Mastering Nitro Drift in Fortnite: A Step-by-Step Guide

Looking to master the art of drifting in Fortnite’s Nitro Drift mode?

This article explores everything you need to know about Nitro Drift, from unlocking the feature to the best ways to drift successfully.

Whether you’re a beginner improving your skills or a seasoned player seeking advanced tips, we’ve got you covered.

Get ready to dominate the racetrack with our comprehensive guide on drifting in Nitro Drift!

What is Nitro Drift in Fortnite?

Nitro Drift in Fortnite is an alien vehicle in Fortnite Battle Royale Season 7. It is a ball-shaped pink spaceship that is capable of flying, strafing, jumping, and boosting itself to zoom around the map. Because of the bouncing ability when hitting hard surfaces, the Nitro Drift looks as if it is flying around the map. The vehicle is extremely fast and nimble, able to jump very high, and can even go under the water to gain a vantage point on its enemy and make itself an amazing target.

The Nitro Drift can move on different surfaces, fly around the entire map and boost to rush through enemy lines. Nitro Drift is usually available from spaceship docking station named Katastles on Corner. It was designed by Epic to be the main inside gameplay theme of chapter 3. As of October of 2021, it is planned to be a central object in missions such as Liquid Metal where players and alienize water to earn better gear.

It is expected that over time the Nitro Drift will be used in different game modes and scenarios within Fortnite. The Nitro Drift is worth using not only because it provides quick mobility across Fortnite Battle Royale but because it is a powerful one-person vehicle that can be critical when trying to stay alive within the game.

The Nitro Drift can be won in a match by finding it, destroying an opponent who has one, or earning it through your battle pass. The Nitro Drift is very hard to destroy. It has 800 health points and 250 shield points. Regular weapons only deal a certain amount of damage and Trump’s get away chopper only deals about 25 hit points. When spawned during the match it must be hit in order of the core, tips, fans/guns in order to destroy it.

How to Unlock Nitro Drift in Fortnite?

To unlock Nitro Drift in Fortnite, purchase it from the Item Shop for 500 V-Bucks. The price is higher since items do not rotate in the shop often, and this one is a legacy item featuring a crossover of two popular cultural brands. Players can find Nitro Drift in the Locker section of the Pause menu under the Outfits tab. It is an Epic rarity skin, and does not come with any back bling or additional styles for customization.

What is the Best Way to Drift in Nitro Drift in Fortnite?

The best way to drift in Nitro Drift in Fortnite outside of driving games is to use the background elements to slide around beached boats, ice rinks, oil slicks, and any other element that is inclined and slippery. The ideal scenario is to enter the element at a straight angle and then slide through it as you rotate your direction. Popping Nitro during or at the end of a slide can help to end the slide in the direction you want out of the element.

To drive a Fortnite Drift Soapbox Car in a similar manner, look for inclined surfaces that can help slide your vehicle one way even as you steer the opposite direction. Ice helps slide vehicles sideways after which you can rotate the direction of travel. Beached boats provide an inclined surface to jump off of and glide in either direction based on which way you land.

Pools or ponds filled with water do the same and soapbox players can either enter with sufficient speed or use the boost after getting in to slide around within the element. Oil slicks and other slippery surfaces bode well with the muddy terrain increases sideways traction while buffing contact with the slippery part.

Choose the Right Vehicle

In Fortnite Creative maps, the fun is in building and repeating races, obstacle courses, and games with friends. The Ak | Akhyla drift map is considered the definitive Fortnite Drift course with multiple tracks and stadium arenas for competition. Different vehicles in Fortnite drift and have unique handling capabilities that vary based on the physical properties set for them in the map’s code.

The main rule for selecting the right Fortnite vehicle is to pick the one with the highest boost value. None of the Fortnite vehicles feature control schemes that allow for mid-drift extension (the Japanese Choku Dori technique), but they vary from those with constant boosts that recharge such as the Chopper, to bursts like the Dash, and the ATK’s lasting better than normal boost with increased friction that helps maintain speed during the drift. The above video shows map creator Wertandrew stressing how different vehicles in Fortnite Creative can result in different types of drifting due to their boost capabilities, even if there are no other controls for drift itself.

Find a Suitable Location

As stunts come with virtually no effect on performance in Fortnite races, the player can use almost any part of the track to drift as long as the location does not increase the risk of compromising performance in a bad direction. This stand-alone ramp on the south side of the track, though available and level, holds the risk of compromising performance if the player drifts to the left off of it since there are walls and a turn in that direction which use up time.

Use the Right Controller Settings

When you change your controls, you should always aim to limit the number of inputs that you need to fiddle with to drift to the left or right in a Nitro Drift in Fortnite. This is because it will take you half a second longer than an opponent with simpler inputs to start drifting because you get lost in thought about whether you need to click button 1 + D + Shift, button 2 + right-trigger, and so on.

Aydan Conrad and DrLupo (allias Juilian Conroy) are two popular twitch streamers who change controls to fit drift better into their individual playstyle. The following is one of the most common layouts for drift in a Battle Royale:

Keyboard and Mouse:

• Move Left: A
• Move Right: D
• Evasive Move Left: Left Shift + A
• Evasive Move Right: Left Shift + D

Controller:

• Move Left: Left stick to left
• Move Right: Left stick to right
• Evasive Move Left: Running + left fire button
• Evasive Move Right: Running + right fire button

Depending on your dominant hand, drifting comfortably during shooting might be a bit of an adjusting challenge, so adjust accordingly.

What are the Tips and Tricks for Drifting in Nitro Drift?

The tips and tricks for effectively drifting in a Nitro Drift in Fortnite consist of the following strategies, developed by players over time:

1. Get used to non-sprint driving – The normal, slower driving mode will make it substantially easier to control your car. Should in case you make a sharp turn and spike a high speed.
2. Drive with moderation – There is no advantage to repeatedly pressing and letting go of the driving buttons. Preserve your fingers. Click the driving buttons only to fulfill one of the two suggestions made.
3. Use barricades to hit walls – It deals a significant amount of damage to walk/run into the walls yourself. Avoid this because you spend a lot of hp that way. Destroying a barricade directly or indirectly will prevent traffic jams and fight better.
4. Keep moving both shoulder buttons while shooting or free-pick-driving – To shoot straight ahead without disturbing your driving rhythm, it is vital to shift the car sharply in high-speed traps.
5. Slide while free-pick-driving

The Nitro Drift speed is achieved by maneuvering the phone around, adding an additional degree of difficulty and skill to reverse while free-pick-driving.

Practice Makes Perfect

Practice by playing Fortnite itself. The simplest way to learn how to drift using nitrous boost is to get the feel for vehicles within the game. This includes understanding the vehicle’s driving speed, ease of turning, and braking distance. Once you have the feel for cars, unicorns and pick-up trucks, get into a Quadcrasher or Whiplash vehicle and practice drifting all over the map. One useful part as mentioned before is to press Alt-key/Option key in vehicles to help with maneuverability.

Utilize Boosts and Jumps

The Boost and Jumps feature is the most important part of the Nitro Drift LTM. Booster circles are shown as purple markers on the map and yellow pathways on the ground. Drive through these to take advantage of the extra speed and to power the new jump feature that is unique to the Nitro Drift mode. By driving off specific ramps, the player can execute jumps to avoid enemies, reach higher elevations, or simply have fun. If you aim correctly, you can even jump straight into an enemy’s vehicle to eliminate it.

In Nitro Drift any vehicle is capable of boosting and jumping. Ice Cream Truck and Jimmy Tuk Tuk are 2 vehicles that are frequently used due to their drifting and speed abilities. While being able to jump as well as drive over any surface means all vehicles are available for a variety of stunts, the Combat Loopers can jump the furthest. This is a gadget producing infinite orange LP, drops Assault Rifles constantly, and has unlimited fuel.

Master the Timing

There are two important aspects to the timing in order to drift well in a drift in fnitro. These are the beginning of the drift and the release of the drifting button. The best time to start your drift is right as you’re entering a corner. If you try to start earlier, you’ll slow down too much. If you try to start in the middle or even after you hit a corner, you’ve missed your chance completely. The key is to touch it right before, right on, or even directly after. This goes hand in hand with the timing of releasing your drifting button. F1Bristle.exe, the professional Fortnite tracker, states that you have better control over any vehicle post corner by easing off the “gassing,” which gives more control and helps regain speed.

What are the Common Mistakes to Avoid in Nitro Drift?

Common mistakes to avoid in Nitro Drift are the following:

1. Turning too much – use slight movements to course-correct once your car starts rotating to avoid oversteering.
2. Avoiding shortcuts or hazards – only use shortcuts if you know you have enough control to make the turn and avoid crashing. Avoid pushing the envelope.
3. Assuming every course is exactly the same – learn the unique characteristics of individual maps.
4. Constantly using boost – while important to the game, boost is an accelerator that can easily send an overly excited player off course. Using boost effectively requires a light hand.
5. Ignoring potential upgrades – upgrades can make a world of difference in your control over your car. Get them in the store and use them strategically and judiciously.

Oversteering

Oversteering has probably the most positive effect on the drift of the vehicle and the optimal drift technique when maneuvering a nitro vehicle if you exclusively want to go in a straight line.

It is called oversteering because the wheels are steering more than is required to make the turn in actuality. Essentially, the act of oversteering activates the drift function of the vehicle without it actually drifting.

Not Utilizing Boosts and Jumps

About: To drift in a Nitro Drift vehicle but not draw your field of play in Fortnite, do not only utilize boosts and jumps on top of finding a slippery part of the track. Be aware of track contours that affect drift degree and do not oversteer whether it be with the constraints of a controller or by finding out the car’s traction limit during the game.

Details: Enhance the practical Drift ability of the Fortnite Nitro Drift vehicle with jumps and adds 50% extra acceleration to easily drift around the corners. Plus, always keep his undercarriage exposed for the most efficient amount of speed and readiness to perform a jump and speeds up to over approximately 95 kph. Enhancing steering capability with the jumps can significantly impact steering during drifting around more sophisticated tracks at high speeds.

Nitro Drift in Fortnite Map Definition: Jumps are grey ramps (mentioned as half pipe jumps in Fortnite) pointing up. To correctly jump, go through one grey ramp, wait for the vehicle to fly in the air as specified in the map and afterward go over the second grey ramp pointing downwards.

Pros: Provides capability to move over obstacles for financial planning.

Cons: Places player in air longer than inconvenient, making him easier to aim at.

Recommendation: Use on large open road arenas at space constraints or to jump over buildings for surprise attacks.

Not Mastering the Timing

• One expert from Everyday Driver’s car podcast says, “Timing is the number one thing you need to learn if you want to drift. Your initiation has to happen at X amount of seconds for you to be able to turn on this corner at this elevation at this rate of speed.”

It is impossible to drift without correct timing. Start by trying to find the optimal cruising speed and quickly snap in the correct direction. You must also sharpen both turning and brake input, optimize entry speed, and begin power-on earlier in the turn.

Everyone agrees that the most important factor of proper drifting is acceleration and timing. Once you have successfully learned how to drift normally, adding nitrous should not change your timing much. The only difference will be a mild difference in speed that one can easily learn to adjust. Try it with the stock or normal cars first to get the rhythm down before trying with nitrous equipped vehicles to get the timing down to add nitrous

How to Win Races in Nitro Drift?

You win racers in Nitro Drift by not hitting any obstacles along the track. While you will not get disqualified for hitting cars and smashing them up, every bit of car health you lose by smashing obstacles makes it easier for the other cars to pass you. You can practice racing on course A and course B against real people to get the feel for where the hardest turns are and what is the most efficient way to drift around them. Ultimately the best way to win races is by upgrading your car after getting a lot of coins playing the main minigames.

Know the Track Layout

When you jump into a new Nitro Drift map, you’ll need to know the layout of the track or field. Look for on-screen directional indicators to provide a visual cue of where the next checkpoint is located. Having enough practice with a track ensures you don’t get lost during a race, can maximize speed by taking the most direct route, understand the significance of stunts and boosts, and can avoid obstacles that might slow you down or impede progress.

Negative consequences of unnecessary stunts include losing time by going the wrong direction, or being overly creative and flipping incorrectly instead of making a turn. Be the Usain Bolt of the chosen map by having a strong game plan in advance.

Take Advantage of Shortcuts

A unique advantage card of nitro drifts is that you can use them while cutting through shortcuts. Some shortcuts may have tight turns and areas that slow you down. This is where a nitro drift can help ensure you maintain your speed or accelerate quickly to achieve a higher finish.

In a video created by Fortnite Tracker and Reddit user FraudulentGray, they explore how to conquer every house in Salty Springs. By strategically using nitro drifts, you can throw off opponents trying to predict your moves in final house fights.

Use Power-ups Strategically

If you pick up power-ups in Nitro Drift, you must control when you use them. Do not use them merely because you picked them up, rather use them when you have to avoid imminent death. Triple Jump. Double Jump, Speed Boost, Magnetic Acceleration are the most effective power-ups that grant an advantage. Collect items in areas where there are not many opponents and use them productively to gain a competitive edge. Save rockets when close to opponents, and active flares should be used right before opponents use rockets.

Can You Drift in Other Vehicles in Fortnite?

Yes, you can drift in all added sports vehicles in Fortnite with the exception of the Motorboat. To drift these vehicles quickly tap the handbrake key. Vehicles where drift in Fortnite can be done feature a corresponding new feature of a stunt meter, as we showed in Drift video part 3 above. This shows you are drifting, gives you style points, but means you must drift further and more aggressively for the vehicle to catch on fire.

Yes, But with Different Techniques

There is already a comprehensive technique deep dive from OfficialNitroless posted on both the FNBR Unofficial Champions League Youtube channel and their Twitter. They explain the new Nitro Drift mechanics in detail, discuss the best techniques, and have a demonstration. They have analyzed the difference between drifting with a standard car versus nitro, showing when each one is used.

Which Vehicles are Best for Drifting?

The best Fortnite vehicles for drifting are the Nomad R-457 and Pony Up. These have been the fastest cars in the game so far and any car near/above 65 kph seems to have easy drift and sharp turn capabilities. The Serrato (taxi) is an excellent option for the city environment due to its tight handling and smaller stature. The speed is not as excessive as the others, so it pairs well in places where quick start/stops or switchbacks are required.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Drift in a Nitro Drift in Fortnite?

What is a Nitro Drift in Fortnite?
A Nitro Drift in Fortnite is a type of maneuver that allows you to quickly change direction while driving a vehicle, similar to drifting in real-life racing games.

How do I perform a Nitro Drift in Fortnite?
To perform a Nitro Drift, you need to be driving a vehicle in Fortnite and have Nitro Boost equipped. While driving, press and hold the Nitro Boost button (default is Shift on PC) and use the steering controls to turn sharply.

Are there any tips for mastering the Nitro Drift in Fortnite?
Yes, some tips for mastering the Nitro Drift include practicing in open areas, using the handbrake (default is Space on PC) to initiate the drift, and adjusting the vehicle sensitivity in the game settings.

Can I use the Nitro Drift in any vehicle in Fortnite?
Yes, the Nitro Drift can be performed in any drivable vehicle in Fortnite, including cars, trucks, and boats.

Is the Nitro Drift useful in gameplay?
Absolutely! The Nitro Drift can help you quickly evade incoming fire, outmaneuver opponents, and navigate through tight spaces in the game.

Are there any other types of drifting in Fortnite?
While the Nitro Drift is the most common and versatile type of drifting in Fortnite, there is also a Water Drift specific to boats and an Air Drift specific to hoverboards.