I've played it for years now, on and off. I'll drop in at the beginning of a season, play for a while, then drift out. It's become something different now, as the original Battle Royale gameplay mechanic is now just one of a seemingly infinite and fractally expanding number of variant sub-games. If you're going to keep players playing forever, buying virtual "skins" and emotes and other in-game "products," that's the way to go, I suppose. And Lord, are there products, a wild capitalist smorgasbord of every conceivable IP from music and entertainment and gaming culture. It's actually a great way to know what corporations are pitching.
I've never spent a dime on Fortnite, not a single penny, because I'm cheap. I still play the Battle Royale version, in which 100 players parachute onto an island, and then spend the next thirty minutes fighting as a lethal "storm" shrinks the battlefield around them. The goal, of course, is to be the last one standing.
I'm not bad at the game, best I can tell. Not even close to being a pro, but I do alright. In a typical season, I win about one out of every ten rounds, getting that "Victory Royale" dopamine bump. I'm almost always top ten. I mean, sure, my opponents are all twelve years old, and some have been alive less time than I've been playing the game. But it's still entertaining.
My rule of thumb, every season, no matter what: you don't need to get into every fight.
If you want to win, which is kinda sorta the whole point of the game, staying out of firefights during the midgame is just as important as winning them. Firefights draw the attention of every nearby player, as kids rush to the fray hoping to pick off a weakened player and collect their stuff. I avoid that.
Early game, I get kitted enough that I can dish out damage, heal myself, and restore my shields. Then I do everything I can to stay out of conflict. Play it in stealth mode on foot, moving from cover to cover. Flee in a car. Fly above the fray, if there are air vehicles. Whatever. Just don't fight unless you have to.
This season, that means I use the "get to the choppa" strategy. I find a chopper, which I use to soar as high above the melee below as I can. Folks take potshots at me, which I encourage, because if they're trying to shoot me down, they're drawing attention to themselves. I repair and refuel often, returning to the skies to watch the carnage as the other players fight it out beneath me, or finding a quiet spot to land and conserve fuel.
That usually gets me to the final five, at which point I'll either drop down and play stealthily, or...if the copter is fine...just stay out of the mess until it's just me and one other player. Then it's down, down, down, to press aggressively on the last opponent with close quarters weapons.
Of the last five games I've played using that strategy, I've come in second once, and gotten a Victory Royale four times. Meaning, I did better than four hundred and ninety eight players.
Again, you don't need to engage in every single fight.
It's not a bad strategy outside of Fortnite, either.
Because there's a different fight, every day. Our conflict-fueled culture offers us something new to rage about, or to posture over, every danged day.
It'll destroy your soul, wear you down to a bloody nub of rage and anxiety, consume your every thought.
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