Learn How to Build in Fortnite with These Easy Tips!

What Are the Different Types of Structures?

There are four types of structures you can build in Fortnite:

1. Walls
2. Floors
3. Stairs
4. Roofs

Each category of building structure also has a different set of edits you can enact for a more modular and creative final product. These different styles allow players to create all sorts of different types of buildings. Players can use any of the four kinds of structures to build forts or homes made from wood, stone, or metal. They can build tunnels, bridges, indoor or rooftop air traffic systems based on upper-floor structures (called skybridges or walkways by players), launch sites, and a wide variety of other unique structures. Even using only the basic building blocks – walls, floors, stairs, and roofs – Fortnite players can create impressive and unique buildings, more so with the intermediate elements below.

How to Gather Materials for Building?

You gather materials in Fortnite by using your harvesting tool (default is the left mouse button for PC). There are three main types of materials which are collected similarly:

1. Wood (trees) – required material to build. It is represented in-game by the color brown.
2. Stone (rocks) – required material to build. It is represented in-game by the color gray.
3. Metal (cars, buildings, refrigerators, trucks, etc.) – required material to build. It is represented in-game by the color silver.

With your harvesting tool equipped, continue to strike at appropriate objects until the objects give away resources.

Harvesting Resources from the Environment

There are three key materials that you can harvest from the Fortnite world in order to build. These are:

1. Wood
2. Brick
3. Metal

Wood is a cheap, weak building material that is very fast to harvest. A single tree or wooden object can typically give a player anywhere from 20 to 50 wood depending on its size. Furniture, beams, and pallets inside buildings can be destroyed for small amounts of quick wood. Pro tip: break chairs and ceiling lights for fast resources.

Brick is an average building material that is moderate in price to purchase and moderate in material yield efficiency during harvesting. Most brick objects give from 7-20 brick resources depending on their size.

Metal is a tough and expensive building material that is slow to harvest. Vehicles give large amounts of resources when harvested, garnering up to 50 metal per car. For a cheaper, faster source of metal gamers can swing their pickaxe at large metal objects that are not vehicles. Lightning bolts give the biggest burst of material at 100 metal. Harvesting objects switch a lot to vary the amount of materials used versus collected to avoid excessive waiting for a reload.

Looting Materials from Chests and Supply Drops

Material Pallets are placed throughout most locations and provide relatively small quantities of materials when farmed. During harvesting, players can also loot materials by opening chests and supply drops. Materials received from loot sources are similar to those collected from wooden pallets, but sometimes players can also find metal pallets to open or building pallets that fully max out the player’s materials when obtained.

It is worth noting how much material farming has changed in Season 6 with Epic Games removing the Upgrading system. In Chapter 2 Season 5, materials could also be earned from NPC characters by completing quests and high value targets in Fortnite. As there are significant changes from one season to the next, players should consult the latest patch notes to understand how material acquisition is obtained and changed by Epic Games in each Fortnite season.

Eliminating Other Players for Their Materials

Defeated opponents in Fortnite drop many loot items including weapons, ammo, consumables, and materials. Eliminating other players for their materials can be a helpful approach to get what you need for losing as few of your own resources as possible. Most Fortnite players know the horror of getting all of one material and then dying, but when defeated for their materials and resources, it only ends up helping the victor to succeed further.

What Are the Essential Building Techniques?

The essential building techniques are to build twice and then to build protection high. This means that if you are making a flat in the open, make two of them. If you go up to a mountain to make a retreat, leave room for two squares. After building, add walls. Once the walls are in place, think about utilizing other materials for the floor to make sniping difficult. If a wall you built is under attack, quickly build another one to back it up. If you are engaging in an offensive manner, consider spontaneous double-ramping. This involves keeping two pyramids in place on the level you are working on and moving two ramp pieces at a time instead of one. Doing this enables support building faster. For this you will want to establish key binds on your Fornite settings to the mouse or keyboard.

Basic Wall and Ramp Building

Lifecycle.gg explains the basics of building in Fortnite:

To start building in Fortnite, the B or Circle button on the PS4 controller, N or T on the keyboard, or the Right Stick on the Xbox controller needs to be pressed. These commands will bring up the build menu interface. The interface shows all four building types available – walls, floors, ramps, and pyramids.

Use the buttons for your preferred platform to select and build. To place a wall, use the Left Click on a mouse and right trigger on a controller. Ramp can be placed by using either of these buttons, and the cone will be placed by using the keybind for Wall, the editing keybind, the keybind for building or the right trigger on a controller.

To actually place these structures, you will need to build support walls or ramps to connect these new structures to those that already exist. This first building step is the establishment of a core structure on which the player can build in any direction. The basic wall and ramp building provides essential protection for players to complete a big move known as a 90s. The 90 creates a row of three walls and floors and a ramp to leave landing positions closed off and create multiple sniping and shooting lanes to work with.

Create a half 90 build half wall build to build upward. This simply involves adding half walls below the 90s before creating the next set of 90s. This adds even more stability to the system without sacrificing any build speed. Because walls and ramps in Fortnite are transparent, opposition players cannot destroy them down to that anchor point because each time this takes place a new one simply pops into existence right afterwards.

Basic building is the foundation for any advanced building techniques, and this provides the right fundamental structure to develop more quickly while also providing protection. Thermatic films break down this further and even provide a few Fortnite building exercises to improve skill.

Building a 1×1 Tower

Building a 1×1 tower is a more complex version of ramp/ rushing that serves the same purpose. Instead of building a ramp through the air or onto an opponent’s structure, you build four adjacent walls around it. It provides excellent 360-degree cover against all types of attacks, you can snipe an opponent through a gap without them seeing you by editing a wall, and it allows you to build a safe base camp if you are not prepared to rush enemy positions.

Creating a Stairway to Heaven

In Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode, the term stairway to heaven refers to creating a ramp by repeatedly placing stairs while running up or down. This is a defense tactic to quickly give oneself a height advantage, making it more difficult for enemies to hit one’s character, or to launch in any given direction at high speed. To create a stairway to heaven, simply keep running while quickly holding the build button and the stair button.

What Are Some Advanced Building Strategies?

Some advanced building strategies for Fortnite invented by top players are Parabellum’s respawning tower, retakes by Sway, the enderton retake, Jerm’s widened cone jump, faller markers, and more. Here are the most frequently used strategies as found on Fortnite Master and Briefly Gt:

1. Respawning tower – a kind of bridge or tower fortified against enemy attack
2. Jump cone – building a ramp, jumping while rotating, then adding a floor and cone to ramp end
3. Side jump wall – a jump strat that involves breaking while hitting the side wall
4. Double side jump wall – continuation of the regular side jump wall
5. Forward side jump wall – variation on the side jump wall which involves facing the direction you want to go
6. 160-meter 90s accelerated – the optimal rhythm for circle movement from 0 to 160 meters
7. Super jump pads – jumping off a launch pad in the middle of the jump phase to confuse foes
8. Psycho-camper – a psycho character (snooper) who also knows how to build
9. Flutter building – perceptual manipulation of build actions to disorient enemies
10. Making structures in alphabetical order – hard mode for building, player must build in order, starting always at his/her structure with the most capacity
11. Fire and Panic Type Builder – can build while being shot at without losing effectiveness
12. Handstand Type Builder – jumps to take the high ground and performs 90s while in the air

Building a Fort for Defense

Building a Fort for Defense, such as against gunfire or to secure the eye of a tornado, has the quickest utility in the endgame. If you are low on materials, you can rely on vehicles like the baller or helicopter to lessen the material cost when making such a fort.

First try learning prefab layouts which are immediately usable like the one OrangeGuy’s suggestion is to build a simple base during the early game as your initial fort in case you come under fire.

Using Editing Techniques to Create Openings

Windows and doors may not always be ideal, so instead users can create their own openings by using editing techniques. When building a wooden or brick wall, players can select a portion of the wall by using the grid and drawing cutting patterns or placing fragment holes to be displacement modifiers and then destroy the designated areas. Once these parts are designated for deletion, players can quickly mine them to create an opening that fits their exact needs.

Building a Maze to Confuse Opponents

Building a maze base can confuse enemies and provide cover, allowing players the ability to roast opponents. Unlike basic designs, maze structures consist of multiple floors with narrow, winding paths. They can be equipped with extra traps, windows, and metal walls and ceilings, making long-term survival easier. An example of a Fortnite maze is a fifteen-room four-story structure built by a YouTube channel called Sid’s Castle which uses over 1k material units.

How to Practice and Improve Building Skills?

You practice and improve building skills in Fortnite by doing a mix of the following 9 things.

1. Play Creative – Go to Creative to practice freely outside of actual matches taking different types of courses.
2. Set realistic goals – To progress efficiently, set small realistic goals for yourself to achieve when practicing.
3. Create muscle memory – Repeatedly build the same or similar structures to other building pieces so your fingers start to build automatically.
4. Wheels up – As buildings become more skilled and advanced, adding cones will help simulate a real fight scenario for the player to navigate naturally when playing in Creative.
5. Broaden your horizons – Don’t just focus on one specific building aspect in Fortnite. Be a diversified builder with a well-rounded construction skill set.
6. Play against ALL skill levels – Fortnite has skill-based matchmaking in its free creative mode allowing players to play different opponents at different skill levels.
7. Set building preferences – Be sure to customize your settings and editing/building preferences to match your personal play style.
8. Stream and watch other players – Watch other advanced building players stream their sessions or watch replays and learn from their building techniques as well as their movements in battles. Also, analyze your previous plays in replay mode to see where you can specifically improve.

Playing Creative Mode to Experiment with Building

When you are new to Fortnite or want to refine your building skills, consider playing Creative Mode. Creative Mode is Fortnite without the Battle Royale elements and game-ending storm cloud, which gives users the ability to tinker with building and practice techniques without fear of being attacked.

It is similar to epic games but on a free-build model.

You can enter Creative Mode by selecting Change at the top of the map screen and choosing the mode from the drop-down menu.

New building technique experimentation. New layouts for existing techniques can be practiced. Traps and edits in a secure environment.

Joining Building Courses and Workshops

Building courses and workshops were Fortnite-famous in the early 2010s. These involved players learning from game strategists to improve skills so they could participate in Fortnite tournaments. None-the-less there are still group Fortnite sessions available where a player can join a group of other players to build together. Personally, I found ProGuides and another dozen services like GrabLoot are some of the top workshops to play Fortnite and learn how to build.

Watching Tutorials and Streams of Professional Builders

One good way to learn to build better is by watching YouTube tutorials and streams of professional Fortnite players. Not only can you pick up some very useful tips such as where materials are more easily accessible, how to utilize editing more in your builds, where to position yourself in fights, but you can also gain from seeing common mistakes that other players make frequently.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Build in Fortnite?

Question: What are the basics of building in Fortnite?
Building in Fortnite involves using your pickaxe to gather materials and then using various structures to create defensive or offensive structures.

How to Build in Fortnite?

Question: What materials are used for building in Fortnite?
The three main building materials in Fortnite are wood, stone, and metal, which can be obtained by harvesting trees, rocks, and structures.

How to Build in Fortnite?

Question: Can I customize my building structure in Fortnite?
Yes, you can choose from different types of walls, ramps, floors, and roofs to build unique structures in Fortnite.

How to Build in Fortnite?

Question: What controls do I use to build in Fortnite?
On PC, you can use the F1-F4 keys to switch between building structures, and the left mouse button to place them. On console, you can use the D-pad to select building structures, and the right trigger to place them.

How to Build in Fortnite?

Question: Can I practice building in Fortnite?
Yes, you can enter the creative mode in Fortnite and use unlimited resources to practice building and improve your skills.

How to Build in Fortnite?

Question: Are there any tips for building in Fortnite?
Yes, some tips for building in Fortnite include always having enough materials, building ramps for mobility, and using roofs to protect yourself from above.