Epic Games is known for dropping surprise updates for Fortnite battle royale at a moment’s notice. The developer released a new update for the game that offers some integral changes and additions that we didn’t see coming.

Epic Games Surprises Players With Latest Fortnite Update

The January 29 maintenance patch is out now on all platforms, including mobile, PC, and consoles. This update is a random one. We didn’t expect another major patch until next month at the earliest.

It didn’t make sense for an update to come before that either as the next major update is meant to change the game forever by adding in a new physics engine for battle royale. While we still don’t know what effect that new engine will have for the game, we have this update until then.

The latest maintenance patch comes after Epic Games concluded the latest batch of maintenance for the game. That period of maintenance addressed several issues that players were having and for adding new cosmetic items to purchase.

This smaller maintenance patch also includes the return of an important gameplay item in battle royale. It should soften the blow of having to wait several more weeks until the start of Chapter 2, Season 2.

Update Adds Fortnite Super Bowl Skins Ahead of Game

While this smaller update is for fixing issues and bringing back features causing trouble in the game, players can look forward to new cosmetic items in the in-game store.

These aren’t just any cosmetic items either as they are new Fortnite Super Bowl skins based on Super Bowl 54 happening this weekend. To be exact, these aren’t new skins entirely but new styles for the currently existing NFL skins.

Though the Trello board revealed most of the update, some information was revealed by data miners like ShiinaBR, well-known in the community for accurate leaks and data mining of the in-game files.

With the update now out, ShiinaBR posted on Twitter about the changes made to the game. An NFL skin released for the game in Season 6 called Blitz. It is an epic rarity skin that players could purchase.

Fortnite just got an update! There were several updates for Save the World and also a new emote for Battle Royale + new styles for the football skins!

In-Game footage in a few minutes. 😀

— ShiinaBR – Fortnite Leaks (@ShiinaBR) January 29, 2020

Over the seasons and months, Epic Games was great about releasing new styles for the skin that gave us fresh looks at some of the actual pro NFL teams. The new styles added in this update allows players to show off their very own Fortnite Super Bowl skins in the game.

Just like last year, the Blitz skin updated with the new Fortnite Super Bowl skins styles that you can have in the game. We already had a San Francisco 49ers skin style, for example, but Blitz has been updated with a second one now.

This is like what happened with the New England Patriots last year. In the previous Super Bowl a year ago, we had the Patriots taking on the Los Angeles Rams where the former secured another Super Bowl victory.

When that massive sports event happened, Epic Games celebrated it in the game by allowing players to use the special Patriots Super Bowl skin to show off their support for their favorite team. With another year passed and a new Super Bowl happening, it makes sense to add more styles.

If you are a fan of the current Super Bowl 54 participants, you can rep those two teams in future battle royale matches, thanks to the leaked clip from ShiinaBR. If you didn’t already know, the two participants this year are the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Oddly enough, the clip that ShiinaBR showed off only shows the former’s skin style for the game rather than one for the Chiefs, too. You can see the logo for the Kansas City Chiefs in the video clip. There is only one logo for them and that is the normal NFL skin.

It remains to be seen if there will be more Fortnite Super Bowl skins to make up for the fact that we only have one for the San Francisco 49ers. After all, several players are fans of the Kansas City Chiefs. So, it would make sense to cater to them.

Plus, if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl this weekend, it would only make the lack of a skin in the game even more terrible. We have to wait and see, though. There are only a few days left until the massive event. Super Bowl 54 takes place this Sunday, February 2.

Fortnite Ziplines Also Make a Return in This Update

While not necessarily new, there is a gameplay feature making its triumphant return this week in the latest update. Revealed initially in a tweet on Twitter as we already covered, the ziplines are back in battle royale and in every single game mode.

The ziplines return after a short hiatus of around nine days of not being in the game since being removed by Epic Games. The reason for the removal was due to a glitch. Players discovered it was possible to use the zipline while gliding at the same time.

While not necessarily the most advantageous glitch, it did mean that players could glide and zipline at the same time, which gave them a slight advantage over other players in the match.

To fix the problem, Epic Games announced that it would remove the ziplines from every match before bringing them back once they address the glitch. The last we heard, it was unknown when that would be, but they suddenly came back in the most recent update.

The absence of the ziplines were undoubtedly felt as players complained about the lack of mobility in the game currently. The only vehicle in the game is the motorboat, meaning that the ziplines are the only source of travel on foot.

Without the ziplines in the game, it made traversing the map even harder. Players had to go everywhere on foot only except when using the motorboat in the water. This made the already hard task of crossing the massive island even more difficult.

This is especially a problem when players will land on one side of the map only to find that the first storm circle is directly on the opposite side. Without the ziplines, this is an even trickier issue of trying to make it to the other side of the map before the storm closes in completely.

Thankfully, you can start using ziplines again in the game in every game mode from the normal ones to event ones to even the competitive ones like Arena and tournaments.

Other Changes and Fixes for Battle Royale and Creative

The official Trello board is the source for most of the changes, fixes, and more in this smaller update. The changes begin with the Goalbound set outfits. This week didn’t see love just for the NFL jersey skins as those players who have the soccer skin set called Goalbound got some attention, too.

This skin lets players look like a classic soccer player with plenty of different styles to choose from. The number you pick for the skin is on the front of the skin rather than the back.

This sets it apart from the NFL jersey skin Blitz where the number is typically on the back of the jersey. The next issue addressed in this update is, oddly enough, not fixed but will be in a future update.

The problem is the friend selection and scrolling issue. The social menu in the main battle royale lobby lets you select a friend that you have there. However, the friend menu isn’t working as it should. Choosing a friend will not open the friend’s sub-menu like it is supposed to, or it will result in the sub-menu immediately closing before you can do anything. The other problem is that the social menu may scroll back to the top.

There was another problem in battle royale where players couldn’t look straight down when trying to edit structures or building. Doing so will render them unable to edit or build while looking down.

This especially annoying since you need to look down to set down floors and other pieces to save you from taking fall damage, for instance. Thankfully, this should no longer be an issue for players anymore as this updated fixed it.

There is a strange problem where players who are in front of a downed teammate and switch to the pickaxe might pick up their teammate instead. While this is a particular issue that shouldn’t be much of a problem, for the most part, it wasn’t fixed in this update. Epic Games notes on Trello that they will address it in a future update.

On the Creative side of things, there are a couple of fixes, too. There was an issue where players in Creative mode couldn’t see any option to customize or interact with the particles or beacons. They should both be customizable again.

For players on consoles and mobile devices, going into Creative mode and looking at the featured islands there would have some of the featured islands do not have an in-game description even though they are supposed to. Fortunately, this is not a problem anymore. All featured islands show their description, so you know what they are all about.

Oddly enough, there are no official patch notes available for us to scour through like there usually are at the time of publishing this. Epic Games had a problem with this for a few months in Season 1 where there would be no patch notes for the updates.

Even still, a good portion of the information that we have from this maintenance patch come from the official Trello board for the battle royale game that you can check out here. In addition to showing what’s fixed, you can see what Epic Games is currently working on for future updates.