The Gameplay of Fortnite – A Guide

April 3, 2020 Games

Fortnite, with its amazing gameplay, has been raging with popularity ever since its release by Epic Games in 2017. After the first season of its first chapter, the game soon started getting upgraded to higher seasons with different themes regularly. The end of the first chapter (Season X) was marked by a black hole, which consumed the entire map of the game.

Then came the first season of the Fortnite Chapter 2 in 2018, with a brand new map, new landmarks, water gameplay features, and the season 1 Battle Pass. Fortnite Chapter 2 – Season 2 released on February 20, 2020, which is packed with “Top Secret” agent-themed features, the season 2 Battle Pass, and some landmark additions to the map.

So, what exactly is Fortnite?

Fortnite is an online video game that comes with three different game modes, namely Fortnite: Save the World, Fortnite Battle Royale, and Fortnite Creative. All the game modes have similar graphics and game mechanics. The games are free and available on a huge range of devices – Windows PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, iOS, and some Android devices, though Fortnite: Save the World is not available for Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS devices.

All in all, the Fortnite games have been gaining much traction; however, amongst the three game modes, Fortnite Battle Royale has been the most successful, attracting more than 125 million players in under a year. Here is a look at the gameplay of the three different game modes starting with the original Fortnite game:

Fortnite: Save the World

Fortnite: Save the World, a player vs. environment game, involves four players on a post-apocalypse storm-stricken Earth, with only 2% of the population surviving. The survivors cooperate in fighting against zombies/monsters, mainly husk monsters and mist zombies and some other type of monsters, and these survivors also work towards a common goal by taking on challenges and missions. The game is played through a 3rd-person perspective. The players take on the role of Heroes, saving survivors, gathering resources with the use of their pickax to take down existing structures in the surrounding environment, and defending their home base from the storm. Through the Storm Shield Defense missions, the player is allocated a map, which can be accessed at any time even without launching the defense mission and must expand the storm shield to defend the area.

The player starts with an inventory consisting of different elements such as hero characters, support squad, defense characters, weapon and trap schematics, and resources. Players can win several in-game assets by completing missions and quests or earn rewards from llama pinatas and collection books. After gaining enough experience, all those assets can also be transformed or leveled up. The player's current power level depends on the player's advancement on the skill and technology trees, as well as the chosen hero and squad composition. The power level decides the difficulty level of missions for the player and matches the player with other players at a comparative power level.

Besides the four world locations where missions are assigned, there are some exceptional locations for enduring the storm or for time-constrained missions that require the players to perform tasks within the restricted time, such as rescuing a certain number of survivors, destroying active encampments with husks around them, or building radar towers. As the players gather resources, they can search for weapons and traps, or build new ones from those resources. They can place the ceiling, wall, or floor traps to fight off the monsters. Players can also build, upgrade, or replace structures from base building materials, which are wood, metal, and stone, in different configurations.

Fortnite Battle Royale

As with other Battle Royale games, the Fortnite Battle Royale is a player vs. player game with up to 100 players, consisting of solo, duo, and squad modes available to the players. The players are quickly wiped out when their health is exhausted while playing solo, but in squad modes, the exhausted players can be resuscitated by a squadmate player with access to “Reboot vans.”

Like in the first Fortnite game, Fortnite Battle Royale is played in a 3rd-person perspective. The weaponless players begin the game by skydiving from floating transports called Battle Bus and choosing a region to land on. The island incorporates several locations and landmarks, and the players start with a pickax but can look for more weapons that are randomly disseminated across various structures and areas. They must rummage for those weapons and other resources by looking out for supply drops that will spawn in random places, searching other locations, or even killing other players, while attempting to remain alive and safe from the storm encroaching around the map. The last player or squad that survives wins a Victory Royale.

The players can construct their fortifications with the resources harvested after destroying the items available in the surrounding environment. These structures are built to protect them from other players or assist them through the map. With time, the encroaching storm draws in closer and decreases the map size where the players will still be safe within, and the players caught by the storm will be harmed. With the safe zone diminishing, the surviving players get confined into smaller spaces, driving them to encounter more players.

The Fortnite Battle Royale is a free-to-play game, but for any in-app purchases, the players can buy Vinderbucks or V-bucks, which is the game's internal currency, or they can also earn more V-Bucks while buying a season Battle Pass. The players can also earn V-bucks from Fortnite: Save the World after completion of quests or missions. The players can opt to upgrade their cosmetics by purchasing with V-bucks. The cosmetics can also be obtained from challenge rewards or through a battle pass. The V-bucks can be used to purchase the Battle Pass while the Free pass remains accessible to the players for free.

Fortnite Creative

The sandbox variant of the game comes in the form of Fortnite Creative, which allows the players to design their personal Fortnite from scratch with their own rules. This game mode also permits the players to share their personalized game with multiple friends up to a maximum of 16 players and also create challenges and battle arenas, and that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Although the players have the freedom to build structures or move around objects, there are limitations set to how many structures they can place on an island. The players start the game with a lobby island and can personalize up to four islands by having access to other islands from the lobby island. The islands created in Fortnite Creative can also be approved by Epic and get featured in a 25 × 25 tile region of the map in Fortnite Battle Royale called The Block. This game mode encourages the players to unleash their creative spirits and build the island of their dreams.

What to expect from the new Fortnite Chapter 2 – Season 2?

The Fortnite Chapter 2 – Season 2 comes with a brand new theme, “Top Secret,” packed with spy games, challenges, and many new exotic hideout locations across the island that has been taken over by secret agencies — Ghost and Shadow. The players have to choose between the two operatives, and complete missions and challenges with them, which will help them earn rewards. As a challenge, the players also need to locate phone booths across the map and have the option to disguise themselves in those phone booths as one of the henchmen to either of the agencies. This new season has many new exciting features to offer, including the interesting lineup of characters, and you can check out the official Fortnite Chapter 2 – Season 2 trailer, which shows the Top Secret agents getting on with their spy roles and taking up challenges.

Video Source: Youtube

The new map for this season doesn't have any drastic changes from the previous season's map. There are some new additions of landmarks on the map, one of which is the Apres Ski, a party palace located towards the south of the map south-west of Misty Meadows. The other point of interest is the Oil Rig right off the coast, Slurpy Swamp. The Fortnite Lockie's Lighthouse can be easily located towards the north-east corner of the map because of its stature and brilliant shading that stands out. And then there's the Fortnite Mount Kay, the snow-topped mountain sitting in the south-east corner of the map.

The season 2 Battle Pass also accompanies the many other features that come with the release of the Fortnite Chapter 2 – Season 2. You can watch the Battle Pass trailer and see for yourself the interesting character lineup and their special upgradations.