Fortnite battle royale recently introduced its new Unreal Engine Chaos physics system that will be powering the battle royale game moving forward. Epic Games released the new system in the most recent update, even though we are very close to the start of Season 2.

The early release of the new physics system before the start of the next season was likely intentional on the developer’s part. It allows the team to work on problems before dropping the next wave of content. Epic was prepared for issues and warned players ahead of time.

Fortnite Pickaxe Bug Is Plaguing Console Users

Despite this, several problems are causing issues on certain platforms. A Fortnite pickaxe bug is likely tied to the new physics system, causing trouble for players trying to gather up precious materials.

The Fortnite pickaxe bug seems to be only affecting players on PS4, Xbox One and possibly Nintendo Switch. Fortunately, players on PC and mobile devices shouldn’t have to worry about this right now.

Oddly enough, though, Epic Games posted the bug’s official description on the Trello board for the battle royale game. It differs slightly in description. The developer can be transparent and reveal what the team is working on at this time on the Trello board.

Though it doesn’t usually reveal major content in the Trello board, players can be aware of bugs like the Fortnite pickaxe bug. The bug is in the general top issues section of the board as a priority issue. What is odd about this listing is that Epic Games does mark the problem is occurring on all platforms now.

Pickaxe Bug Causes Problems for Weak Points

Though we only heard reports on social media of console players dealing with this Fortnite pickaxe bug, it seems that it could also occur on mobile and PC. The bug affects how the pickaxe works in gameplay in terms of the weak points.

As players are trying to hit the weak points with their pickaxe, some hits may not register as they are supposed to. Many players now have trouble getting materials because of this, which can be game breaking for certain play styles.

Some players claim they can get max materials for all three types of brick, wood and metal in any match normally. But with this Fortnite pickaxe bug, they can only get a couple hundred because of the importance of the weak points.

Weak points are the little circles that appear when a player is hitting a tree, building, wall, and so on to gather materials. Players should always aim for the small glowing circles when gathering materials in a consecutive manner.

Hitting the weak points in battle royale allow you to destroy the piece of the game much faster and gain materials faster. It is an essential part of gathering materials in a game that encourages you to be constantly moving around the map to the new circle.

Pickaxe Bug Fix Coming in Next Update

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for Epic Games to take note of this unfortunate issue and escalate it to one of the top issues for the game currently. The Trello board recently updated to reveal a fix in the next update for the game.

While this is great to hear, it does have its negatives to it. The positive is that the issue is being worked on and fixed soon whenever the next update is. However, we don’t know when that will be.

We could see a small fix later this week, but it is also possible that Epic Games will wait for the next big downloadable content update or pushed to the servers in a non-downloadable update.

We’re hoping that it won’t take until the next major content update for the game because that will likely be next week at the earliest. After all, the game got a significant update recently that brought the new physics system, the first event of 2020, and more to the game.

Epic Games typically works on a bi-weekly update pattern where it’s every two weeks that we get a major downloadable update with a smaller server update or hot fix sometimes in between. If the developer is waiting for the next update, that will likely be on February 20.

That is the same day as the Season 2 update for the game where players have the chance to see new content for the game after this delayed and longest season of battle royale to date. Hopefully, that upcoming update will fix this pickaxe issue and the other ones that players are dealing with after the release of the new physics system.