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# Fortnite tips and tricks: a battle royale guide to help you win

These Fortnite tips and tricks for the popular battle royale and Zero Build modes will help if you’re chasing your first Victory Royale this season

Fortnite tips

PCGamesN

Published:Oct 12, 2022

In its ever-changing gameplay, the same Fortnite tips and tricks that worked in previous seasons may not work as well right now. Whether you are playing on PC, console, or still have Fortnite on your mobile device, pay close attention to our revised tips for the battle royale game.

These are what you need to stand a chance of getting that victory royale, as they’ll make all the difference in your quest for survival. Be sure to keep up to date with the latest list of Fortnite weapons and the latest Fortnite map for items you should be on the lookout for too.

Fortnite tips: lots of loopers are running towards a crate that dropped into a field via a balloon.

## Our top Fortnite tips for the battle royale mode

### Limit the sound you make

One of the most important Fortnite tips is to keep the decibel level to an absolute minimum. Enemies will have a significant advantage if they detect you with some half-decent headphones.

This means you should sprint as little as possible. Running is much louder than walking or crouching and emits noticeable puffs of smoke in your wake. Ensure your surroundings are secure too when building or scavenging resources with your pickaxe or switching weapons to set up an ambush.

### Use headphones

To turn the tables on your enemies, you can invest in a decent pair of cans yourself. Since knowing where other players are is the key to winning, wearing headphones can make all the difference, even if you are lacking in loot. Keep your own noise to a minimum, and you should remain relatively well-hidden.

You can also turn on the Quick Bar in the Game Interface section in the settings menu and watch out for gunshots. They appear as red flashes in the compass at the top of the screen.

### Be paranoid

You should be on high alert at all times because despite the cartoon nature, this is not a game for the faint-hearted if you want to win. You should always assume there’s another player just around the corner, waiting to invite you to a sophisticated dinner date with their shotgun. If you hear a faint noise, wait. Then wait again. As soon as you get complacent, you will be shot dead and bumped back to the lobby screen, all anguish and frustration.

Battle royale games are as much a state of mind as they are tests of shooting skill – and Fortnite is no different. If you find a good piece of cover to overlook the circle’s perimeter, assume someone else has had this thought, too. If you have just breathlessly made it into the safe zone, know that plenty of other players are desperately scrabbling their way in there.

The island is fairly large, so it may take a while for other players to find you if you start having a shoot-out with someone. However, opportunistic players will eventually find and attempt to snipe you, so it’s best to build walls or find cover to protect your flanks.

### Try to stay inside the circle

One of the most important Fortnite tips is always to be aware of the circle, forever shrinking in size, ready to swallow you. Every strategic decision should be made with your proximity relative to the eye of the storm in mind. Already in the circle once the timer starts ticking down? Great – pay attention to how it is shrinking. Will you be outside it shortly?

If you are down on your luck and the safe zone is a trek away, getting there is your priority. If you spot another player and cannot defeat them swiftly, sneak past them. For heaven’s sake, don’t get into a lengthy scrap: you might win some pride, but that is worth nothing when you are dead.

If you do find yourself outside of the circle, it’s not all doom and gloom. Your health will slowly drain, but if you pick up healing items – the healing spray is the most efficient – you can use them to recover from the storm’s effects. Don’t stay inside too long, though, as you will get a debuff if you purposefully hide within this highly dangerous area.

### Replenish health and shields immediately (most of the time)

If you get a little pot of blue goodness make sure you snaffle it up immediately because it will make a big difference to your rate of survival. Shields last for the duration of the match, but they won’t protect you from certain damage types, like falling or being outside of the circle.

You can acquire shields with several different items. Regular shield potions give 50 extra shield points, up to a maximum of 100. Small shield potions give 25, up to a maximum of 50. Busting open slurp barrels will replenish health by 10, that is unless it’s at 100, in which case it adds 10 shields instead. Various fish can heal shields and health, too, so use a fishing rod to catch them in a pinch.

But when’s the best time to replenish your health or shields? If you land in an area with other players, it is usually best to glug those shield potions straight away. However, if you are alone, try quaffing the small shield potions before downing your regular shield potions. That way, you can maximise your stats. If you are playing the Zero Build modes, you also get a rechargeable 50 shield points on top, giving you a bit of extra safety when recovering your health and shields.

### Only engage when you’re certain of success

Unlike the vast majority of multiplayer shooters, the goal of Fortnite is to survive, not to get kills. This is arguably one of the most important Fortnite tips: in theory, you could get 98 kills and still lose.

Instead, you need to survive to the very end, which means you must assess carefully whether any engagement is necessary at all times. A bad miss of a sniper shot, for example, will alert the target and nearby players to your location, potentially bringing a swift and premature end to your game.

That said, high-risk strategies can bear fruit later on in a match. Successfully downing your target will net you the opportunity to steal their loot, which might bolster your arsenal enough to make the difference in the final stages.

### Don’t loot bodies straight away

Make sure nobody else is around when pillaging a downed opponent’s stash. Firefights attract lots of attention; you can’t guarantee that your murderous mano-a-mano has not piqued the attention of nearby players. You’re most vulnerable when looting, presenting your opponent with an easy, mostly static target to fire a sniper round into your skull. Instead, why not resist the urge to immediately loot and set up an ambush, ready for others to take the juicy bait?

If you are playing the regular battle royale mode, you can build around yourself while you swap out gear. This is even more important while healing or using shield potions: you never know who was watching your fight through a scope and just waiting to land an easy headshot. Remember that it’s easier to spot a fortification than a person, so you may attract unwanted attention when you decide to move on.

### Cover is destructible, so always have an escape route

Nearly all cover in Fortnite is destructible. Do not trust it. Whenever you start to feel comfortable and hubris starts to set in, make sure you have a contingency plan or a viable, easily-accessible escape route for when things inevitably go tits up. Knowledge of the map is key to finding a way out, so if you’re in a point of interest, chances are there’s a car you can steal with enough gas to make a quick getaway. Other landmarks tend to be labyrinthine enough to lose your adversary if you move fast enough. Failing that, you can always build a tower and use that to escape instead.

### Build during the final showdown, and know how to do it

If you are playing the regular battle royale mode, building towers of power is a common tactic whenever you get shot at. It can come in handy, especially towards the business end of a match, granting you makeshift cover and helping you access loot. That said, it is conspicuous, so try not to leave a weak point that players can easily destroy to send you tumbling sharply to the ground.

Players with the high ground will always have an advantage over those sneaking behind trees or hiding in bushes. If you have the resources to do so at the endgame, build high so you have a view of the diminishing safe zone. This, combined with a strong ranged weapon, is a deadly combination.

When the circle moves and your little base is no longer in the safe zone, leave for the next zone early to establish new ground. Get used to using ‘Q’ or Mouse Button 3 to switch to building mode quickly.

If you’re playing Zero Build instead, try to find the tallest mountain or a place covered in trees to get the most protection. Failing that, sprinting and sliding between cover to bridge the gap between you and your opponent can help you win even the toughest of encounters.

### Stockpile resources towards the end of the match

In the battle royale mode, you want to make sure you have half an eye on building your stock of resources. In Fortnite, you have three building materials: wood, stone, and metal in ascending order of durability. You can farm all of them around the map, but ensure you aim for the flashing circles when harvesting with your pickaxe to speed up the process.

New players tend to think metal is the best material to use, but this is often not the case. Metal takes longer to finish building and only spawns with 70HP, meaning players can easily shoot it down, and you with it. Wood, on the other hand, spawns with 100 HP and builds much faster (to a max of 200 HP) than brick or metal. In other words: to block bullets, or when building aggressively, you should use wood. When building a safe little hideout, use metal or brick.

Space is tight at the end of a match, so try to hold your ground rather than sprinting to wherever the safe zone is. If you have stumbled on some traps, now is the time to fortify your builds and take out other players trying to sneak up on you.

### Weapon and item rarities

Fortnite weapons come in various shapes and sizes. However, since Epic Games constantly adds new weapons and puts others in the Vault, it’s easy to get confused as to which ones are the best. That said, some weapons in Fortnite come in different rarities with Common doing the least amount of damage and Legendary/Mythic doing the most. Exotic weapons are the exception to this rule as they’re just guns that have unique properties.

Here are all the rarity colours:

- Grey: Common
- Green: Uncommon
- Blue: Rare
- Purple: Epic
- Gold: Legendary
- Yellow: Mythic
- Light Blue: Exotic

So, how do you find Fortnite weapons? They tend to be inside chests or lying around anywhere on the map, most commonly inside the named points of interest. You can also find weapons by purchasing weapons from Fortnite NPCs.

Having a mix of Fortnite weapons tends to be the best strategy. Snipers and assault rifles do more damage per shot from further away but won’t hit as well up close. Short-range shotguns or SMGs keep you covered in most situations where the enemy is closer, so switch weapons if you think someone’s close.

### Points of interest and landmarks

Learning where to go on the island is a bit of a fool’s errand if you’re not playing regularly. This is because the map constantly changes, as Epic Games removes some areas and occasionally puts back others that are returning after a long absence. So instead of telling you where the best places are to land, it’s better to look at more general considerations.

Choosing which Fortnite location you land in is a high-risk choice you need to make once you have launched yourself from the battle bus. We recommend beginners avoid the more built-up, named areas as these are the places most human players will drop. It’s a big first step if you can land and establish yourself in the game by collecting loot without being blown to bits straight away.

Also, if your Fortnite location is as central as possible, it minimises the chances of you having to rush across huge distances to the safe zone when the end of the match nears.

That said, many players start in more established areas because loot is more concentrated there. If you can escape the opening skirmishes in the popular places, you will be armed to the teeth.

There you have it, all the Fortnite tips to get you started in the battle royale game. To help you shoot in style, check to see if there are any free Fortnite V-bucks you can get so you can afford the coolest Fortnite skins available in the latest battle pass.

Don’t forget to check the Fortnite system requirements too, as good performance is a key ingredient to better guaranteeing your success on the battlefield.

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