Fortnite: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Choosing a Landing Spot and Gearing Up

FORTNITE BATTLE ROYALE: TIPS AND TRICKS FOR BEGINNERS

The first thing you’ll be doing in Fortnite Battle Royale is jumping out of the Battle Bus and gliding toward a landing zone. Try and be strategic with when you jump out, don’t leave in a huge cluster of other players. On the way down, you should be scanning for two things: where other players are headed, and locating suitable settlements to loot for weapons and resources. Settlements usually provide the best items, but they’re also typically the most populated areas. The last thing you want to do is put yourself in a situation where you’re racing for a weapon against three or four other players, so ideally you should be aiming to land on the outskirts of the settlement you have spotted. There are often buildings here that contain weapons. If you can locate an isolated house, these buildings are arguably the best locations to loot in the early they game. They typically contain two or more weapons, items such as medkits or armor potions, and if you’re lucky, a chest full of different useful items. We’ve compiled a list of the best areas for loot that frequently spawn two or even three chests.

Where you situate yourself for the opening part of Fortnite Battle Royale will depend on your playstyle. Some players prefer to haul up in urban settings, taking advantage of the items and cover of houses. Others will make use of natural flora and keep themselves in rural locations that provide a better all-around view of the area. Regardless, once you’ve found yourself a weapon, locate a decent vantage point and take stock of your surroundings. Keep your ear to the ground! Sound is crucial to working out who is around you and how safe it is to move about in your location. When you are confident it is safe to do so, consider breaking cover and mining some resources — these will come in handy when you want to build fortified defenses or traps. This early part of a round of Fortnite Battle Royale gives you a good chance to stock up because later, when the map shrinks, you’ll have to be watching your back more carefully.

Avoid Combat During the Early Game

FORTNITE BATTLE ROYALE: TIPS AND TRICKS FOR BEGINNERS

Succeeding in Fortnite Battle Royale requires patience. If you’re used to fast-paced PvP shooters, you’re going to have to discipline yourself to measure how frequently you engage in combat. Similarly, if you’ve come from PUBG, Fortnite is a different experience in that its less accomplished gunplay and emphasis on building rewards those who play slowly and strategically. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t do well by playing aggressively, but there’s good reason to avoid combat in the first five minutes of play. Hauling up and defending your own spot while other players take each other out is a good tactic. You don’t have to shoot at every player you see.

Note that, with the exception of the sniper rifle, shooting in Fortnite Battle Royale is not super accurate from long range, so if you’re going to shoot, make sure they are reasonably close and you have a clean shot (UPDATE: The latest Fortnite Battle Royale patch has improved the long-range accuracy of all Assault Rifles). Not shooting at all is much better than shooting and missing, since the sound of your weapon will give away your position. If the opportunity passes you by, try stalking the target by following them slowly. Wait for them to stop and survey what is in front of them, or better yet, wait until they are engaged in a firefight with someone else and then pounce. A distracted target makes for easy pickings, so don’t anxiously shoot and give away your advantage. 

Experiment with Building

FORTNITE BATTLE ROYALE: TIPS AND TRICKS FOR BEGINNERS

Drawing comparisons between PUBG and Fortnite Battle Royale are inevitable, but while the core gameplay loop might be identical, the ability to build defensive structures in Fortnite is a key difference. Don’t ignore this aspect of Fortnite Battle Royale — it’s really useful when employed effectively. Simple wooden walls can be built around a position for added security, eliminating the need to constantly check behind you. You can create formidable mini pillboxes with these walls, either shaping them around the terrain or building off the side of existing structures. And since the menus are intuitive and structures build almost instantaneously, you can throw up defenses on the fly. For example, shooting down at somebody from a cliff ledge is made far less dangerous if you quickly erect a line of walls and ramps to duck behind as cover; if you’re wanting to reach to a higher ledge and no path is visible, building a ramp makes it easy to traverse to these locations quickly.

However, don’t get too carried away — your structures won’t stop the ever encroaching storm, and they can also paint a target on your back. Use the build mechanic to bolster your position, not for investing resources into creating Fort Knox. One possible strategy that works very well is to find a vantage point, secure it, observe and wait for enemies, then leave as the storm approaches and haul up somewhere else.

As mentioned earlier, make sure you mine wood, brick, and metal at the start of Fortnite Battle Royale so you don’t need to expose yourself later on. That being said, if you’re running past a tree or structure, hitting a few times with your pickaxe doesn’t take long and will reward you with precious material. Also note that virtually anything can be harvested for resources with your pickaxe, including building walls, roofs, and vehicles.

Moving with Purpose

FORTNITE BATTLE ROYALE: TIPS AND TRICKS FOR BEGINNERS

Defending fortified positions is a useful tactic and an important part of Fortnite, but eventually, you’re going to need to make a move. As with other Battle Royale games, running in open areas is dangerous because you’re vulnerable to other players surveying the area from their own established positions. This is made even trickier in Fortnite Battle Royale by the game’s aesthetic and color palette, which makes your silhouette stick out vividly against the horizon. There’s also a fair amount of dust kicked up by your movement when you dash and a very heavy sound of footsteps even when you’re just rotating on the spot. You’ll need to make sure you’re always moving efficiently and with purpose so as to limit the enemies’ ability to locate you.

When moving over open ground, either run or crouch-dash between cover. Since dashing/sprinting kicks up a dust and makes you visible, only use it when you’re under fire or need to move quickly to avoid the storm. You should be keeping an eye out for shrubs, trees, cliff edges, boulders, or buildings that will provide cover from at least one angle. When you reach that cover, go into crouch mode to reduce your target profile. Unlike PUBG, there isn’t anywhere near as much coverage that you can use to conceal yourself, and there’s also no ability to prone. There is, however, one type of shrub that almost completely conceals you in crouch mode, and pine trees are quite effective too. The general rule of thumb is that you never want to be stood still out in the open, and you shouldn’t be moving once you’ve reached cover.

Fortnite is a third-person shooter, so use the camera effectively. You shouldn’t ever need to expose yourself to fire in order check what is around a corner or over a cliff. Manipulate your avatar so that it is always in cover and you’re able to keep an eye on your peripheral. This is especially important when moving through buildings. Strafe into rooms rather than just walking straight in. Before you move around a corner, pan the camera around to check there isn’t anybody camping around a corner. You can use this tactic to great effect from defensive positions you have built, too. As mentioned earlier, a heavy sound of footsteps is emitted even when rotating, so learn the limits of manipulating the camera before that sound is triggered to stay stealthy.

Weapons and Items

FORTNITE BATTLE ROYALE: TIPS AND TRICKS FOR BEGINNERS

Weapons in Fortnite are split into different classes. You can, for example, pick up two identical weapons that perform differently based on their class. The classes are as follows:

• Gray – Common
• Green – Uncommon
• Blue – Rare
• Purple – Epic
• Orange – Legendary

You can check a weapons DPS, Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit Damage, Fire Rate and more from the inventory screen. But basically, the brighter the color, the more powerful it is. Even still, range and bullet drop do play a part in the shooting physics of Fortnite Battle Royale, so the usual rules apply with choosing the appropriate weapon to engage an enemy depending on their distance from you. For example, don’t try and shoot someone from long range with a shotgun, even if it is a Legendary item.

The best weapons for close, medium, and long distance are Automatic Shotgun, Assault Rifle(SCAR variant), and Sniper Rifle, respectively (see our best weapons guide for more detail).You cannot add attachments to weapons. Only the Sniper Rifle and one type of Assault rifle come with a scope. Since combat typically occurs at medium to long range (except in the endgame), a scoped weapon gives a tremendous advantage to whoever is wielding it. A Legendary Sniper Rifle can knock someone out in a single hit, and even rare and epic versions of the weapon cause massive damage. If you locate one, consider finding an elevated vantage point and changing your tactic to waiting and picking off enemies.

Grenade launchers are very effective for taking out players in buildings. Use the dashes below the reticle to adjust for missile drop. The Rocket Launcher is also excellent for this purpose, too, and it also comes in handy scaring off enemies from long distance.

You might have noticed a sort of triumphant, glistening musical sound when navigating buildings. If you hear that sound, that means either an Epic/Legendary weapon or a chest containing multiple items is nearby. If there’s time, go and find that item. Chests typically provide a weapon, ammunition, and other items such as medkits, bandages, or grenades.

Use the Storm to Your Advantage

FORTNITE BATTLE ROYALE: TIPS AND TRICKS FOR BEGINNERS

It goes without saying that you don’t want to get caught out in the storm, and you should be constantly checking your map to make sure you’re near the circle safe-zone. That doesn’t, however, mean that you need to always rush to the next circle, and there’s good reason to stay right on the outskirts of the safe zone, or even in the path of the encroaching storm until the last minute.

Remember that if you aren’t already occupying an area well inside the circle, somebody else likely already is. Their established position will give them a big advantage over you, so don’t drop whatever your doing to move inside as soon you know where the next safe-zone is going to be. Consider waiting and moving carefully to a position just outside that area. It’s a good chance to see what’s going on ahead and who is coming up behind you.

Conversely, if you do happen to be in the safe zone, think about where players might be coming from as they move into the safe area themselves. You can use the storm tactically, either facing it and letting it sweep players toward your position for you to pick off, or turning your back on it and using it as a form of cover since you know players are unlikely to be coming from that direction.

Getting caught in the storm is bad news, but it isn’t a death sentence. Your health will drop at about the rate of one HP per second, which means you can survive a short sprint if you’ve miscalculated distance. As alluded to before, you can also use this as a bit of a tactic to stay right at the edge of what will become a smaller, more intimately populated space. Bandages or a medkit can quickly recover any damage you’ve taken, provided you have one handy.