Summary
Fired arrows from bows occasionally land short of the aiming arc and marker, and charge effects fail to trigger, primarily when firing fast with very low ping.
Please select what you are reporting on:
Creative
What Type of Bug are you experiencing?
Devices
Steps to Reproduce
- Set your Matchmaking Region to a server where you have very low ping, preferably under 10ms.
- Join a session in a mode with bows, such as an all-weapons map like Island Code 2612-6741-8261, and ensure your ping is low, preferably under 10ms.
- Pick up a bow, such as the Boom Bow, Shockwave Bow, or Grappler Bow. Preferably the Boom Bow, as the issue is most noticeable with it.
- Fire arrows quickly, either partial or full charges, the latter of which is indicated by a screen flash and arrow glow.
- Observe the landing location of arrows, draw sounds, and whether charge effects trigger.
Expected Result
Arrows should land where the aiming arc and marker indicate based on the draw length. Fully charged shots should reliably trigger their respective charge effects (shockwave, grapple). Visual cues, audio cues, and the actual weapon behavior should remain synchronized.
Observed Result
Fired arrows occasionally land short of the aiming arc and marker on both partial and fully charged shots. When the bug occurs, the aiming arc and marker flicker, and draw sounds are delayed or broken. Unless you wait for the delayed or broken sounds to finish playing before firing, the arrow will land short and charge effects will not trigger. Additionally and possibly related to this issue, the Shockwave Bow’s shockwave effect will occasionally not affect a player that is directly hit by an arrow, even when the effect does trigger. Once this issue starts occurring in a session, it will keep happening until you leave and join a new session.
Platform(s)
PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming — Fortnite v40.20
Island Code
2612-6741-8261
Video
https://www.reddit.com/video/t2d0ui6vrjvg1
Additional Notes
This issue has existed for over two years and as of the v40.20 update (April 16, 2026) this issue still exists. This issue is primarily reproducible with very low ping when firing fast. It may have been introduced in December 2023 during Chapter 5 Season 1 with one of the v28 updates which introduced and updated the motion matching animation system (possibly the v28.01.01 update on December 19, 2023), and affects both Battle Royale and Creative. This same issue or a similar issue previously existed in Save the World.
My previous report on this issue on this forum — Bows sometimes hit short of where they should — was closed as unreproducible without requesting more info. Previous reports from me and others on this issue on Reddit have not been addressed.