What is Fortnite? - A Beginner's Guide!

What is Fortnite?

The game is essentially a fantasy battle royale first person shooter (FPS). The goal is simply: survival! Be the last player or team standing. Fortnite is a very fast-paced, action packed game which requires strategic insight and stealth as well. Fortnite has an estimated 125 million players worldwide. So joining the game means you’ll definitely become part of a huge community! 

The game starts by air-dropping out of a moving “Battle-Bus” into the playing area. From the moment your feet touch the ground, it’s time to stay alive long enough to become the last player - or the last team - standing, as the playing area slowly gets smaller, forcing survivors to combat each other eventually.

What makes Fortnite so popular?

For a game that’s all about shooting people, most of the time you don’t really have to shoot people. So what ARE you doing while playing a round of Fortnite? For many players (especially inexperienced ones) stealth is the name of the game. The objective is staying alive for as long as possible, so going unnoticed helps a lot! 

Staying hidden, building protective forts and creeping your way to the end of the game and hardly using your weapon is a proven strategy for success! Fortnite offers plenty of hideouts, resources and loot to support this type of gameplay. 

However, if you are feeling more adventurous or if you’re more of an aggressive player, by all means shoot your way through the game. Beware though, other players might be more adept to building protective forts and out-stealthing you! 

To get a good idea of what Battle Royale really is and how it works exactly, watching this beginner guide can really help you along when you’re just starting out with Fortnite:

The various ways to play Fortnite plays a big role in appealing to many different types of gamers. As we mentioned, some are more strategic where others have a more aggressive approach. Each of these playing styles can pay off. That’s why even people that aren’t very talented FPS-gamers can still enjoy Fortnite very much while die-hard shooter-fans will also find enough challenge in this game. 

What also plays a huge part in Fortnite’s popularity is a constant renewal of interesting events, new modes, endless personalization options and measurable progression. This game is not pay to win and you’re always placed in servers with players who are roughly in the same league, to keep it fair and appealing to players of all experience levels. Most of the game is completely free and can be played with friends online as well as couch co-op!

Bottom line, Fortnite makes sure this game is suitable for ‘casual gamers’ and new players just starting out, as well as seasoned players looking for a new challenge. Basically, everybody wins (or is at least able to!) Up next we’ll tell you some more about the various game modes this game has to offer. 

What Game modes does Fortnite have?

There’s three different game modes to choose from: Battle Royale (free), Party Royale (free), Creative (free) and Save The World (Paid). The first three are available and ready to play directly after downloading and starting the game. The latter has to be purchased first. 

1. Battle Royale

This is the most well-known and most played mode. It’s the basic ‘Last one standing wins’ principle where you either play solo or team up with your friends and outlast other players and/or teams. You drop from the Battle Bus, pick a place to land and that’s when the action kicks off! Collect weapons and items that can accompany you and keep an eye on the shrinking map that gets smaller with every approaching storm. 

Stealth and building structures help you gain a lot of advantage in the Battle Royale mode. To support you in that, this mode has a lot to offer when it comes to discovering weapons, resources and helpful items. Last one remaining wins, or team up with your friends (either online or in real life!) and outlast other teams. You will also experience plenty of new, special events and ‘Seasons’ that keep introducing new challenges and items. 

2. Party Royale

Party Royale offers a huge experimental world that is constantly evolving. Enjoy this no sweat, all chill place if you can! Events take place there from time to time, and it offers all kinds of minigames. Also, you won’t have to worry about getting eliminated here. There is no combat and no building, so we’re all friends in the Party Royale mode! You can expect obstacle courses, races, movies and sometimes even concerts! Party Royale mode is pretty much a virtual ‘hangout’ for some fun and relaxing, without taking or dealing any damage. You could compare it to an online music festival. So invite your friends, head over to the ‘main stage’ and see what’s going on! 

3. Creative

With this mode you are in charge of your very own island! Giving you the opportunity to create your very own game scenery within Fortnite and invite your friends over to visit your creation. It’s also possible to check out other players’ islands and pay them a visit. The Creative Mode is a great opportunity for (aspiring) game designers to show what they can do. But it’s also a fun mode for anyone who likes to take it a bit slower every now and then and just let those creative juices flow for a bit. 

4. Save the World 

This is pretty much the ‘Story Mode’ part of Fortnite and you have to purchase the ‘Save the World Pack’ to enjoy this (extra) feature. In this mode you’re challenged to explore a destructible world, where you team up with other players online to fight hordes of ‘Husks’. There’s a lot of loot, plenty of weapons and a lot of Heroes to find within this mode and one of the main objectives is to build, fortify and boobytrap your (team’s) base to keep all enemies out.

V-Bucks and the Battle Pass

Purchasing the Battle Pass is a relatively small spend you can choose to do within Fortnite. The in-game currency is called V-Bucks and these can give you all kinds of cool stuff. Either to personalize your character or to get cool weapons, skins, outfits and much more. You don’t necessarily ‘need’ these V-Bucks to play and win the game. But with all the awesome stuff to choose from, it’s a small price to pay for your very own character instead of just playing with the plain and random ones you can’t really do anything else with.  

So to put it simply, buying V-Bucks can get you items and cosmetics for your Fortnite character.

Xbox Gift Card £25

Digital code

£25.00

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Xbox Gift Card £10

Digital code

£10.00

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Nintendo eShop Card £15

Digital code

£15.00

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PlayStation Store Card £15

Digital code

£15.00

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Then there’s The Battle Pass, a featured item in Fortnite Battle Royale. This Battle Pass offers you a chance to unlock all kinds of in-game cosmetics, gain experience and level up. Leveling up then grants you all types of rewards which you will get to keep! A Battle Pass is valid for 63 days. Because the Battle Pass is a premium item, it costs 950 V-Bucks.Trust us, you will find A LOT of stuff while playing and some items are just really too good to pass up on. A Battle Pass will grant you 100 tiers of in-game extras to unlock over the season. Each season comes with a brand new Battle Pass so unfortunately it’s not a one-time purchase. However, purchasing a Battle Pass once and unlocking all the 100 tiers will probably earn you enough V-Bucks to renew your Battle Pass every season. All you have to do is keep on playing Fortnite! 

Fortnite Crew

Another possibility is to join the Fortnite Crew. This is a monthly subscription of 11,99 per month that can be purchased directly from the Item Shop or the Battle Pass purchase screen. Joining the Fortnite Crew means you will get a lot of extras each month you’re a member. Included are the monthly exclusive Crew-Pack full of outfits and items that are for Crew members only. You’ll also receive extra V-Bucks and other special items! The Fortnite Crew-membership can be cancelled at any time. When cancelled, it will run until the final billing period before ending. All previously awarded Battle Passes, V-Bucks, and Crew Packs are yours to keep, even if you decide to end your Fortnite Crew membership. 

Play together with Crossplay

The Crossplay feature in Fortnite makes it possible to team up and play with millions of players from all over the world. The Crossplay function is available in all* game modes within Fortnite and can be accessed across all platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC and mobile alike. So no matter what device you have, you can always find a way to enjoy, discover and play some Fortnite! (*Note: Save The World Mode only supports the crossplay) 

How do I download and play Fortnite?

Easy! Just visit epicgames.com if you want to download the game directly to your PC. You can also get it in your devices’ ‘Store’, so visit that for PlayStation or Xbox and follow the download instructions from there. If you want to play Fortnite on your mobile device, please note that it is only available for Android. To do this, simply download the Epic Games App and follow the steps from there on to get Fortnite on your device. 

Also keep in mind that you will need an Internet connection to play Fortnite! After downloading and making an Epic Games account (or linking your existing account) you can immediately start playing. However, if you want to claim and keep all your earned rewards while playing, you will need a BattlePass like we mentioned earlier. This BattlePass can be bought with the smallest V-Bucks Bundle so fortunately that won’t break the bank! 

Apple Gift Card £15 — Email Delivery

Digital code

£15.00

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Apple Gift Card £25 — Email Delivery

Digital code

£25.00

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Now all that’s left is wishing you good luck in your Fortnite endeavours! We will be posting more Fortnite beginner guides soon, so make sure to check those out. Who knows, you could be the #1 Battle Royale survivor worldwide in no time!