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Fortnite – Build a Strong Fort

Learn the basics to building a strong base in Fortnite.
This article is over 7 years old and may contain outdated information

Building a strong base around your Storm Shield is an important part of surviving in Fortnite. If you are too stingy with resources, and you don’t keep your defenses up to date, then eventually your Storm Shield will be overrun and you’ll lose out on valuable progress by having to build more defenses. Don’t worry, though. We’ve survived quite a few Storm Shield expansions, and today we’re going to show you how to build a strong fort in Fortnite that will survive the hordes of husks.

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How to Build a Strong Base

It can be really tempting to build light when you first start setting up your fort in the tutorial section of the game. Many players opt to put up wood structures. Don’t do this. While they can be updated later one, wooden structures are by far the weakest, and if you want to replace them later on, you’ll have to manually destroy them and replace them with higher tier building materials.

Instead, try building with Stone. We suggest Stone because it’s extremely easy to get (even around your Storm Shield), and it isn’t directly used in any type of ammunition crafting like Wood or Metal. To get started we’d suggest building a set of floors around your base, and then put up walls (with a door that allows access to the inner area). Once this is done, place down another set of floors outside the walls, and then set down any extra floor traps you have.

That’s usually a good enough place to start for your first Storm Shield expansion. Later on, though, you should definitely start building outwards. What we like to do (simply for added security) is go two floors out, place half walls in the center wall area, and then another full wall along the outer floor tile. This creates even more obstacles for the husks to have to bypass. You can jump over the half walls, or if you want to, you could even leave one wall open that allows you to funnel enemies through to some traps.

You also shouldn’t forget to add rooftops to your fort. While it isn’t important in the first Storm Shield expansion, rooftops play a vital part as the expansions get tougher, and having that extra protection there will be more than worth it—trust us.

Make sure you continue adding traps as you build up your fort. Traps are a great way to increase your chances of success, and they can usually be found by scavenging toolboxes and other lootboxes during missions.

As you expand your area, be sure to build additional walls along the eastern and western fronts of the Storm Shield area. As the expansions get tougher, you’ll have to worry about enemies coming from multiple sides, and having extra defenses is definitely something you’ll want to look into.

The trick to a strong fort is to build as many obstacles between your enemies and the center of your stronghold as possible. For more help be sure to check out our Fortnite guide, where we have plenty of other content available like how to get more heroes, and even an in-depth guide to help you get started in Fortnite.


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Author
Image of Josh Hawkins
Josh Hawkins
Josh has been exploring fantastic worlds and getting lost in video games for as long as he can remember. Starting out on the Super Nintendo with Super Mario World, and ending up in the world of next-generation gaming. He enjoys digging into the story and lore of massive RPGs, as well as getting lost just trying to make that last jump in any platformers he gets pulled into, as well as everything in between. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing for Entertainment.