Strategic thoughts about playing Fortnite
Fortnite is a strategic game. Deciding what you want to achieve before a game begins and having a Fortnite strategy to achieve it will give you your best chances of achieving that outcome. Here are four different objectives that I decide upon before the game begins along with what I do strategically to try and achieve each objective.
Objective: I want to win!
Fortnite Strategy: Hide and pounce
I rarely (about 5% of the time) choose this as my objective when I play. Surprising? Let me explain. It’s boring to have to hide a lot and remain still!
If winning is what you want to accomplish here’s what I recommend:
1. Land in a remote area on the outskirts of the map as far away from other players as possible.
2. Gather the most powerful weapons (they are gold colored) you can find.
3. Remain undetected as long as possible.
4. Pounce on that last player remaining with your most appropriate powerful weapon!
Don’t be surprised if you collect a lot of 2nd place finishes with this strategy. Usually, the last player remaining is pretty darn skilled. Still, keep the faith and eventually you’ll run into that last player who is too brazen and makes a mistake which will result in a win for you (sometimes they even kill themself by falling or getting caught in the storm).
I tend to only choose this objective immediately after I win a game and am wearing “the crown.” To win a game wearing the crown still proves to be extremely challenging even employing the “hide and pounce” strategy because nearby players can see exactly where you are.
When I employ this strategy I typically will eliminate 0 to 2 players and typically will win about 12 percent of the time.
Objective: Get action with a fair chance to win
Fortnite Strategy: Visit your most familiar places
I probably choose this as my objective about half the times that I play. To achieve this objective I usually:
1. Choose a familiar place to land that is not one of the named places on the map where I know typically one to three other players tend to land as well and has a friendly character available for hire.
2. When parachuting in, I try and spy a chest or the best weapon that I can see from the air.
3. Grab a weapon or open a chest as quickly as possible.
4. If the chest contains a shield or if I see a shield nearby, drink the shield.
5. Quickly engage and eliminate the other nearby players.
6. Hire the friendly character to have an extra team mate. You can hire them by approaching them, talking to them and spending a little of the gold that you’ll collect as you play.
7. Loot the area (gather as many of the best weapons, health aids, and building materials as possible).
8. Keep moving on to the next familiar place and repeat steps 5 & 6.
9. As the game gets down to the last 10 players, I try and remain undetected as long as possible and continue to strategically position myself so that as the storm moves, the other players have to run to where I am. I’ve found that this is a really great equalizer.
10. If a player runs right at me, I try and eliminate them with my best close range weapon (usually a shotgun).
11. If no one runs right at me, I try and wait until there are 3 people left and hope that two of them start fighting. As soon as they begin engaging I head in their direction but still try and remain undetected.
12. Immediately following their battle ending, I try and pounce on the last remaining player. They most likely will be weakened from their battle so attacking them quickly tends to yield the best chances of winning.
I find playing this sort of game to result in a good amount of action. Employing this strategy will typically result in me eliminating 1 to 5 players and gives me about a 10 percent chance of winning a Victory Royale.
Objective: Get a lot of action quickly
Fortnite Strategy: Engage early and often
I probably choose this as my objective about 10% of the times that I play. To achieve this objective I usually:
1. Select the first named area on the map to land that is close to the flight path of the battle bus.
2. Upon parachuting in, I try and spy a chest of the best weapon that I can see from the air.
3. Grab a weapon or open a chest as quickly as possible.
4. If the chest contains a shield or if I see a shield nearby, drink the shield.
5. Quickly engage and eliminate the other nearby players.
6. Restore health as quickly as possible after each battle.
7. Upon surviving this initial onslaught, which probably happens about 25% of the time, I move on to the next location depending on the storm path remaining aggressive and attacking whenever I hear footsteps or gunshots.
I find playing this sort of game to result in a lot of action and helps me improve my skills using my weapons. Employing this strategy will typically result in me eliminating 1 to 11 players (11 is my current record) and gives me about a 1 percent chance of winning a Victory Royale.
Objective: Learn something new or practice
Fortnite Strategy: Learn through experimentation
I probably choose this as my objective about 35% of the times that I play. To achieve this objective, I either:
1. Land in an unfamiliar place and explore. Paying particular attention to how many others land there, how good the loot is, and are there any friendly nearby characters that can be hired.
2. Pick up weapons that I’m unfamiliar with (Fortnite adds new weapons frequently), and experiment with using them.
3. Practice getting around quickly with motorcycles, cars, boats, planes, balloons, and even animals.
4. Practice attacking unfriendly characters that contain card keys that will get me into vaults that contain valuable loot.
5. Practice building structures.
I find playing this sort of game to be an important aspect of evolving as a player. Since Fortnite continually introduces new locations and items to keep the game interesting, players have no choice but to continue learning if they want to be or remain competitive. Finally, winning is not on my mind typically when I chose this objective although one could argue improving is a sort of win unto itself.