Fortnite’s latest big update is now live across all platforms, adding Overwatch characters to the game and making some other changes to the popular online battle royale. But the biggest, most controversial change involves fall damage and how it is no longer lethal in non-ranked modes.
On May 14, Epic pushed out update 40.40 for Fortnite, which is also expected to be the last major patch for Chapter 7, Season 2. This update makes some big changes to Zero Build, the battle royale mode in Fortnite that features no building. Players start with a pistol and shield potion and now have infinite stamina when sprinting while holding their pickaxe. That’s some wild stuff that will change the pace of Zero Build matches a lot. On top of those changes, both Battle Royale and Zero Build non-ranked modes have completely removed lethal fall damage and replaced it with a new splat animation.
YOU NO LONGER DIE FROM FALL DAMAGE
BATTLE ROYALE & ZERO BUILD (Unranked) pic.twitter.com/5jzANXhJqJ
— HYPEX (@HYPEX) May 14, 2026
This big change to how fall damage works in two of the game’s most popular modes was first spotted by dataminer HypeX on Wednesday. But now that the update is live on all platforms, we can see just how it works. After years of playing Fortnite, it’s strange to watch a player just hop off a tall ledge and slam into the ground with a new splat animation and then just get back up.
If you do fall far, you’ll get up with no shields and only 1HP, meaning any players nearby can finish you off with a single bullet. So it is risky to just yeet yourself off a cliff to escape gunfire or the storm, but falls like that used to kill a player. Now, you’ll survive, and if you have a health item, you’ll be good to go. Alongside this change, Epic has also added the ability to cut your glider and land sooner in Zero Build. There’s a risk/reward factor here, as you can hit the ground sooner and start looting right away, but you will have 1HP when you get back up. Considering everyone in Zero Build now spawns with a pistol, that could be a very dangerous way to start a match.
You can now cut your glider mid-air in Zero Build when you get closer to the ground pic.twitter.com/L8AtgKNFYK
— HYPEX (@HYPEX) May 14, 2026
Reactions to this change on social media run the gamut from confusion (people aren’t convinced fall damage was something anybody was complaining about) to anger (wacky kills from people screwing up or props breaking beneath them won’t happen anymore) to cautious hope that this will be reverted in a future patch. The few positive reactions I saw were either people trolling or were quickly berated by others.
My read on the changes is that it seems like Epic wants to experiment with Fortnite ahead of the next major season, and I bet some of these changes get tweaked or reverted completely by then. I think it’s also clear that by keeping these fall damage tweaks exclusive to the casual modes, Epic is signaling that it is still trying to work out if these big changes are viable, and the company doesn’t want to screw up the more competitive action found in ranked modes with such a massive shake-up so late in the current season.
While the new fall damage system is getting a lot of flak right now, I’ll be curious to see where players land (wink) on the tweaks over the next few days after playing matches and seeing how everything clicks together in action. Perhaps people will hate it more, or perhaps, just maybe, this fall damage change will stick around permanently.
