Fortnite‘s cartoonish art style belies its surprisingly complex skill level. It’s easy to play but tough to master, especially when every new season brings monumental changes to the map and in-game items.
Those changes help make the game beginner friendly, too. “Epic releases a lot of updates and they change the meta a lot,” says streamer and Fortnite pro Fasffy. “So maybe like every two to three weeks you’ll have new guns, weapons and utility items that change the way you play.”
“It creates a level playing field.”
To learn more about how to get better at the battle royale, we asked Fasffy for her best tips and tricks to get better at Fortnite.
Understand the Objective
Like any battle royale, the aim of Fortnite is simple: be the last one standing.
Games start with up to 100 players, who then explore the map, pick up items, collect resources, build structures and engage in tense team fights — all while The Storm creeps in across the map. The safe zone is called the Storm Eye, and players who lurk at the edges of the Eye or wait too long to move in when the Eye shrinks risk being caught out. The Storm deals damage to any players caught in it and damage increases for every second the game goes on — venturing outside the Storm Eye may not be fatal at the start of the game, but it’s almost certainly a death sentence towards the end.
Don’t Drop From the Battle Bus Immediately
All players start in the Battle Bus and choose when to drop out to. Unless you’re an experienced player or want to jump straight into a fight, don’t drop out straight away! You’ll likely end up at a hot drop and quickly be swarmed by more experienced players.
“People always drop on Tilted Towers, that’s a hot drop,” says Fasffy. “Usually it’s Tilted Towers, Coney Crossroads and Rocky Reels.”
Once you’ve picked a landing spot, drop before the bus flies overhead. It takes time to glide to the ground, so drop early to make sure you don’t overshoot your mark.
Collect Resources
One of the things that sets Fortnite apart from other battle royales is its building mechanic. In addition to picking up items and fighting other teams, you also have to mine wood, brick and stone from the environment around you and use your resources to build structures. The more materials you have the better, and you always have at least 100 of each, says Fasffy.
Practice Building
Unless you’re playing the Zero Build mode, building is essential to getting good at Fortnite. Whether you’re building temporary cover before healing or ramps to get the high ground on your enemies, you should be using your resources throughout the game.
“The bullets will hit the build before they hit you, so you’re basically giving yourself more HP. Every time you have a wall between you and your opponent, they can’t shoot you, which is the objective of the game,” says Fasffy.
“If you can’t build and you’re playing the build mode, you’re going to have a hard time.”
Remember that wood is the weakest material but the quickest to build, then brick and then metal. It’s a good idea to build with wood at the start of the game and save your brick and metal for the end-game fights.
Be Tactical In Team Fights
Fortnite doesn’t have characters classes, but good squads will organise themselves into roles so there’s a mix of support, building and offensive players.
“If you know you’re the weaker player, you might play the support role more often. But if you’re playing with people who need you to carry, then you need to be the one who’s trying to be aggressive and looking for fights.”
Don’t underestimate the importance of building during fights, too. “If someone in your squad is being engaged, you can build a wall between them and the enemy. You’re creating such a great advantage just by doing that.”
You can also hang back while other teams fight and then at the last second, when they’re low on health and items, swoop in to clean up.
Find the Best Loot
Items scale by rarity in Fortnite: grey guns are the most common and do the least damage, then green, blue, purple and gold. A purple SMG will always be better than a grey SMG, so make sure you upgrade your loadout whenever you come across better loot — and never pass up a gold gun.
Reality Seeds and Saplings are a great tool for new players, too. Planted seeds grow into saplings, which give bloom to high-level gear. Saplings you plant will appear in the same spot on the map in every game, and by weeding them in multiple games you can increase the quality of gear they drop.
“Take it out to a place where nobody really lands, like a secluded patch of forest on the edge of the map, so you always have guaranteed loot,” says Fasffy. “Queue with your friends and plant all of your saplings in a little corner. Then that can be your drop spot. And then you can farm up trees around them for wood and go into the game well prepared and without stress. It’s a pretty cute mechanic.”
Outfits Are Purely Cosmetic
There are more than 1400 outfits in Fortnite and new ones are added every season, ranging from in-game lore characters to characters from other franchises like Arcane and Dragon Ball Z. Real-life icons like Loserfruit and Naomi Osaka even have their own Fortnite skins.
While these outfits may look totally different, they’re purely cosmetic and don’t change your abilities in-game. Character specific items like Spider-Man’s web shooters and the Kamehameha can be picked up and used by any player wearing any outfit.
“Fortnite has a very high skill cap and there are so many different things that you can learn,” says Fasffy. “That’s what I really like about it — I’m continually needing to improve.”
Watch Fasffy stream Fortnite and other games on Twitch and follow her on Twitter here.
