Building Materials

Unlike any other Shooter game, Fortnite incorporates a sandbox feature that was originally intended to help keep the zombie creatures called "husks" at bay (as fortifications) on the campaign mode of the game "Save the World". When its battle royale was released, it kept this sandbox feature to help players put up some fortifications, towers, bridges, or even plan elaborate traps as they are tossed into the death match.

Given that whole point of the match is to survive, scavenging for building materials and practicing to get good at making good use of them is one of the more important skills to learn in the game. You should always pay attention to the salvage-able raw materials around you and gather as much as you can while playing. In the game, there are three basic building materials; wood, stone, and metal.

Almost every single component in the game can be salvaged to become any of these basic building materials. For instance, a junkyard full of cars is a good place to source out for metal. To actually turn things to a building material in the game, you'll have to repeatedly strike it with your pick-axe. To speed up the process of salvaging the items, you should make sure to aim your strike at the circle indicators on your screen.

In the game, although metal can withstand harder hits, since time is of the essence, it's just not worth the longer wait time to actually build it something out of it. The reason is that you generally are vulnerable to other players while building something. Not limited to longer building time, a metal structures initial HP when built is only 70HP compared to that of the wood's initial 100HP. In any case, the usual case is that people would never over-fortify something in this game (unless you get to the last phase of the battle where you need tougher bunkers).

Since players are basically playing a game of cat and mouse, this means you'll never permanently stay in one structure that you've built - for the entire match. That said, "wood" is usually more valued in the game. But keep in mind that knowing this shouldn't make you opt out on other building materials in any case. In the game, you can use these building materials as tokens to purchase rare items and weapons in the vending machines that are spread across the entire map.

Additionally, both brick and metal becomes a much more viable building material when you get to the last phase of the battle where typically there would be 8-10 players left in the game. Since the game would probably not last until the next shrink time, you'll have the reason to invest in building a sturdier bunker -- which in this case, these building materials are the way to go.

How to Scavenge for Building Materials:

Salvaging junk items to earn building materials is one of your primary goals in the battle royale. If you are planning to take the top spot, you'll want to be well rounded on all edges -- including the versatility to improvise on the go. In the game, you can make good use of the sandbox capability to build ramps, bridges, towers, and even build some temporary fortifications to help you be on top of the game. However, regardless of how versatile you are in building structures in the game, what should come first is being actively aware of your resources, and knowing how to gather them fast and efficiently.

Wood:

You can easily fill up your stockpile of wood from tress and other materials that generally are made up of this materials. For instance, when inside a house, you can gather wood from tables, closets, drawers, and similar items that is made out of wood. When you're outdoors and in the hill side, the trees would be your main source of wood. Just be cautious not to exhaust wood from trees as they will fall down and will giveaway your location easily. When you're in warehouses, there would typically be a lot of wooden crates that would easily fill you up with this resource in no time.

Brick:

Bricks are kind of difficult to come by. Most of the time, you'll only get them from huge boulders lying around the forests or hillside. When you get to points of interests in the map like the towns and buildings, there is almost no source for these materials aside from the getting them as spoils from defeated players. It is extremely important that you have this building material at least if you plan to last the entire match - unless if you have the god-like reflexes to dodge every single shot of the remaining players.

Metal:

Metal is the complete opposite of bricks when it comes to farming it. If you cant find bricks in points of interests in the map, metal is what is usually abundant instead. You can source out metals from junked buses, cars, metal poles, and similar items that are typically made out of this material. As we've stressed out in filling up your stockpile of bricks, it is also important that you have enough of this building material, for you to build a tough fortress that can better withstand a hail of bullets in the last phase of the match.

Good Places to Start:

Instead of simply relying on your shooting skills and luck, you have the option to be good with your defense in this game -- to hold off the tireless amount of confrontations in every match. That said, scavenging for building materials is just as important as honing your shooting skills in order to survive. With the endless need to scour for supplies, We've listed below two of our favorite starting points in the game.

But before that, here are a few reminders:

-You can easily scavenge Wood from trees and other stuff that basically are made of similar stuff like wooden crates, ceiling, cabinets, etc.

-For bricks, you'll want to hit that pickaxe towards those big boulders on the hillside.

-If what you seek is Metal though, they are commonly found from junked cars, metal post, and the like.

Moisty Mire / Prison

Moisty Mire is one of the most promising areas to land in. For one thing, the prison sits right next to it -- which wuld generally be a good place to scour for chests, and with that the collection of weapons and other important items.

If your strategy is to farm for building materials first, Moisty Mire is also a good place to scavenge wood as the place is literally swamped with trees -- not to mention that it isn't particularly a favorite drop spot by the majority of players, which means it would be most likely be a safe place to farm.

Depending on your luck and the direction of the storm, there are several options to check for vending machines in this general area too. Since you'd probably filled up your stockpile of wood and stone in this area, a purchase of a legendary item isn't a bad secondary objective at all.

Wailing Woods (Northeast Tower)

For generally the same good reason, we pick wailing woods as another good starting point. Specifically, the tower on the northeast of it. The reason is that this place usually houses lots of chests and basically stuff to loot.

Again, if your strategy is to farm for building materials, Wailing Woods would be a good alternative to Moisty Mire for its lush forest surrounded by trees. If this is your option though, just make sure to head you landing towards the northeast tower fast as you can since a lot of people tend to rush over there as well. On that note, this place isn't as safe as that of Moisty Mire to scavenge for building materials.

Nonetheless, if you still decide to land here, make sure you get to the top of the tower, and from there break you way through the floors to earn brick resources by doing this, and at the same time, you dont miss out on any chest or item to find there. When you got your fair share of resources, try to find a vending machine nearby to exchange them for legendary items.