Building is what makes Fortnite stand out from all the other battle royales in the gaming industry. With such a unique mechanic, it becomes a staple of Fortnite’s identity, making it a huge part of the gameplay. Oftentimes players, especially new ones, find this mechanic difficult to learn. We took some time to talk with Dignitas’ Abdullah “Acorn” Akhras and had him give us some of his tips for players to improve their builds in Fortnite.

Two Common Mistakes Players Make

One common mistake Acorn notes is that when new players try to improve their builds, they try to do too much. It’s fun to watch high-level players and try to emulate what they do, but oftentimes the processing and skills just aren’t there yet.

Acorn: “New players try and do too much. They’ll watch the pros and try to be really flashy. In reality, I think the smartest players are the ones who build when they need to and don’t build too much or too little. Every build has a purpose.”

In addition to keeping your building simple, Acorn mentions players should make sure they are consistent. Building too much can make things confusing and chaotic, especially for new players. Building too little can leave you vulnerable to attacks or cause you to lose build fights. When you are building, think to yourself, “Why am I building this?” If you don’t have a good answer, it’s probably best to just save the materials and not build in that situation.

Practicing and Improving Builds

So how should players approach improving their builds? Custom edit courses are a good way to improve edits on the fly and going into Creative with a friend to just practice 1v1 build battles can be a good way to get some experience simulating an in-game experience. Another thing to keep in mind is watching top players is still a good way to improve! Trying to do all of the fancy and flashy things elite players do is where players are misled.

Instead, just observe how these players act while playing rather than just copying them one to one. How is their crosshair placement? How do they respond to getting pincered? How do they edit? Observe how they play, but don’t overwhelm yourself by mimicking every building they place down or every insane shot they make.

Acorn: “I think edit courses are good. I think it’s also a lot of crosshair placement. Focus on where your crosshair is at all times when you’re editing and building. Try and watch the top pros to see what they do.”

Warming Up

Warming up is always a good thing to do before a long ranked session, but don’t overwhelm yourself and warm up for too long. Alternatively, don’t completely neglect a warmup either. Everyone is different. Finding that sweet spot that helps you prepare before you hop in ranked games can be very beneficial.

Acorn: “For everyone, how long you should warm up is different. It just comes down to when you feel warm. I would say anything above 15 minutes should be enough.”

How Acorn Thinks During Build Battles

Acorn has his own way of practicing his builds and improving his 1v1 build battles:

Acorn: “When I am playing Creative and I am 1v1ing someone, I’ll go through different things while I am playing. First, I’ll focus on my builds. Next, I’ll focus on my edits. Lastly, I won’t be building much, just trying to focus on my aim. I put myself in scenarios that I can see in the game, like I have no materials and I’m just holding my gun out, letting the person fight me. I just go through things that I want to work on while I’m playing.”

Simulating real situations is a great way to improve in ranked matches because it allows you to directly transfer those things you worked on to each match you play. Getting a solid practice routine going in addition to a good warmup like we mentioned previously is a great way to see improvement quickly.

Acorn goes on to talk about the mental side of building in Fortnite:

Acorn: “With Fortnite, everything happens so fast. At some point, when you get better at building, it becomes a chess match. It becomes chess, just moving pieces and countering what the enemy does.”

Video games become a mental game where you need to outwit your opponent, especially at higher levels. Keeping this in mind, don’t overwhelm yourself too much with this information, but apply it slowly to your gameplay. Take mental notes, observe what your opponent does, and exploit that. Eventually, the mental game and the mechanical skill will mesh together, and you will notice improvement as you practice and get better.

Conclusion

A huge shoutout to Acorn once again for giving us some insight into how he plays Fortnite and for his tips on how to improve at building. Just remember to keep it simple, practice and warm up regularly, and learn from each game you play!