Latest Hotfix Made Storms in Fortnite Reload Deadlier Than Ever

The Storm has been a part of Fortnite since the very beginning, back in Pre-Season. It is a game mechanic that shrinks the “play area” over time, in order to prevent players from camping, hiding, “waiting it out” the whole game, or any other fight-evading method that has players scattered about the map instead of duking it out in the middle. During a set time period, the Storm will shrink the battlefield, forcing the players into the safe zone, called Storm Eye. Everyone standing inside the Storm itself will take continuous damage until they also reach the safe zone.

Healoff Ruined the Game for Some Players

Some players found a way to beat the system. If you stack up on healing items, especially those that heal you over time, you can negate the damage-over-time effect long enough while the rest of the players fight among themselves. Epic added Storm Sickness to combat that problem, by increasing the damage that you take from the Storm after a while, but to no avail. Players still managed to find some way around it. But, that’s all about to change in the latest version of Fortnite Reload.

No More Healoff in Fortnite Reload

In the latest hotfix for Fortnite Reload, on August 27, Epic made some changes to the Storm mechanic to eliminate the “Healoff” once and for all. In summary, the final two stages of the Storm Circle shrinking will begin faster but will move slower. But, the most important change is that Storm Sickness will activate faster, and will insta-kill anyone who spends too much time in the Storm. 

Osirion (of @osirion_gg on X) found the exact numbers, and they are as follows:

• Zone Changes
  • Zone 11
    • wait time: 35 -> 0s
    • shrink time: 35 -> 70s
    • move distance: 45m -> 110m
  • Zone 12
    • wait time: 30-> 0s
    • shrink time: 35 -> 60s
    • move distance: 50m -> 80m
• Storm Sickness
  • warning: 500 -> 80 damage
  • start: 600 -> 100 damage
  • insta kill: 800 -> 150 damage 
  • damage multiplier: 3x -> 5x

It means you die instantly when you take 150 damage from the Storm, no matter your current health. The fans jokingly remarked: “So we need to worry more about zone than actual people”. We hope that these changes fix the Healoff and have the player play the game as it was originally intended.