By Kallie Plagge on Feb 11, 2018 10:30 pm
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For anime fans, there's a lot to look forward to in 2018. The year started out strong with Dragon Ball FighterZ, which is full of references to classic moments from Dragon Ball Z and a new story for fans to enjoy. But it's not the only anime game coming out this year; Sword Art Online, One Piece, Naruto, and more are all getting new games. Click forward to see all the games based on existing anime confirmed for 2018. If you're curious about 2018 in general, you can check out our features on Switch exclusives, PS4 exclusives, Xbox One exclusives, and PC exclusives. There's also a wealth of exciting games coming out in 2018 that aren't necessarily exclusive to one platform or another, so be sure to check out our individual features highlighting the most anticipated PS4 games, Xbox One games, PC games, and Switch games for a broader look at the year ahead. For more on anime, be sure to check out our gallery of the biggest anime to watch in 2018. If you're looking for recommendations of shows to watch, see the best anime available on Netflix and our top 10 anime of 2017.
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory
The latest game in the long-running Digimon series presents the mysterious backstory to the events that transpired in the first Cyber Sleuth RPG and features 320 Digimon from the animated series. Developer: Media.Vision | Release Date: January 19 | PS4, Vita
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Based on the Dragon Ball series, this 2D fighter follows a 3v3 format and includes a new story and character. Dragon Ball FighterZ is developed by Arc System Works, best known for BlazBlue and Guilty Gear. Developer: Arc System Works | Release Date: January 26 | PS4, Xbox One, PC
The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia
The first game based on the popular anime series, The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia tasks you with saving the Kingdom of Liones. It includes memorable fights from the series and popular characters, including Hawk, Elizabeth, and Meliodas. Developer: Natsume Atari | Release Date: February 9 | PS4
Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet
The latest game based on hit anime Sword Art Online features an original story by series creator Reki Kawahara. The action-RPG has a greater emphasis on third-person shooting mechanics than previous games. Developer: Dimps | Release Date: February 23 | PS4, Xbox One, PC
Attack on Titan 2
The next Attack on Titan game mainly covers the second season of the anime and includes over 30 playable characters from both seasons. Expect lots of Titan-slaying action, 3D maneuver gear, and more. Developer: Koei Tecmo | Release Date: March 20 | Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC
Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time
Side-scrolling action game Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time lets you control series protagonist Akko as she explores her magical academy with her friends. The game will also include animated cutscenes by Studio Trigger. Developer: A+ Games | Release Date: Spring 2018 | PS4, PC
Black Clover: Quartet Knights
A game based on 2017's Black Clover is coming in 2018, featuring four-player "magical combat" based around different characters' specializations. Developer: Ilinix | Release Date: 2018 | PS4
My Hero Academia: One's Justice
The smash-hit superhero show My Hero Academia is getting a third season this year along with a video game. One's Justice is a fighting game with a manga flair. Developer: Byking | Release Date: 2018 | Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC
Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker
In the next Naruto game, team up as a group of four and challenge other teams online to become the best ninja around. Developer: Soleil Ltd. | Release Date: 2018 | PS4, Xbox One, PC
New Gundam Breaker
Like the previous Gundam Breaker games, New Gundam Breaker will let you build and customize Gunpla kits and then use them in battle. Developer: Crafts and Meister | Release Date: 2018 | PS4
One Piece: Grand Cruise
Explore the Thousand Sunny and interact with the Straw Hat Pirates in VR in One Piece: Grand Cruise. Release Date: 2018 | PSVR
One Piece: World Seeker
Like many One Piece games, World Seeker puts you in the role of Luffy and let you battle and more in an open-world environment. Developer: Ganbarion | Release Date: 2018 | PS4, Xbox One, PC
By Dan Auty on Feb 11, 2018 10:29 pm
Netflix's recent anime hit Devilman Crybaby has become one of the most talked-about anime releases for many years, and its weird and disturbing content has pushed back the boundaries of what viewers might expect to see on the streaming service. But it's hardly the first anime series to feature controversial, disturbing, and outrageous content. There have been some truly jaw-dropping movies and shows released over the years--some are violent, some sexual, some just indescribably weird. So here are 11 other anime movies and series that delivered something different. And once you've checked this out, take a look out our list of the best horror anime to stream right now and the best anime on Netflix.
11. Angel's Egg (1985)
Mamoru Oshii is one of Japan's most acclaimed animation directors, whose credits include the original Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor, and Urusei Yatsura. Before he made those classics he helmed Angel's Egg alongside artist Yoshitaka Amano, who would later become a prominent figure in the gaming world for his work on the Final Fantasy series. It's surely one of the weirdest anime films ever made--more a head-spinning psychedelic art instillation than a piece of narrative filmmaking, it follows a young girl as she wanders through a strange, post-apocalyptic world. Its bizarre, meditative tone is a world away from most of the other movies on the list, but in its own way it's every bit as subversive.
10. Urotsukidōji/Legend of the Overfiend (1986)
Urotsukidōji, also known as Legend of the Overfiend, was released in the US in the wake of Akira's break-out success, and for many new anime fans it was their first taste of how extreme things could get. It's based on Toshio Maeda's manga series, but director Hideki Takayama pushes the material much further. The story of a demonic beast in human form who comes to earth, it's packed with disturbing horror and sexual violence. As Takayama said when asked about Urotsukidōji's extreme content: "There is nothing that arouses a stronger response in human beings than either sex or violence. A mixture of the two is very powerful indeed."
9. Violence Jack: Evil Town (1988)
A year after he first unleashed Devilman on the world, manga pioneer Go Nagai returned with another controversial creation. Violence Jack is a mighty warrior who dispenses violent justice in a world that has been destroyed by natural disasters. The character might not have had the impact of Devilman, but he did inspire a variety of manga titles over the years, as well as three separate anime video releases. The middle of these was Violence Jack: Evil Town, and it was by far the most controversial. The depiction of rape, cannibalism, and necrophilia led the feature to be cut in many countries, and it was banned outright in Australia.
8. Genocyber (1993)
A wild, blood-drenched cyberpunk series, the Genocyber of the title is the crazed fusing of two sisters into one futuristic killing machine. Genocyber is not only unrelentingly violent but incredibly mean-spirited too, with dozens of innocent men, women, and children blown apart by heavy weaponry throughout the course of its five episodes.
7. Biohunter (1995)
Biohunter is hardly a classic, but it did receive a fairly wide VHS release in the US during the 1990s, and is notable for coming from famed anime studio Madhouse, who later produced several masterpieces from the late, great Satoshi Kon, including Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and the Paranoia Agent series. And, of course, Biohunter is really violent. Two scientists fight against humans who are infected with murderous demonic powers. The dialogue and plotting is pretty dull, but when to comes to the gore, the series more than delivers, with the infected creatures ripping, tearing and mutilating anything that crosses their path.
6. Berserk (1997)
While many of the manga adaptations on this list increased the violent and sexual content from their original sources, the acclaimed 25-episode series Berserk actually toned down some of the manga's more extreme moments. But don't worry, there's still plenty of wild, gory mayhem in this absorbing blend of sci-fi and dark fantasy about a young mercenary called Guts. There was also a 2016 CGI remake, but it's the '90s classic that anime fans should seek out.
5. Serial Experiments Lain (1998)
One of the most challenging and often impenetrable anime series ever made, Serial Experiments Lain is a stunningly designed cyberpunk nightmare about a young girl and her experiences within a social media network known as the Wired. While many titles on the list alienated viewers with their violent content, Lain does it through its uncompromising tone, brain-scrambling philosophical concepts, and disorientating visuals.
4. Mind Game (2004)
More than a decade before he took on directing duties of Devilman Crybaby, Masaaki Yuasa delivered this crazy, unique, incredible animated movie. It's the story of a young man who has a run-in with gangsters and finds himself trapped in a psychedelic limbo. Mind Game constantly switches animation styles, from basic line drawings and more traditional styles to wild techniques involving CGI and live-action footage. It won much acclaim and many awards, and it remains one of the most jaw-droppingly mad slices of anime of recent years.
3. Mnemosyne (2008)
Also known as a RIN: Daughters of Mnemosyne, this is a sleazy detective story set in a futuristic Tokyo about the immortal, indestructible private investigator Rin and her assistant Mimi. There is a complicated supernatural conspiracy plot that centers around Rin's past, but the show is more concerned with delivering an explicit sex scene every ten minutes--plus plenty of impressively animated splatter sequences.
2. Gyo: Fish Attack (2012)
Gyo is a demented, surreal, and frequently offensive B-movie homage about walking, metal-legged sea creatures who emerge from the sea to attack humans. There are some serious themes about the dangers of pollution and chemical weapons in there, but for the most part they take second place to the sight of giant cybernetic sharks and octopus causing all sorts of gruesome mayhem on the streets of Tokyo.
1. Corpse Party: Tortured Souls (2013)
The Japanese survival horror video game Corpse Party has inspired any number of spin-offs: manga, audiobooks, theme park rides, live-action movies, and two anime versions--Corpse Party: Missing Footage and the follow-up Tortured Souls. Both fully deliver on the graphically violent promise of the game. A group of school kids and their teacher fall into a terrifying alternate universe filled with torture, murder, mutilation, and gallons of gore. It's not exactly good, but it sure is memorable.
By Dan Auty on Feb 11, 2018 10:28 pm
In the year since its release, Jordan Peele's Get Out has achieved a number of things. It was the most profitable movie of 2017, making more than $254 million at the worldwide box office from a budget of just $4.5 million. It was one of the best reviewed horror movies of the year, and has secured four Oscar nominations, more than any other horror film since The Exorcist in 1973. But its well-deserved success also highlighted how few horror movies have been made by black filmmakers over the decades. In fact, Peele himself spoke about this last year, when he reached out to upcoming black directors with an interest in horror to get in touch with him with the hope that that he can get their projects off the ground. Hopefully Get Out's success will see a new generation of black filmmakers get a chance to see their terrifying visions onscreen. That doesn't mean there are no notable horror films from black directors. Here are 11 well worth seeing--some brilliant, some less so, but they all have their place in the history of horror.
11. Blacula (1972)
William Crain was one of the first African American filmmakers to graduate from a major film school--in his case, UCLA--and score mainstream success within the industry. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Crain wasn't initially interested in exploring political and social themes; he just wanted to sell tickets. And he certainly did that with Blacula, a blaxploitation spin on the story of Dracula that was one of 1973's biggest grossing movies. Viewed today, it's a formulaic and dated film, but its impact was considerable, and kickstarted a whole wave of scary movies aimed at black audiences.
10. Ganja and Hess (1973)
Ganja and Hess now stands as one of the finest independent horror movies of the 1970s, but this is a reputation it's only acquired over the past few years, helped by a long-overdue blu-ray release and a recent Spike Lee remake. It's an eerie vampire yarn directed by playwright Bill Gunn and was the only other starring role for Duane Jones, the star of Night of the Living Dead. Ganja and Hess is a weird, atmospheric love story between a rich anthropologist-turned-bloodsucker and the widow of a man he has killed. Gunn was given full creative control by producers who just wanted a black vampire film to cash in on the blaxploitation craze. Instead they got a haunting, oblique, and wildly uncommercial masterpiece and that was as much a study of race, class and religious hypocrisy as it was a vampire movie.
9. Dr Black, Mr Hyde (1976)
While William Crain's Blacula was a straightforward horror comedy, his second blaxploitation horror did attempt to tackle some weightier themes. In this update of Robert Louise Stevenson's classic horror tale, a black scientist is transformed into a rampaging white maniac, killing drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes in the ghettos of Los Angeles. Subtle, it is not.
8. Black Devil Doll From Hell (1984)
Written in three days and shot on VHS by Chester Novell Turner, who took a correspondence course to learn how to make a movie, Black Devil Doll From Hell is sordid, sleazy, and unbelievably amateurish. But there's nothing else quite like it, and it's picked up something of a cult reputation in the years since its initial release. A religious young woman wants to remain a virgin until her wedding night, but unfortunately the purchase of a haunted doll (designed to look like '80s funkster Rick James) transforms her into a sex-crazed lunatic. In more recent years Turner has expressed an interest in making a sequel, but sadly--or perhaps, thankfully--this is yet to happen.
7. Def By Temptation (1990)
James Bond III was a bit-part actor whose credits included the '70s TV version of Wonder Woman, B.J. and the Bear, and Spike Lee's School Daze. In 1990 he gained his sole directing credit with Def By Temptation, which he also wrote, produced, and starred in. It's the story of a trainee minister whose faith is tested when he becomes the target of an evil seductress in contemporary New York. Def By Temptation is very low budget, but it's marked by a smart, subversive script, stylish visuals, and stand-out performances, including an early role from Samuel L. Jackson. It's just a shame that Bond never made a second movie.
6. Tales From Da Hood (1995)
Rusty Cundieff is best known as a comedy director, and his credits include the hip-hop spoof Fear of a Black Hat and a lengthy stint on Chappelle's Show in the 2000s. But in 1995, he directed this horror anthology, which dealt with some pretty heavy themes. Each of the four stories tackled a different contemporary concern--like police brutality, domestic violence, and gang warfare--and placed it in a supernatural horror context. It's an effective, underrated mix of scares, dark humor, and social commentary that feels every bit as relevant now as it did 20 years ago.
5. Demon Knight (1995)
The most prolific black filmmaker to have worked in horror over the years is Ernest Dickerson. Dickerson became known for his work as a cinematographer on Spike Lee's early movies, but while his debut film Fresh (1992) was similar in subject matter to Lee's movies, his subsequent work in cinema and TV has frequently embraced horror. His 1995 film Demon Knight is a wildly entertaining horror comedy, spun off from HBO's Tales from the Crypt series. A drifter holes up in a weird motel after stealing an ancient key, and is soon besieged by demonic forces eager to get it back. It's a fast-paced, exciting, and funny ride that proved Dickerson's love of the genre.
4. Bones (2001)
While most '90s rappers-turned-actors stuck to urban thrillers and comedies, Bones was the exception. Starring Snoop Dogg and directed by Ernest Dickerson once more, this was as much a blaxploitation homage as it was a contemporary horror flick. Snoop plays Jimmy Bones, a well-liked crook who is killed by cops in 1979. 22 years later, Bones returns to--you guess it--seek his revenge. Snoop isn't exactly the scariest of horror anti-heroes, but it's a fun collision of horror, social satire, and some top-notch hip-hop.
3. Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus (2015)
Spike Lee isn't a director known for horror, but in 2015 he applied his talents to a remake of Ganja and Hess. As a movie, the results were a little disappointing. Storywise it's a very faithful remake, but Gunn's unique dreamlike style is replaced by a flat TV-movie look, and Lee adds nothing thematically interesting to this potent blend of horror and drama. But Lee's high profile meant that the original movie received some mainstream attention, and hopefully curious viewers will have checked out Gunn's original masterpiece.
2. Get Out (2017)
It wasn't surprising that Jordan Peele would make his directing debut with a horror movie, given the comedian's fondness of genre pastiches on Key & Peele. But no one could have predicted the huge impact of Get Out. The overwhelmingly positive critical reaction was matched by an amazing box office haul, and Peele prove himself adept at combining highly relevant social themes with a movie that was funny, tense, and scary.
1. Kuso (2017)
Director Steven Ellison is better known as musician Flying Lotus, but even fans who expected his directing debut to be as ambitious and inventive as his albums might have been taken aback by Kuso. A post-apocalyptic psychedelic horror comedy, the movie bombards the viewer with a non-stop cavalcade of gruesome body horror, slapstick laughs, animation, puppetry, musical sequences, bodily fluids, disturbing VFX, and all manner of sexual perversity. It caused numerous walkouts when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year, but if you ever wanted to see funk master George Clinton produce a giant cockroach from his anus, this is the movie for you.
By GameSpot Staff on Feb 11, 2018 09:30 pm
What We Wish We Knew
When you first pop into the free, competitive multiplayer Battle Royale version of Fortnite--without first buying its cooperative counterpart--you'll find a lot that doesn't get explained. Fortnite: Battle Royale has no tutorial, so it's up to players to discover its nuances, mostly through trial and error, spectating other players, and dying. The Battle Royale mode also features a whole bunch of guns, materials, structures, and items to learn about and understand, as well as how they interact with each other and the game's systems. Fortnite is full of little tricks and idiosyncrasies that aren't immediately obvious, especially with its emphasis on gathering resources and building structures as part of its combat. Once you know them, however, they'll make you a much more effective player. Here are the 12 things we wish we knew about Fortnite: Battle Royale before we started playing. If you're new to Fornite: Battle Royale, check out our beginner's tips guide, but if you're more advanced, be sure to read our advanced tips guide. You can also check out our video guide on how to build more effectively. Fortnite: Battle Royale is available as a free download for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The mode supports up to 100 players attempting to be the last person or team standing as they hunt other players and avoid being killed themselves. For more on the differences between Fortnite: Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, check out our in-depth feature discussing the two games and what sets them apart from one another. You can also check out details on Fortnite's recent Crossbow update.
Aiming Matters When Gathering Resources
Whenever you start hammering away at a wall, tree, or pile of rocks to gather resources, you'll notice that a weird blue icon appears on the thing you're smacking. That little marker turns gathering resources into something more active than just holding a button down for a few seconds. You want to move your crosshair over each new blue icon with every swing of your pickaxe. This earns you the most resources you can get with each hit, and increases your harvesting efficiency--which means you'll grab more building materials and leave yourself less vulnerable.
The Shotgun Is Highly Effective
It shouldn't always be your main weapon, but it's a pretty good idea for you to have a shotgun on-hand whenever possible--even a weak one. Fortnite's shotguns have decent range and a big spread (at least for the time being), which means they're great catch-all guns for dropping already-injured targets. Time and again, we've seen players use shotguns as the clean-up hitter of their arsenal; they might fire a rocket in the vicinity of an enemy to knock out their shield, or hit them with a rifle as they close the gap, but the shotgun is often the weapon that closes the deal. Don't be afraid to use it at close- to mid-range. And aim high, because headshots can be very painful.
Crouch And Shoot
A lot of the guns in Fortnite aren't quite as accurate as in some other shooters, and that can make for tough fights, especially when you engage players at long-range. It's possible to increase your guns' accuracy in a lot of cases, though. Whenever possible to do so safely, keep still and crouch--it'll increase your accuracy, helping you take down other players more quickly. That doesn't mean you should stop dodging and stand still in the open during a heated battle... but if you spot someone on the move and are thinking about opening fire on them, you'll have an advantage if you get low and keep still.
Build To Save Yourself From Falling
Fall damage is a big deal in Fortnite. High locations are good places to set up and watch for other players, and when you get good at building, going vertical and taking the high ground is a very effective strategy. Falling off those places can be deadly, though, since shields don't absorb fall damage. Always remember that you can save yourself by using the build menu to quickly drop structures beneath you as you fall; so long as you're close enough to the wall of a tower or a cliff, you can instantly build a floor or ramp beneath you that can stop your descent and save you from certain doom. Use this trick to quickly make your escape from fortifications when someone starts shooting at you with rockets, or when you need to descend a cliff in a hurry. It's a lot easier than trying to find items to heal yourself.
Shield Potions Are Essential
Finding good guns is one thing... but really, the best way to make it through any given fight is to find shield potions. Fortnite doesn't effectively explain how its health system works, but the handiest thing to know is that blue shield potions make you more resilient to incoming fire, and they make a world of difference in any given firefight. As you loot in Fortnite, always drink shield potions right away to fire up a shield immediately, and stockpile the potions that you can't use immediately. They're worth carrying around; your character can drink a small shield potion in about two seconds, which is just fast enough to get you back on your feet as you duck around a corner or build a few quick walls to escape from an enemy.
You Have An Inventory Screen
It's not immediately apparent if you haven't played Fortnite's Save the World mode, but you have more than just the small inventory rundown at the bottom of your screen. You can access a much bigger, more detailed inventory menu--find it by pressing Up on the directional pad if you're playing with a controller, or "I" on a keyboard--and it shows everything you're carrying, including how much ammo of each type you have. The inventory menu gives you rundowns of your guns' statistics, including effective range and damage per second, which can help you decide what to hold onto and what to toss. That's the other handy thing about the inventory menu: It offers you the option to drop weapons onto the ground. Use that to hand off guns, items, or ammo to your teammates, or just to organize your inventory so that you always play with guns and items of specific types in the same slots. The repetition of knowing where you keep heals or certain guns can make it a lot easier for you to switch in a hurry.
Use Bushes And Trees For Concealment
Fortnite's cartoonish art style means that player silhouettes are pretty obvious at a distance--especially when you add in the dust trails left by sprinting across open ground. But you can find a few good places to hide, especially if you're smart about it. While many bushes are solid, you can slip inside some of them, which mostly conceals your character and make you tough to spot at a distance. The same is true of many pine trees, which you can generally duck beneath; these offer decent concealment, especially from above. Stealth can take you a long way if you're patient and don't move too much when sneaking up on people. By the same token, don't ignore those light green bushes around you. Smart players treat them like they might always be concealing someone, especially in the endgame of a match. Putting a shot or two into a bush will quickly reveal if anyone is hiding in it: Watch for the blue flash of their shield taking damage.
Throw Up Some Walls To Protect Downed Teammates
Once you hear it, it seems like a no-brainer, but this is one of those things that's easy to forget if you're used to playing other Battle Royale games. In Fortnite, you want to try to think about how you can solve problems by building--and creating a few quick fortifications can buy you precious extra seconds while you heal a teammate who has been knocked down by gunfire. Just remember to use wood if you're currently under fire; it'll build the fastest, and it can take the most punishment from other players immediately after being deployed. If you're in a rough battle situation, though, you might need multiple layers (or you might just need to leave your friend hanging while you take out the attackers).
Open Doors (Usually) Mean A Place Has Been Looted
Savvy players know that doors can tell you a lot. An open door on a building might mean someone's inside; more often, it means that someone has at least been through that building and taken all the good stuff already. By the same token, closing doors behind you is a good way to throw off other players, or to catch the unwary in ambshes. In our experience, not only are the outer doors of untouched buildings always closed in Fortnite, but so are the inner ones. If you step into a structure that you think is full of loot and start seeing open doors between rooms, it should put you on guard--it might mean someone is lying in wait ahead. Open doors are also a good indicator of buildings that you can skip altogether, to avoid wasting time searching places that have little to offer.
Traps Are A Thing
Traps are a holdover from the cooperative campaign version of Fortnite, and they pop up in Battle Royale to change some situations significantly. You'll find them occasionally in loot drops or certain locations (like mines), and you can deploy them on structures. They don't have a ton of uses, since so much of the Battle Royale experience consists of quickly hurrying from one building to the next, looting as fast as you can--but they do come up every now and then. Traps are great for leaving behind in a seemingly unlooted building in order to ruin the day of someone following you, or to place on your towers to dissuade anyone sneaking up below you. When heading into buildings, it's good practice to stand beside the front door and look inside to check for an ambush; when you do that, take a glance upward too, to ensure you're not about to stumble into somebody else's devilish plan.
The Boogie Bomb Is The Best
If you find the elusive grenade known as the Boogie Bomb, grab it. This thing is the goofiest weapon you can add to your arsenal in Fortnite right now, and it's hilarious as well as useful. When it explodes, everyone caught in its radius is forced to start dancing for five seconds, leaving them completely vulnerable to you cruising up and taking them out. It's especially handy for when you find a couple of other players already battling it out--with one bomb and a quick trigger finger, you can humiliate your opponents, eliminate them, and steal all their stuff.
Getting Good At Building Is How You Win
Grappling with all of Fortnite's systems can be tough--especially if you're using a controller. Between switching guns and building structures, the game has a lot of buttons to keep track of, and a lot of items to switch through with the shoulder buttons. But no matter what platform they're using, the best Fortnite players are expert builders. They've trained themselves through repetition to quickly construct walls, towers, bridges, and ramps in order to save their lives in the heat of battle, or give themselves a ridiculous advantage using height and cover. Though Fortnite has a lot in common with other Battle Royale games like PUBG, building is what sets it apart. If you come to this game expecting to play it like PUBG, you're going to get shut down over and over again by players who've learned to love carpentry. Get good at farming resources quickly and erecting structures even faster, if you want to be competitive!
By GameSpot Staff on Feb 11, 2018 09:30 pm
Pro Tips
Players who are keen on winning have a lot of things to keep in mind if they want to succeed in Fortnite: Battle Royale. The game marries the last-player-standing multiplayer competition of the battle royale genre with resource-gathering and building mechanics, and knowing the ins and outs of both are the only way to win. Not only do you need to outsmart and outgun other players-- you need to effectively use your building capabilities to traverse the map, fortify your positions, and beat out the competition. Players who've been around the block in Fortnite's single-player campaign have no doubt picked up a lot of tactics, strategies, and pieces of information that can help elevate them to multiplayer success. For everyone else, it can be tough to pick up on all of Fortnite's idiosyncrasies and hidden bits of information--especially since the free Battle Royale mode doesn't include a tutorial. Use these 10 tips to get an edge over the other 99 players in your Fortnite: Battle Royale match. If you're new to Fornite: Battle Royale, make sure to read our beginner's tips guide, as well as our guide covering all the things we wish we knew before playing the game. You can also check out our video guide on how to build more effectively. Fortnite: Battle Royale is available as a free download for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The mode supports up to 100 players competing to be the last person (or team) standing as they hunt other players and avoid being killed themselves. For the differences between Fortnite: Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, check out our in-depth feature discussing the two games and what sets them apart from one another. You can also check out more details on Fortnite's recently released Crossbow update.
Use Headphones
It really is tough to overestimate how crucial sound is in Fortnite. You'll use it to catch people sneaking up on you, zero in on enemies who are shooting at you, and track players for ambushes. You're at a disadvantage listening to the game over your computer speakers, TV speakers, or even a sound system, when compared to players who are armed with a quality pair of surround sound headphones. Sound is possibly the best tool in your arsenal in Fortnite, so make sure you're able to use it as effectively as possible.
Speed Is Key Early On
As you get the hang of the map, you'll want to move as fast as you can to find good weapons early. That starts with your jump from the game's flying party bus at the beginning of each match: If you're confident in your fighting abilities, pick a spot with lots of buildings, and dive straight for it. Avoid falling over hills and other high-elevation areas, as these will cause your glider to auto-deploy sooner than if you dive toward lower-elevation spots like water or canyons. The idea is to fall to earth as fast as you can, so that you can beat other players to the guns--and take them down. While it's good for new players to close doors behind them to protect themselves, once you're used to the flow of the game, you don't have to worry about hiding yourself nearly as much. Get into a building, find what's useful, and move on as fast as you can--the ol' "loot and scoot" approach. Acquiring high-quality guns early will set you up for success against players who have weaker gear than you, so get used to moving on to new locations quickly, and looting as much as you can as fast as you can. Just be cautious about it, so that you don't bumble into an ambush.
Don't Pick Up Everything
Among the best habits you can make as you advance your Fortnite career is to be discerning about what you pick up and what you leave behind. It's tempting to snatch up everything you come across--because you never know when you might want to switch between a pistol, a rifle, and a shotgun, right? In practice, though, you'll probably use one or two guns for most of a match, unless you've got the rarer and more useful ones like sniper rifles, miniguns, and rocket launchers. Having a handful of white or green pistols that you don't intend to use will just slow you down when it comes time to switch out for better loot. Instead, make quick decisions about what you need and what you don't, and act accordingly. Stopping to manage your inventory can leave you vulnerable, so grab only what you really need, and learn to ignore the less useful loot. Also: While you have to manually pick up weapons and items, ammo gets picked up automatically... so if you're looking at a pile of loot and all you want are the bullets, save time by just running over it to avoid accidentally picking up the wrong stuff.
Double Up Your Guns For Added Damage
While you're being discerning about what guns you pick up, remember that two of the same weapon can actually be pretty useful--particularly when it comes to the pump shotgun and the bolt-action sniper rifle. By having two of these guns in adjacent inventory slots, you can avoid the wait between shotgun pumps or sniper reloads, and instead just switch to your second version of the gun to fire a second shot immediately. The quick switch can be tough to get used to, but with the power that this move affords you, it's worth training yourself to switch rather than wait to reload. It's a great way to maximize your lethality against other players.
Chop Down Trees For More Wood
Where you get your materials matters. Especially early on, you want to grab as much wood as you can manage, as it's highly useful in battles and for protection. You can bash down buildings and break up boxes for wood with your pickaxe--but as it happens, these dispense less wood than trees. Pick the right tree, and you can gather up 40-plus units of wood from a single node, quickly filling up your materials and giving you plenty to use in a pinch. Pine trees whose green portions reach close to the ground tend to be the best, but it's worth experimenting as you play, to learn where on the map you can get the most materials fastest. The same is true with other materials. Brick walls yield some brick, but piles of rocks out in the wilderness are even better. You can also get a decent haul of metal from destroying vehicles, but be wary: Sometimes, smashing up a car will set off its alarm, which can draw other players to your location.
Wood Trumps Metal (In Certain Cases)
Materials in Fortnite have a few little quirks. Generally, wood is the weakest material, while brick is a little stronger, and metal is the strongest. In practice, this means that wood structures can take the least amount of damage before they break altogether, brick structures have more health than wood, and metal structures have the most health. Heavier materials come with drawbacks, though. Brick structures take longer to build (and reach full health) than wood structures do, and metal takes the longest. Wood really shines when it comes to quickly dropping walls in the middle of a firefight. The thing is, a freshly spawned, incomplete wood wall starts with more health than a freshly spawned, incomplete brick or metal wall (100 health points for the wood, 70 for the brick or metal). That means a wood wall can save you from more shots when you're building in the heat of battle than the other two materials. The easiest way to think about it is this: A fresh wood wall will collapse after two close-range shotgun blasts when you first drop it; a brick or metal wall will collapse after only one shotgun blast. Use wood for firefights, and save your brick and metal for stronger fortifications closer to the end of a match.
Take (Or Build) The High Ground
High ground will win you fights in Fortnite, and that doesn't just mean high hills or cliffs--although these offer better vantage points in general. In firefights, practice quickly building upward as you fight enemies. You can drop walls and then ramps to protect yourself as you climb, and shooting down on other players nets you more headshots and damage, while offering you better protection. Quickly making a ramp surrounded by walls means that you can jump up and take potshots at enemies below while also making yourself extremely tough to hit. When you can, build up for the advantage... and if the other player is trying to get above you, try to get higher or force them to change locations, to take their advantage away. Just make sure to quickly pop wood walls in front of your ramps, lest the other player blast them out from under you. Hitting the bottom of a ramp will collapse it, and the damage you take from falling could cost you the fight (and the match).
Watch For (And Mark) Supply Drops
Every so often, the flying bus will drop a supply crate. The crates' drop positions are marked by blue smoke grenades on the ground, and they float down on balloons once they're dropped. These crates contain some of the best loot in the game, including the minigun and rocket launcher, so they're definitely worth your attention--but they're likely to attract other players, too. Supply drops are great places for an ambush, and one way to pin down where the drop will be is to "mark" it. Like just about everything in Fortnite, supply drops are destructible, and you can damage their balloons from afar with your gun. Doing so causes the crate's health bar to pop up, which stays on your screen even if structures or other things obstruct your line of sight to the crate itself. Marking crates means that you can more easily get to them when they hit the ground, but be ready to fight anyone else with the same idea.
Use The Storm To Your Advantage
The ever-advancing storm--the circle that constantly contracts to make the play area smaller and smaller--is a danger that you constantly need to avoid in Fortnite. It also affords some benefits, however. While the storm damages you when you're in it, for much of any given match, that damage is not immediately deadly. You can sometimes use this tactically; the edge of the storm is a great place to catch desperate players as they scramble to get to safety. Conversely, you might be able to duck through the tough-to-see-through edge early in the match to lose anyone in the eye of the storm who's battling you (although that's a tough gamble, and not for everyone). Especially in a match's endgame, the storm can be a tool as much as it is a danger. It lets you ensure that you won't be attacked from behind when you keep close to its edge. If you're more centrally located and can take up a good position, the shrinking circle can help you as it forces players to either take storm damage, or move toward you and open themselves up to attack. It's important to always stay aware of the circle--but as the match draws toward its end, keep thinking about where you can set yourself up to use the storm as a weapon against your enemies.
Complete Daily Challenges To Earn V-Bucks
V-Bucks are Fortnite's premium currency, which can be used to purchase cosmetic items to make your character wear cooler clothes or deploy more fun emotes. The best way to get an effective amount of V-Bucks is to buy them with real money. If you're willing to put in the time, it's also possible to earn a few just by playing the game--but it'll take you a while. Playing Fortnite earns you experience points based on your performance in a match, and each time you earn enough, you level up, which earns you one "Battle Star." After grabbing 10 Battle Stars, you advance to a new "tier," and at certain tiers, you unlock new emotes and other items. It's possible to earn tiers faster by completing Daily Challenges, which are listed on the Lobby screen when you log into Fortnite. Challenges require you to complete special actions, like killing a set number of players with a specific gun. Challenges give you a bunch of experience points and five Battle Stars for completing them, which can help you earn tiers a lot quicker. If you're playing for free, you can earn 100 V-Bucks roughly every 14 tiers (which isn't very much). Your return on investment is slightly better if you pony up the money to purchase the V-Bucks for a "Battle Pass," which will run you 950 V-Bucks--or a little less than $10 ($9.99 buys you 1,000 V-Bucks). The Battle Pass puts you on a different, much more rewarding tier track, allowing you to earn a lot more cosmetic gear as you level up. The Battle Pass track also includes V-Bucks, dishing out 100 V-Bucks once about every seven tiers, but it also comes with experience point boosts that can get you there quicker.
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