With many years of eager anticipation, the day has finally come that we’ve gotten our hands on Fortnite by legendary developer and publisher Epic Games. The game, as you can imagine, has been in the making for many years, and for a while it even managed to fall into obscurity, which lead many to thinking it was cancelled. As of Tuesday, that’s not the case as many have been grinding out countless hours, and have managed to mow down countless swarms of zombies.

There’s no doubt I have, I’ve had quite a bit of fun doing it, and for breaks, I farmed for materials as well as countless resources. I’ve even managed to gather schematics, recruit a few pals, and cause a bit of mayhem with the lads. If you wonder where my progress spend, there’s no doubt that this rather playful and cartoonish co-op based tower defense meets base-building shooter has dragged me in and not let me escape. Without further ado, lets enter Blast Away the Game Review to be a news publisher that decided to kick-in the games metaphorical doors and join the party.

6. Your Tutorial/Story Progress, Really Matters

So this one should be a no brainer. If you are playing a game, there’s no doubt that your tutorial/story progress is going to be one of the most important things from a game like this, and it is. This is where you’ll find yourself unlocking schematics, gaining survivors, experience points for characters, survivors, and well schematics. It’s also where you’ll learn much of the games basic functions as well as meet new players whether they are on PC or PlayStation 4.

While this sounds dumb, you need that XP for some of your later on activities, and you will want your characters leveled up. Whether it’s a hero you are using or not, they are all equally important, and that is something you may want to make note of as you go through the game. So use your XP sparingly between your main hero as well as your alternative ones.

5. Don’t be Scared to Tear Houses or Vehicles, but Search Everything First

As weird as this sounds, everything in the game serves a purpose. Even tin cans be quite important as some of them may have scrap you need in order to craft weapons. Bags, chests, and even shelving units do this too, so make sure to search everything. Do not, I repeat, do not leave any corner unchecked. Even oddly angled ceilings in houses can hold secret areas. I’ve found plenty of treasure chests this way and I have yet to regret it. I’ve even gained a legendary schematic from this process.

Same goes for cars, mausoleums are another good place to check. Why? Well, you’d be amazed what can be down there if you dig deep enough by breaking a floor or a few walls. Running short on rare supplies? They very well could be down there. Just make sure to check them, you never know what rewards your exploration’s may bring you.

4. Got Weapons That Are Breaking or Duplicate Schematics? Recycle Them.

 

If you’ve been playing enough with certain weapons, you may notice that your weapons durability has begun to wear down on the right side of its weapon slot on your HUD. It can be a bit alarming once you notice that the meter has gone from green, to white, to red. Trust me, I’ve been there too, it’s scary.

While your weapons are certainly about to break, there’s no doubt that they haven’t outlived their usefulness. Right before everything decides to go to Hell with them, go ahead and unequip them. Once you have a new weapon in their slot, go ahead and recycle them for some valuable resources so you can forge a new weapon. Same goes for schematics if you are running out of inventory room when you’re on your overworld map. These can help kickstart your fighting the good fight once more by providing you with XP so you may level up your more rare schematics.

3. For the Love of all Things Living. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR OBJECTIVES!

While this sounds like I’m being a bit of a brash jerk here, this is EXTREMELY important. Missions come with ratings. They also come with rewards based on your teams overall performance. If you have that one idjit who’s just building like crazy and not paying attention to your build limit on the right side of the screen? You may actually lose out on some insanely good loot.

You also want to pay attention to what the medals say. Most missions come with valuable hints at some special trials you can do for some extra bonus rewards and XP for your commander ranking. Most of the time they will include completing the mission in two days (you don’t want to wait till absolutely the last minute), saving x-amount of survivors, finding x-amount of treasures, and or securing your objective and protecting it from a certain amount of damage sustained.

Remember. You don’t have to build big, to build smart. Just make sure you build enough to give your team some general defenses, and high-ground so that the zombies don’t overrun you. Also, remember, you have character abilities. Those do matter whether you know it or not so use them.

2. Pay Attention to Your Collection’s Book

While you may be wondering why I’m not focusing on the building/combat bit, it’s because those pieces of the game are common sense, and if you’ve been playing the game; I’m sure you have that. At least I hope so.

This page comes with some pretty awesome rewards if you pay attention to it. You could very well find yourself stocking up on some survivors, rare characters, schematics, and even some nifty little bonuses such as weapons, and more. If it’s any consultation, I’ve managed to get Epic Heroes and Weapon Schematics. So this piece matters. It matters a lot. So pay attention to this part of your overworld menu’s.

1. Save Your Traps for Later, Not the Early Game

If there’s one bad habit I had, it was wasting my traps. Yes, you read that right. I wasted my traps in early missions. By the time I was just finishing the forth “chapter”, I had already used up the traps the game had given me, and soon found myself scurrying into my schematics menu in order to build more.

Instead? I’ve learned to be consistent in how cautious I am about using them. Not because I don’t love seeing my base defended, but because you and your team mates are going to melt zombies fast enough they won’t matter. If you are struggling with a mission or two because it’s a multi-fronted mission and your team is going all willy nilly to kill zombies versus defend? Then it’s safe to support one or two sides.

Just remember, watch your build limitations. That will matter more than you know. in the long run. Traps do use up that limitation during missions.

What suggestions do you have for your fellow Commanders? Let them know in the comments.

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About the Writer:

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.