"Fortnite is a 100 player battle royale made by Epic Games in 2017. Since then it’s maintained tens of millions of players and is one of the highest grossing games of all time. Diving into it may seem daunting, but have no fear, this article has you covered. This article will go through the basics of playing, dominating, and mastering Fortnite: Battle Royale. " - Santiago jaeger-Tovar, 9th grade
Introduction: Fortnite is a 100 player battle royale made by Epic Games in 2017. Since then it’s maintained tens of millions of players and is one of the highest grossing games of all time. Diving into it may seem daunting, but have no fear, this article has you covered. This article will go through the basics of playing, dominating, and mastering Fortnite: Battle Royale.
Important terms:
Basic Gameplay: Shooting is the most important aspect of Fortnite. When you find a suitable weapon, you take aim and open fire at your selected target. Building is used for various battle tactics. These tactics include making ramps to gain height and/or leverage against enemies, walls to block incoming bullets/projectiles, and “90s” - a complex building technique that is essentially a tower that players use to gain height against enemies. The storm is one of the most vital parts of each match. In the beginning of the game, the entire island is accessible, but as the game progresses the storm will cover a fraction of it. The storm will continue covering more and more of it throughout 12 phases and as the phases increase, so does the damage that the storm deals.
Pre-Game: The first thing you’ll see when logging into Fortnite is the lobby. Here, you’ll choose the gamemode. There’s Solos if you’re playing alone, Duos if you're playing with a friend, and Squads if you’re playing with 2-3 friends. After choosing the gamemode, you’ll have to ready up. After this, you’ll load into the game, where you’ll be met with the pre-game island. Here is where you can practice shooting and building or socialize with other players. After about a minute, you and all the other players will be loaded into the Battle Bus, a flying bus that floats across the map.
Landing: The battle bus will float across the map in a straight line. You can open your map to find a POI that you want to land at. Since this is your first game, it’s wise to land at an unpopular and unpopulated area, which are usually on the outskirts of the island. Once you’ve picked the POI you want to land at, you jump out of the bus and begin skydiving over to it. If your chosen location is far away from where you jumped, you should deploy your glider so you can cover more ground and make it to that location. Once you’ve made it there, land at a building that looks like it could have a lot of chests.
Looting: Depending on the location you chose, you may have a contested drop, meaning enemy players have landed at the same location as you. If this happens, you should focus on finding a weapon before them so you can have an advantage and eliminate them. Weapons are contained in golden chests, which are usually scattered across the map and in buildings. When opening them, you can find up to 2 weapons, 2-3 consumables, ammo, and building materials, commonly referred to as “mats”. After opening a desired amount of chests, you can leave this area and move to the zone. The zone is the area that the storm hasn’t consumed. As the game progresses, the zone will get smaller and smaller.
Mid Game: During this phase of the game, you must keep moving to the zone or the storm will consume and eliminate you. While moving, you’ll most likely encounter enemy players. In the likely event you do, use any means necessary to eliminate them, such as building, using explosives, or shooting. After eliminating a player, they will drop the items they collected. You can search through their loot and collect any valuable items or replace your loot with higher rarity items of theirs. As the game progresses, the storm will consume more and more of the map and many players will be eliminated by each other, the storm, or other natural causes.
End Game: End game is the final phase of the game, and is when there are less than 15 remaining players and the zone has gotten quite small. By this time you and the rest of the players will have collected good loot and many building materials. Since this is your first game, you should try to lay low and “hug” the edge of the zone so the rest of the players can eliminate each other until there’s only one remaining enemy. When this happens, you can emerge and begin battling your opponent. Considering they made it this far, they’ll most likely be somewhat skilled, so proceed with caution. If you’re able to kill this final enemy, you’ll win the game and get a Victory Royale!
Post game: After winning the game, you’ll get the option to either return to the lobby, or ready up for a new game.
Conclusion: In conclusion, Fortnite is a wildly popular game and you’ll most likely find yourself playing it eventually. Hopefully this article has been of help and use to you, and hopefully it helped you get your first Victory Royale!
Important terms:
- Battle royale: A battle royale is a fight amongst multiple people or teams to the death. There can only be one team or person as the victor.
- POI: A POI is a Point Of Interest, its an area (city, fort, castle, etc.) that can contain chests, weapons, and health items.
- Building: Building is a game mechanic where you can create walls, ramps, and cones. There are three materials to make these builds: wood, brick, and metal.
- Weapons: Guns, explosives, melee items, etc.
- Storm: The storm is an area that slowly constricts the island as the game progresses. Additionally, it will deal more damage as the game progresses
- Victory Royale: A Victory Royale is what fortnite calls a victory.
- Lobby: The lobby is the hub in which you can choose a gamemode, such as Solos, Duos, and Squads. Here is where you can choose and customize cosmetic items, and check the item shop.
- Island: The island is the map where the battle royale will commence. It contains all the POIs.
Basic Gameplay: Shooting is the most important aspect of Fortnite. When you find a suitable weapon, you take aim and open fire at your selected target. Building is used for various battle tactics. These tactics include making ramps to gain height and/or leverage against enemies, walls to block incoming bullets/projectiles, and “90s” - a complex building technique that is essentially a tower that players use to gain height against enemies. The storm is one of the most vital parts of each match. In the beginning of the game, the entire island is accessible, but as the game progresses the storm will cover a fraction of it. The storm will continue covering more and more of it throughout 12 phases and as the phases increase, so does the damage that the storm deals.
Pre-Game: The first thing you’ll see when logging into Fortnite is the lobby. Here, you’ll choose the gamemode. There’s Solos if you’re playing alone, Duos if you're playing with a friend, and Squads if you’re playing with 2-3 friends. After choosing the gamemode, you’ll have to ready up. After this, you’ll load into the game, where you’ll be met with the pre-game island. Here is where you can practice shooting and building or socialize with other players. After about a minute, you and all the other players will be loaded into the Battle Bus, a flying bus that floats across the map.
Landing: The battle bus will float across the map in a straight line. You can open your map to find a POI that you want to land at. Since this is your first game, it’s wise to land at an unpopular and unpopulated area, which are usually on the outskirts of the island. Once you’ve picked the POI you want to land at, you jump out of the bus and begin skydiving over to it. If your chosen location is far away from where you jumped, you should deploy your glider so you can cover more ground and make it to that location. Once you’ve made it there, land at a building that looks like it could have a lot of chests.
Looting: Depending on the location you chose, you may have a contested drop, meaning enemy players have landed at the same location as you. If this happens, you should focus on finding a weapon before them so you can have an advantage and eliminate them. Weapons are contained in golden chests, which are usually scattered across the map and in buildings. When opening them, you can find up to 2 weapons, 2-3 consumables, ammo, and building materials, commonly referred to as “mats”. After opening a desired amount of chests, you can leave this area and move to the zone. The zone is the area that the storm hasn’t consumed. As the game progresses, the zone will get smaller and smaller.
Mid Game: During this phase of the game, you must keep moving to the zone or the storm will consume and eliminate you. While moving, you’ll most likely encounter enemy players. In the likely event you do, use any means necessary to eliminate them, such as building, using explosives, or shooting. After eliminating a player, they will drop the items they collected. You can search through their loot and collect any valuable items or replace your loot with higher rarity items of theirs. As the game progresses, the storm will consume more and more of the map and many players will be eliminated by each other, the storm, or other natural causes.
End Game: End game is the final phase of the game, and is when there are less than 15 remaining players and the zone has gotten quite small. By this time you and the rest of the players will have collected good loot and many building materials. Since this is your first game, you should try to lay low and “hug” the edge of the zone so the rest of the players can eliminate each other until there’s only one remaining enemy. When this happens, you can emerge and begin battling your opponent. Considering they made it this far, they’ll most likely be somewhat skilled, so proceed with caution. If you’re able to kill this final enemy, you’ll win the game and get a Victory Royale!
Post game: After winning the game, you’ll get the option to either return to the lobby, or ready up for a new game.
Conclusion: In conclusion, Fortnite is a wildly popular game and you’ll most likely find yourself playing it eventually. Hopefully this article has been of help and use to you, and hopefully it helped you get your first Victory Royale!
