The 25 Best Fortnite Battle Royale Tips And Tricks

Take Advantage of Playground Mode

When Fortnite's Battle Royale mode launched, the only way to learn was to jump right into a match. You had a brief moment to test your controls, and then you were whisked away to the battle bus.

The playground mode uses the same map as Battle Royale, but without the pressures of the encroaching storm and other players trying to shoot you. Select the playground mode, set it to not fill the empty slots, and you can get yourself some much needed practice.

Playground mode allows you to explore and build at your leisure, so you can get to know the island, learn how all the weapons work, and practice defensive and offensive building techniques in a low pressure environment.

Pick Your Landing Zone Wisely

When you're still getting used to the game, you'll have an easier time getting started if you land away from other players.

The safest bet is usually to wait toward the end of the battle bus route, and then aim for an unnamed location. Named locations tend to have better loot, which means more players, and more chances to get shot before you get the hang of things.

Once you're more confident in your skills, you can aim for more densely populated areas to rack up some early kills and stock up on higher quality loot.

Use Smart Glider Deployment to Land Sooner

When you dip out of the battle bus, you're free to deploy your glider whenever you want. The glider is useful in helping you reach a specific location you've identified as a good landing zone, but it also slows your descent.

Your glider also deploys automatically once you reach a certain elevation. To take advantage of this mechanic, you need to aim for low ground and prevent your glider from deploying until the last possible moment.

By getting on the ground faster, you'll stand a better chance of finding some gear before one of your opponents can get the drop on you.

Find a Gun ASAP

You can technically win a game of Fortnite: Battle Royale without ever firing a single shot, but don't count on it. Once your boots are on the ground, you need to get your hands on a gun, any gun, as soon as possible.

If you can identify a gun on your way down, and make sure nobody else is heading for the same one, all the better.

Don't Neglect Your Pickaxe

The pickaxe isn't as flashy or exciting as a sniper rifle or rocket launcher, but you have it for a reason. You can destroy almost everything in Fortnite, and doing so gives you the materials that you'll need to build walls, ramps, and other structures.

Use your pickaxe on everything you can, but make sure to keep an eye on your surroundings. You want to have as much wood, metal and brick on hand as you can, but demolishing stuff makes a lot of noise that other players are sure to hear.

Grab Chests Whenever You Can

Whenever you hear the telltale hum of a chest, that's your cue to find and grab it. Chests are a great way to get better gear, and each one drops about three or four items, so it's also faster than seeking out individual items.

Chests are often hidden away in the attics and basements of buildings, and you may need to break walls, ceilings, or floors to find them. However, you'll sometimes get lucky and find them laying around outside as well.

In addition to chests, you'll also find supply drops and llama pinatas that contain loot.

Don't Pick Up Junk

It may be tempting to mash the pick up button whenever you see an item, but you need to resist that urge. If you have a good gun, there's no reason to clog your inventory with an inferior version of the same gun.

Good guns, gun types you specifically need for your favored play style, and consumables that replenish health and armor should always have the highest priority.

Know the Loot Rarity Colors

There are five rarities of loot in Fortnite:

• Gray: Common weapons and items.
• Green: Uncommon weapons and items.
• Blue: Rare weapons and items.
• Purple: Epic weapons and items.
• Orange: Legendary weapons and items.

The general rule of thumb is that higher rarity weapons are more powerful and harder to find than lower rarity weapons. Learn the color codes, and make sure to grab any legendary and epic weapons that you come across.

Build Early and Often

Fortnite: Battle Royale is a third person shooter, but you won't win, at least not consistently, without the building element.

When you watch the best Fortnite players, it's almost like they're playing two different games at the same time. The building and the shooting aren't separate systems, but completely dependent on each other.

The best way to get good at building is to practice in Playground mode. After you're confident in your ability to get basic structures out quickly, you can practice the same thing in Battle Royale mode.

Familiarize Yourself With All of the Weapons

There are several different weapon types in Fortnite, and they can each come in a number of different configurations. Since you don't get to choose your loadout, it's important to know the strengths and weaknesses of every type:

• Assault rifles: This versatile weapon type works well at both medium and close range. They can come with scopes, suppressors, and other modifications.
• Shotguns: The weapon of choice in close quarters, you'll want to swap to your shotgun and move in aggressively if you hear an opponent nearby.
• Submachine guns: These put out good damage, but they're inaccurate at any kind of distance.
• Pistols: You can snipe with a pistol if you absolutely need to, and they're decent at medium range, but they tend to fire too slowly if you find yourself in a close quarters encounter.
• Sniper rifles: If you like to find a nice hiding spot and take people out from a distance, a good sniper rifle is a necessity. Just make sure you have a different weapon ready if someone sneaks up on you.
• Rocket and grenade launchers: These do a tremendous amount of damage per hit, so they're good at destroying enemy forts. But they tend to reload slowly, and you don't want to rely on one in a close range fight.
• Miniguns: These weapons pump out damage like crazy at close and medium range, but it takes a little bit of windup before they start firing. If your opponent hears and comes at you with a faster weapon, you're toast.
• Crossbow: You may only run into this weapon type in Playground mode, because unlimited ammo and a high rate of fire makes it extremely powerful. If you do find one, pick it up and try it out.

Familiarize Yourself With All of the Utility Items

Fortnite has a lot of utility items, and knowing how to use them is essential. Here are some of the most important ones:

• Port-a-fort: This tool literally builds a fort for you, out of metal, almost instantaneously. This is great if you're new and haven't gotten used to building forts on the fly, and it's also tremendously useful for mobile players.
• Rift-to-go: When you use this item, it creates a rift that teleports you into the sky and immediately opens your glider. The rift remains open briefly, so your squad, or your enemies, can follow you through, so be careful.
• Grappler: This is a gun that shoots a plunger tied to a rope, and you can use it to quickly cover long distances or scale tall buildings. If your opponent thinks they're safe at the top of their fort, use your grappler to give them a surprise.

Don't Forget Grenades

Fortnite focuses on guns, but grenades are also important. Some of them do damage, and others have special effects:

• Grenade: This is the basic grenade type that explodes to cause area of effect damage, and not much else. If you find some, use them.
• Stink bomb: This creates a noxious yellow cloud when it explodes, which causes damage over time to anyone inside. The damage bypasses shields, so make sure you don't get caught in the cloud yourself.
• Clinger: This is a sticky bomb that you can attach to buildings and other players.
• Boogie bomb: When hit by this grenade, players are forced to dance for five seconds. They are prevented from building or shooting, which can leave them vulnerable to attack.
• Shockwave grenade: These grenades create a shockwave that can knock players and objects back. If you time it just right, you can also use a shockwave grenade to get some serious air and deploy your glider.

Always Grab Healing Consumables

Shooting and building skills are key, but healing consumables can keep you alive longer even if you find yourself up against a more skilled opponent. If you're lucky enough to find items that replenish your health, save them for when you need them. If you find armor boosters, and your armor isn't at max, chug them right away.

Here are the main healing consumables:

• Bandages and med kits: These items restore your health, which is represented by the green bar at the bottom of your screen. Med kits replenish more than bandages, so if you've only taken a little chip damage patch it up with bandages.
• Shield potions and small shield potions: These items restore your shields, which are represented by the bar immediately above your health. Two shield potions will completely fill the bar.
• Chug jug: This fully restores your health and shield, but it takes a full 15 seconds to consume. Make sure you're in a safe spot before you use it.
• Slurp juice: This restores both health and shields, but it does it slowly over time.

Be Aggressive

Don't be afraid to play aggressively. You may be able to survive to the end through clever use of hiding spots and situational awareness, but you'll eventually find yourself in a firefight, and you'd better have a solid handle on both the shooting and building aspects of the game when that happens.

Since players are less likely to have powerful weapons at the start of the game, and there are more unskilled players still alive, being aggressive early on can pay off.

Use a Headset and Listen For Sound Cues

One of the most important advantages you can give yourself is to play with a good headset. This makes it a lot easier to listen for sound cues that can alert you to the presence of other players long before you actually see them.

You'll hear a lot of gunfire, and the sounds of pickaxes breaking stuff, but make sure to keep an ear out for doors opening and closing, and even footsteps, if you want to get the drop on your opponents.

Some items, like the rift-to-go, make a lot of noise that can make it extremely easy to locate and shoot someone who has no real way to fight back.

Get to Know the Island

The island is full of interesting areas and varied terrain, and it pays to learn everything you can about each one. Depending on the path of the battle bus, and the safe area created by the storm, you'll find yourself in different areas each match.

When you're new, it pays to learn the more central areas first, because more matches will end up converging near the middle of the map than on the edges of the island.

Just keep in mind that these areas tend to draw more interest, so if you drop there you'll typically find yourself in the middle of a fight sooner rather than later.

Learn to Identify and Anticipate Hot Spots

The more you learn about the island, and its terrain, the better you'll get at identifying potential hot spots. Remember that as the safe zone tightens in, most people will be moving in from the outside.

As people move toward the safe spot, terrain will tend to funnel them in certain directions, which leads to relatively predictable conflicts. If you can figure out where people are likely to be, based on the way the storm is contracting, you'll be able to take advantage of that.

You Can Survive in the Storm For a While

You don't want to get caught in the storm, because it causes constant damage until you die. However, you don't be afraid to remain in the storm for a while, or even enter it intentionally, if doing so provides a tactical advantage.

If you have some healing items on hand, you can survive in the storm even longer.

Learn to Size Up Tactical Situations

Whenever you run into another player, or even multiple players shooting at each other, it's important to size up the tactical situation. If they haven't seen you yet, and you're injured or your weapons aren't that great, you may want to hunker down and avoid the fight.

If your health and weapons are both in good shape, and you think you can get the drop on someone, go for it.

In situations where you find two people engaged in a firefight, you may want to wait for one to emerge victorious, and pick off the other while they go for the loot. Just remember that someone else could have their eye on you at the same time.

Use Your Glider to Cover Ground Quickly

Your glider plays a huge role at the beginning of each match, since you use it to reach whatever drop zone you have decided to target. However, you can actually pull it out during a match to cover a lot of ground very fast.

You can use shockwave grenades, jump pads, and even jump off tall buildings to activate your glider.

Take Advantage of the Third Person Camera

Since Fortnite is a third person game, you can use the camera to your advantage. If you think someone might be hiding just around a corner, just rotate the camera to see.

You can also use this to your advantage by crouching, hiding behind terrain or objects, and rotating the camera so keep an eye on your surroundings without anyone being able to see you.

Use the Replay System to Learn From Your Mistakes

The replay system records every match, from start to finish, which makes it a great way to learn from your mistakes and improve over time.

If you're not sure why you died, or how someone got the drop on you, jump into the replay system and check out exactly what happened.

Adjust Your Play Style For Solo, Duo, and Squads

You can play Fortnite: Battle Royale by yourself, with a partner, or in squads of four, and it's important to adjust your tactics based on the mode.

When playing in squads, it's important to remember that the other players may also have squads backing them up, especially at the beginning of the match.

You can use this to your advantage by not immediately killing downed players. Instead, keep an eye out for their teammates. If they go to save their friend, you can pick them off. If they come for you instead, having heard your gun, you can be ready to get the drop on them.

When playing duos, you have to be even more wary, since it's more likely that the players on each team are using voice communications.

In solo play, you can typically afford to be more aggressive because nobody has anyone backing them up.

Use the Vending Machines If You Need Them

Fortnite has vending machines, which you can use to buy specific weapons and items. If you're having trouble finding a weapon or utility item that you need, don't hesitate to buy it from one of these machines.

The vending machines use building materials for currency, so remember to break enough stuff to afford the weapon or item that you want.