GG 2 Ez: Fortnite

In this weeks GG 2 Ez I delve into Fortnite.

Available On: Xbox One, PS4, PC

Fortnite is a co-op sandbox survival game developed by People Can Fly and Epic Games. You and your friends can seamlessly craft your way through hordes of enemies as endless obscure creatures approach your base.

Fortnite: Battle Royale is in add on to the base game, allowing you to challenge yourself to survive alongside 99 other players. You are airdropped into a land filled with building materials, weapons, and ammo.

There are three components to each Fortnite: Battle Royale match:

• Landing Stage – The early moments of the match primarily focusing landing in a particular region of the map.
• Midgame – After safely securing an area, and all the contents in it, you begin to rotate to the ever moving circle.
• Late Game – You find yourself in the top 50, sometimes without firing a single round, and need to continue to survive in a small area as the daunting circle begins closing fast around you.

Within each stage of the game I’ll describe strategies to use in singles, duos, and groups. Each addition to your squad increases the strategy needed to succeed.

Landing stage

Overall Strategy:

Open the map to identify your landing zone, pay close attention to the amount of people dropping out of the bus and you can adapt if a large number of people are going in one direction. Many people feel the need to jump out instantaneously but this depends heavily on luck, merely hoping you reach a better weapon upon landing. Overtime you will learn to effectively maneuver with your glider, or hopefully umbrella, which is instrumental to success in tough situations.

Using your pickaxe to break through the roof of the building you’ve landed on and grab the first weapon you see. If other players are near, build a stairwell above the actual stairwell of the building, blocking intruders. 

• Listen for footsteps and doors opening

Singles:

• Avoid other players that are approaching and land in an empty house
• Try and remain as quiet as possible, crouch walk when necessary
• Finish looting your building
• Gather information about players around you, take inventory of your weaponry

• Aggressive Play style: sneak into nearby buildings and eliminate other players
• Passive Play: remain in your own building or carefully rotate to another but be prepared to leave when the circle begins to move

Duos:

• Find a large building for both of you to land on
• Secure a weapon, protect the entrance while your teammate loots (relax you can share later)
• If you actually want to win, you’ll spread your loot evenly or based on your preferences
• Depending on surrounding gunfire, make your way to nearby buildings
  • You’re a long ways from the circle: make sure to allow enough time to make it to the circle without taking damage, stop to loot along the way when you’re 100% there are items located inside
  • You’re close to the circle:
    • Option 1: You’re well supplied with weapons and ammunition: make your way to the next circle and find a good defensive position
    • Option 2: You have a grey SMG with 13 bullets: Depending on the amount of teams near your location you can search the town you’re in or find your way to nearby houses/towns

Squad:

When landing as a group focus on parts of the map that can offer a large amount of loot, this will introduce a risk reward aspect to the match but will often times pay off and you will not find yourself wasting 30 minutes just to die with only grey weapons.

Materials: When in a group there should be one person to focus on harvesting resources.

• 70% Metal
• 20% Brick
• 10% Wood

Depending on your location this may not be possible but each material is important in building a base. Hit on the circle of the wall you’re harvesting and you will harvest faster while also gaining more materials. A recent update provided a way to share resources amount your team, making resource management much easier. The other members of

Weapons: Playing in a group with people you know is most effective as you can distribute weapons to individuals that excel in use of particular weapons. Make sure to share your ammo, particularly for the weapons you don’t currently have.

Item Rarity:

• Mythic – Pink
• Legendary – Orange
• Epic – Purple
• Rare – Blue
• Uncommon – Green
• Common – Gray

Work together to eliminate other groups around your area unless you have a lackluster arsenal. Most of the time you won’t have enough time after fighting, forcing you to make your way towards the circle.

Midgame:

• Continue to farm materials as you rotate around the map but be careful not to give away your position
• Re-position in accordance to the circle, once in the circle, form into a defensive position on top of a plateau or defensive area
• Stick to the outside of the circle when rotating towards smaller circles

Follow cover as you traverse across the map

Pay attention to:

• doors being open or closed
• broken down walls and buildings
• player built structures left behind

Singles:

• Avoid fights when possible, if you kill one player then another will be on you momentarily
• If fighting is necessary make sure to loot quickly and move fast before the surrounding players find you

Squad:

• Use your numbers to your advantage, don’t have everyone looking in the same direction as you continue to move
• Having a single squad member hang back or push forward away from the pack may be helpful in preventing other players from sneaking up on you

Late Game:

• Be prepared for every team to have a rocket launcher
• Build exterior, wooden, walls near your base to help intercept rockets approaching your stronghold
• By this point in the game you should have adequate resources, ammo, and weapons to attack players both roaming and in bases
• Don’t shoot unless you want everyone knowing where your attention is

Don’t miss.

Singles:

• Understand your current arsenal and how you should approach fighting other players
• Utilize other players fighting to your advantage, wait for one to die and then finish off the other player

Duos:

• Implement bait and switch tactics when necessary
• Stick to what you and your teammate are good at, it’s better to stick with what you know

Squads:

• In tight situations have one member of the squad build while the rest of the team fights or watches for other players
  • building two separate bases near one another may allow for better protection and make it more difficult to destroy
• Retrieving air drops is much easier with a squad, allowing three players to cover while a team member retrieves the loot

Good Luck!