This guide will run through Fortnite’s most fundamental elements!
The goal of the game is to survive, be the last player alive, and win a Victory Royale!
To do this you will have to Scavenge, Fight, and Build your way to the top.
Though if this all sounds overwhelming, let’s break everything down.
The HUD: What's Onscreen
These symbols, numbers and values all have something to tell you about the game.
The Map, The Storm And Where To Land
The Chapter 2 Season 5 Map looks like this:
Source: Epic
During the match, the top right corner of your minimap should tell you which button to press to be able to see the full thing!
When you load into a match you’ll spawn in a Battle Bus and be asked to jump out.
Fortnite doesn’t really have better/worse locations so to speak so it’s hard to say where you should go, but if you want to avoid a fight landing somewhere unnamed and away from the Battle Pass’s flight path should be a good bet! Do the opposite of this if you want some action early on.
Though wherever you land, you will almost certainly have to keep on the move to stay inside the Storm.
Every so often a White Circle will appear on the map and signal where the next Zone will be.
If you are inside that circle, stay in it, you’ll all safe! If you are not, get inside it quick! A white line should appear on your map and minimap showing you the quickest route into the safe area.
After some time, the Storm will begin moving, shrinking the size of playable space on the island.
If you enter the Storm you’ll begin to take damage, starting at 1 Health/Tick at the start of the match and getting up to 10 Helath/Tick at the end.
If you end up inside the Storm, a blue line will appear on your map telling you the quickest route to outside it!
Sometimes the White and Blue Lines line up, sometimes they won’t, depending on if a new Safe Zone has been set up or not.
Weapons and Items
Weapons and Items are the best way to give yourself an edge in Fortnite, so here’s what some of them are and what they do!
Weapons
In Chapter 2 Season 5 the Weapons are:
Medium-Range:
- Assault Rifles
- Heavy Assault Rifle
- Pistol
Short-Medium Range:
- Submachine Gun
- Suppressed Submachine Gun
- Tactical Assault Rifle
Short Range:
- Tactical Shotgun
- Charge Shotgun
- Dragon’s Breath Shotgun
Long Range:
- Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle
- Lever Action Rifle
- Rocket Launcher
These different ranges tell you roughly how far you want to be from an opponent for the weapons to be most effective. Though they are only guides, if you find a way to use a weapon that works for you, then do that!
Healing Items
You can also find useful items, the most important of which are :
- Bandages
- Medkits
- Small Shield Potions
- Shield Potions
These items will help you keep your Health and Shields Bars up.
Bandages will heal you 15 Health up to 75 Health. Medkits will heal your Health back up to full. Small Shield Potions will give you 25 Shields up to 50. Shield Potions will give you 50 Shields.
This seems confusing but means that if you want 100 Shields and 100 Health you can’t just rely on Small Shield Potions and Bandages!
Where to Find Weapons and Items
You can find these Items, Weapons, and others in Chests or just on the ground!
Chests glow and make a sound to let you know they're nearby!
You will also need ammo for your Weapons which you can find lying on the ground, loaded into dropped weapons, and in Ammo crates which come in two Varieties.
A Regular Ammo Crate
Building
Building is one of Fortnite’s Core Mechanics so it’s important you know what you are doing.
The Pros know how to build and fight at the same time, but that takes a lot of practice, to start off with we’ll just give you a few simple structures that will help you out in matches!
1. A Hut
This simple box hut can give you a bit of cover to be able to heal up after a tough fight. Place four walls, a roof and a ceiling to make it and you should have some protection while you catch your breath.
For extra protection, couch underneath a pyramid placed under the floor to give yourself a little bit of extra protection if an enemy comes along!
2. A Vantage Point
This can be built at any height, but the premise is a two-wide ramp surrounded by walls. The walls give you protection from all angles, while the two ramps let you easily peak over.
Having it double wide also makes it harder for enemy players to guess where your head will pop out!
3. '90s'
These are almost a meme at this point, but ‘90s’ as they are called are low resource-heavy ways of building a tower to gain a vantage point.
A 90 involves two Vertical Walls meeting at a right angle (at 90 degrees hence the name), and a ramp.
By quickly Placing and Jumping at the right times, players can build towers rapidly by alternating the direction of the ramp at each layer.
Game Modes
Finally, we have different Fortnite Modes!
It isn’t all just the same Battle Royale over and over! At least for some modes.
Solo, Duos, Trios, and Squads are just Battle Royales, where roughly 100 players drop onto the Island and fight to be the last alive. In Duos, Trios, and Squads you will have to work in a team of Two, Three, or Four players respectively.
Additionally, you also have Team Rumble. This 20v20 game mode lets you keep your inventory when you get eliminated and gives you infinite respawns. The first team to reach the required number of total eliminations, or has the most when time runs out, wins!
You may also find Limited Time Modes or LTMs. These game types can get all weird and have their own objectives, though the game will explain how they work when you load in!
We hope this Begginer's guide help you out, be sure to read our other Fortnite stories to keep up to date with all the latest!