The next major patch for Fortnite Season 8 is here. Fortnite Patch V8.20 includes significant gameplay balance changes, several new items, and a new Limited Time Mode that might burn your toes. The first new item is the Poison Dart Trap — it will deal damage-over-time to any enemy that triggers it. Next, we have the new foraged items, which include bananas, coconuts, and peppers. Each one of these consumable foods will help you replenish your health.

And remember the Pop-up settings from Patch V7.40 that were permanently added to the default battle royale playlist? That change has been reverted (But why?!?).

Let’s take a closer look at all the battle royale changes in Patch V8.20.

Battle Royale Changes

New Items

Poison Dart Trap

• Uncommon rarity.
• You can place the Poison Dart Trap on walls, floors, and ceilings.
• Found among Floor Loot.
• Fires multiple Poison Dart projectiles over a distance of three horizontal grids cells and four vertical grid cells.
• Poison Dart projectiles deal damage-over-time directly to health, and it will bypass shields.
• Deals 10 health damage per tick.
• The poison lasts 8 total ticks over 7 seconds that will deal 80 damage.
• If you’re hit with another Poison Dart while poisoned, the duration will refresh, but you won’t take enhanced damage.

This trap should be really useful since the damage from the poison evades enemy armor and directly hits their health bar. 80 damage-over-time is quite a lot too, so set this up as soon as possible if you’re holding down an area.

Also, it’s easy to surprise your enemy with this trap because you can place it almost anywhere.

Try putting it on the ceiling of your structure (hard for your opponent to see it there) and then if an enemy rushes into your building…that player is taking a shower in poison!

Bananas

• Found in the tropical biome.
• Will instantly grant 5 health when consumed.

A banana is basically a bandage that will instantly give you a little bit of health.

Coconuts

• Destroy a palm tree to make a coconut fall.
• Found in tropical and desert biomes.
• Coconuts grant 5 points of health over time; if you’re at full health when you use a coconut, it will replenish your shield instead.

So, unlike the banana, the coconut won’t instantly give you 5 health — you’ll have to wait a little bit.

But the coconut will still be useful, since it will recharge a small amount of your shield if your health bar is full.

Peppers

• Found in desert biome.
• Instantly grants 5 health and increases player movement speed by 20% for 10 seconds.

The pepper is the best new foraged item.

It will instantly give you 5 health and a nice movement speed boost for a solid amount of time.

Gameplay Balance Changes

Pop-Up Cup Settings

• Removed from all core modes.
• Will remain active in competitive playlists.

It looks like the Pop-Up Cup settings were not going over well with casual players, so now the default battle royale mode is back to its old self (the version before Patch V7.40).

But if you’re an aspiring pro player that enjoys getting rewarded for aggressive gameplay, don’t worry, the Pop-Up Cup settings are still active in the competitive playlists and the new Arena game mode.

The Baller

• No longer deals collision damage to players.

The Baller has been nerfed again, and the devs have already announced another Baller nerf that’s coming in Patch V8.30.

After the next patch, players will be able to shoot through the glass of the Baller and damage the driver.

But right now, if you’re driving a Baller, you’re basically untouchable.

Infantry Rifle

• Converted to a hitscan weapon.
• The base damage has been reduced from 45/42 to 42/40.
• Will use the same damage fall-off like all the other assault rifles.

The Infantry Rifle’s damage has been slightly reduced, but turning it into a hitscan weapon is a huge buff.

If you didn’t know already, bullets from a hitscan gun will instantly hit the target that you’re aiming at — there’s no bullet travel time.

Now you don’t have to worry about leading your shots with the Infantry Rifle, just point and shoot!

Pirate Cannon

• The radius of cannonball and player land explosions has been increased from 200 units to 250 units.
• Reduced the cannon recoil that you experience when firing a cannonball while driving or launching a player.

Not too much to see here; just some slight buffs to the Pirate Cannon to make it more viable.

New Limited Time Mode

Floor is Lava

• Lava will begin to rise a few minutes into the match.
• The lava will eventually cover the entire map.
• If you touch the lava, you’ll take health damage and bounce up in the air.
• You can build structures on the lava.
• Every player will be given a small number of materials every second.

In this new LTM, you’ll literally “feel the burn” if you touch the floor. Molten hot lava is slowly consuming the entire map!

Take advantage of the materials that you’ll be getting every second and build on the lava to avoid getting roasted alive.

And here’s a tip, the trick to being successful in this game mode…get control of the high ground!

Other Changes

There’s a new Arena Game Mode and a new tournament known as the Luxe Cup that you hardcore competitive Fortnite players should enjoy (all the rules are listed in the official patch notes).

And Creative just got a big update — there’s now a Creature Spawner! Players can use the Creature Spawner feature to customize the amount and types of creatures that will spawn on their island.

Then there’s Save The World, which just got a bunch of new heroes:

• Hybrid the Legendary Ninja.
• Blakebeard the Blackhearted the Mythic Pirate Constructor.
• Crossbones Barret the Pirate Outlander.
• Buccaneer Jonesy the Pirate Soldier.
• Swashbuckler Keelhaul the Pirate Ninja.
• Privateer Hype the Pirate Constructor.

Also, there’s some new weapons, such as the mighty Baron hammer, as well as items for you Save The World fans to sink your teeth into.

Those are all the significant updates from Patch V8.20. Please be sure to check out the official patch notes to get more details about all the changes.