Fortnite bug turns Choppa and boats into instant death machines
A new Fortnite bug has appeared and it is catching players by surprise. Put simply, ordinary vehicles like boats and the Choppa have proven fatal to multiple players, causing them to lose the match for simply touching the objects. This isn't something that involves crashing or self-destructing — the bug manifests when the player mere touches the vehicle, causing damage.
At this point in the Fortnite game, players have access to two different vehicle options: the Choppa, which is the helicopter, and the motorboats used for navigating the map's rivers and lakes. Both of these items are dealing damage to players without warning and without apparent reason, but the bug manifests in different ways depending on which one you touch.
As demonstrated in the Reddit post above, the Choppas aren't causing instant death, but instead rapidly deal a huge amount of damage as soon as the players touch them. If you're already low on health, the odds are high that you'll be knocked or eliminated before you can react to the damage.
Many players are caught off guard by this and do not realize it's the vehicle causing the damage, instead thinking they are being shot. With the Choppa bug, though, players at least have a chance of survival. In contrast, the bug seems to manifest with instant death for players who touch motorboats, meaning the next boat you hop into may be the end of the match for you.
An example of the instant motorboat death was recently shared on Reddit (Note: NSFW language) and it mirrors the experiences of a number of other players who have posted similar videos. Given the severe nature of this bug, it's likely that Epic will get a patch out to fix it quickly, but it's unclear how long we'll have to wait.