Gold Knox is a new Constructor in Fortnite and the first hero in the game to have the ability to deploy Proximity Mines. Everyone has a backstory, and Gold Knox deserves one too, so here you go.

Goldieknox and the three bears

Once upon a time, three happy bears lived in a forest. One day, they made themselves some porridge and got their bowls ready. However, the porridge was too hot to eat. The bears decided to take a stroll in the forest and return to their food later. While they were gone, a thicc man by the name of Goldieknox broke into their house. He finished their breakfast, set eleven sick landmines around the house, and went to sleep in their beds.

Naturally, when the three bears returned, they were blasted to shreds. They didn’t even need to step directly on the mine, because mind you, these are proximity mines. And they also didn’t need to step near one mine each; a single mine was enough to finish the trio. Goldienox was woken up by the explosions, but he went home with the highest Combat Score. In the end, the mines exploded automatically after thirty seconds and blasted the house to pieces. The mines were also made so that they wouldn’t damage Goldienox, or any other humans.

Gold Knox: Perks

Gold Knox deploys mines with his Bull Rush attack, and you can set up to eleven landmines in one Bull Rush with the right build. Note that you cannot change the direction in the middle of using the ability, meaning your mines will always be in a straight line.

Gold Knox’s Commander Perk is:

Demo Derby+: Bull Rush drops a mine for every .5 tile traveled. Each mine deals 275 base physical damage in a 0.5 tile radius when triggered.

Gold Knox’s Standard Perk is

Demo Derby: Bull Rush drops a mine for every 1 tile traveled. Each mine deals 110 base physical damage in a 0.5 tile radius when triggered.

Using Gold Knox in the Commander slot makes a lot more sense. The damage isn’t worth giving up, and you’d rather have high damage and more mines in a smaller area, than picking a Constructor with a longer Bull Rush and ending up with mines spread out. You won’t need to worry about the range you’re missing out on at all.

You can obtain Gold Knox through the “School of Hard Knox” quest.

The Build

Here’s my Gold Knox build, which will let you put eleven mines down in a single Bull Rush.

Team Perk

Happy Holidays: Reduces your Ability cooldowns by 40%. Stacks independently from other cooldown reduction perks.

Support Loadout

Rushed Rush (Catstructor Penny): Decreases Bull Rush Cooldown by 27%.

(Catstructor Penny): Decreases Bull Rush Cooldown by 27%. Long Rush (Marathon Hype): Increases Bull Rush distance by 6 tiles.

(Marathon Hype): Increases Bull Rush distance by 6 tiles. Ghoulish Cackle (Willow): Increases Ability Damage up to 37.5% based on percentage of your missing Health.

(Willow): Increases Ability Damage up to 37.5% based on percentage of your missing Health. Gadgeteer (Undercover Buzz): Decreases Gadget cooldowns by 20%.

(Undercover Buzz): Decreases Gadget cooldowns by 20%. Emergency Override (Patriot Penny): When your shield depletes, reset Bull Rush Cooldown. Effect can occur once every 12 seconds.

Happy Holidays is the classic ability savior, providing a 40% CDR for your abilities. This allows you to spam Bull Rush like there’s no tomorrow. Rushed Rush further drops your Bull Rush cooldown by 27%.

Long Rush is what gives you the extra distance, and it’s better to use Gold Knox as the Commander instead of Marathon Hype, because Knox is able to provide a better trail of mines with this Loadout.

Ghoulish Cackle is there to add Ability Damage, which will make your mines stronger. The damage is inversely proportional to your Health, and Gold Knox will already be very close to enemies, meaning you will get a solid damage boost from this.

Using Proximity Mine as a Gadget is just a personal add-on, to really get into the theme. You can use any Gadget you want, and replace Undercover Buzz with a Hero that packs something like survivability instead.

The downsides and how to resolve them

Gold Knox isn’t foolproof. He does suffer from two major problems: the mines not being Taker-proof, and Knox having low survivability.

Yep, the mines do not affect the flying Mist Monsters, Takers, meaning you need to be separately equipped to handle them.

Having a weapon like the Bundlebuss that can separately take on incoming Takers is the only way around this. Since you will often by heading towards spawn points due to Bull Rush, it is easy to find yourself near a Taker.

The second problem is dying too often. Survivability can be a huge problem for offensive Constructors, especially ones with an ability that goes in a straight line in a single direction.

The best way around this is to equip one of the hammers that have a leap attack. The Walloper, for example, will make you take a giant leap with its special attack. This can be used to move around quickly and get out of danger.

The problem is that if you do that long Bull Rush from near your fort towards the enemy, you will find yourself very close to the spawn point. Constructors already have low mobility, so it is hard to make your way away from the enemies after that. These guys have already lived once and are pissed off that they still have to spend time on earth as zombies. They will swarm you immediately.

Using the hammer to leap around is the only thing that can really save you. A great way to go about this, is to leap towards the spawn point first, then Bull Rush towards your fort. You will leave a trail of mines behind you, and the enemies will follow you, only to get blasted to shreds.

Verdict

Adding mines to Bull Rush was a great idea, and Gold Knox has a pretty unique playstyle because of it. The mines could be stronger, and they aren’t too good in PL 140 4-player missions, but anywhere else you’ll do well with him. I have been using him in those PL 140 missions as well, and survivability is a bit of an issue.

Gold Knox is definitely neither the best Constructor, nor the best Ability-based hero. But he’s fun, viable, and unlike any other hero in the game. He is worth picking up for sure, and the skin is pretty amazing too!