Fortnite 8.2 Patch Notes with Poison Dart Trap, Arena Game Mode, Lava LTM, More

Epic Games announced the release of the version 8.20 patch for Fortnite Battle Royale on Wednesday morning, highlighted by the new poison dart trap and a couple new playlists.

The new trap fires poison darts that do 80 cumulative damage over a seven-second span rather than the instant 150 damage of a standard trap. The poison trap can be triggered up to three horizontal grid or four vertical grid cells away, giving it more range than the standard trap (one grid cell).

It's an item with the potential to make a noticeable impact on end-game scenarios in competitive play because so many players are bunched closely together in the final circles.

Meanwhile, the patch featured several changes to the playlist availability.

The new Arena Game Mode is the baseline competition for the upcoming Fortnite World Cup. Players must rise through the ranks—Open League to Contender League to Champion League—in order to put themselves in position for future World Cup qualifiers.

It's available to play at any time, but the bus fare will increase in each division, making it possible to lose points in a match if you don't reach a certain number of eliminations or level of placement.

With the Arena Game Mode available, Epic decided to remove many of the changes it made to standard modes (solo, duo and squad) in the 7.40 patch.

Players will no longer receive 50 HP points to health or shield for killing opponents, the cap on materials has been raised back to 999 from 500 and the harvest rate has been decreased to its previous level.

"After monitoring a combination of gameplay, data, and feedback, we've gathered necessary info to conclude this initial test," the patch notes explained. "We feel it has resulted in an unhealthy level of aggressive play, diminishing other viable strategies."

In more simple terms, Epic felt the changes helped the high-skill players too much and negatively impacted the casual player, who isn't capable of getting 10-plus eliminations per match.

The Floor is Lava limited time mode was also added to the playlist.

Slowly but surely the entire map becomes covered in lava from the volcano that appeared on the map at the beginning of Season 8. Players will be forced to build to avoid being damaged by the lava, which takes off health and bounces characters in the air.

Other changes in the patch include eliminating player damage from The Baller, changing the infantry rifle to hitscan, altering the pump shotgun equip time on legendary and epic to match rare and uncommon and creating new foraged items.

Bananas and coconuts were added for health, while peppers grant health and give players a 20-percent movement boost for 10 seconds.