fly across the map.
It’s a fun game with a fun new weapon, and it certainly deserves a chance at life before players attempt to shut it down. If anything, it offers a great way for non-builders to even the playing field later in a match.
Like any other weapon or item in Fortnite, the shockwave grenade is found out in the field. Keep on eye out on Supply Drops, Vending Machine, Llamas and, as usual, chests, to see if you’re lucky enough to grab one. Or two, actually. The Fortnite shockwave grenade drops in stacks of two, and you can even have a stack of six if you’re lucky enough to find that many. These are of the Epic rarity, too, so don’t expect finding them to be a simple task.
