Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
How to Install Fortnite
Do you want to get in on the new gaming craze that everyone is talking about? Your first step is getting your hands on Fortnite Battle Royale. Whether you have a PC, PlayStation, Xbox, or iPhone, here are the steps you need to follow to download the free game onto your preferred platform.
PC (Mac & Windows)
If your intent is to play on your desktop or laptop computer, you first need to be connected to the Internet. Downloading the game requires a connection.
Next, open your web browser and go to https://www.epicgames.com. Once at the website, create an account by clicking the head-shaped icon at the top right. Jot down or print out all the log-in details you used so you can gain access again.
Once you have successfully registered an account at the Epic Games website, download the Epic Games launcher by clicking the yellow Get Epic Games button at the top right of the page.
Install the Epic Games launcher by running the file you just downloaded. When it is finished installing, open the Epic Games launcher. You'll be asked to sign in using the log-in credentials you used when signing up.
Fill in your email and chosen password and hit the Sign In button.
Once in the Epic Games launcher, find the Fortnite Battle Royale tab along the top bar and hit Install to begin downloading the game.
After the installation is complete, the download bar that appeared over the Install button will disappear and the button will now read Launch. Hit Launch, hop into battle with your friends or by yourself, and begin working your way toward that oh-so-satisfying #1 Victory Royale.
PlayStation 4
To play, you first need to own a PlayStation 4, of course, and confirm that it is connected to the Internet.
Sign in to PlayStation Network. If you don't already have a PlayStation Network account, follow the steps on the console to set one up.
Next, open up the PlayStation Store.
At the top of the PlayStation Store you will see the Search button. Click on it and search for Fortnite Battle Royale.
Next, click on Fortnite and begin to download it by clicking the Download button under the title of the game.
When the download is complete, make your way back to your games, and open Fortnite.
Once you're in the game, you will be asked if you would like to "Sign Up" or "Log In" or "No Thanks." Select "Sign Up" if you do not already have an Epic Games account; then follow the steps. Select "Log In" if you already have an account. Then sign in. Doing this will make cross-platform play possible — meaning you can play with friends who are playing on their PC, Xbox, or mobile phone.
Now you are ready to play. Hop into battle with your friends or by yourself, and begin becoming familiar with the battlefield and all the tools and resources at your disposal.
Xbox
Make sure your Xbox One is connected to the Internet before you start to download the game.
Then sign into Xbox Live. If you don't already have an Xbox Live account, follow the steps on the screen to set one up. This will give you access to games that are available in the Xbox store.
Next, go to the Store tab on the home screen.
In the Store, you will see the Search button at the top of the screen, under the featured items. Click on it and search for Fortnite Battle Royale.
Click on the Fortnite button and begin to download the game by clicking the Get button under the title of the game.
When the download is complete, go back to the screen labeled "My Games & Apps" and open Fortnite Battle Royale.
Once you're in the game, you will be asked if you would like to "Sign Up" or "Log In" or "No Thanks." Select "Sign Up" if you do not already have an Epic Games account; then follow the steps. Select "Log In" if you already have an account. Then sign in. Doing this will make cross-platform play possible — meaning you can play with friends who are using other types of devices.
Once your Fortnite game is open, you're ready to start playing.
Mobile (iOS)
On March 20, 2018, Epic Games rolled out a mobile (iOS) version of Fortnite Battle Royale that can be downloaded from the App Store on any mobile Apple device newer than the iPhone 7.
CHAPTER 2
How the Game Is Played
Be the last person alive in the game — that's your goal in Fortnite Battle Royale. You start with 100 solo players (or 50 teams of two or 25 squads of four), who all land on an island simultaneously. Then it's a fight to the death as all the players work to protect themselves and gather resources that will keep them alive longer in the game.
Staying alive is the first priority of the game; good players live longer, while newer players still trying to figure out how things work are often the first to get killed off. Skilled Fortnite players who have already mastered how to stay alive in the game frequently turn their attention to maximizing eliminations as a secondary challenge — to make the game more interesting. New players who have more to learn typically hide and stay away from combat early on in order to survive and win the game. Whether you're skilled or new to Fortnite, you have to know how to use your loot to maximize the odds of staying alive.
Although Fortnite isn't the first game to adopt the Battle Royale game mode, it certainly is the first to incorporate a building technique into the action; you can build structures to get around more easily within the game. It is also the first game to provide a cross-platform experience with the purpose of bringing more players together. Unlike traditional games, Fortnite's blend of order and chaos makes every game a new experience, even for advanced players. That's why Epic Games has reached over 45 million players and has 3 million concurrent players with Fortnite.
The basic cycle of any Battle Royale game is land, loot, move, survive. However, every Battle Royale game is a little different. Luckily, Fortnite has its own perspective and game model. It's also free — a big bonus.
How the Game Begins
At the start of every game of Fortnite, all the players board a Battle Bus — a flying blue one — and skydive into the play area — the island. Up to 100 players fit on one bus — that's how many people can play in one game at one time.
Before the game officially starts, all players are in a pregame lobby and can see the path the bus will take over the island, which looks like a big map. Being able to see where the bus will travel helps you plan where you'll want to jump out and land. Beginning players will generally want to land in an unpopulated area that is safer (meaning a lower chance of being shot by others in the area). Meanwhile, more advanced players want to land where there is a maximum number of players, in order to immediately start eliminating the opposition.
The time between the moment players appear (also referred to as spawning) on the bus to the moment they touch down on the island is roughly a minute. This approach is very similar to the beginning of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, another Battle Royale–style game where players start by flying into the play area on a cargo plane.
The flight path of the flying bus changes with every game, which is important to know because it means players can't plan to go to the exact same location in every single game. It is very unlikely that a large number of players will be able to land at the same single location along the outside perimeter of the island in every game because sometimes the bus's path will be too far away from the desired location for players to head there first. To keep things interesting, some aspects of the game are randomized, including the bus path, the safe zone locations, and the locations of loot chests.
Once on the bus, players first strategize where on the map they want to land. This decision is important because the first goal is to maximize your chance of safely obtaining loot. While on the bus, you can choose when to jump off at any point. In Xbox One hit A, in PlayStation 4 hit X, and in the PC version hit the space bar when you're ready to exit the bus.
The only problem that can arise when you're parachuting out of the bus is that you end up landing in an area that is already populated with other players, who are immediately going to shoot at you. Your objective is to land and get to a loot chest as quickly as possible.
Immediately after touching down on the island, your first task is to find the nearest loot chest. These chests, which are usually inside buildings, are golden boxes you need to locate and open. Loot includes items such as weapons, medical kits, and launch pads that can be used to help you outlive all the other players and teams in the game. New tools that can be used to increase the odds of winning the game are being released weekly.
When landing, you want to choose a location that will put you near as much loot as possible right from the start. This generally means that you'll want to target a well-populated area. The downside of this approach is that you'll immediately encounter other players and will have to fight them to claim the loot. Chests are located all over the island, from the attics of houses to the depths of caves. Fortunately, you can see a clue that you're near a chest — when you approach a building or area where a chest is located, you'll see a yellow glow around the box.
Looting your chest takes just a second before the randomly selected items pop out. Along with the weapon usually come some ammunition and a small amount of building materials, either wood, brick, or metal. The main thing to remember is that all the other players in the game are landing at the same time and there's a pretty good chance that you and another player may be aiming to land near the same chest. So you need to loot as fast as you can by opening as many chests as possible.
As you move around on the island, you can check your progress in the game by looking at three different indicators in the top right corner of your screen, just under your mini-map. These include a timer and two numbers. These represent the time in minutes and seconds that have elapsed in the game — the longer you're alive, the better, obviously — the number of people still in the game, and the number of players you've personally killed.
What to Do Once You're on the Ground
After you've landed, you should be focused on trying to find loot in chests, picking up resources that are lying around (such as medical supplies, less powerful weapons, and ammunition), and shooting other players to get them out of the game and protect yourself.
You move around the island by using the W, A, S, and D keys on your PC or by using the left analog stick on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. They allow you to walk or run; to jump, use the space bar. These are the default settings that you can change later. In order to run slightly faster, hold down the Shift key on your PC and press down on your analog stick if playing on a console. Doing this will make your character sprint and you will be able to move around the map much quicker.
When to Move Out of the Area
Once you touch down on the map, it's important to be aware of the storm. The storm covers the safe zone and moves every few minutes, covering a larger and larger area of the island and reducing the size of the safe zone. You can watch the storm countdown clock on-screen to alert you when the size of the safe zone is about to shrink. You want to get inside the safe zone and stay there, so you need to pay attention to where its boundaries are located and how much time you have to get to it. That means you may need to move as the safe zone continues to shrink.
There is an icon under the mini-map with a timer directly to the right of it — this gauge keeps track of the safe zone. If the icon depicts a storm cloud with a lightning bolt, that means it is the beginning of the game and the storm is currently not moving. As long as you have landed inside the white circle on your map, that's good. The timer next to the icon is counting down to when the storm will begin moving. If the icon shows a storm cloud moving to the right, without a lightning bolt, that means the storm is currently moving; the timer will be counting down to when the storm will stop moving. If the icon shows a blue clock, that means the timer is counting down to when the storm will begin moving again.
If you get caught in the storm, you will experience a visibility impairment that imitates an actual storm. This impairment makes it harder for opposing players within the storm to see each other. It will go away once you exit the storm.
How Do I Find Out Where I Should Go Next?
The mini-map in the top right corner of your screen shows the progression of the safe zone. The safe zone gets smaller and smaller throughout the game, so it's important to know where you need to be in order to stay safe after every wave or storm cycle. If you are outside the safe zone, you will take damage from the storm and your health will go down, which will weaken you until you get into the safe zone. At the beginning of the game, the damage from being outside the safe zone will be very small, but as the game continues the amount of damage experienced will increase. You can die if you don't get to the safe zone quickly, and if you find that you're far away from the safe zone's perimeter, because you haven't been watching your mini-map, you may not be able to survive long enough to get back into the safe zone.
In order to find out where to go before the safe zone starts to move, look at your large map. Press Tab or M if you're playing the PC version, Back on Xbox One, or Menu on PlayStation 4. As you look at the map, you'll see a white circle; this is the next location of the safe zone. If you're located outside the white circle, there will be a white line that reveals the shortest path to the safe zone. In order to stay alive throughout the game, you need to stay within the safe zone.
What Should I Do If I Get Caught in the Storm?
If you were unable to make it to the next safe zone in time so you got caught in the storm, follow the dark blue line on your mini-map. This is the shortest path to the edge of the storm. Once you are out of the storm, your first instinct should be to heal yourself using med kits and bandages as much as you can. To make use of either one, press on the number corresponding to the box (called slots) that your bandages are located in. If your bandages are in box five, press 5 on your keyboard. Other players who were also caught in the storm may be near you, and once they are able to see you they will try to eliminate you. If you have healed and there are no other players around you, shift your focus to making it into the white circle so that you don't get caught in the storm again.
How Do I Know How Many Players I've Eliminated?
While you're moving around on the island in search of loot in chests, you also need to keep an eye out for other players. They will try to harm you, so you always need to be on the offensive, ready to shoot them when you see them. When you do successfully eliminate them, you will reduce your competition and obtain any leftover ammunition they had. If you've run out of ammunition that you collected while moving around, this is an important resource to gather.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Fortnite"
by .
Copyright © 2018 St. Martin's Press.
Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
