The December 16 balance Patch in Fortnite brought several buffs and nerfs to the game. The list of changes included tweaks to Flowberries, various weapons, and more importantly, Medallions were drastically changed. So why aren’t Medallions working right in Fortnite?
Fortnite Medallions Not Working: Did They Get Nerfed?
As you may have guessed, Medallions aren’t working as before, since the December 16 balanced Patch nerfed them significantly. Since they were a huge part of the pre-patch meta, this nerf has impacted the community heavily, spawning plenty of debate on Twitter and Reddit. There are three crucial nerfs to Medallions we should talk about:
- As of the December 16 Patch, Medallions have a delay before activating for Shield regeneration.
- They no longer grant 100% Shield but grant increasing levels of regen based on the number you have.
- Their regeneration rates have also been slowed down.
Additionally, the circle indicating a Medallion holder is smaller. As you can see, they’re much less impactful now, which I don’t personally mind. Playing against those using them could sometimes be slightly frustrating. I won’t miss only getting a handful of opportunities to trade with my opponent between their box deployment only for them to have full shields again.
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How to Use Medallions After the December 16 Patch
That said, you can still use them for some value with a reduced maximum regen percentage. It’s now based on how Medallions you have. You’ll need all five to reach full 100 Shield effectiveness as before. The new regen values are as follows:
- One: 50 Shield.
- Two: 60 Shield.
- Three: 70 Shield.
- Four: 85 Shield.
- Five: 100 Shield.
This, coupled with slower regeneration, is a massive nerf and players will now have to capitalize much more on Medallions to reach their past effectiveness. Overall, this is a healthy balance change in my opinion that will be great for the future meta of Chapter 5 Season 1.
It’s not that Medallions aren’t working right in Fortnite, it’s just the Epic decided to change how they work — for better or worse. It’s possible that the development team will revert how things work in future updates or patches, but we’ll have to wait and see.. For more guides, like all NPC locations and weapon mods in Chapter 5, click the links or check out our Fortnite guides hub.
