A Fortnite patch just fixed a major exploit involving the Shockwave Hammer

Epic Games announced Fortnite will be going through a brief downtime starting at 4 AM ET. The downtime will last an hour, deploying a patch that will fix some recently discovered issues with the Shockwave Hammer. Several fans on Reddit, including Reddit user Kaseius, discovered a way to use the weapon to exploit the fishing mechanic and farm large amounts of healing items.

Kaseius shared the exploit with a video on Reddit, showing them switching between their fishing rod and Shockwave Hammer. They throw their fishing lure several times in the water before summoning their Shockwave Hammer to smash the floor. After slamming the hammer, several items will then pop out from above the water. Other players have reported being able to bounce using the Shockwave Hammer multiple instances without the cooldown kicking in. The Shockwave Hammer was quickly removed from the game because of the exploits. Epic Games did not confirm if the weapon will return after the upcoming patch, however, Fortnite leaker Hypex has said it will be back.

The Shockwave Hammer was introduced to Fortnite as part of Chapter 4: Season 1. The hammer was one of the best weapons in the chapter, allowing players to bounce from it for hundreds of meters. This, plus the fishing exploit, gave the hammer a mixed response online. Some fans adore how overpowering the hammer was, especially this early in a new chapter, whereas other players had issues with how strong the hammer was. Even Reddit user Knight-122 joked, “Wouldn’t it be really cool if Epic just forgot to enable it in the next update.”

Fortnite often removes or cancels certain features because of bugs and other issues. Epic Games had to disable the Deku Smash weapon because of photosensitivity concerns. Epic Games also canceled Fortnite Winterfest earlier than its promised January 3 end date, getting rid of items like the Holiday Presents and Snowball Launcher, and removing the NPC Sgt. Winter. At least with the Shockwave Hammer, the company promises the weapon will return, if not during this downtime but in a later patch.