Everyone feels the twinge of anxiety and adrenaline when dropping down onto the battlefield in Fortnite BR. You may die early on during the drop or you may live to be the last person standing, who's to say?

When it's you versus 99 other players, it can feel like there is lack of consistency in the amount you win. Maybe you find a win here or there, maybe you're struggling to find your first. It sometimes feels like the nature of winning is out of your hands. Little did you know, however, that there are some very basic, very key steps you can take to help yourself improve and, in turn, rack up some satisfying victories.

The first thing that needs to be established is the three key fundamentals of consistency: smarter material farming, smarter map awareness, and smarter building.





Material Farming

Materials (mats) are just as important, if not more, than having a strong loadout. Without materials, your offensive and defensive capabilities are cut in half, especially so at the beginning of every match. When farming mats, the key is to work smarter not harder. Every interior location in Fortnite is decorated with simple furniture: chairs, beds, tables, bookcases, etc. To some these are pointless additions that do nothing besides add ambience to the game world. To others these are all little pockets of materials that only take one hit to knock away. Looting means more than opening chests and finding guns. Running through buildings with your pickaxe out is a simple way to gather enough materials to always have an advantage over your opponent in early game skirmishes and stops you from being gunned down like a material-less degenerate while sprinting out in the open.

As the game progresses you also need to consider how farming for mats can be a dangerous zero-sum game. To avoid death with pickaxe in hand, consider leaving objects, such as trees, one hit away from death. The falling leaves of large trees can give away your position to people with good map awareness.





Map Awareness

Having good map awareness means a lot more than picking a drop location and knowing where the circle is. Good awareness means being able to read the map and predict player movement, so that you are always in the right place at the right time.

Being able to read the map is simpler than it sounds. It essentially boils down to, "What are the chances that someone is in front of you and what are the chances that someone is behind you?" You always need to consider where you are in relation to the circle and popular drop locations.

If you are running from Greasy Grove to the circle up near Pleasant Park, you are safe to assume that people landed Tilted Towers, thus there are probably people in front of you. Knowledge is power- using it can help you prepare defenses or set up for flanks. If you dropped Snobby Shores in the above scenario, you are safe knowing that nobody is behind you. By seeing the circle and knowing popular drops, you can also guarantee that there will be some people at Greasy and loads at Tilted. The people in Greasy have to run the farthest to get to the circle, so they are forced to leave first. Moreover, their attention will be focused away from Snobby and more on the people that are always in Tilted. If fights breakout (which they always do), you have the flank advantage.

You should also always be looking out for player made structures or the player made damage. It can tip you off to where players fought and help you track were they might have moved to. It can also show you what's been looted and what hasn't, and what buildings might have a trap in them. Small things like this can save you time and frustration.

Building

Building is a complicated process and getting good at it is just something that comes with time. If you find yourself getting heated at your mediocre building ability, just remember: sometimes out-building means simplistic building. Here are some rules to live by when it comes to slowly mastering building:

Always Build - This is exactly what it sounds like. You have mats, so build. There is never a reason not to build up a simple one by one wall and staircase before shooting at someone. Even in the most basic of engagements, health is an important, limited, resource. Save yourself from taking even a single hit from the lowest tier of players. Moreover, when being shot at the same rules apply. Before you even have a visual on the enemy, surround yourself in a one by one square and peek over the walls with a staircase. Play the slow game, by doing so you'll being playing the "right" game.





This is exactly what it sounds like. You have mats, so build. There is never a reason not to build up a simple one by one wall and staircase before shooting at someone. Even in the most basic of engagements, health is an important, limited, resource. Save yourself from taking even a single hit from the lowest tier of players. Moreover, when being shot at the same rules apply. Before you even have a visual on the enemy, surround yourself in a one by one square and peek over the walls with a staircase. Play the slow game, by doing so you'll being playing the "right" game. Permanent Structures - Buildings in Fortnite are easy come, easy go. Avoid wasting a lot of mats on large bases too early into the game. Bases can feel secure and can be good defensive anchor points, but if it's out of the circle than what purpose does it serve? The longer the game goes on, the stronger large bases become. When the circle is small enough that there is nowhere to hide, this is when you can make full use of a strong and secure anchor point, i.e. a large, trap filled, all metal, super base.

One Port-A-Fort can fill out any building rule

Height Advantage - Having the high ground is one of the strongest tactical advantages you can have over your opponent. When playing out any fight, the key is to build up while denying your opponent’s ability to gain height. The reason why high ground is so important is because for two player of roughly equal skill it is much harder to siege than it is to defend a temporary structure (when in close quarters). When being challenged by an opponent, match their rush with a rush of your own. Intersect your opponent with a two wide staircase and cut off their recovery off by spam building floors. Build yourself the tried and true one by one tower and wait to react to their next move. If they continue to push you, use your height advantage to destroy buildings and to chip away at their HP.





Having the high ground is one of the strongest tactical advantages you can have over your opponent. When playing out any fight, the key is to build up while denying your opponent’s ability to gain height. The reason why high ground is so important is because for two player of roughly equal skill it is much harder to siege than it is to defend a temporary structure (when in close quarters). When being challenged by an opponent, match their rush with a rush of your own. Intersect your opponent with a two wide staircase and cut off their recovery off by spam building floors. Build yourself the tried and true one by one tower and wait to react to their next move. If they continue to push you, use your height advantage to destroy buildings and to chip away at their HP. Resetting Fights - In Fortnite BR, you never have to fight on anyone else's terms. You always have the ability to play defensively and reset a fight. Say you challenged someone and unfortunately lost the high ground advantage. This puts you in a rough position do you: challenge them further, cut your losses and run or do you stay put and campout under them. All of these answers are somewhat right and somewhat wrong. The beauty of building is the amount of possibilities it brings. If you are in an obviously bad position, slow down and attack from another angle. That can mean backing up and trying another staircase rush, trying a cheeky Launchpad play, or destroying the foundation of the enemies building so that he is forced back to the ground. Fortnite is jam-packed with tools and mechanics that can turn situations around instantaneously - use them to their full potential.

Don't Get Lost in Your Building- There are times when to build and times when not to. As much as building is important - make sure you are building in order to gain an advantage and not because you are panicking. If someone is charging you and you arbitrarily spam walls to block and they easily scale them with simple staircases what good have you done? Don't lose an easily winnable firefight because you tunnel vision too hard on building. Sometimes shooting does take precedent over building. Moreover, if you find yourself in a proper build off with someone, consider why and how to move. Don't get so ahead of yourself that accidentally fall to your death or build up so high that some random mobile player pickaxes the base of your labyrinth and you fall to your demise. Simplicity is key.





Amassing skill can be a slow, sometimes painful, process. It can be hard to overcome that feeling of total stagnation, but it's not impossible. Slow down and judge every situation to the best of your current ability, surmise the best solution with confidence. If you make a mistake- learn from it. Battle Royal games are multiplayer on a truly epic scale. Crafting consistency takes effort. Just always remember to never give up, and to keep it simple.

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