Fortnite Festival - Pro Lead and Pro Bass Updates in v30.00

Hey Festival fans! 

Following up on the release of Pro Lead and Pro Bass song parts with Season 3, v30.00 expands accessibility options to access these song parts. Specifically, this update adds:
 

• The ability to play Pro Lead and Pro Bass on any console platform or on PC, even without a supported guitar controller.
• Keyboard + mouse (KBM) keybind support for Pro Lead and Pro Bass!
• No matter which song part you select, there will be an option to see the note highway as multi-colored gems, similar to how it appears when Pro Lead or Pro Bass is selected.

Also, you’ll be able to use supported guitar controllers for non-Pro parts, such as Vocals or Drums! v30.00 releases May 24.

KBM Keybind Support

One of the top requests we heard with the launch of Pro Lead and Pro Bass was to allow players the option to keybind their controls for these new song parts. In v30.00, this is possible! New keybind settings for fretting the Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, and Orange notes alongside Strumming inputs enable you to mimic the inputs of a guitar controller by holding down your note color key while simultaneously “strumming” to hit notes.



“Lift Notes,” the notes that look like an Up arrow and are hit by releasing your button press at the right time, are absent when playing Pro Lead or Pro Bass. You’ll instead encounter “Hammer-Ons” and “Pull-Offs.” These “HOPO” notes are visually different from regular ones, and when you have a combo, you can activate them by pressing their note color keybind — no strumming required! 

KBM keybind support allows players to configure keybinds for any keyboard, controller-to-keyboard remapping, or accessibility devices to play the Pro Lead and Pro Bass song parts. See you on the leaderboards!

Strumming With Pro Lead and Pro Bass

Please note we are still improving Pro Lead and Pro Bass and that there are some kinks to work out with how this is displayed for all players now that these song parts are getting KBM keybind support. When Backstage choosing your setlist, please be sure to double-check which song part you’re selecting and familiarize yourself with the input for strumming before jamming to a Pro song part!

Here’s the default keybinds for Pro Lead and Pro Bass, which are set up so you can hold your keyboard like you would a guitar: 

• Keys 1 to 5 for Green to Orange note lanes

• Right Shift and Enter for Strumming 

• Page Down for Overdrive 

• Right Ctrl for Whammy

Controller default binds utilize the shoulder buttons for strumming and the triggers for Overdrive and whammy.

In order to hit a note with Pro Lead and Pro Bass, you need to hold down the corresponding colored fret note and simultaneously hit your Strum button at the correct time to “play” it. 

General Improvements to Pro Lead & Pro Bass

Alongside the addition of KBM Support, we’ve made a number of improvements and fixes to Pro Lead and Pro Bass following their release:
 

• You’ll be able to consistently hit chorded HOPO notes without strumming.

• Added a new option to toggle the input labels for lanes at the bottom of the note highway. This is On by default for non-Pro parts, and Off by default for Pro.

We’ve seen a lot of great feedback around how guitar controllers feel, with one of the main topics being fret forgiveness (or what some call “coyote time”) being too strict. We’re planning improvements to this in our next major game update after v30.00. We’ll have more to share around its release!

Also, we’re continuing investigations on ways to expand the list of compatible guitar controllers for console players, and will share more information as we have it.
 

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Thanks to everyone who’s jammed out with Pro Lead and Pro Bass so far and to ALL players taking the stage in Fortnite Festival! We’ll continue listening to your feedback as our setlist grows 🎸