Fortnite Beginners Guide - Learn The Basics!

Fortnite Beginners Guide

Since its release in 2017, Fortnite became a massive success and a pillar of Epic Games almost instantly. It surpassed its competitors quickly and reached the status of the most played Battle Royale game. Don’t worry if you missed out on the first burst of popularity. It’s never too late to get into a fun video game, especially one like Fortnite. It still attracts new players and remains one of the most-watched titles on Twitch.

This beginner’s guide will cover all the fundamental aspects of Fortnite. It should make everything clear, even if you never played anything similar. While there’s more to do in Fortnite than just the Battle Royale mode, it’s by far the most popular and identity-defining part of the game, and we’re going to focus on it the most. Without further ado, let’s learn how to play Fortnite!

Table of contents

Introduction

Dropping Spots

Plan and Strategy

Resources and Building

Weapons

Summary

FAQ

fortnite Battle Royale

As we already mentioned, Fortnite is the most successful title in the Battle Royale genre (or subgenre). However, this name and type of games are relatively new, especially in the mainstream. A casual gamer that fell out of the loop for a few years might not even know what exactly this term means.

Battle Royale is a very specific game, where a large number of players (up to 100 in case of Fortnite) lands on a vast arena with a single objective in mind – survival. Your goal is to gather resources, get stronger weapons, and eliminate other players before they can kill you. The longer you survive, the better, but in the end, there’s only one person left standing. Most Battle Royale games use the “every man for himself” principle, but there are some exceptions, where players can form teams. Fortnite features a solo, duo, and squad (team of four players) variants.

As the game goes on, the map starts to shrink, forcing the players to change their position and making sure that nobody sits on the outskirts of the arena, waiting for everyone else to kill each other. Preventing this kind of passive playstyle makes the game much more fun and fair. The powerful equipment scattered around the map also encourages the players to move from one place to another.

Of course, there are substantial differences between various Battle Royale games. They can introduce some additional PvE elements and offer different ways of affecting the environment and collecting as well as spending resources. For example, Fortnite places a significant emphasis on building, but we’re going to discuss that a bit later.

Where are we dropping, boys?

At the beginning of every match, the players can choose where they want to drop from the Battle Bus. This decision will determine the place where they’re going to start the game. Each player can pick his preferred location. While choosing the right place to land will not win you the game on its own, many players believe that it’s an incredibly important part of every match.

Some people prefer to start as close to the middle of the island as possible. It decreases the distance that they have to travel to reach the safe zone in the late game. Others prefer to start in the coastal areas, slowly working their way towards the center, while collecting a lot of chests that are not that contested – that’s also the approach that we support. For the most part, it comes down to personal preference. If you’re new to Fortnite, we recommend trying out a few different spots to see which one you like the most.

The island is quite big. In Chapter 2, it consists of 13 locations. We’re not going to discuss every one of them. Instead, we will focus on some of the best options. We recommend dropping on one of these places.

Retail Row – an excellent location with plenty of loot hidden in the houses and shops. This location is not super close to the center of the island, so you might have to start moving sooner rather than later. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be too contested while definitely being worth considering.

Lazy Lake – it’s placed right next to Retail Row, just slightly closer to the middle. It contains an even larger amount of loot chests that are more densely grouped. The obvious downside is the fact that it’s a really attractive spot that can be heavily contested.

Steamy Stacks – the nuclear power plant located in the northeast corner of the island. It has tons of loot that shouldn’t be that hard to collect. It’s very far away from the center, but as we mentioned – it can be both a good and a bad thing.

Sweaty Sands – it’s the location that features the most chests out of all the spots. Furthermore, Sweaty Sands provide some great escape options, thanks to the bay that’s right next to them. At the same time, you have to remember that these positives make it a trendy and contested area.

Misty Meadows – a great spot in the southern part of the island. It has a nice amount of loot and some other perks. The large lake in the north provides a perfect tactical advantage against any attackers. On the other hand, it might turn against you when you’re forced to move later in the match.

Slurpy Swamps – even though the number of loot chests is not as impressive as in the other locations that we discussed, Slurpy Swamps are probably the most contested spot in the entire game. It’s because of the slurp factory and its healing traits. It can spawn the useful slurp kegs and even heal any player that enters the polluted river (don’t do that in real life though). While it might “objectively” be the best dropping area, we don’t recommend it, since the overcrowded spot can often turn out much worse than an average location that you have all for yourself.  

Of course, you can choose to drop in the most contested spots, or closer to the center of the island. They will often feature a larger amount of players and movement. While this action-packed play style can be fun, getting eliminated at the beginning can be quite frustrating for a new player – especially if it happens a few times in a row. Starting in a less contested area can help you survive a bit longer and start gathering resources, building, and planning a strategy. That being said, no location can guarantee you a safe early game, so keep your eyes open at all times.

Plan and Strategy

While throwing yourself into the action and going with the flow can be a lot of fun, it will only get you so far. Creating a strategy and following it can give you the best results, especially in the long run.

Many players new to Fortnite and the Battle Royale genre struggle with playing toward the game’s primary objective. Remember, your goal is not to eliminate as many players as possible – it’s to survive the longest and eventually be the last man standing. You don’t need a ton of kills to have good results – usually, a safe play is the best thing to do.

On the other hand, you will likely need some strong weapons and other items if you want to challenge for the Victory Royale. It requires a lot of moving in the early game and visiting multiple buildings to find loot. The chests can contain weapons, items that restore health, traps, and various crafting materials. Always plan for a few steps ahead, pick a route that will allow you to scout for chests and the potential enemies.

Whenever you get a strong weapon, you can adjust your strategy to make the most out of it. A sniper rifle is the extreme of that concept. With a gun like this, you want to keep your distance from the enemies and use some cover to finish them from long range. Remember that the contents of loot chests (and to some extent – their locations) are randomized. There’s no way to ensure that you’re going to get precisely the weapons that you want.

Resources and Building

There are plenty of more things to collect while lurking around the island. You can gather plenty of materials that can be used to build various structures later. You can scavenge them with a pickaxe or a more advanced harvesting tool. The three basic types of materials are wood, stone, and metal. They can be found in different areas of the map. Gathering these resources requires chopping down trees or destroying some structures. Just keep in mind that these activities are pretty loud, and they can bring you some unwanted attention.

After you get enough resources, you can start using them to build your structures. Their durability will vary, depending on the materials used - a wooden construction will break faster than the one made of brick or metal. One of the most important, basic building abilities is to create a wall in front of you instantly. The best players can do it extremely quickly – it allows them to block the incoming shots and shield themselves from an attack. Later, you can also create windows and doors inside these walls.

Of course, you can build much more than just simple walls. Don’t fool yourself with the idea that building is just a defensive tool. It’s a complex, strategic feature that has as many applications as you can find for it. You can build a staircase to surprise an enemy, by coming from an unexpected direction. You can use it to collect loot that would otherwise be unreachable. Having the “high ground” alone can give you an advantage if you have a ranged weapon that you can use to kill your opponents from above.

Finally, you can make some more advanced defensive structures that may provide enough protection to take out the enemies from a distance. You can achieve that by building ramps or even the whole sniper towers with a roof on top and staircases inside of them! It can allow you to spot the opposing players and eliminate them before they get too close. However, there’s an obvious downside to creating a building like that – everyone can easily find out where you are. Even if you’re able to take out all the approaching enemies, the tower might not be enough to protect you from a rocket launcher. If you’re planning on staying in one place for a long time, you can also place a few traps around that spot if you looted any from the chests.

Moreover, there are some other advanced techniques that you can employ while building. They include blocking out the opponents and trapping them in a way that they can’t escape the advancing Storm (the shrinking map mechanic). That being said, this stuff is pretty difficult, and we recommend starting with learning how to place walls and build simple structures quickly. Remember that you will need materials to create anything, so it’s a good idea always to have some wood or stone saved in your inventory.

Weapons

As we already mentioned, you won’t always be able to get your favorite gun. That’s why you should learn about all the weapon types and how to use them. First of all, there are five rarity tiers in Fortnite: Common (grey), Uncommon (green), Rare (blue), Epic (purple), and Legendary (orange). Higher tier weapons tend to be more powerful than the lower ones.

There are six basic weapon types: pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, SMGs, and rocket launchers. Beyond that, Fortnite features four Legendary seasonal weapons as well as various handheld explosive devices and traps. We’re not going to discuss each weapon model in detail - we’re just going to talk about all these categories broadly.  

Pistol – the main advantage of pistols is their high reloading speed. They’re mostly short-ranged weapons with not that great damage output.

Assault Rifle – a pretty diverse type of weapon, since it comes in many variants. Some of them work better from a longer distance. Some are made for short-to-medium range combat. Overall, it’s a very useful and versatile category of guns with a relatively fast reloading speed.

Shotgun – lethal from a short-range and almost useless in any other scenario. They have small magazines and relatively long reload times.

Sniper Rifle – a long-distance weapon that can deal a lot of damage to an unsuspecting enemy. These rifles also vary in terms of damage dealt, as well as shooting and reloading speed, but they all excel in shooting from a long-range.

Submachine Gun (SMG) – this is the fastest type of Fortnite weapons. It allows SMGs to reach the highest DPS numbers out of all weapons, as long as the shooter is not missing their mark. They’re short-to-medium ranged guns with high reload timers.

Rocket Launcher – a long-range AoE weapon that can be used to damage enemies and destroy their buildings. An explosion of a rocket can hurt the player that shot the projectile, but won’t deal damage to their teammates in the group modes. Moreover, an allied player can “ride the rocket,” which means standing on the projectile as it flies across the map.

Trap – players often place these items at chokepoints and near entrances to various structures. They will deal with damage to careless characters that walk into their range. There are different types of traps that can be placed on the floor, walls, or ceiling.

Explosives – currently, the simple grenades are the only explosives available in the game. In earlier patches, there were some more advanced options – hopefully, they will come back at some point. Important note – grenades can’t be used as ammunition for grenade launchers - you have to throw them with your bare hands.

Fortnite Battle Royale Beginner’s Guide

That’s enough theory for a starting player. We believe that these Fortnite tips and information should prepare you for the first attempts of getting the Victory Royale. If the game sounds interesting to you, you should definitely give it a shot!

Remember, it’s quite a complex challenge – it requires much more than just aiming your shots (but it helps a lot, of course). You’ll have to learn building, collecting loot, gathering resources, and planning your routes. During all that, you have to stay cognizant of both the shrinking circle and the enemy players.

If you’re interested in more content regarding some of the most popular online games, make sure to follow our blog. New guides and articles are being posted here all the time. Visit us from time to time to check and read some of them!

Fortnite is an online video game, developed and published by Epic Games. It’s a shooter that involves some elements of survival and strategic building. Besides the well-known Battle Royale mode, this title also features a PvE game called Save the World and a sandbox building mode – Fortnite Creative. The game achieved tremendous success, quickly becoming one of the most played titles in history. Fortnite is available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS. 

FAQ

Is Fortnite free?

Yes - Fortnite is a free to play game. 

How to win in Fortnite: Battle Royale?

To win the match, you have to be the last man standing. You don't have to get a lot of kills, just be the one who survive the longest. 

Is Fortnite difficult?

Fortnite is a relatively complex game that requires using multiple kinds of weapons, looting and building structures. That being said, it's really accessible and you can quickly learn all the different aspects.