It’s rare in gaming to see something so controversial brought back after it was taken away. Although, as the Fortnite community knows, this exact situation occurred just a couple of weeks ago in the Unvaulting Event.
Epic Games gave every player the opportunity to vote on which vaulted item they wanted back. Some voted for the Tactical SMG while others voted for the planes or the Grappler. However, an overwhelming number of players voted for the infamous Drum Gun.
Introduced in Season 4, the Drum Gun made waves with its huge magazine and high fire rate. Shortly after its release, Fortnite deemed it was too overpowered to stay in the game. Well, of course, this didn’t last, as the community made its wishes known.
You all chose as one and made your pick. The Drum Gun has been unvaulted. pic.twitter.com/nYq7it7zyP
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) May 4, 2019
The current Drum Gun meta
Throughout the short lifecycle of Season 9, the Drum Gun has dominated lobbies, including the World Cup qualifiers. Though there are no official numbers, the community is guessing that the weapon is responsible for a majority of eliminations across the board.
Since the gun is so powerful in its current state, almost every player is picking one up. This is made much easier due to the fact that the Drum Gun comes in uncommon and rare rarity. To sum it up, there are too many Drum Guns available for how powerful it is.
What can be done?
Epic Games actually has a history of vaulting weapons that are overused. The most recent example of this comes with the launch of Season 9 and the Pump Shotgun.
Fortnite decided that since the Pump accounted for 26 percent of all eliminations, it needed to be vaulted. While there are no concrete stats, the Drum Gun is easily accounting for a quarter of the eliminations in any given lobby. If Epic Games wants to stay consistent, then they either have to vault the Drum Gun for reevaluation or nerf it severely.
However, since the community themselves voted this weapon in, Epic most likely won’t vault it. That would defeat the entire purpose of the Unvaulting Event. Though, there are some in-game adjustments that can be made to lower the Drum Gun’s effectiveness.
One of these adjustments would be increasing the gun’s rarity. Being uncommon and rare makes it extremely difficult to come across a player who isn’t carrying a Drum Gun. If Epic were to make it epic and legendary, that would lower the amount of Drum Guns on the map by a wide margin.
Another simple nerf is to decrease the weapon’s magazine size. Having 50 bullets in one clip is one of the defining characteristics of the Drum Gun. If its magazine were lowered to 25 or 30, it would make the gun less effective.
Any way you slice it, something needs to be done about this gun. The only questions are — what will Epic Games do, and will it be enough?
What do you think should happen with the Drum Gun? Let us know in the comments below. Stay tuned to Daily Esports for all Fortnite news and updates.Â
