Just one week after its unvaulting, the Flint-Knock pistol was once more removed from Fortnite in the free-to-play title's latest hotfix. The Flint-Knock inarguably counts as one of the game's most powerful weapons, given its ability to deal upwards of 180 damage with headshots. All that power must go somewhere on the other end, too, resulting in the weapon's wielder receiving quite the kickback.
It's not uncommon for Epic Games to vault weapons for balance purposes, particularly guns and items that are considered overpowered. And the Flint-Knock has been vaulted on several occasions. Originally introduced in early 2019 with Fortnite's 8.11 patch, the high-powered handgun made its first trip to the vault that very same summer. In the many months since then, it's come and gone at regular intervals for the game's ever-popular battle royale mode.
Now Epic has once more retired the Flint-Knock pistol to the vault. The weapon returned on February 16 with the advent of Fortnite's hotfix 15.40; one week later, hotfix 15.40.1 removed the gun again. But the Flint-Knock's benching allowed the fan-favorite Hand-Cannon to come out of retirement, with its Epic and Legendary iterations in tow. According to Fortnite Status, this week's changes are also ushering in a new Limited-Time Mode (LTM), Comeback Squads. In this LTM, loot pick-ups will improve with each life, but players will receive a limited number of respawns. How long the Hand-Cannon and Comeback Squads LTM will stick around is not presently known.
Though it is unfortunate that the more powerful weapons don't remain available in Fortnite's battle royale mode for very long, the constant vaulting and unvaulting of such items is for the best. No one wants a consistently unbalanced experience, after all. As always, fans will need to keep a close eye on patch notes in order to stay in the know about which weapons are going in and coming out of the vault.
Fans are keeping their eyes peeled for more than high-powered weapon-related happenings. With Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 6 right around the corner, it seems Epic is already teasing the next big crossover, which may or may not involve the Alien franchise. When the studio plans to confirm or deny these suspicions on the matter isn't yet known.
Fortnite is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Android devices.
Source: Fortnite Status