Fortnite Building Guide - Learn your Build Fight Structures

Fortnite Building Guide 

Despite its looks, Fortnite Battle Royale is not a children's game anymore. The longer people play this soft-looking title, the more it appears to be, that Fortnite requires much more skill and knowledge than other Shooter or Battle Royale game. At the highest level, shooting is not enough. To succeed, you have to be aware of your surroundings. You have to know how to build, advance your building strategy, how to react to your opponent's plan, and of course, how to outplay your opponent. If you want to play like Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf, and someday have a chance of winning 3 Million Dollars or more by playing Fortnite, you should get to know this game better. And this guide is just the first of many, and someday, you may earn what you've been fighting for, no matter what your opponents might throw or fire at you. With us, you will break away. There are lots of areas to cover, so let's start with building, as there are lots of objects to build.

Welcome to our Fortnite Build Guide. Right here, you will learn how to improve as a player, when it comes to One on One PvP scenarios, along with a bunch of Fortnite building tips. There are lots of things to cover, so bring yourself a drink, sit comfortably in your chair and gain the keys to the room of top-tier players. 

Main Pillar of Fortnite - Building

This one is very complicated. One thing is sure, without building, you will not be able to become a complete player that will consistently win combat encounters. Building structures opens up a window to various tactics and outplay options that will be used to deplete your rival's health. And you should know what you can do with your structures, and what structures you can place on the ground.

Four Types of Building Parts

There are four structure parts that you can place in the world of Fortnite. Each one has its shape, its place in time and space, and of course, each one has a purpose. 

Vertical Wall - a Basic wall that serves as a primary defense line for you and your structure. You can place it to guard your ramp, discouraging players from destroying the base of your structure. But the main usage of this wall is to obscure your movement and protect your health bar from bullets.

Ramp/Stairs - Used to advance your position, so you can climb higher than your enemy to gain an advantageous position. It's also used to obscure vision.

Floor - Protects you from above and below, allows you to place somewhat of a resting spot underneath you, so you don't lose health, or fall to your death.

Roof - Roof is a fantastic structure that will protect you from sneaky edits. If your enemy is right above you, they have a clear advantage over you. And if they manage to edit a hole in your ceiling - you will be a dead man in no time. It is why you will use Roofs (And floors) to block your enemy's edits.

You will need to learn to not only use them properly but to cycle through them on the go without thinking if you want to be considered decent in Fortnite. And using them. Well, it's even more complicated. There are lots of scenarios where different structures will serve a different purpose. You may want to go to the menu and review your key and mouse settings, as keybinds are crucial options in Fortnite.

The Purpose of Building

Every structure placed should have its purpose, clear to you, and not always clear to your enemies. You can use walls for a few different reasons, same as floors, ramps, and roofs. But what dictates the proper use of the structure in different scenarios? Well, you will always play towards gaining some advantages to advance your strategy. 

Abusing 3rd Person Perspective

Fortnite is played in a 3rd Person Perspective. Combine it with smart building, and you'll get a bunch of new tactics up your sleeve that you will be able to use in combat. 

A good player will always use his position and perspective to his advantage. It could be a bad thing, as it enforces a defensive, boring playstyle. Still, due to Fortnite's dynamic nature, one scenario can get easily shifted to blow up in the face of a player that held the advantage in the beginning. Smart building and 3rd Person Perspective will enable you to use a potent tool - Vision.

Vision is one of the most critical things in Fortnite Battle Royale. You can defend yourself with structures, and shoot people with all you want, but if you don't see your enemy, you won't know from which side you have to defend yourself. It is why walls will be used both for protection and for hiding your movements. You can protect yourself from any height, a few walls, floors, roofs and ramps will do its job. But to focus on gaining that vision advantage, you will have to work on getting yourself higher than your enemy.

The reason why in Fortnite you always want to build yourself higher than your opponent is that you will see more. If you peek out a little, you will see the enemy below, and you will see a considerable part of his body. Your enemy will only see your head or even a small part of it. It is a definite advantage for a higher person, as this person will dictate the pace of the fight, peeking out and going back to cover. The other person can either react, disengage, or attempt to get higher, and every attempt can be countered. 

Greater Outplay Potential & Strategy

Messing with structures will create numerous opportunities to open your opponent for mistakes and outplay them. In theory, if you are a better builder, you already hold a massive advantage, even if your enemy is better than you at shooting. Don't you believe this? Simply look at how best players play Fortnite Battle Royale. All you can see is chaos. Walls appearing and disappearing in front of your face, the player is spinning around placing random structures, and suddenly they make an edit that reveals an enemy for a split second, they take a shot, and they get a kill. 

Those structures were not random. They were planned, used for defense, obscuring vision, and placing yourself in the most favorable position to score a kill and keep yourself safe. 

As you go further into the Fortnite building, and you develop yourself in this area, you will see how strategic everything is. Placing a wall behind you is not a misstep; it's a way of protecting yourself from behind when you want to advance your position even higher. Your placement of Floor + Roof above you wasn't a mistake. You did that to block enemy edits from above. 

General 1v1 Fortnite building tips

In a game like Fortnite Battle Royale, the building is absolutely everything. PvP in Fortnite is not about shooting, it's about creating structures to use them as your cover then, and as a tool for making crazy outplays. Here are the building tips that will help you improve the essential aspect of PvP in Fortnite.

Work on Your Mindset

Theoretically, for the best Fortnite players, the map doesn't exist. What exists are the buildings that players create, as good players will create a good environment in which they feel comfortable and safe, giving them a massive advantage over their opponents. And the playing field created by a player can serve as a defense, a vantage point, or a vision-obscuring blockade.

Whatever you do, do not allow yourself to treat Building as a secondary tactic. The building should be your absolute priority. And you should develop this skill as soon as possible. Of course, you can win without building, but it will mostly depend on enemies to make mistakes, and you have an insane amount of luck. 

To reach greatness, and to make yourself complete as a Fortnite player - you will have to learn it. Don't skip it. Just take that extra step, and work on your gameplan priority. Make sure you are safe, make sure you are in an advantageous position against your enemy, and then you are allowed to take your shots. If you look at it like that, you will force yourself to learn to build in no time. Make it a challenge, and you'll do it even faster. 

The importance of Roof & Floor

The combination of these two structures might not be clear to everybody. One thing you should know is that you can't edit structures placed by the other player. What does that change? If you are above your enemy, and you want to get a jump on them through edits, your structure should be above them. It's simple. But what happens if you wish to place a Floor + Roof, but your enemy is faster, and he managed to put either one of those first? You won't be able to edit yourself in. 

Let's switch the scenario when the enemy is building above you and wants to get in. You try to counter the edit, but if you were too slow, and the enemy has his roof + floor above you. They can easily edit themselves. Suddenly you are below, they are above, and they've got an angle on you. You have to change the square you are in, quickly destroy one of the walls, or block yourself with a wall or set of stairs. Imagine what happens when you are in a metal container. It's stressful, isn't it? And you are completely trapped. It's best to avoid situations like these, and that's what Floor + Roof combo is used for.

FloorCone yourself and your enemy any chance you get so that you can control the playing field. Nothing is more powerful than fighting in a familiar environment that plays to your strengths. Practice this combo until it becomes natural to you. It will make a huge difference.

Countering Ramping from Above

This one could be the easiest outplay technique in the game. It will work wonders against weaker players, but since it's a beginner's technique, it can be quite unexpected even at a high level, utterly confusing your opponent.

This technique is pretty obvious. Your enemy is below you, and he is creating straight ramps, trying to gain a height advantage. You should focus on patching them, simply ramp in the same direction, directly above them. If they are not countering that, you can simply edit your ramp, or not place it at all, drop behind them, and get some good shots.

Keep in mind that this will cause you to lose your high ground, so only do that when you are sure that you can kill your enemy in one or two shots.

Learn to Build Fight

Classic building dogfighting. You are going to fight for the high ground, setting up traps, forcing enemies to go for specific, predictable structures A LOT.

There are numerous techniques that you can already use. The 90s, 180s, cone jumps, side jumps. You will learn about their uses in another section of this guide. Basically, in a true 1v1, your buildings will look like Chinatown New York in a dystopian setting. And they should. It means that the structures you create during a fight are not basic, and you can easily manage to switch and adapt, trying out a different thing that might work against your enemy. 

You should always create scenarios where your enemy has to guess what you are going to do. If they have to think if they went left or right, 90, 180, or you side-jumped on a ramp to get behind them, you are already doing a good job, advancing your strategy, and building up towards generating more and more advantages. 

To learn it quickly, first start with the basics by yourself. Check out basic building combos. Learn how to make a quick 1x1 structure that will get you high and protect you from all sides. Work on approaching players with building ramps that also protect you from the sides when you are running. 

If you've got the fundamentals, hop on with one of your friends into the playground, place two ramps touching each other at the bottom, place a wall between you, and start building on opposing sides. That's how you can start a duel, where you will build, trying to outplay and kill each other. The reason why you should do this is simple. Another person will also have a chance to learn, you will develop together, and you will slowly learn to build under pressure. If you manage to stay calm, so you don't crack under pressure, you will be able to always think and strategize with your mind completely unbothered by your situation. Even if you are in danger, and your enemy has a clear advantage, you shall find a way out to come out on top without having a heart attack with each stressful move you make.

Don't go for kills. You are not here to prove to your friend that you can kill them. You are here to prove to yourself that you can put yourself into an advantageous situation by building alone. If you are high, maintain that position. If you are below your enemy, work on protecting yourself and getting yourself higher than your enemy, but protection and countering engagement from above is your priority.

Awareness will be a large part of your building process. You will have to track your enemy, so you don't get jumped, and to know what you are building against. It's very easy to get so focused on building that you forget that you are building against someone. And if their playstyle counters yours, you have to be aware all the time, so you can make it impossible for them to advance their strategy, using windows of confusion to take some quick shots here and there. 

So sometimes, stop your building if you can't see the enemy, even for a second, spot them, notice what they are doing, and react accordingly. You can also set up your own pace. Don't forget about your enemy. It's your strategy versus his. If you lose them out of your sight, maybe that was their plan all along, and before you see it coming - it might be already too late.  

It's like a fighting game, you don't have to see your enemy, you have to know where they are, so when the opportunity arises, you will know at which point they will be in their most vulnerable state. Look for windows of opportunity in their mistakes, and punish them heavily.

You can also use the power of psychology. It's common for fighting games, especially when it comes to conditioning your enemy. Fortnite duels can last, and last, and last even longer if both players are good builders. If your enemy is reacting to your strategy, trying to counter you, you can try something known as conditioning. How it works is that you focus on using a particular tactic over and over again. Your enemy will slowly learn to counter it, so much, that they will expect it in certain scenarios. It is where your real move comes in. Your enemy's muscle memory and expectations will lead them towards countering your first move. But you are instead using your second move, that counters their attempts of countering the move that you've conditioned on them. That's what we call "A BIG BRAIN PLAY." That's some advanced psychology stuff, and it's worth using in your battle.

Get materials suitable for each part of the game

Materials will be the leading resource that you will have to pick up in a game if you want to have a higher chance of winning. Without materials - you are not able to build. So you either gather materials by yourself using a pickaxe, or you kill enemies.

There are three types of materials - Wood, Bricks, and Metal. Each one has different properties, durability, and placement time. Wood has the lowest amount of overall durability, but it builds fast, and it is the most common. Metal is very durable at full build, but it has a prolonged building time. Bricks are somewhere in the middle. 

However, when a structure is in the process of building, it has a lower HP pool that can be lowered by enemy shots, and if it gets destroyed - it disappears. Ironically, when somebody is shooting straight at you - it's better to cover yourself with a set of wooden floors, walls, and metal stairs covered by wood. Woods builds faster; that's why it will take some shots to take it down when it's building up. Metal builds slower, so 2 to 3 shots at the beginning of the animation will destroy your metal investment. It is why Wood should be your primary resource, so when you have to panic-block shots, you can just press two buttons and cover yourself up without additional button mashes, searching for wood in your inventory. 

You should use wood during build fights. But as the games grow longer, if you want to set up your fort, you will want to use some harder materials. 

So don't waste everything for weapon upgrades. A good Fortnite player will do some great things through build fights alone, and a green weapon in their hand. 

Don't go Tunnel Vision

Do not focus that hard on a single thing. You can keep rocking those 90s, but if you lose track of your enemy, it might already be too late. It's easy to get caught up in a moment, focusing too hard on one thing that completely takes your mind away from other aspects of gameplay. 

Learn to Play from Below

Reaching high ground in this game means a lot. The building exists to reach a protected high ground and decimate opponents from above. However, you will encounter 

Building Tactics

Let's get serious about building now. You know that you should learn it, and you are motivated to do so. But where to start? Should you work on figures, speed, or situational awareness? Well, you will want to work on all of them in that exact order.

Learn Figures > Speed Them Up > Learn to Improvise

Building Basics

First thing - enable Turbo Building, it's vital. You can find this option in your key setting, and it allows you to build structures by holding a button instead of clicking it. Simply hold down LMB with a blueprint in your hand and take a spin. You will be surrounded by four walls in no time. Having that covered - let's learn some essential builds.

1x1 - The most basic structure that will be built mostly by beginner players throughout the entirety of the match. Simply because it's the easiest one to build. You will also use it in the last circles to have a small vantage point that abuses the 3rd person perspective, keeping you protected on the lookout. 1x1 is comprised of four walls, with a ramp in the middle, and an optional floor between ramps. Choose a Wall, hold LMB, take a spin, switch to a Ramp, place it below you, jump, and you've got yourself a nice 1x1, protected from all sides. You can go higher, but we do not advise going up higher than three stories, as falling from 4 stories or more will result in you taking damage.

Reinforced Ramping - ramping is simple. You build ramps to get higher. You can even do it in a straight line. However, your opponent might destroy your whole ramp by destroying the base of your structure that connects the building with the ground. Your entire ramp goes down just like that, and you are going to take fall damage if you were too high.

It is why you should prevent that from happening. Maybe "prevent" is not the right word, as your enemy can still destroy your structure, but it might discourage them, as it will take a long time to take down your building. You can do a reinforced ramp. You can do that by cycling through a ramp, a floor, and a wall. Place a ramp, a floor at the top of it, a wall at the end of the floor, and another ramp. Repeat until you can knock on heaven's door. If you are an absolute madman, you can try and create even more layers, with an additional ramp + wall + floor combo underneath your first ramp. Double the resources spent for some extra protection. But it's tough to do. In the beginning, stick to the simply reinforced ramp, and work on your speed and consistency. As always - learn and practice until you are not able to make any mistakes. 

Turtle - Turtling yourself is a mixed bag. On the one hand, you will protect yourself from all six sides. On the other hand, experienced players will punish you for turtling if you don't know how to counter their reaction to your counter.

The process is simple. You do the same as with 1x1. However, you don't put a ramp in the middle (you might do that if you want), and you finish with a Floor + Roof above you. This structure provides a massive amount of defensive power. And the best thing is that you can place multiple turtles on your battlefield to make it your playground. After that - editing will be your best friend so you can move in between your turtles. So you will have to learn how to edit and manage those appropriately. One mistake can lead to your enemy destroying your wall, placing his structure in its place. And from this point on - your opponent controls the pace of the fight, as the edit belongs to them. 

However - you will have to be careful. An impenetrable defense can turn into your death-trap if your enemy knows what they are doing. 

You will see a lot of these in pro-fights, not only for straightforward defense but also for preventing enemy edits or quick destructions. Pro-play structures will be littered entirely with those, and for a good set of reasons, as can be seen above.

90s - running in the 90s is up-to-date in Fortnite. Doing the 90s is the fastest way to reach a height advantage. You can do that in a quick 1x1 or 1x2 if you are a little bit slower, or you want to extend your playground a little bit. You start with a ramp, you place a wall in front of you at the top of the ramp, follow up with one wall to the side, combined with a floor and a ramp underneath you. You do this over and over again, either placing another wall in front of you after that floor + ramp combo or extending by one additional ramp. 

180s - running in the 90s, but twice. You will only use that if you want to make that 180 turns without losing much momentum. It's not worth it to use it for gaining height advantage, as doing 90s is considerably faster, but if you want to go in a specific direction for any reason - this is your way to go. 

Advanced Building Mechanics

A place for big boys. And big girls as well, let's be inclusive. You've learned about some essential building, you can do them fast, without any mistakes, it's hopefully in your muscle memory. And hopefully, you practiced them with your friends in building duels. If you didn't, you would certainly have to, because if you are easily pressured into making mistakes in basic building, this section is not yet for you. Once you perfect your fundamentals, you can move to this section, and learn from it. 

Because right here, things get a little bit more complicated. The differences between techniques from this section and the basic ones will be quite severe. When players start with building, and they are on a similar level of building skill, structures rarely intertwine with each other. Now we're getting to utilizing cones, cone+floor combo, cone jumps, and risky side cone jumps. There are also edits, edit blocks, invading your opponent's space, and defending yours. 

Edits - Players can edit the structures that they've placed, changing the shape of their buildings, creating new pathways, doors, windows, and additional windows of opportunity. Edits are a powerful tool. Whoever controls the edit in a dire situation, controls the pace and entire fight itself. 

It is especially true for scenarios where an enemy traps one of the players in a turtle. If you are trapped, and your enemy is outside of the box with the power of edits from most sides - you are forced to react to their actions unless you are quick enough to back off and turtle yourself quickly. If you back off - you will most likely lose the high ground. If you turtle yourself up with a ramp, you will end up in a literal corner with close to no vision of what's happening around you, making it easy for the enemy to circle you and edit from the other side.

A lot of techniques found in this part of the guide will involve some editing, so you better get used to switching to your edits.

BONUS TIP

Edit with your blueprint in hand, as it dramatically increases the edit range. 

Cone Mechanics - Cone is a very different building part from other parts. For one reason alone. It has a crazy reach. You won't reach that far with any other part in your kit. In theory, you can roof off your enemy that is one and a half story above you, preventing them from going further, forcing them to either reposition or do an unprotected and unsafe cone jump. 

Cone > Floor Jump - a fundamental maneuver that will allow you to transition to a higher story in your building. Place a Roof at the end of your ramp, so that it's above you. Jump to the side, and place a floor at the side of the roof, so you land on it at the roof level. From this point on, continue to build up higher with basic or other techniques.

Keep in mind that this technique leaves you unprotected when you jump to the side. It's for a very short time, but it gives your opponent a small chance to chip you for some good damage. 

You can negate that window of opportunity by protecting yourself with a wall during this jump. This one will require some coordination, as you not only have to time your floor right to not fall to your death, you also have to put a wall that will obscure your movement and block any incoming shots. You have to know where the enemy is to do it properly, but it decreases the window, leaving you open only for a split-second. Place a floor, turn to the desired side and place a quick wall, then continue onwards with your building.

Cone Wrap-Around (Cnnr strat) - this one is tough to pull off. It will take hours to do it properly by yourself, and double that when pressure by your enemy. This move requires a risky side-jump, some editing, and some hardcore coordination, paired up with the right timing.

The hassle you will have to go through learning this strat is worth it as you will be able to use it in a multitude of scenarios. It will be mainly used to block or trap your enemy with an opening for you to do some edits, so you can control the fight and take some chip, or finishing shots.

You start with the 90s at the beginning of the fight. A couple of them to be exact, so you end up facing your opponent's side. Put an additional ramp after your 90, build a roof at the top of it, edit out two outer tiles, so it changes into a backward ramp. Place a roof at the top of it from the opposing side. Jump to your right, wrap-around, placing three additional roofs, so it creates a 2x2 square, catches yourself with a ramp on a roof diagonal to your starting position. Place a wall behind it, and one wall to your left. 

If you've done this correctly, your opponent will be trapped under your roof, with your backward ramp and roof blocking them from moving if they want to do a 90 or 180. They will be blocked if they don't know how to counter this move, or they were too fast for you. Basically, when they see your backward ramp, they will do a quick 90, so you don't ramp over them. However, at this point, you will be already wrapping around the backward ramp with four roofs that will lock them up in place. All you have to do after this is just to edit the wall and take shots when they are confused.

This move is very consistent, but you won't be able to box your opponent every time. So you have to be quick with your reaction, so you don't lose the momentum if they somehow avoid getting trapped. Simply after you catch yourself with a roof, continue running up, edit the roof above you, and continue with some 90s.

Advanced Roofing Mechanics - roofs will be your main structure used to trap your opponents when they are ramping. The best thing about roofs is that they have a very long reach. So, in theory, if your enemy is ramping over you, and one ramp is already above you, you can easily cut them off with one ramp. This structure forces your opponent to back away and build from their previous ramp losing momentum, or they have to jump to the side, which again loses them momentum. Jumping to the side opens your enemy up for some chip damage for a split second, and if you are skilled enough, you can get some damage in effortlessly. 

You will use roofs all the time, both offensively and defensively. Most of the time, when build-fighting, you will look for any opportunity to control the playground by putting your walls and editing them in a way that will allow you to reposition or get an angle on the enemy with some chip shots.

There are also Edit Fights. Imagine a 1x1 without the upper floor. You are inside the box, while your opponent is on the outside roof. You are at a clear disadvantage, as you are below, and you are completely exposed to your enemy. What's even worse is that only they can engage, dictating the pace of the fight. So logically, you should protect yourself with a roof and a floor above you. However, your enemy will have the same idea. If your opponent manages to put both floor and a roof, they will be able to edit themselves away in, leaving you completely hopeless, unless you are quick enough to destroy one of the walls and somehow escape. But sometimes you will be unable to do anything.

Trapping your enemy

Setting up traps for your enemy is important, and it will be a very complicated thing, especially in the beginning. And we're not talking about any spike traps. We are talking about walls, floors, ramps, and roofs that you can use to lock your enemy down in one spot. When you are just starting, everything will be messy, and if you manage to trap someone in, it will happen out of pure randomness.

Trapping someone in a box like a pro is… hard.  And to do it consistently, you'll have to learn how to set up traps properly, baiting your enemy to build specific structures so you can prepare your own building, with a trap at the end of it. Add a professional player on the other side and you can easily trap yourself. Not only that, you can trap enemies by being reactive, setting up roofs with quick flicks if your enemy likes to ramp in a straight line. If they don't fall for it, you can always try a Roof Wrap-around mentioned above to make it across to their side and trap them. There are many other tricks, and you should practice them in a special mode map, designed purely for build fights, where you will learn exactly how to build through experience, without worrying about the material (as your inventory will always be full, which includes weapons and each meterial-piece). Though rremember, that this can cause you to tunnel-vision towards build fights in standard mode, so a quick note - know that you won't always have to build fight or trap to win. If you tunnelvision - you will still be a low-tier player.

Let me give you an example. Back in January last year I've been practicing build fighting and trapping. And then I really struggled to apply in the game, as other guys were not so keen on playing my game, and instead, they just kept their distance, trying to defeat me through shooting skill. So keep that in mind, you can construct a lot of good traps that you can learn in our guides, and your enemy can just run away if you don't notice that they don't really want to play on your chessboard. Especially when they are playing in a group that can aid them. 

And if you've got a lot of problems with that, you can always check our website, even on your mobile. With a click or two, you can find some deals, and if you find a good gamer, you will find a master-tier coach who will teach you in the ways of gaming. Pristine edition gaming. It's a free market, so we can't recommend anything to keep everything fair. So throw some money at them, or not. You might want to also consider, that not all coaches will be able to coach you properly if they play on pc, and you are an Xbox or ps4 Fortnite player.

Summary

That's all for our latest Fortnite build guide pc master-gamer. Everything else that you won't find in this guide, give or take - you will learn by pure experience. With Chapter 2, new techniques are developed, and you will learn new things. But as you already know - it won't mean much if you can't shoot accurately as well. That's the only thing that we won't be able to teach you. Use techniques learned here, bring them into the Fortnite playground and combine it with your constantly improving aim. Links on our site will lead you to more guides and great offers on our auction house. And lastly of course - practice. Practice a lot, and you will reach greatness. Maybe. But it's always worth trying! Please remember to share our guide if it was useful to you unless you want to make a list of your friends that you want to completely wreck using our free guide, then it's fair.