Fortnite Battle Royale will be immediately familiar to those who have played PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, with Epic Games’ free-to-play Battle Royale mode drawing a lot of inspiration from the absurdly popular PC game. However, while the two certainly share plenty of similarities (as we’ve noted in our comparison of the two games), they also have some key differences that still make them stand apart. This also means that even veteran PUBG players will have a few things to learn when venturing into Epic’s game.
Each of the tips outlined below are handy pieces of advice that will give beginners an immediate head start when first venturing into Fortnite Battle Royale, from easier ways to gather more resources to helping out your teammates in squad battles. Take a look:
1. Blow up your environment
Fortnite Battle Royale features destructible environments, with players able to knock down their surrounding buildings using their pick axe in order to gather resources or, if they want to make things a little more explosive, blowing them away using a grenade or rocket launcher.
Blowing up another player’s cover can be the difference maker between you surviving or being shot out of your boots, so if you see another player waiting for you behind the safety of four walls, smash those walls to pieces and force them out into the open. Additionally, if you’ve crafted a nice fort and have lulled yourself into a nice sense of security, be prepared for another player to blow the door off its hinges and steamroll you with explosives.
Also: Fortnite Battle Royale Weapons Guide: Color Classes and Best Guns to Use
2. Equip your axe when picking up dead players’ loot
If you don’t want the weapons that a dead player has dropped but need their resources and meds, equip your axe and run over to their loot. Doing so will automatically grab all of the resources and stackable items that have been left on the ground, meaning that you won’t have to worry about accidentally picking up a gun you don’t want. Automatically gathering resources and items will save you valuable time in the game, along with ensuring that you aren’t hovering around a stash of loot waiting for another player to pick you off from a distance.
3. Shield potions are the most valuable item in the game
If you see a shield potion out in the wild, you’ve just bagged yourself a major advantage over your rival players. Shield potions can bump up your health pool by an extra 100 HP, meaning that you’ll effectively be running around the map with an extra life. Even if you don’t have a particularly good weapon in your inventory, a shield will see you through many sticky situations, allowing you to withstand a ton of damage.
The shield is also helpful if you find yourself stuck in the Storm. While Storm damage penetrates your shield and directly targets your health, your shield will remain in tact when you make your way out of it, meaning that even if you’re on 1 HP your shield will still protect you from damage until you find a Med Kit or some bandages.
4. Put up walls around downed teammates
Fortnite Battle Royale is so fast-paced that you aren’t going to be using your resources to build impressive watchtowers or impenetrable forts. Instead, those resources are best spent blocking entry points to existing structures on the map, providing impromptu cover when you’re stuck in a gunfight out in the open, or to simply build yourself a nice little hut so you can wait for the bloodbath to be over.
However, one of the most advantageous uses of your resources is to provide cover to downed teammates when playing in a squad, granting you time to revive them without the threat of an enemy shooting you down while you’re trying to help them get back on their feet. Reviving teammates in Fortnite Battle Royale takes a little while, and doing so requires you to be completely stationary therefore making you a sitting duck. Placing a few walls around you while you’re healing your teammate can provide you with those extra few seconds you need to get back in the fight.
5. Listen for loot chests
Golden loot chests contain some of the best weapons and items in the game, with a twinkling sound playing when one is nearby. The louder this sound becomes, the closer you are to the chest, but not all of them are helpfully sitting on the floor waiting to be opened.
Some of the chests can be found in hard-to-reach vantage points, with them hidden on platforms inaccessible without you performing a few renovations. As such, you should use your resources to build sets of stairs or some other means of getting your hands on them (though don’t use explosives to shoot them down, as they can be damaged just like any other object in the game). These loot chests can be a huge difference maker, so when you hear that twinkling sound stop what you’re doing and hunt them down.
