The current season of Epic Games’Fortnitehas taken on a theme of secret agents and espionage, with playerschoosing between Ghost and Shadow factionsthat are duking it out across the map. Both of those factions employ an army of non-player characters called Henchmen that help guard powerful loot, and professionalFortniteplayers like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins believe these AI opponents may have received a secret buff in a recent update.
Epic Games released the patch notes forFortniteversion 12.10 on August 04, 2025. They detail a great many changes including the addition of props and collectibles like colorful Easter eggs, an option to choose which team a player will join when entering an in-progress minigame, and a bevy of bug fixes — but nothing about Henchmen.
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Yet in a recent stream Ninja said “is anybody sick of these bots? … I got aimbotted just now,” and that comment alongside others from streamers like Turner “Tfue” Ellis Tenney were compiled by the YouTube channel Daily Clips Central on March 5. Players like ImOmgAdam and jtcooled have also posted videos to the r/FortNiteBR subreddit commenting on Henchmen being overpowered or using “aim assist,” which seems ironic given the recent announcement thatFortnitewill be implementing an updated aim assist system.
There has been no official word from Epic Games on whether a change has actually been made to Henchmen, but if enough players are registering that the AI has improved perhaps there really was a change that the developers deemed smaller than it turned out to be. Luckily theHenchmen can only be found in five lairsacross the map, so they can be avoided if desired.
On the other hand, Ninja in particular may not be the greatest barometer to judge by. For as popular and ingrained withFortniteas the Mixer streamer has become,his poorly-worded comment about getting angry when losinglast month has drawn ridicule for seemingly emphasizing a roundabout desire to find things to be mad at in order to get better.
Whether the Henchmen have been improved or not, the current season ofFortniteoffers plenty of content for fans to sink their teeth into. The Ghost and Shadow conflict may alsochange the game based on player’s past choices, so there’s plenty more coming to look out for.
Fortniteis available on Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One
