Epic Games recently nerfed Turbo Building in Fortnite and fans are not taking it well. A number of top players and streamers have voiced their complaints about the change on Twitter. The uproar to this recent Fortnite Turbo Building nerf has caused the #RevertTurboBuilding hashtag to trend worldwide on Twitter.
For those not familiar with it, enabling the Turbo Building setting in Fortnite allowed players to simply hold down their primary fire button to continuously put down building materials. As such, this allowed players to “paint” buildings so to speak. In the game’s most recent patch however, Epic games increased the time between subsequent builds from 0.5 seconds from 0.15 seconds, .
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Building is one of the things that makes Fortnite unique from other battle royale games, and fans do see build battles as an extension of that. It should come as no surprise then that Fortnite fans have now taken to Twitter in droves to express their disappointment with the nerfs via the #RevertTurboBuilding hashtag. The sheer number of fans tweeting with the hashtag briefly caused it to be the number one worldwide trending hashtag on the network for some time. At the time of writing however, the hashtag has now settled in at fourth worldwide with about 111,000 tweets.
The reason for the nerf is understandable. Prior to it, players could easily fortify themselves inside buildings even under fire. The result of this is that players would often turtle up, and keep building fortifications faster than an opponent could wear them down. Other times, players with enough resources would engage in huge build battles, with both players trying to build around each others fortifications to get a shot.
Of these two, it’s the turtling that most likely caused Epic to nerf Turbo Building. The tactic has come under scrutiny within the game’s community, with it often being the subject of discussion in the game’s subreddit as well as various Fortnite oriented sites. Others however, have postulated that it’s due to Epic’s desire to make the game easier for newcomers.
One major tactic affected by the nerf is something called a “90.” This is when a player is building a ramp in one direction, and then quickly turns 90 degrees (hence the name) to build a ramp there, to get into an advantageous position to get a good shot on an opponent. With the nerf, trying to do a 90 can now result in the player falling off the ramp instead, due to the slower build time.
Despite this, the players have been able to find a workaround of sorts to the Turbo Building nerf. According to Fortnite Intel, 90s are still possible, but players now have to manually click their build button. Of course, this means that doing a 90 has now become a bit harder to do. So if Epic’s intention was to make the game more accessible, the change has backfires as a larger skill gap now exists between those who can effectively do the tactic after the nerf, and those who can’t.
The Turbo Building nerf and represents just the latest change from Epic that’s caused massive outrage from Fortnite‘s playerbase. Prior to this, Epic released the B.R.U.T.E., an overpowered mech that players could ride that caused havoc with the game’s balance. While Epic initially stated that the B.R.U.T.E. was here to stay, the outcry from both a number of fans (including DJ Marshmello and streamer Dakotaz) to the mech eventually caused the studio the nerf it.
The fact that Epic eventually nerfed the B.R.U.T.E. could bode good things for Fortnite players unhappy with the Turbo Building nerf. With the outrage to the change seemingly bigger than that to the mech, it seems like it won’t be long before Epic makes some further adjustments to Turbo Building.
