The Fortnite B.R.U.T.E. almost every player hates finally saw massive nerfs this week.

The mech now fires fewer rockets, deals less damage, and takes longer to cool down after boosting. Epic Games has also made it so that materials are no longer granted to B.R.U.T.E. riders.

Epic resisted making big changes to the mech, despite overwhelming criticism from the Battle Royale community. It said the overpowered robot was designed to give new players a chance at earning eliminations — and at securing their first Victory Royale.

But three weeks into season 10, the developer has finally accepted that the B.R.U.T.E. is loathed by the vast majority of the Fortnite community, and ruining the balance of the game. Massive nerfs were made in a server-side update on Wednesday.

A step in the right direction

These are the changes that were made:

• Decreased the maximum amount of rockets fired by the B.R.U.T.E. in a single charge from 10 to six.
• Decreased the rate at which the rockets are fired from the B.R.U.T.E. by 56%.
• Decreased the radius of the B.R.U.T.E.’s rocket explosion by 42%.
• Increased the dash cooldown from three seconds to five seconds.
• Decreased the velocity gained from boosting while in the air by 33%.
• The B.R.U.T.E. no longer gains materials to the driver and passenger when stomping or dashing through the environment.
• Adjusted the variability of spawn rates from storm phases 1, 2, and 3 in core modes.
• Decreased the material cost of using the gunner’s overshield from 200 to 75.
• Increased the health of the B.R.U.T.E. from 1,000 to 1,250.

Epic provides the reasoning behind all of these changes in an announcement on the official Fortnite blog.

Cleaning up the mess

The changes are obviously designed to vastly decrease the effectiveness of using the mech — without actually removing it from the game. And it’s perhaps the best Epic can do for now.

The B.R.U.T.E. was marketed as one of the biggest selling points of season 10, and it has generated a ton of press for Fortnite (unanimously negative) since its launch.

Epic can’t really vault the vehicle just three week’s into the season, then. So big nerfs like these are the best we can hope for at this time.

What next for the B.R.U.T.E.?

We can probably expect to see further nerfs in the future, albeit not quite so dramatic. And just like the X-4 Stormwing plane that everybody grew to hate, the mech will likely disappear later on.

Many players have questioned why the mech wasn’t made to be exclusive to certain game modes — like Team Rumble or its very own mech battle mode. That could be a step Epic takes at some point.

For now, however, the B.R.U.T.E. will be somewhat easier to counter in Battle Royale. And that’s good for everyone.