Seven Years Later, Fortnite Is A Better Game Than It's Ever Been

When loading into Fortnite, you’ll automatically be in the “Play” section. This is where you can select various game modes to play. The majority of the modes are fan-made and can be played with friends. But if you want to play the vanilla Fortnite or other official Epic modes, you’ll need to scroll down until you see “By Epic.” From there, you should see all of the official Epic Game game modes that Fortnite is known for alongside the studio’s logo on the thumbnail.

Once you’re here, you’ll see modes such as “Ranked Reloaded, Ranked X Trials,” and much more. The Ranked modes are lobbies usually meant for people looking for more of a challenge. Most of these people are looking for other high-skill players to improve their rank on the Fortnite leaderboards.

If you’re looking for a more casual game, keep scrolling until you land on the Battle Royale mode, AKA vanilla Fortnite. This is the type of game that Fortnite is mainly known for. The rules for this mode are simple: The last one standing wins. From here, you can pick between two types of Battle Royale: Build and Zero Build.

If you’re looking for a faster Battle Royale, you can always play Reloaded. Like the normal mode, this can also be played in Build or Zero Build. However, it’s worth pointing out that this mode significantly differs from the normal BR mode. The map is much smaller and takes inspiration from OG Fortnite. When players die, they can respawn as long as the feature is enabled and their teammates are still alive. If this sounds a bit familiar to you, it’s because this is Epic’s version of Call of Duty: Warzone Rebirth Island mode. The games usually play a lot quicker and can be more intense. So, don’t jump in expecting a slow game.

To change lanes a bit, there’s Lego Fortnite, which is like an entirely different game. In a nutshell, this is Epic’s version of Minecraft and other survival games. There is a bit of a story to it, but the main goal is to build a base and survive for as long as possible. This is a third-person mode in which you’ll go toe-to-toe with various fantasy beasts and monsters.

In the vein of shaking things up, there’s also a mode called Rocket Racing. As the name suggests, this is a mode in which you and other players race against one another. The rules are fairly simple: be the first one to cross the finish line, and you’ll win. Think of this mode as Fortnite Mario Kart, if that helps.

The last big mode is Fortnite Festival. This mode allows you and other players to play licensed music from artists such as Lady Gaga, The Weeknd, and even Fortnite original songs. This is a rhythm-based mode in which you’ll be tasked with pressing the right buttons as they appear. There are two types of Festival modes you can play. The first is the Main Stage. This is where you all work together and jam out to get the highest score. The other is Battle Stage, where you’ll compete against one another to see who gets the highest score.

Build and Zero Build play similarly, but each mode has a few significant differences. Players must destroy structures around the island in Build to get building supplies. They can farm and build from three different structures: wood, brick, and metal.

Wood structures build the fastest but have the least health. Brick takes a bit longer to build and has a decent amount of HP. Metal takes the longest to build but it has the most HP out of all three materials.

When playing Zero Build, you won’t have the option to do that. To combat this, players have an additional 50 overshield that automatically refills itself up. So, players can potentially have up to 150 shields throughout the match.

Other than that, both Build and Zero Build play the same.

As you play the game, you’ll unlock various items such as Back Bling, Gliders, and sometimes Skins. To equip these, you’ll need to be in the main menu once more and scroll over to the “Locker” section.

You can change various aspects of your character. So, if you unlocked a Back Bling and think it’ll be nice on Peely, you can mix and match it all you want. On top of that, you’ll be able to change up the Glider, which you use at the beginning of the game, to land. You can also change your contrail, which is the ora you see as you descend from the bus.

That’s not the only thing you can switch up. On top of unlocking cosmetic items, you can do the same with emotes. To do this, scroll down one tab in the Locker section, and you’ll be able to equip up to seven at a time.

If you want to change the skin of your gun, you can change it by looking at the “Wrap” section. Just like character skins, these vary from wrap to wrap. Some are more colorful and dynamic than others. These don’t give you any special edge, as they just personalize your current gun.

The last main thing you can personalize is how your car looks in-game. Like everything else mentioned in this section, they don’t give you any kind of edge. They just make you look cool.

Occasionally, Epic will allow players to unlock free car skins, but most of the time, they’ll have to purchase them with real-world money using V-Bucks. The car skins can range from cool-looking generic ones to real-world cars such as the BMW. You’ll also be able to change how the car rims look, smoke, and even boost.

It’s always good to go into a game to complete a quest. These quests vary based on which game mode you’re playing. So, make sure the quests are compatible with the standard BR mode if you’re jumping into a BR game. Most of the time, these quests will reward you with XP, and you’ll unlock more cosmetic items on special occasions.

It’s also worth pointing out that there are story-based quests players can complete. As the name suggests, these tell the story of what’s happening in the current BR season. These are worth doing because they trigger audio clips and reward you with many XP.

If you have a particular quest you want to complete before jumping into a game, you can track it. To do this, go to the specific quest you want to do and press “Track Quest.” When you load into a game, it’ll be highlighted for you and guide you through what you must do.

While playing Fortnite, you’ll notice that guns and items will have a specific color to them. This is extremely important because the color tells you much about the weapon at face value. For instance, whenever you’re rebooted back into a lobby, you’ll spawn in with a grey pistol, which isn’t the best because grey is the lowest-ranking color.

Below is a list of every weapon color, alongside its rank.

• Grey - Common
• Green - Uncommon
• Blue - Rare
• Purple - Epic
• Orange - Legendary
• Gold - Mythic
• Cyan - Exotic

One thing worth mentioning is that Epic often changes its mind about adding exotic weapons. Sometimes, they replace Mythic guns with Exotic ones, and other times, both are available in a single season.

The key to not dying immediately is to land where others are not. For example, if the bus is flying from Sandy Steppes to Castle Doom, you’ll want to avoid places like The Raft, Reckless Railways, and Restored Reels because they’re all within the immediate area.

Instead, you’ll want to land at places like Brawler’s Battleground or Rebel’s Roost. The further, the better. Because more often than not, most players won’t bother to land that far off from the bus route. Since you’ll be landing at a named land, the odds of finding good gear are incredibly high, and if you’re one of a handful of people there, you could loot up the entire area before anyone else.

If you do this, you should be able to at least survive the initial drop and get some good items along the way. It’ll also give you some time to experiment with guns so you can decide which ones you like.

We recommend always having at least one to two healing items at all times. Because you never want to be in a situation where you’re low on HP and die immediately in a fight.