Trying to improve at building as a beginner or even an intermediate player can be difficult. It’s hard to know where to start and what moves are actually practical. You can find countless retakes and building techniques on YouTube, but not all of them are practical in real matches.

Generally, the goal is to build as efficiently as possible to save your resources. Often, if you go for these flashy retakes and techniques, you will run out of building materials quite quickly.

Getting better at building in Fortnite takes time and practice, but here are some moves that you can use to boost this. These are essential moves that will help you win fights. Sure, they are not the flashiest of moves, but it will help you keep up with players better than you.

Protected Side Jumps and High Walls

If you are up against a player who likes to abuse high ground and poke you from above, learning the side jump is a great idea.

Place a ramp and put a cone over the ramp, then you jump off from the side of the ramp and land parallel to the cone. You basically go up a level in height. That’s a basic side jump. It will take you an hour in Creative to master it. But a side jump on its own isn’t useful since you will be open from all sides.

That’s where the protected side jump comes in. Just before you jump from the side of the ramp, look at the cone, and you should be able to place a wall parallel to the cone. When you finally jump, you can quickly flick around you and place walls on all your sides. Bonus points if you can place a cone over you when you land, as that will protect you even further.

The high walls work similarly, but instead of putting walls all around, you look up and place a second wall on top of the wall you put on the cone. This works really well if the enemy is only one or two levels above you, as that second wall can block him, and you can use that to either trap him with a cone or 90 up to take high ground.

There is a lot of freedom in what you can do after the protected side jump; it’s a transitional move.

Phases

If you have been playing Fortnite for a while, you probably know what phases are. All it does is allow you to jump “phase” into an enemy’s box. It works really well against players who like to turtle a lot. It’s also a fantastic move to finish off a weakened opponent who’s trying to heal in a box.

There are many ways to phase, but the ramp and door phase are all you need to learn. The ramp phase is quick to setup but it’s hard to time right. On the other hand, the door phase isn’t as quick to setup but it is very easy to phase with it.

These moves on themselves aren’t difficult to learn. In fact, they might be the easiest moves in the game. But it’s when to use them that you need to learn.

A phase is a fight-ending move in most cases. This is why you need to be on a health advantage or confident in your aiming ability to be able to pull off. Because once you are in an enemy’s box, there is no escaping it’s a bullet fight to the death.

Tunneling

Tunneling is one of the most essential mechanics you need to learn in Fortnite if you aim to play competitively. The idea is simple: all you need to do is keep making boxes around you while moving. It works like this: Make a box, edit the wall where you want to go, and quickly make a box around you again, and repeat.

Not only is it an essential move in the end game, but even in fights, it allows you to create space between you and your opponent to heal or retreat. Plus, if the enemy pressures you, you can play around the tunnel you made.

Thwifo Cone

The Thwifo Cones have been around for a while now; the move was originally invented by the pro player Thwifo. The mechanic is simple; it’s like an advanced version of a scissor ramp, where instead of putting a ramp above you when you are ramping up, you look back and put walls and a cone over you. It gives you that extra protection while also giving freedom to use the wall and cones to change your direction or try out another retake.

Protected Peanut Butter Peek

Protected Peanut Butter Peek is an essential box-fighting mechanic. For those unfamiliar, a peanut butter peek is where you edit the top right, middle right, and top middle tiles of the wall, resulting in a triangular peek. It looks like a peanut butter sandwich, which is where the name comes from. The peanut butter peek gives you a right-hand peek, which is quite powerful in Fortnite, as it allows you to see the enemy without them seeing you.

That’s essentially a peanut butter peek. A protected peanut butter is an advanced variant of that, where you make a box diagonal to the enemy’s box and make the peanut butter edit. It gives you the space of one box, so you don’t get instantly punished. You can use it to keep pressuring and poking the enemy.

Conclusion

Building in Fortnite can be hard to master and get consistent at. You can learn to build quite quickly, but learning to build smart and efficiently takes time, knowing when to phase into an enemy box, or when to challenge height takes time and experience. These moves give you a fighting chance against most players in the game. These aren’t super difficult to master but still take a bit of practice and dedication.