A Beginner’s Guide to Fortnite

Fortnite is Epic Games’ answer to the hugely popular battle royale game genre with added building mechanics and a storm which pens-in players. In this quick-fire guide we’ll take you through the basics of the game to get you on your way to getting that famous victory.

Plan Where You’re Going to Drop

Every match you join starts in a big, flying party bus that travels over the map in a straight line. A key decision is to pick a spot where you plan to land and coordinate it with your teammates (if you aren’t solo). As a rule of thumb, the large built-up areas of the map, such as Tilted Towers, will have the best loot but will come with more skirmishes as more players compete for the spoils. In contrast, other less-built-up areas will have scarcer, lower-level loot but will often be unchallenged.

Here you will have to decide whether you want to get stuck in straightaway or play more conservatively. Either plan can work but the main thing is to plan what you want to do before you jump.

Plan How You’ll Play the Game

Once you’ve chosen your landing spot and your boots hit the ground you’re going to have to start scavenging for weapons, health packs, grenades and building materials. We’ll cover what each of these things are, but for the time being you’ll need to scope out whether any other players have landed in the same area as you. Furthermore, establishing where the storm is and when it’s going to move is a crucial element to take into account when planning your strategy – no one wants to be killed in the storm. Once you’ve gauged your landing situation you can decide how you want to play out the game.

Handy Tip
: Look in buildings to see if there is any loot or partial loot around to see whether players have been or may still be in the area.

Something newer players often forget is the aim of the game is to be the last man/woman standing, so there’s no need to get kill hungry. If you’re wanting to just run and gun then go for it, but if you really want that victory we would advise a slower pace of game, focusing on survival, not a high kill count.

The Loot

There’s lots of elements to looting, but the most exciting is the weapons. They’re organised into a tier system of rarity and power and are as follows:

Grey – Common

Green – Uncommon

Blue – Rare

Purple – Epic

Orange/Yellow – Legendary

On top of the class system there’s a range of weapons available ranging from assault rifles to shotguns and grenade launchers to pistols. The key thing to remember is that any weapon is better than no weapon, so don’t shy away from the weaker ones if it’s your only option. In addition to weapons available on the ground, you can also loot dead players’ weapons and get high-quality firepower from crates that randomly drop on to the map (but be warned: these tend to be extremely dangerous, attracting lots of players to one spot).

On top of weapons there are also healing items and shield potions to acquire. The health items will aid recovery, while shield potions give you extra protection, over and above your health, from enemy fire. It’s important to note that certain types of health/shield potions will heal/shield you for varying amounts, but up to a maximum 100 for both.

The last main lootable item you can acquire are grenades, and there are a variety of them, ranging from remote bombs to standard lob-and explode grenades. The key thing to remember here is to try and acquire some grenades to give you a diverse arsenal.

Our recommended loadout would be a shotgun for close-range fights, an assault rifle for long- to mid-range fights, a couple of grenades and couple of health/shield items. This would be a great loadout for every bgame, but due to the randomness of looting, you may be better equipped or lesser equipped at times – the key is to have something to defend yourself with.

Build, Build, Build

The key aspect which separates Fortnite from other battle royale games is building. It’s one of the most difficult things to do in the game but is essential if you want to claim victory. We’d recommend getting used to the building mechanics in-game and bind keys to the build options which are quick, easy and natural for you to select.

When you’re mid-game, you’ve got to make sure you constantly gather resources to build structures, whether that’s by hitting trees, building or cars with your pickaxe – you don’t want to run out of materials when in the heat of battle.

Handy Tip:
Hit the bullseye on buildings, cars or trees to speed up your gathering of resources.

There are three basic structures which you should familiarise yourself with. The first is a simple wall, which is great for building when taking fire from an enemy or to add extra protection while healing a downed teammate. The second is a ramp, which is incredibly useful to scale mountains and buildings to get a good view of the land or snipe an unsuspecting player. The third is a simple box, which is vital to defending yourself from an attack.

That’s Fortnite in a nutshell. These are just the basics, but once mastered will see you fare much better and have a chance of that elusive victory. All that’s left to do is to get building.