Fortnite Assault Rifle Tips Guide (Season 8) – Stats, DPS, PNGs

Assault rifles are one of the most commonly used weapons in Fortnite Battle Royale. The problem is that they can be a bit hard to get used to when you are first starting out. This guide should help you get a handle on these important parts of your arsenal!

Jean-Pierre van Wyk

Published: Jan 3, 2019 08:40 am

Our Fortnite Assault Rifle Tips & Stats Guide will walk you through everything you need to know about this midrange weapon! We go over the full list of Assault Rifles with all of their stats and damage. We also hit topics that should help you learn how to use these better, with sections on accuracy, bloom, and general tips and tricks!

Fortnite Assault Rifle Stats & Damage

There are quite a few options in the Assault Rifle category. I'm breaking them down in a way that makes the most sense to me.

Standard Rifle

Assault Rifle (Common): 30 damage to the body, 60 damage to the head, 165 dps.
Assault Rifle (Uncommon): 31 damage to the body, 62 damage to the head, 170 dps.
Assault Rifle (Rare): 33 damage to the body, 66 damage to the head, 181.5 dps.

SCAR

Suppressed Assault Rifle (Epic): 32 damage to the body, 64 damage to the head, 176 dps.
Suppressed Assault Rifle (Legendary): 33 damage to the body, 66 damage to the head, 181.5 dps.
SCAR (Epic): 35 damage to the body, 70 damage to the head, 192.5 dps.
SCAR (Legendary): 36 damage to the body, 72 damage to the head, 198 dps.

Heavy Assault Rifle

The Heavy Assault Rifle had its rarity and damage reduced in the 8.10 Patch.

Heavy Assault Rifle (Common): 36 damage to the body, 88 damage to the head, 135 dps.
Heavy Assault Rifle (Uncommon): 38 damage to the body, 92 damage to the head, 142.5 dps.
Heavy Assault Rifle (Rare): 40 damage to the body, 96 damage to the head, 150 dps.

Long Range Rifles

Infantry Rifle (Uncommon): 41 damage to the body, 82 damage to the head, 172 dps.
Infantry Rifle (Rare): 45 damage to the body, 90 damage to the head, 180 dps.
Scoped Assault Rifle (Uncommon): 26 damage to the body, 52 damage to the head.
Scoped Assault Rifle (Rare): 27 damage to the body, 54 damage to the head.
Thermal Scoped Assault Rife (Epic): 36 damage to the body, 72 damage to the head, 64.8 dps.
Thermal Scoped Assault Rife (Legendary): 37 damage to the body, 74 damage to the head, 66.6 dps.

Burst Rifles (Vaulted)

These were added to the vault in the 7.10 Content Update #3.

Burst Rifle (Common): 27 damage to the body, 54 damage to the head.
Burst Rifle (Uncommon): 29 damage to the body, 58 damage to the head.
Burst Rifle (Rare): 30 damage to the body, 60 damage to the head.

Assault Rifle (Burst) Famas (Vaulted)

Burst Rifle - Famas (Epic): 32 damage to the body, 64 damage to the head.
Burst Rifle - Famas (Legendary): 33 damage to the body, 66 damage to the head.

Fortnite Assault Rifle FAQ

What is First Shot Accuracy?

A patch enabled what is known as, first shot accuracy. If you stand/crouch in one place and ads (aim down sights) your crosshair will eventually come together and make your next shot completely accurate. If you move, however, it will need to be reset. It used to be that you could crouch and quickly stand up to keep the 100% accuracy, but now if you do that it will reset the crosshair.

What is Damage Fall Off?

If you are further away from your target you will hit for less damage. Assault rifles damage fall off starts at 50 meters (no specific percentage was given). They do 80% of their damage at 75 meters and 65% of their damage at 100 meters.

What is Bloom?

Games assign different ways for how bullets travel. One method is to have a set recoil pattern a gun will follow like in Counter-Strike: GO. Fortnite uses Bloom, which means the bullets have a random chance to veer off in slightly different directions than you might expect. The bullets will generally stay in the range of your crosshairs, but this can obviously be sometimes difficult to manage at times. Fortnite also does have slight recoil, your gun will travel upwards while you hold down the fire button.

Epic eventually added first-shot accuracy to help decrease randomness with guns with bloom. This is great if you have the time to focus in on a shot, but the randomness is still there if you can't afford to stay still for too long.

What's the Best Assault Rifle in Season 8?

Here's a general look at how the guns stack up against each other based on the rarity (some of this can be personal preference):

SCAR
Suppressed SCAR
Heavy Assault Rifle (Nerfed)
Assault Rifle

It's hard to deny the power of the SCAR, and to me it's the best assault rifle by far at the moment. The Suppressed SCAR is solid and some people might like it more than the normal version, but personally I'm not as much of a fan of it. The Heavy Assault Rifle had its damage nerfed, so while it's still good, it's just not as good as either SCAR option. The normal Assault Rifle is serviceable, but can be inaccurate - especially in the lower rarities

Where does the Scoped Assault Rifle or the Thermal Rifle Fit into my Loadout?

The scoped assault rifle is only a replacement for an assault rifle if you don't have one. This gun belongs more in your sniper slot rather than your rifle slot. It is actually quite good if you don't have a sniper or you don't like to use a sniper. When you are not moving and looking down the scope the shots are all 100% accurate. If you can find a safe spot and rattle off a bunch of headshots you can get quick knocks from a long distance. I find this to be a great beginner gun, but as you progress in your game you are better off learning how to snipe!

What's up with the Infantry Rifle?

It's a weird gun... It's a semi-automatic assault rifle, but it has bullet drop on it like a sniper rifle. It was largely complained about for a while because the spawn rate was ridiculously high on it. They've removed the common version of it, and reduce the spawn rate. It's not a very good weapon, and is okay as kind of a sniper replacement if you really value that as an option.

Fortnite Assault Rifle Tips

Mitigate the Bloom

I explained Bloom above, but there are ways to lessen the effect it has on your shots. If you stay still, aim down the sights, and crouch your shots are much more accurate. Obviously this isn't always a good idea and is a good way to get sniped in the face. You'll want to do this very briefly and move back behind cover or only do it when you have time to take the shot.

You can also control your fire, don't hold down the fire button and just do single shots relatively quickly. Try to time this with small stops in movements which will increase your accuracy a bit.

Another thing you might want to try is aiming more towards the body rather than at the head. This makes sure you are more likely to hit the person because the bloom has more margin for error. I would generally always aim at the head for your first shot, but after that you might want to try to lower your aim down to make sure you are connecting.

Lower your sensitivity

Most really good players have pretty low sensitivity. This makes it easier for precise movement of your crosshair and allowing you to better aim at your target.

If you're up close don't ADS (Aim Down Sights)

It seems like a good idea to always be aiming down the sights because it helps you aim better, but if you're in a close fight and your only option is the assault rifle then it's usually best not to bother. It just slows down your movement making you more susceptible to getting shot and is a minor increase in accuracy at close range.