How does Fortnite's Preferred Item Slots feature work?

Epic Games recently announced the new Fortnite 17.20 patch update and fans couldn’t be more excited. The update brings a host of new cosmetics, skins, bundles and game changes, including major bug fixes and a brand new arena game mode. Epic Games even announced a $100,000 trios tournament called “Bugha’s Late Game”.

But that’s not all, Epic Games also revealed a new feature called “Preferred Item Slots” which will automatically assign items to preconfigured inventory slots, based on player preference. Here’s how the new feature will work and how you can use it.

Fortnite’s new preferred item slots feature

The new “Preferred Item Slots” feature will enable Fortnite players to take better control of their loadouts.

The feature is available by navigating to the “Game” tab of the “Settings” menu. Once in the menu, players can allocate which inventory space they prefer weapons or items to go into, upon pick up.

This update is particularly useful for players who have preferential hotkeys for certain items. The new feature will allow them to essentially lock inventory slots to their chosen weapon or items.

By default, the active configuration for Item Slots 1-5 are:

1. Assault Rifle
2. Shotgun
3. Unassigned
4. Unassigned
5. Consumable item

Now, players will be able to reconfigure it to better fit their playstyle. For example, players can assign Sniper Rifles to Slot 3 or 4, simply by pressing the “Configure” button and toggling the slot to the “Sniper” weapon type.

Once this has been configured, looted Sniper Rifles will automatically be assigned to Slot 3 of the inventory and the slot's associated hotkey.

According to Epic Games, “like-for-like items will respect your Preferred Item Slots even if the slot is filled, swapping in the higher-rarity item”. For example, if you loot an Epic Sniper Rifle, the higher rarity of the gun will replace the lower rarity (e.g. an Uncommon). 

The same concept will apply to any other item (like bandages) which may be consuming the preferred slot. Once replaced, the item or weapon will move to the first available slot.

“Preferred Item Slots is only active when you have at least one empty inventory slot, and the “Auto-Sort Consumables to Right" setting will continue to function as normal alongside your preferences”, Epic Games indicated.

The new feature will certainly be a lot more efficient as players won’t have to manually configure their inventory slots during looting stages in the early game. We also speculate that it will greatly improve gaming performance, as players won’t need to doubt their item slots.

• Read more: Fortnite Bugha Icon series skin: Release date, bundles, cost, and how to get

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Header image via Epic Games / Fortnite.