Fortnite

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
I just tried Fortnite out for the first time tonight. I liked what I played, though it's clear there's a learning curve.

Who else plays?

And who might be willing to show me the ropes?
 
I would if I still had it installed but I looked for people back when and found none. Assuming you are talking about multiplayer because no one is playing the other mode. Managed to win 10 times, mostly by guile because my internet hates this game (Xonotic is the only game I don't have internet hit detection problems with).

Simple tips as follows...

*Shields, stack and horde them. I would never carry more than 2 slots worth though. A stack of 10 minis and 2 large ones is best imo as it gets you two full shields and three half ones if used in the right order. Due to time to kill the fact is even the best players in this game will very often take damage. You will need shields, or at least heals, at some point to win.

*Best weapons are (though they've added several since I've played) the gold scar and rocket launcher. The utility you get from these weapons is unmatched by anything else IMO. Rockets counter builders and make for a good opening shot in med-short range fights. Scar is good both med-long range. Having a shotgun is good too because people run at you like idiots in this game (all the more frustrating when your shots go through people).

*Get in the habit of squatting and ads'ing to reduce the random bloom at mid to long range. I think they've reduced the bloom on some weapons since I played but from videos it's still very valid.

*Sniper rifles aren't bad but since there is a significant bullet travel time you can very often hear the shot and move before it hits. This makes sniping good players more about prediction and randomly guessing than aim. Honestly if you are decent you can at least deter if not kill average snipers with the scar.

*Be the vulture not the vultured. Especially true towards the end but if you see players duking it out finish them off either after they are either weakened, in health or position, or one is dead. If one of them is stronger or has a better position you may want to avoid shooting the weaker player and "help" them kill the stronger player from a distance, then you kill the weaker player. In general if you don't have good aim and internet knowing who, when and when not to engage will get you far.

*Be sure you can speed build a fort. After finding some decent weapons make sure to have some emergency materials. I generally made sure I always had 100 wood after getting weapons. Building to gain height advantage in a fight is a thing. Just don't build your forts too high or anchored in only one spot otherwise you can just shoot that one spot to bring the whole thing down and likely give you fall damage. Also it's good sometimes to throw out random structures rather than build just a few walls they can shoot down. This way they won't know exactly where you are. Especially true if you need the time to heal.

*Check bushes visually for cheeky players who will am-bush you when you aren't looking.

*Like many FPS games sound matters. Listen for footsteps and bullets. Remember once you shoot a bullet someone, other than the guy you are shooting, may know where you are.

*If you have the time work around the out side of the ring circling towards the narrowest point of the next ring. Since the advancement of the ring slows the closer it is towards the next ring this can give you more time while you let the other players kill each other. The exception is the lake area. Plan around avoiding crossing it unless you want to be sniper bait. You can also take the opposite strategy of getting in the ring early and building up but I'd avoid this unless you have decent gear and don't need to hunt more. Sometimes you'll have to kill for good gear so don't wait to long to do so because you need decent gear end game. Typically the "good" youtubers run towards danger for "entertainment" kills early on and rely more on aim, than intelligence, to win. While you can learn from them they aren't the best example of how average players can win.

Bonus randomness: For whatever (dumb) reason the game did not show ping when I played (maybe they changed this IDK?). If they haven't it appeared the marker you can place on your map is not client but server side. At least it's the only reason I can think of for the varying delay I get when placing it. Anyway I used to use that to get an idea of if my connection was +100 or not.
 
Last edited:
I played it for several weeks both alone and in a team of two with my brother. I never could get the hang of building on the fly. The CQB jump/shoot combo is annoying but appears to be the current meta. While I enjoy the art style, something feels off. I can't quite pin down what it is. . .

I bought PUBG and haven't touched Fortnite since. Even though sometimes the hit detection seems a bit wonky in PUBG it still feels like the better game to me. Real weapons, no magical shields, and none of that accursed building your way out of trouble (or over my head).

Had our first Duo win on Tuesday. Good times.
 
Gerbil is wrong on best weapons. Blue pump shotgun is the single most important weapon in the game due to how fights tend to play out. Seriously, it needs to probably either be nerfed or changed, because it's better to have than the purple or gold shotguns.

You'll want to focus on getting a pump shotgun, followed by mid range, followed by long range. Best midrange is definitely gold scar, but there's a lot of choice for all the others since I don't usually get one until way late in the game. I prefer scoped assault rifles, my usual gaming buddy prefers the burst AR. Grey silenced SMG is literally worthless don't even bother picking it up, and other colors of it are at best situational. Tactical SMGs are actually pretty decent for close range, but again, completely outshone by shotguns. They're like the weapon you'd use if they were juuuuust a little further than you feel comfortable shooting a shotgun, but feel they could close on you too fast to use an AR.

Long range the two best choices are Hunting Rifle, and Bolt Action Sniper. A headshot with a hunting rifle can do something like 175 dmg (out of a max of 200 life if you're fully shielded/hp) it is literally insane. However, getting a headshot is super tricky on it due to it not having a scope and pretty hefty bloom if you're not aiming down the sites. Bolty is also really beefy for damage. I don't really like it and prefer the semi-auto, however I fully admit that the Bolt Action is the better gun.

Then you've got the misc stuff. Rocket launchers are good time, but honestly not too rough for skilled players to deal with. When you're fighting forts with explosives you'll want the grenade launcher. Really, you'll just want the grenade launcher period if you run across one. Another fantastic weapon to always pick up is the new LMG. It's best for mid-close range "I need to kill this fort and anything in it" kind of fighting.

Boogie bombs and grenades are decent if you're decent with them to begin with. Otherwise ignore until you are. :P Port-a-Forts are literal game changers if you're in a tight spot.

Prioritize shields over health. two minis and a half shield will take you to full. It's better to have one medkit over a bunch of bandages.

Weapons to avoid:
Gatling gun. Just don't. I don't care if it's gold and your second weapon. It's the noob trap to end all noob traps. I've managed to kill maybe, one person with it in like 300 matches. More importantly, I've never been killed with one. And I've died in pretty much every way it is possible to die in this game.
Crossbow. This weapon is for players who like to play hardmode. The falloff is just too much, making it very hard to aim.

Things to know about Fortnite:

Prioritize building over Gunplay. I'm dead serious. Learning to build up quickly instead of instantly engaging out in the open (unless you ambush someone, then shoot and if you don't immediately kill them, start building) will make you better than 75% of the rest of the playerbase. Learn to master the four wall + ramp 1x1 fort, it's the single most important skill to have in the game.
I mean, it's in the name of the game. When you play, after you get a gun or two, prioritize collecting mats. You'll want around 300 total before you can feel 'comfortable' getting into a fight in the open. Preferably you'll have 600. Make sure to use steel and stone sparingly, and preferably toward the end of the match. Use wood for anything and everything. need to get up a ledge? Down it? to a chest you see/hear? wood ramps. charging someone who is shooting you? wood ramps. bullet whiz by your head and you don't know where from? four wood walls and a ramp. Don't chop down the big trees, leave like 50-100 hp left because people can see that tree drop from a very far distance, and gain an advantage by knowing someone is there.

Tilted Towers is where you go if you want a stupidly short game and a whole lot of action all at once. there are games where upwards of 40-50 people drop there. Until you get really good, expect matches to last an average of 30sec to 2 minutes. I hate dropping there. If you want early game excitement, Retail Row and Pleasant Park tend to be where to go. A bunch of people will usually drop there, but not enough to prevent you from getting at least one weapon before getting in a fight. Moisty Mire is probably the least populated on any given drop, and if you want to play the long game (ie: get all the good weapons and avoid fighting altogether until the bitter end, which is imo incredibly boring) you'll drop there unless the bus starts practically on top of it. Avoid going out into Loot Lake if possible, the water is bugged in places, which causes random spots in the water to not let you build forts.


Final Note:
If you want to see how the consistent winners play, and what their strats and priorities are, watch Ninja and DrLupo on Twitch. Not only are they great to watch (the duos and squads where they play together are probably the best thing to ever come out of twitch), but they are insanely skilled in two radically different playstyles (Ninja is an up-in-your-face kind of player, DrLupo is king of mid-long range). And they're on very consistently and usually for a while. I usually watch their antics over my lunch break at work too, which makes my day so much better.
 
Elader is correct a shotgun is best for short range engagements but I'd still rather have a scar or m-16 for utility at least after the start and you have to leave the closed quarters of a starting area. I just don't rush players like 99% of the player base (I used to call this game "running at people with shotguns"). Didn't have the blue pump out when I played and it was before double pumps got popular, then nerfed, then slightly un-nerfed. Typically I just avoided short range engagements like the plague after getting 9 damage on a stationary player 5 feet from me.

I've watched Ninja, and he's great, but again runs at people for kills and views at least until later game when everyone forts up. If you have the skills go for it. Prefer Rhinocrunch even though he isn't as good because he is a Christian though he hasn't put up vids lately. Rhino still runs at people though.

I used to land lonely lodge a lot. If you can be the first to land on top of the tall tower on it's south end if not go for the large lodge on the other end. If people are already there, and you don't think you can get a weapon, land outside Lonely where the small electrical substation is (technically just north of it is a chest in a building so I'd land there). From there you can either go east back to lonely, west to the cargo container area or north but there isn't much in Wailing Woods worth it. Anyway you can get as many as 3 chests on the tower in Lonely if it spawns them so I practiced jumping at the optimal time to beat people to landing on top of it. Most people probably think you are trapped up there but it's rarely the case unless someone destroys the stairs (and even then you can still get down). I've killed a lot of people coming up the tower to get me by jumping off behind where the top outside chest spawns and landing behind them as they are coming up. Confuses them greatly and is also a good escape if you didn't get a weapon up there. Lonely itself usually gets a handful of people but some kill each other by the time you get down the tower. Might have to kill 2-3 on average yourself. Typically you have to run farther if you land there so plan accordingly. There is also diddly to the south of Lonely so don't go that way if you can help it.

The other location I landed a lot was flush factory. Again usually low player counts for being off the bus track and since you can land on the roof you can plan your next move, tell if anyone lands after you (as long as it actually renders them XD) and occasionally shoot down on guys who go for the truck chest first.

For whatever reason the jail always gives me bubkiss and is super dangerous with all short range engagements, I'd avoid it unless you want to practice your short range fights.

Aside from location (yes from videos if you want a fight go Tilted Towers) you want to pay attention to what the bus is going to be passing over. Minor destinations farther from the bus route tend to get less people.
 
Last edited:
I push buttons on PS4. Sometimes I stay alive until last ten. Actually, just by avoiding conflict, I tend to stay in that camp without too much trouble. I have nowhere near the knowledge or expertise as anyone else mentioned here.

Cross-platform play means would could potentially play together, though. My username is KendrikTheRed as usual.
 
I really don't like the strat of conflict avoidance anymore, after I got my first (and totally undeserved) win (wow I was slow editing back then lol). I discovered it pretty much just means you're a free kill for the better players to win the game. I aim for mid-pop areas so I can get some weapons, and hone my fort building and killing skills. I still go conflict avoidance for when dailies ask that you place X or higher place, or outsurvive X number of people. The more kills you can get consistently in a game has a direct correlation with how often you can actually win. I read somewhere that the tipping point is like 7 kills a game where if you can average that you'll win on a very consistent basis.
 
This is good to know. It's less a strat for me and more a "learn how to find weapons and get crafting mats and work on learning interface." Will take your note seriously next time I play.
(But that means not using limited game time on Elite, so...)
 
Elader Arkon said:
I really don't like the strat of conflict avoidance anymore, after I got my first (and totally undeserved) win (wow I was slow editing back then lol). I discovered it pretty much just means you're a free kill for the better players to win the game. I aim for mid-pop areas so I can get some weapons, and hone my fort building and killing skills. I still go conflict avoidance for when dailies ask that you place X or higher place, or outsurvive X number of people. The more kills you can get consistently in a game has a direct correlation with how often you can actually win. I read somewhere that the tipping point is like 7 kills a game where if you can average that you'll win on a very consistent basis.
Click to expand...

No you totally deserved that kill Elader if someone runs around like an idiot they deserve death. Patience and intelligence should always be valued above twitch alone in any game otherwise it just teaches young people bad habits. They will loose the twitch when they get older and be unable to play such games. That said there is nothing wrong with some twitch and excitement to keep things interesting :) .

You certainly do need to make kills to win but not for the sake of kills rather for loot and to eliminate threats. Have bad loot end game and you are done. Leave a dude behind you and you might get in a cross fire later or fail to take an advantage and eliminate a player and you might not have an advantage later. I just have disdain for the "come at me bro" players because they usually look down on ones who actually want to win as opposed to just kill things. I seem to remember some actually getting mad because another player won't fight them straight on. I'm all about the goal and will kill, not kill, or whatever gives me the best shot at winning.

Guerrilla tactics > Marching forward in a line waiting to be shot.

My internet is just too untrustworthy to rely on twitch anyway. My wins came after a ton of practice and when I stopped trying to compete short range. One should practice to improve one's weaknesses but in any fight you actually want to win, real or video games, force your opponent to play to your strengths not theirs.
 
Last edited:
While patience and intelligence may be a great virtue, 99% of the time you'll lose out at the end of the match to experience which can only be gained with any degree of rapidity in this game by playing aggressively. I don't think there's much twitchiness in this game at all -even at a very high level- aside from being able to swap between building and shooting rapidly. This is partially evidenced by the ability to play truly cross platform, even to the extent of mobile devices (those poor, poor souls).

And in this game it's really throwing down ramps/walls to provide cover while advancing on a guy > guerrilla tactics > running in a straight line.

I will be the first to admit though, my base building game is probably my weakest point. I can drop a 1x1 decently well, cover ramps, and drop down floors, but I have lost more build-offs than I won so far unless I've got launchers. Building is such a big paradigm shift from most shooters to be able to easily break from the habit of trying to immediately shoot back (or run to cover) at someone shooting at you.
 
Elader Arkon said:
I don't think there's much twitchiness in this game at all -even at a very high level- aside from being able to swap between building and shooting rapidly.
Click to expand...
I guess you wouldn't necessarily call it twitch but it's whatever jumping around while quickly and accurately shooting a shotgun is. It's not just tracking alone because I can track fine at mid to long range but not close up while both my enemy and me are jumping back and forth and off things we are building.



Ok it's time for Gerbil's marginally exciting tales of victory, YAY!

1. So I'm in a house with a small circle that barely covers it and another house and only three other guys are left alive. I bump into one by a staircase and after a quick fight I manage to win fairly unscathed. Thing is this summons another guy and he pops in from the garage door at the base of the stairs. Panicked we go at it with me expending half a clip of AR and shotgun shells. I think he gets more damage on me but retreats back into the garage probably because he wants to reload. I swap to my grenade launcher and bounce the rest of what I had in the clip from the first fight though the door hearing his shield pop. At this point I fake reloading the grenade launcher because I know he can hear the sound and cancel to my AR. Sure enough he comes through the door hoping to finish me off on reload but instead I finish him with the rest of my AR clip. After reloading and healing up I very silently crouch around using the third person perspective to find the last guy. Turns out he's outside perched on an awning with his back towards the circle facing my direction. He had to have heard the fights but he's clearly scared. Soooo I think to myself because the circle is so small there is no time to dodge a sniper shot and remember there was a blue bolt action on one of the guys I killed. I creep off, pick it up and come back with him still in the same spot, big mistake. I line up the headshot before peeking. His eyes must have gotten so big as I shot him directly in the face before he could react.

2. The bush had come out as an item a few weeks before and while I hate using it, because it's a pain to aim, I happened to reluctantly use it because I needed an advantage in a match. So the wild bush Gerbil perched himself on a hill and after some extremely slowly turning managed to locate the remaining two players. At the time I could see both sides of the circle so it wasn't too hard to find them. One was in a one level fort with some second level walls to guard his flanks. The other was in some trees to the left of him. Well fort guy kills tree guy and starts looking around for me. I could shoot him but I wonder just how far I can take this. SO for the next 30 seconds it's like Hogan's Heroes where every time he looks away this bush scoots five feet forward. I go from being 50~ feet away to being 15~ feet away right under his armpit. At this point my main enemy is laughing myself to death. He finally sees me and we exchange gunfire but I come out way on top because I had my cross hairs on his head for the last 30 seconds and all my shots hit it. Still he lives and ducks back trying to heal, like that is going to happen with me in earshot range. Anyway a quick ramp build and shotgun blast secures the victory. I think I scared him by getting so close.

3. Three players remain including me but unlike me I think I know exactly where they are. One is in an obnoxiously tall tower in the center of the circle with the other in a smaller tower on the outskirts. Making my way through a valley I sneak up a ramp, probably built by another player, up the tower. Nothing! I don't know how he got out but know I saw sniper shots from here so the guy must have moved. SO I sneak all the way back down to my valley and watch the other guy. Sure enough player two comes storming in building a ramp up the valley to the enemy's plateau. I immediately follow up the ramp knowing they both will be distracted. I don't know exactly what happened but I heard explosions and by the time I get there they are both outside jumping around still fighting. With them occupied I crouch walk behind some random wood walls until I can get no closer and remain stationary looking through the cracks in the wall. Sure enough one wins but instead of rebuilding or healing he keeps jumping around. He must have known it was coming but I time it so he isn't facing me and a M16 clip later he is dead.

Other wins included...

*Getting the high ground while dudes were fighting and raining down a million rockets on the survivor. Dance, DANCE! (almost killed myself by shooting my feet but we will forget that XD)

*Another was stealing a dude's base while he went out to fight. I ended up having to fight off an attacker by doing some fancy build loops to confuse him and shoot him from behind. Afterwards the last guy was hiding behind a tree and not a match.

Yes the people I fought were not that bright but these are the more unique ends I've had compared to most matches. I main spy in every game I play tee hee.

Share your epic battles everyone I'd like to hear them :) .
 
Last edited:
Code: 
<script>
    function myFunction() {
        var myDiv = document.getElementsByClassName('bbCodeBlock-content');
        for (var i = 0; i < myDiv.length; ++i) {
            myDiv[i].innerHTML = myDiv[i].innerHTML.replace(/clip/g, "magazine");
        }
    }
</script>
 
Last edited:
Patriot said:
Code: 
<script>
    function myFunction() {
        var myDiv = document.getElementsByClassName('bbCodeBlock-content');
        for (var i = 0; i < myDiv.length; ++i) {
            myDiv[i].innerHTML = myDiv[i].innerHTML.replace(/clip/g, "magazine");
        }
    }
</script>
Click to expand...
I am guessing this a coding victory? :p
 
It is my cryptic programmer humor. . .;)
If the function was applied to the page each time someone typed "clip" it would replace it with "magazine". Personal pet peeve I suppose, but a clip is something entirely different from a magazine. Most modern weapons do not use clips.

I can't provide any victories from Fortnite. I don't believe I ever got close. Instead, I can provide my first victory from PUBG:

My brother and I were constantly chasing the circle the entire game. Despite that, we both had fully-kitted M4s (suppressors included). By the end game he had about 4 kills and I had 2 with a total of 4 people left to oppose (no way to know if they were on teams or not). We were skirting the edge of the circle, trying to stay in the valleys as much as possible as the circle narrowed over a hilltop. I was almost to a rock to use as cover when an enemy popped out from behind it and took me down. I crawled right behind the rock so he would have to expose himself to my brother to finish me and called out his location (3rd person perspective). My brother managed to eliminate him and get me back up.

The circle was closing again and we noticed a fellow racing across a field from the last structure that was close. I emptied about 2 mags (single fire select) in an attempt to take him out from range. Despite 2 hits, he made it to cover and we were forced to move again further up the hill. As we crested the hill I was engaged by a fellow using a tree for cover. I put a couple rounds down-range but received a couple wounds as recompense. Pulling out a nade to either finish him off or flush him out I rounded the tree I was using for cover and was immediately put down by his friend from the tree next to his. Once again, I crawled behind cover and my brother finished them both off within seconds (I wonder if he was using me for bait. . .I know I do it with him). He returned to me and after bandaging we determined our situation.

The last survivor was the fellow who ran the gauntlet across the field. We didn't know where he was, but the circle was maybe a hundred yards across at this point. The circle was, yet again, forcing us to move so I decided to take left and my brother headed left. Within seconds he called out that he was not alone. I headed his way, but it was all over. My brother had pulled 8 kills in the match to my 2 and we had won the game.

The game is decidedly more fun playing on a team with someone you know. I'd love to try a squad of 3 or 4 but I don't think my cousin would enjoy it.
 
You guys might already know this but... I stumbled on this info. Thought you might want to know. ;) If you thought Avengers: Infinity War was the ultimate pop-culture mashup, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has another cameo up its sleeve. Franchise villain Thanos will make a limited appearance in Fortnite: Battle Royale starting May 8th, according to Entertainment Weekly. That's Tomorrow! Enjoy! :p

infinity-war-thanos-glove.png
 
Nah I don't have phone or console to try it on not that I want them anyway.

I've been wanting come back to this thread to mention Fortnite is not like it was when I first played. I tried it again after reading
Elader Arkon's posts. Play styles have evolved and not for the better. I still think it's better to avoid confrontation and vulture the last guy if you want to straight win, and not practice, but building has gone off the stupid end. It makes a shotgun easily the best main weapon because you have to be close enough that they cannot build between you or above you. Back when I first played players did build but not to this ridiculous degree. I like the building as it makes the game different but when you can hold a minigun directly on a player, for 200 bullets, point blank, POINT BLANK and have him spam walls between you faster than you can destroy them building needs a nerf. Seriously you can build a wall and then a second wall on the other side of the first before the first is even destroyed. I'd say the grenade launcher is a lot more important now too but the ammo you can carry got nerfed and if you are good you can outbuild it too!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top