If you have been playing a bit of Fortnite Battle Royale lately and are looking to step up your game then these tips can help you improve! Our Fortnite tips and tricks guide goes through the ins-and-outs of what you need to know to get better at this high-skill cap game.
Fortnite is an interesting game, it can be picked up relatively quickly by someone who has been a gamer in the past and knows how to play shooters. However, it becomes a lot more difficult once you start adding building into the mix. Trying to coordinate building, shooting, keeping an eye on your enemies, being aware of your position on the map, when the storm is coming, are just some of the things you will need to account for when actively playing the game. Some of these things will come with time, but others need to be more focused on. I hope these following tips will help increase your skill as a player!
Some of this you might already know, but I'm going to be going over a lot of different things that can help you improve.
Basic Tips
These tips are more for beginning players, but if you've been playing a while you might find somethings that you didn't realize you could do!
Re-Bind Your Keys
Probably something you've already done, but you need to have very quick access to your building keys as well as being able to switch your guns quickly. Some players re-bind their pickaxe key so they don't accidentally pull it out in a fight and bind 1 to their first gun and change the rest down the line. The most common place to rebind your keys to is to your Mouse 4 & 5 buttons. These are on the side of some mice, and are generally used for going forward and back on a web page.
Use Headphones
All the good players you see on Twitch aren't wearing headphones as a fashion statement. You can better hear footsteps and where shots are coming from with a pair of headphones. These don't have to be super high quality, even the earbuds that came with your phone are better than nothing. Be sure to have the volume fairly loud so you can better hear footsteps more reliably.
Pick Designated Spots for Your Weapons
To reduce the things you have to think about when you are in a fight you should try and place your guns always in the same spot. For example, I always slot an AR in the first weapon slot, shotgun in the second, smg or sniper in the third and fourth spots, and grenades/healing/shields/alternate in the last two. The last three can vary based on what I have, but I ALWAYS put my AR in the first slot and my shotgun in my second. This makes it very reliable for me when in a fight to quickly switch to the correct guns for the situation without having to think about it.
How I do it might not work for you, so feel free to change it up to suit your needs! Also, I wouldn't do this in the middle of a fight but if you get a spare second while looting or you are healing/drinking (it won't cancel your shield/bandage, you can even move stuff into the place of whatever you are consuming) then these are the times to do it.
Land Faster
Curious why some players seem to be getting lower than you are and landing before you out of the bus? They are aiming as straight down as possible and heading for the lowest points on the map. You pull your glider out at a certain height based on what's below you, so you'll want to look for the lowest point on the map and head directly for it. Once you pull your glider out you can better assess where you can land. This takes a bit of practice to get a sense of when you need to exit the bus and how far you'll be able to reach.
Scout Enemies
While you are gliding in towards your potential landing spot, be sure to look around at where your enemies are landing. This will give you a sense of what you are up against and how quickly you are going to need to grab a gun. If someone lands in the same house or building that you do, you know you immediately need a gun (even more so than usual). If you find a decent one, you should immediately go for the kill so you can prevent them from finding themselves a gun, and drinking shields that you should be drinking. Getting frags on unarmed opponents is one of the easiest ways to get kills, so this is a high priority.
You also want to try to avoid landing in the exact same building/area as another player when possible. Either they might get a gun before you or they could just start hacking away at you with a pickaxe. It rarely ends well unless you are super confident in your ability to nab a weapon before them.
If you get a decent mid to long distance gun immediately, then try to use it to get a few easy kills. If you landed quickly you will likely have a chance to take shots at people who are still gathering themselves or hacking into buildings/houses. Use this advantage to take out your opponents!
Loot Thoroughly
One thing I see a lot of people do is leave good loot behind. Unless you absolutely need to move from an area, make sure you get every piece of loot you can. Check all of the known chests spots, go through houses that haven't been looted. You'll likely need all of this loot, and every chest opened is another chance to improve your weaponry or gain more healing and shields.
Loot Quickly
Another thing I notice about newer players is they take forever to loot. You need to loot quickly, so you are covering a lot of area and can move towards the next area you need to be in. You'll want to have a set idea of what guns you want to run and what slots you'll need them in. Also, don't worry about picking up small ammunition if you have no plans to run a gun that uses it.
More Great Fortnite Content
Know Where the Chests Are
This will come with experience, but you should try to land in only a couple of different spots so you learn the chest spawns. Once you've got a couple of spots down, then try moving to different spots and learn those locations.
Always Gather Resources/Don't Break Trees
As you run from destination to destination be sure you are hacking away at trees and wooden palettes (these generally have a pretty good supply of wood and can be found in buildings and other various areas). I recommend continuing to do this until you have at least 500+ wood. As you advance against better players you'll be surprised how often you are running low on wood and other resources.
If you really want to be advanced then don't break the trees you are gathering from. Why? Because this allows people from a distance to see where you are! When a tree is destroyed the animation of its destruction is pretty easily spotted and noticeable. So if you really want to be crafty then hack down the tree to the last hit and move on without breaking it.
Other Resource Tips
- Notice that small blue circle that pops up when you are harvesting something? If you aim at that on your next strike with your harvesting tool it will gather the resource faster (essentially like a critical hit!). This allows you to break down walls/trees/boulders much faster and should be something you are doing when you are harvesting.
- Gather up enough resources for a ramp or two in the early game because this gives you a big advantage over people who have limited loot and no resources. You often will automatically win a fight in the first few minutes just by being able to build a ramp or two.
- You can harvest brick more efficiently by mining the various boulders that are scattered around the map. These are similar to tree for wood and yield quite a bit of brick.
- I don't usually try to harvest metal, you will often gather it from looting areas and the players you slay on your way to victory.
Don't Harvest Walls for Resources
Unless you are absolutely desperate for resources to protect yourself in an early fight then don't harvest resources from walls in houses or structures. It is WAY faster to harvest trees, wooden pallets, and stone boulders. If you are in an area that doesn't have a lot of trees, it is good to hack away at furniture just to get enough resources to protect yourself in any engagements.
Use the 3rd Person View to Your Advantage
If you are in a building or behind a wall against an up-close opponent you should hug up to the wall and look around the corner/door via the third person view. This allows you to find your opponent and have an advantage over them. Once you've got them located you just need to sidestep out enough to fire and then quickly sidestep back while your shotgun reloads (usually this is a shotgun battle).
Equip Your Pickaxe When Looting
This seems a bit weird, but when going through a pile of loot you should equip your pickaxe so nothing you pickup will swap out what you are currently carrying. You don't want to accidentally pick up some bandages and drop your weapon and then get into a fight while bumbling around trying to re-grab your weapon. This method completes stacks of all stackable items without swapping out anything like bandages, medkits, shield potions, etc. Looting this way is also extremely fast, make it a priority to grab up all the loot you can whenever possible. It may even be worth heading into the storm for a brief period just to nab some shields or other high quality items (particularly if you have a medkit or camp fire!).
Always be Moving
Probably one of the things I'm shocked by the most is how often people just stop moving. Unless you know you are without a doubt protected from every side then you should virtually never stop moving. If you are drinking a potion or using a medkit you can shimmy side to side making it harder for someone to come along and snipe you in the face. Never be just sitting in a fort peaking your head out and looking at nothing because this is a one way ticket to eating a bolt-action sniper shot and listening to music in the lobby.
Shoot Supply Drops
Supply crates hold a lot of good loot and you can keep track of them by shooting at it once. When you do an HP bar will show up that is easily seen through walls or mountains. This also makes it easier to know if the crate has been popped giving you a chance to take out anyone nearby. If you have a surplus of ammo you can even just shoot it down if you know you are safe to do so.
Be Aware of the Storm
A real easy way to get yourself killed is by forgetting about the storm. The first and second storm close in faster but have further to travel, so it takes a while t completely close. However, you won't be able to outrun these circles if they get close to you. After those two circle, you can outrun them closing in on you. It's important you are aware of which circle number is coming and plan accordingly. You'll want to play it a bit safer on the second circle for sure. You usually have enough time to reach the safe zone from most areas during the first close because of how long it takes to start and how far it has to travel.
If you are really far away from the safe zone, then you might want to avoid taking fights. Any long battle can cost you precious time, but if you are for sure going to be in the storm and don't have the health, then you might just need to take a risk and take down an enemy in hopes that they have healing items.
If you do think you are going to die to the circle, either pick up bandages (replacing another item if necessary) and/or a med kit, and try to run out while healing. Keep an eye on how much damage the storm is doing to you, it ticks every second (damage increases in the higher circle stages once it closes) so you will need to calculate how many seconds you can delay before using a bandage or burning your med kit (bandages take 4 seconds to use and med kits require 10 seconds). Also, check and see if you have a launch pad. It's easy to forget you have one because you might have a trap or campfire occupying your trap slot. The final option is to grab impulse grenades and jump yourself out. Never give up, even 1 hp is enough to get a win!
Intermediate Tips
Now that you are a bit more familiar with the game, take a look at these more intermediate tips.
Intermediate Building
If you've made it this far in Fortnite Battle Royale then you know how important building can be. A way to increase your abilities in this area is to learn when it's best to use what kind of material and how to edit your buildings.
Building Materials
Wood used to flat out be the best material because you could farm it reliably and it started with the highest hp. This is no longer the case, Metal is now the best because it starts with the highest hp and it has the highest max hp. This now means you should try to harvest brick and metal as much as possible. You can then use it to ramp rush or build if you are know your enemy is going to try and spam you down.
- Starting Wall HP: 90 for Wood, 100 for Brick, 110 for Metal
- Max Wall HP: 200 for Wood, 300 for Brick, 400 for Metal
Protect Your Ramps
If you are fighting someone and trying to ramp above them then you can protect your ramps better by building a wall right in front of them. You don't need to build the wall first, you can build it through the ramp which gives you a chance to continue to build upwards. This can also help you in general fights, keep building a wall in front of your ramp so you don't fall down.
Trying to build a tall ramp? Make it double or triple wide so you don't immediately have someone break the single base ramp and drop you from the sky! If you have a wider ramp it requires your enemies to destroy all of the ramps in a row to knock down the entire ramp. If someone doesn't realize this be sure to shoot out one of the ramp pieces behind them so they fall to their demise!
Editing Builds
Something you might not even attempt early on is editing you or your teammates floors, ramps, and walls. Walls and Ramps are made up of 6 squares (3x3 grid), and Floors and Roof/Pyramids are made up of 4 squares (2x2 grid) that can be edited by using your designated edit key (check your binds, G is default on PC). Once you click on some of these squares in the edit mode and confirm it will make a window, a door, or shorten a ramp, etc based on what you removed. This can get pretty intense as you will see from the graphic below, but you will generally just want to know how to make a door as you will find yourself wanting to get out of a box quickly, and making a half ramp can help get you out from under a ramp you might have accidentally built above yourself.
The very basic and key edits you'll want to know is how to make a door in a wall, a 1/3 wall, and a half ramp. A door is a quick way to just get through a placed wall. The 1/3 wall can help when a door is not possible because the bottom squares are below ground or not accessible. The half ramp is commonly needed to get around a ramp you built that can block a door or an exit path. Check out this is great reference guide below. I take no credit for creating it, it was made by Abyssal Heaven on Reddit. You can click the graphics below to enlarge.
Control the High Ground
Obi-Wan Kenobi tried to teach Anakin Skywalker that the high ground was extremely important and he is absolutely right! You have a huge advantage by holding the high ground over your enemy and can land easier headshots while only peaking part of your body and not allowing them to get an easy shot. So when you enter a fight with someone you should be building above them immediately, holding your advantage, and eventually finish your enemy from above. If they try to build a ramp next to your fort/walls remember that you can build a quick floor over their ramp and deny them access.
Fire Rockets into Bases
Now that heading seems obvious, but it's not exactly the point. What you want to do when you are firing rockets at a structure is not just fire them at the bottom of the base. You want to try and slide the rocket into the interior of where they are sitting. This can be accomplished by either building up high and shooting down into the base. This will not only do damage to the player, but can also destroy multiple pieces of the structure. Another way to accomplish this is to fire a rocket at the wall they are sitting behind and knock the wall out with a gun. This can take some precise timing, but you are hoping to break the wall right as the rocket arrives so they can't put up a wall to block it.
Block Rockets with a Wall
Most people seem to panic when they have rockets flying at them and I don't really blame them. However, all you need to do is throw up a single wall in-front of the rocket and you will be fully protected. Grenades are much harder to deal with as they can bounce behind you or explode awkwardly and catch you when you don't expect it.
Expect players to attempt the above tip by knocking out your walls with other guns, so be sure to add a ramp or be prepared with an additional wall if you are taking heavy fire.
Safely Scope Out the Area
If you have built yourself into a structure and aren't sure where the enemies are, you can put a roof on top of it and enter edit mode on it to freely look around while staying protected. You used to be able to edit a wall and see through it freely, but this new way allows a similar amount of vision.
Use a Roof to Block Your Opponent
If you are in a build battle and the enemy is above you on a ramp you can place a Roof or Pyramid piece right above them so it blocks them from getting any higher. They will have to readjust and build in a different direction while you can use this chance to take back the high ground.
Use Pyramids to Bolster Your Floors
If you are crossing high ground with someone below you they can easily just shoot our your floors, however, if you place a floor and a pyramid on top of them then you are double protected from getting spammed down. This should give you enough time to reach wherever you are trying to get to without getting knocked down.
Use a Tree to Negate Some Fall Damage
If you are forced to fall from a tall area or your build gets broken down, you can land to the side of a tree to negate some of the fall damage you will take. All you need to do is slightly bump the tree on the way down and it should reduce how much damage you will take!
Avoid Traps in Tight Quarters By Running to the Opposite Side
If you get boxed in by a player they will sometimes quickly throw a trap on the wall hoping that you will be impaled. You can avoid this by immediately running to the opposite side of the area you are trapped in. The trap will still likely go off, but you will not be hit by it. You then have a small period of time while the trap resets, you can break the trap or bust the wall you are closest so you can escape!
Build Up After Knocking Down a Structure
If you are knocking down a high structure with a player or two in it, then don't just stand there waiting for them to fall down. If they are good players, they will immediately start building once they get close to the ground. Build up a quick structure to have the high ground while they fall so you can keep the advantage to yourself.
Advanced Tips
Now we're getting a bit more advanced. These tips can be very situational, but when you are starting to really get good at the game, every little improvement is a big deal.
Always Peek on Your Right
When you are in a fight and you can control which side you are going to be peeking, you should always try to do it on your right. The way the game has its shooting model favors the right side of the screen. So if you were to come out of cover on your left side, you will need to expose more of your body before you are able to shoot.
Replace an Enclosed Enemy Wall
This tactic can be used if you have an enemy that is enclosed in a box or behind a wall that is just spam replacing them. Try to break their wall down to a very low hp so your next pickaxe swing breaks it down. Break the wall and immediately replace it with a wall of your own. You might have to try this a few times because they can replace it before you get a wall down. If you do get the wall down, you can then edit a window in it and hopefully land a finishing shotgun shot. This can take a bit of practice overall, but it's a strong tactic against someone who is just spam building.
Note: Always be careful when you are facing someone that is behind a wall they built. A good player will just edit it themselves and take a shot at you if you stand too still.
Stay on the Edge of the Circle
One of the best ways to get kills and have a big advantage over enemies is to always be right at the edge of the safe zone circle. Players will be rotating in from different areas to try to get back to the safe zone, if you are already safe and have a small little tower built you can fire at them while they are forced to move towards you. This is especially good when they are just running out of the storm, they should have taken some damage and are wanting to heal. You can take advantage of their vulnerability for easy kills.
Take Note of the Bus Flight Path
Want to have a good idea where the majority of players are going to be coming from when the circle is closing? Then you should try to remember where and which direction the bus flew in the beginning of the game. If it was a northern bus, then you won't have to worry as much about the southern part of the map. If the map started in the east and flew directly over Retail Row, then you know a lot of people got out there and it's already looted. You can apply this logic to various points on the map which can help you decide where you want to go next.
Keep in mind that places like Tilted Towers, Retail Row, and Pleasant Park are generally always going to be popular no matter where the bus flew.
Non-Gun Related Items
Some of these items at first glance can be looked at as joke or weak items, but they can be utilized to their full ability by a crafty player.
Camp Fire
This was made more for squads to heal themselves, but this is a good item for getting yourself healed to 100 HP if you only have bandages or are out of healing items. You can also place this and build a ramp over it and slowly heal while engaging if necessary.
Launch Pad
Being able to ride the storm and get out of danger in a pinch is very useful. You can also use this to flank around large structures and potentially land in them without your opponent knowing.
To get further be sure to immediately deploy your glider, but if you are getting shot and want to drop quickly you can put away your glider and it will drop you down quite quickly.
Boogie Bomb
If you want to counter an aggressive opponent or give yourself an easy kill then the Boogie Bomb can be a big help. The length of time a player will dance isn't very long, but it should be long enough for you to shotgun them in the face.
Traps
If someone is chasing you through a building then throwing down a quick trap can divert the person or kill an inexperienced player. You can also just place traps on a ceiling in front of a door that can catch people off-guard and lead to easy kills. Try to remember where you lay the traps, because you might want to go back and collect the loot of the unlucky person who got skewered.
- If you have an enemy above you on a ceiling you built, you can quickly edit a hole in it and place a trap on a wall so they fall right into it.
- If a player is under a stairwell, you can place a trap on the wall that should be able to hit them if they are turtled up in that space. You can also do this to people that you've ramped above. If they are trapped below the ramp you can put a trap on the wall to the left or right.
Three Layer Ramp Rush
To really push on people in the game these days you need to make sure you are protecting your build before you get shot down. Using three different pieces of structure should provide you with enough protection to close the distance. As you are running, start with a floor and hold down your build key, then immediately swap to the ramp and then wall keys. This will build all three layers extremely fast, and you can repeat this as you move up in height. I highly recommend practicing this in Playground to get it down completely.
Shotgun Shots and Floors
If you are firing down on someone with a shotgun, you shouldn't jump off your high ground. What you can do instead is jump and fire your shot and then immediately place a floor. This will protect you from any incoming fire while your shotgun delay comes up, you can then edit the floor to create room for another shot, or fire at them from this newly place floor and then repeat the process. It is always safer to keep the high ground because you have a significant advantage when you do.
J.P van Wyk is your go-to codes guru at GAMURS, dedicated to delivering the latest codes for your favorite games across all platforms. With 26 years of gaming experience, his expertise is unmatched. While he's known for his relentless pursuit of the newest Roblox codes and more, he finds solace in the thrilling escapades of horror games, balancing his professional zeal with a passion for gaming's chilling delights.