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Fortnite has recently introduced a new medium ranged weapon into the game, the Lever Action Rifle.
The Lever Action Rifle offers decent damage per shot and the ability to either have increased accuracy and a slower fire rate or reduced accuracy and a faster fire rate. Is this added versatility enough to make the Lever Action Rifle worth picking up?
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How to choose which weapons deserve and inventory slot in Fortnite
Fortnite Season 5 actually has a lot of strong guns for players to choose from when deciding what they want to use as their medium-to-long range weapon.
This season of Fortnite includes two assault rifles, both of which offer strong medium range damage, and a large host of sniper rifles, including the Amban Sniper Rifle, which has a scope that doesn’t zoom in too much and features a melee attack when not zoomed in.
This is important to note as even if the Lever Action Rifle is good, this season has an abnormally high amount of options meant to fill that same slot. This added competition means that “good” might not be good enough.
Fortnite Season 5’s entire list of weapons meant to compete in the medium to long ranges are the:
- Assault Rifle
- Heavy Assault Rifle
- Tactical Assault Rifle
- Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle
- Amban Sniper Rifle
- Storm Scout Sniper Rifle
- Boom Sniper Rifle
- Dragon’s Breath Sniper Rifle
Lever Action Rifle’s Stats
A stat table for the Lever Action Rifle has not yet been released, but after watching gameplay, it’s easy to see that the Lever Action Rifle is not a hitscan weapon, meaning that player must instead lead their shots, and it lacks a scope.
This would imply that the weapon would hit hard, but only be usable at a specific range, as too far and the missing scope would make landing hits hard, and too close would make switching weapons more viable.
The Lever Action also holds just seven shots in its clip and must be reloaded one bullet at a time like with shotguns. The Lever Action Rifle gains a fire rate buff when hip-fired compared to when aiming down the sights.
However, the Lever Action Rifle doesn’t seem to be able to put up the same damage as other sniper rifles. Although it has a 2.5x multiplier on headshots, at the uncommon rarity it only hits for 52 damage, and scales up to 57 at the epic rarity.
Comparing the Lever Action Rifle to other weapons in Fortnite
This is concerning as the lowest rarity Bolt-Action sniper rifle, the rare one, hits for 105 damage, and the Amban hits for 110. Granted, both of those do need to be reloaded after every shot. The only semi-automatic sniper in the game, the Storm Scout, also outshines the Lever Action Rifle by hitting for 85 damage per shot.
Still, the Lever Action Rifle is usable at a much closer range than any of those (with the possible exception of the Amban), and two of those are one of a kind weapons - something that can’t really be compared to a random loot drop.
But Fortnite players have to consider the Lever Action Rifle against the other middle range weapons as well, namely the three assault rifles. Here the Lever Action Rifle comes up short again.
Although each individual shot may hit harder, landing those shots is much more difficult, and there is significant delay between each shot. An Uncommon Assault Rifle only hits for 31, but Fortnite players can just hold down the trigger to land stray shots.
Likewise, the Uncommon Heavy Assault Rifle hits for 35 each shot and can also be used to suppress or eliminate poorly positioned players.
The last edge case for the Lever Action Rifle in Fortnite
One creative use for the Lever Action Rifle is to use it like a shotgun that demands greater accuracy. This technique makes use of the fact that the lever action rifle has a fairly reasonable fire rate when hip-fired, and can be paired with a Tactical Shotgun to devastating effect.
The Fortnite content creator SypherPK attempted this in one of his recent videos and it’s clear that this should only really be done as a Fortnite meme. This is because the Epic Lever Action Rifle can’t even hit as hard as the Uncommon Tactical Shotgun at close range.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but every shotgun in Fortnite hits harder than every Lever Action Rifle at close range. Even the Lever Action Rifle’s 2.5x headshot multiplier doesn’t save it from being outshined by whatever random shotgun Fortnite players happen to stumble upon.
It seems that the only reason to ever use the Lever Action Rifle in Fortnite is if player’s just want to try it, or if they like the way it feels.
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