Fortnite: Save the World is a co-op sandbox survival game developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly and published by Epic Games. The game was released as a paid-for early access title for Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on July 25, 2017, with a full free-to-play release expected in 2018.
Main/Support/Tactical
This is one thing that even knowledgeable players occasionally overlook. You can find 3 “slots” inside a Hero Develop(MST); Primary (The Hero you play as), Help (Normally universal Assistance Capacity indicated by an Umbrella icon that buffs your Principal) & Tactical (Commonly Hero class specific [Ninja, Outlander, Soldier or Constructor] Tactical Capability indicated by an “X -> O” icon that buffs your Major). You can inspect any heroes Assistance and/or Tactical abilities by simply looking at their Abilities. Keep in mind… an Assistance Capability will ONLY work when slotted in the Help Slot…same with Tactical. The biggest takeaway from this is knowing the difference between the three slots and how to “build” a Hero Make.
Hero Builds
This is anything you may see a lot in this community…”Who should I run with (Hero)?” As mentioned above, you can make several different combinations of MST. And as you may have already noticed…from time to time when opening a Llama you will be asked to choose a class (Ninja or Outlander) and then it could go deeper and ask you to pick a specific hero within that class (Pathfinder Jess or Trailblaster Buzz). Starting out…you honestly will not know who is who and who is actually worth keeping. This is one of the tips I tell all new players when I do my 1 on 1 sessions. First, go to your collection book and to heroes and to any of the four classes (Ninja, Soldier, Outlander, and Constructor) and start reading their Skills and Descriptions (Simply click on ANY Legendary Hero and inspect them). This will take some time, but it is very much well worth it in the end. Try to get a semi-firm understanding as to what the hero actually does base on the skills they unlock if you were to level them up. If you scroll to the bottom on a Hero’s skillset you’ll see a brief description summing up the Hero’s make. As you go through ALL the heroes, write down your favorites based on what you know about them…maybe pick one or two per class so you don’t get overwhelmed. Once you have all your Most important heroes noted, now you want to work on the Assistance hero that buffs the Mains you wish to play as. While keeping in mind what that Main Hero you selected can do and what skills it has, go back through and read ALL heroes’ Support Potential under Bonuses (Indicated by an Umbrella Icon) Pick one for each Principal you picked that BEST supports that Hero. After that, do the same thing again with a focus on the Tactical Potential (Indicated by “X->O” icon). Have these “Hero Builds” goals will really help you narrow and focus your choices as you get them which will help you in the long run. Again, this may take an hour or two to do…but I promise you it is worth it.
“Should I Upgrade…”
A couple of people asked me if it is wise to upgrade schematics, heroes, survivors etc… and the overall answer is YES. But why? Why upgrade a Rare or Epic item when Legendary items are desired? The answer is very simple: At anytime, if you feel the need to say…switch your heroes around and maybe play as someone new…or now you have a higher rarity hero that you rather use instead of a Rare or Epic… you can always recycle the item to get “Majority” of the XP you put into it AND ALL of the Evolve Materials put into it (Drops if Rain, Lightning inside a Bottle etc…) This is VERY crucial along your journey in STW, more-so in your Survivor Squads as you replace lower rarity or non-matching personalities with higher rarity or matching personalities to bump up your Power Level.
Upgrading VS. Evolving
Speaking of Upgrading and Evolving…what is the difference? Actually….you will find three things to differentiate between; Leveling-Up, Upgrading, and Evolving. So let us start with Leveling-Up: This is what you do when you Level-Up anything. Starting out it will be LV 1/10. You can Level-Up that item to 10/10. But once you get to 10/10 it is time for you to Evolve that item to 10/20! Evolving an item adds another “Star” to it…indicating the tier it is. Evolving items cost Evolve Materials and Manuals. Evolve Materials consist of Pure Drops of Rain, Lightning inside a Bottle, Eye of the Storm and Shards (Can’t remember the exact name). These Evolve materials are typically Mission Rewards and are…well…awarded after completion of Missions. You can also find them in Evolve Material Caches (more on this later). Evolving an item will allow you to Level it up again, increases its power. Lastly Upgrades…Upgrading a thing means you are enhancing the Rarity of an item….from Green to Blue, Blue to Purple or Purple to Orange. This is only possible using Flux from the Weekly store of the desired type (Rare, Epic or Legendary)
Weekly Shop Items
So, moving right on…I just mentioned Upgrading and Evolving items. Both of which you can get from the Weekly Store using Gold. I HIGHLY suggest always buying the following Fortnite items from the weekly store: All Evolve Materials, Epic Flux, Legendary Flux and if you are just starting out to mid-late Canny Valley…the Epic Survivors. Also, once you reach a certain point in the quest line, you will unlock the capability to do Daily Quests. These will award you with V-bucks and Daily Coins. You can get 700 Daily Coins a week doing these Daily Quests allowing you to purchase either a Legendary Weapon or Trap Schematic. If neither appeals you, or you already have one of them…feel free to save your Daily coins for the next week…you may want both!
Weapon “Repairing” and Durability
So, I’ll keep this simple. There is no way for you to repair a weapon. Just use it until it breaks OR recycles it when it is close to breaking … then craft a new one.
Private Mode Farming
So I mentioned in my last post to farm in Private. Basically what you can do, is set your game mode to Private meaning only people in your party or people you invite can play with you. Simply load up any mission while in Private and farm as much as you wish. Break every Parking Meter you find to get easy Nuts and Bolts (NABs) search every chest for loot and mine ALL the ores! The best part is…you do not have to even do the mission to keep the items you farm! Once you got as much as you want, simply back out of the mission and load it right back up again if you want. IF you are in a public mission, you can of course still farm. Just be respectful. If the mission starts to stop what you are doing and make haste back to the objective. It is called the Major Objective after all. I also made a statement regarding playing as Harvesting Outlanders in Public Missions and not to do it. The reason I said this was IF you have your game mode set to Public, you intend on completing the mission. Mission completion almost always requires combat. MOST Harvesting Outlanders do what they do best…Harvest and not so much in Combat. Now…don’t get me wrong there will be players who argue a Pathfinder CAN be just as good in combat as any other heroes if done right. And it is the player, not the hero that determines the helpfulness of the hero. Sure. HOWEVER, Pathfinder, Recon Scout and Striker (Not so much following the recent patch) still have a skill build that revolves around Farming and not Combats.
Playing Solo VS. Playing Co-op
The game is designed to be played as a 4 player Co-op experience. You CAN play this game Solo…hell…some people like the challenge…but playing Solo is MUCH more difficult and resource heavy….but do-able. Just be ready for a rough road trip.
Defenders
Defenders basically fill slots of players if none are present…either due to low player activity or your game is set to Private. A lot of people say don’t use them…and others say to use them. Personally, I suggest having at least one leveled as a “Just in case” measure. Snipers or Melee Defenders are the best in my opinion.
Storage Overflow and Collection Book
So you may have already realized that you have waaaay too many items and some may be greyed out due to overflow. What I recommend you do is start throwing Common/Uncommon (Grey/Green) items into your collection book. Once you have what you can in there….you can do 1 of 2 things. You can either scrap any remaining Grey/Green items OR you can save them for Transformations. Personally, I keep ALL my Grey/Green items for Transformations…simply because scrapping them will not reward you with any manuals (Which are used to Evolve / Research things)but you still get the same amount of XP if you were to scrap them. Only scrap things IF you are truly hurting for space. Now Rares/Epics (Blue/Purple) at my stage in the game, I have the collection book for the most part full… if I don’t plan on upgrading a rare or epic item… I simply scrap it for manuals and XP. for a beginner, slotting your extra Rares in the collection book isn’t a bad idea if you know for a fact that you do not need them (you can always pull me back out for 20 VB) And same with Epics…although I highly suggest simply holding onto anything Epic or higher until you start to get a firm to understand of value and “meta” or desired items. As for Legendary items… I always keep them, even if I know I’ll never use them. I may slot them in my collection book just for completion…but NEVER just scrap them for XP.
Transforming items
As you progress in the game, you will unlock the potential to Transform things. Transforming stuff basically allows you to convert several items of a lower tier into one of a higher tier. Transforming Heroes, Survivors and Defenders all cost “People Points” (Acquired from rescuing survivors or Expeditions) and Schematics cost “Research Points” (Acquired within the Research “Skill” tree) The cool thing about Transforming is that you get all the XP you would get if you were to simply scrap an item….but this generates a new item! I always convert my Greys to Green. And my Greens to Blue. Then I scrap the Blues for XP / Manuals (Since you can’t get manuals from Greys / Green) And yeah! That’s all on Transforms.
Skill Tree & Research Tree
These are two separate skill trees that you will work in as you progress in the game. The Skill Tree uses Skill Points which are awarded as you level up your Commander LV. At certain Commander Levels, you will start to gain more skill points per level. With that being said…every Skill Tree requires 1 more skill point per node than the previous. A couple of people asked me how strict and conservative they need to be regarding spending skill points. Honestly, with recent changes, you are now able to fully unlock every node within every skill tree. However, this is only achievable IF you get Collection Book level 133+, Max Commander Level (310) AND complete ALL SSDs for each zone. With that being said…it is still advised to be a little picky when unlocking Nodes. I normally don’t unlock Defender Nodes if it is not needed to get one thing else. Same with Expeditions. The most important nodes to focus are ones that all you to have more Survivor Squad slots. More slots mean more Survivors which means higher PL. That brings me to the Research Tree. This portion is based on Time. Over time you will gain Research Points which you will have to claim before it caps. Please read this next portion, it will help you a ton! You will start out in Research Tree (RT) 1…Here you want to make unlocking the Survivor Squad slots your Number One priority by taking the shortest path possible. The cool thing about the RT is that…even if you don’t progress your questline and Skill Tree to unlock tier 2 or zone 2 in those… you can still progress into the Tier 2 RT. With that being said…each new Tier requires you to unlock a certain amount of Nodes in the previous tier. If you prioritize getting all Survivor Squad slots…you will already be slow to meeting that quota to unlock the next tier. If you are short, start working towards backpack and storage slot upgrades. IF at any time you can unlock the next tier, do so immediately and stop working in the lower tier and switch your focus to the newest tier. You simply get more bang for your buck doing it this way. Once you get into a new tier, do the same thing…take the shortest path possible to unlock all Survivor Squad slots while trying to meet the Node Quota for the next tier. As always, if you are short on the needed nodes to unlock the next tier, start working towards the backpack and storage increases. Rinse…wash and repeat.
Survivor Squads
I’ll be very brief on this. Level up your Survivors evenly to gain the most bang for your buck. Leveling up a survivor will put points into the F.O.R.T. (Fortitude [Health / Health Regen], Offense [Damage], Resistance [Shield / Shield Regen], Tech [Ability DMG / Trap DMG / Gadget DMG]) state that they are slotted in. Now tell me…would you rather spend 200 XP leveling up a survivor from 1 to 2 and gaining 1 point into Offense…OR 5,000 xp and gaining the same 1 point? The higher level the survivor is..the more XP it costs to level up. It just makes sense to level them up evenly. Anything I do…is if I reach the Level Cap (10/10, 20/20, 30/30 etc…) I always evolve them to the next tier before working on another survivor. For an example… I level up all my survivors one at a time all to level 8…then all to level 9….then when I get the first one to level 10/10, I evolve that one survivor to 10/20 (2 stars) before leveling up my next level 9 to level 10…and the process continues until all at 10/20….so on and so forth. Anywho…when it comes to which survivors to put where. In the long run, it is best to slot the higher rarity or personality match. Over time, you will be able to replace survivors with matching personalities or higher rarity which will only further increase your PL. Although the difference will not really take effect until survivors are at around mid-level 20…planning ahead is never a bad thing. NEVER scrap a Legendary Survivor!
Caches
Last but not least…I said I’d mention them…so let us talk about Caches! Caches are a rather new implementation to the game…basically allowing players to be awarded Rare to Legendary schematics or Evolve materials during missions by either killing Mini-Bosses or searching High-Level Chests or Safes. The one thing I really want to inform you of is that you must be close to the chest or safe in order to be awarded the cache. With that being said IF you find one…call it out to your teammates. and wait for them to get close. Even if you aren’t the person to open it, if you are close..you will get a cache. Caches are far more valuable than that of anything in the chest. So don’t be too worried about someone stealing your chest…you’re already there…so you will get the cache. If I find a cache chest or safe I always say “Potential Cache on me, please do not open until everyone gets here.” Most of the time, everyone waits and most of the time I’m the one who opens it. Especially if I am an Outlander with the increased chance of double loot…and yes.. you can get double caches! But in the sad times that people wanna get greedy and open it before you, just remember…the Cache is the most valuable thing in the chest or safe…and you will get it no matter what.
Trading
Okay… I know I said the one above was the last thing…but looking at my notes… I completely skipped over this. Trading IS a thing many players including myself do. Some people trade and collect weapons…some people trade and horde materials. Personally, I do not see a value in trading / collecting weapons (Like Pokemon cards)…however material trading has a huge purpose in the game. As you progress through the game you will enter new zones which will require weapons of higher tiers to be used. Weapons of previous tiers will slowly become obsolete. That being said…the materials used to make those will also become obsolete. Trading allows you as a player to trade unwanted/unneeded materials for stuff you need…whether it be higher or lower tiered materials…or simply an abundance of an item you don’t really…use. There currently is not a safe method of trading. Everything is risky and based on the trust of another person…and if for some reason you are new to the internet and video game trading….there are scammers…everywhere trying to make any bit of “profit” off of any victim they can. If you are new to the game, try to avoid trading weapons altogether and hold out on trading materials for as long as you can. You will see A LOT of people trying to trade in Global Chat…ignore those guys…9 times out of 10 you can assume they are a scammer….that last 1 out of 10….well… just assume they are a scammer too lol. If you do wish to trade materials, you’ll find several Discords, Facebook Groups and even subreddits such as /r/FortniteFleaMarket where you can trade materials. Weapon trading in those groups isn’t very…acceptable. Just remember to be safe and be smart.
Evolving Weapons Too Early
A very valid point was mentioned in the comments of this post so I wanted to touch on it. As you progress through the story, you will unlock the potential to Evolve your weapons. Evolving your weapons is crucial to the game! However…as Prof. Oak once said, “There are a time and place for everything.” What I am trying to get at is just because you unlock the capacity to evolve weapons…does not mean you should right away. Many players have quickly realized that mistakes were made by evolving their weapons too early. My “Rule of Thumb” is IF you have a steady flow of the needed materials needed to craft a weapon…that is a great indication that it is time to evolve your weapons. Ideally, you will want to use Copper weapons while you are in Stonewood, Silver in Plankinton, Malachite in Canny Valley and so on… A principal reason is that unless you are in the correct zone…you will have trouble maintaining enough stock to keep up with the weapon crafting cost. Personally, I did not evolve any of my schematics until I was in the next zone. It has made my life so much better learning from other peoples’ mistakes.
Well… that was one hell of a long post to write up…as I stated before… this one goes a little bit more in-depth and actually applies to both new and old players. If you have questions, please feel free to ask. My self or someone else in this community will try to do our best to help. You only need to ask 🙂