Category: Game Releases

Fortnite is perhaps the biggest video game in the world right now. Thanks to its addictive take on the battle royale genre, thousands of players drop onto this colorful island in an attempt to be the last man standing. While this formula is nothing new, Fortnite’s unique building mechanic allows users to construct geometrical masterpieces in order to block bullets, gain a height advantage, or just traverse the environment.

Check out our other guide for more general tips to playing Fortnite on mobile.

However, this can be quite tricky on the mobile port as the controls are not as fluid. Even though building is not as common on this version, it’s still critical that users master this skill when taking the fight on the go. Here are some tips to help improve your building in Fortnite’s mobile version.

How to Build

For the unfamiliar, you are only able to build in Fortnite’s mobile version if the tool button is pressed. This can be found in the middle of the screen to the right of your inventory. The icon is of a hammer and wrench but will swap to one of a gun when you change to the building menu. Once you’re in the building menu just select which of the structure types you want to make. Then all you need to do is tap the screen to build that item of your choice.

Pick the Right Sensitivity

When you start Fortnite the sensitivity will be set to 40. This is a generally good sensitivity, but we don’t recommend going any higher than 45. Playing on a mobile device can be difficult since it’s difficult to precisely aim or place structures. Don’t ratchet up the sensitivity too high otherwise you’ll have a harder time playing. We found that between 35 and 40 is the sweet spot, but you will want to fiddle with it until you’re comfortable. There is no perfect sensitivity, spend some time experimenting with different settings.

Playground Mode is Your Best Friend

The single best mode to learn how to build is the new Playground Mode. Unlike the traditional battle royale modes, you can just run around the entire island by yourself. Resource gathering is increased and all of the loot llamas spawn across the map. This means you can quickly gather resources and just practice building different types of structures. It’s a great way to not only familiarize yourself with the controls but practice constructing cover quickly.

We strongly recommend you go into Playground Mode and just learn to build. It will help commit making certain structures to muscle memory and give you a better chance in battle. This is also a wonderful place to work on your aim, quickly swapping between weapons, or getting a general handle on the movement controls.

Be Practical, Not Fancy

During battles in Fortnite some players get in the habit of trying to produce excessively elaborate structures in order to turn the tide of battle. While there’s nothing wrong with this on other platforms, building on Fortnite mobile is fairly awkward. A lot of this is thanks to users needing to use three fingers at the same time if they want to build, look, and move at the same time. Because of this, sometimes it’s better to just stand still and quickly construct a small base around you.

One of the best structures to get into the habit of quickly assembling is made up of four walls and a ramp. Despite seeming quite basic, it offers a decent amount of protection and gives a height advantage in a battle. If you use the Turbo Building feature, then you’ll be able to quickly spin in a circle to produce four walls. Then place down a ramp and jump at the same time. If done correctly you’ll land on top of the ramp as it’s building.

As your confidence in building increases, you’ll be able to quickly assemble a tower like this. Just remember if someone blows up the bottom then the entire structure will collapse. Keep this in mind so you don’t fall to your death if the base is blown up.

Use the Environment

Another great way to turn the tide of a battle is by building up to or extending a structure already in the environment. Quickly constructing a ramp up to a roof and then throwing down several walls can reinforce your position. This is especially true for dropping into suburban locations like Pleasant Park or Retail Row, where getting onto a roof will let you see around the entire area. In places like Tilted Towers, you can use floors to quickly build bridges between structures. Use this to close the gap in fights or shift locations if you are getting pushed.

In firefights try to make use of natural boundaries to block a foe’s sightlines. Building isn’t always reliable on mobile, so use the world around you to take cover. Once this happens you can quickly construct some cover or a small base so when you enemy pushes they will be at a disadvantage. A single ramp and a wall to connect it to can make a big difference in a fight. It will reduce your visible hitbox and let you fire down at your opponent.

Use Turbo Building 

Turbo Building is a unique feature that allows players to quickly construct a structure without needing to tap for each piece. To enable Turbo Building go to the settings and then make sure that Turbo Building is switched to ‘On.’ After this, all you have to do is double tap and hold down to continuously build the structure of your choosing. This is essential for quickly assembling a building if someone jumps you or if a person is destroying your building. Being able to just hold down your thumb and spin to build four walls will give you a needed speed advantage in a fight.

However, the Turbo Building mechanic is also great for just traversing the environment. It’s easy to make a mistake and tap the screen at the wrong time when building a tall ramp or bridge. This can not only mess up your rhythm but kill you via fall damage. Always use the Turbo Building mechanic when constructing multiple structures of the same type. It may take a bit of time to get into the habit of using this mechanic, but make sure to practice during every match.

What would your building tips on mobile be? Let us know in the comments!

You may remember back in mid-June that Feral Interactive are not only still working on their Rome: Total War iPhone version, but have also partnered with Kalypso Media to bring us the wonderful Tropico to iPad.

Tropico is a series of PC strategy games that put in charge of an island in the Caribbean as ‘El Presidente’ – a dictator. It’s a humorous and very charming take on the city management genre, where you must exploit your island’s natural resources as much as possible and play foreign powers against each other. You can use your profits to either improve the welfare of your citizens, or the welfare of your swiss bank account – but beware, rebels could strike at any moment.

As with a lot of management-style games, it’s how you model the interface which will be key to a game’s success on tablets. Feral have recently shared an insight into how they’ve adapted their UI for the game.

Named the ‘Dictator’s Desk’, Feral have created a bar of quick-access items that run along the bottom of the screen. In order, these are:

• Intel – where notifications will be stored that demand your attention. Pretty standard.
• Avatar – El Presidente exists in the game world, and you can send him places to get short-term boosts and benefits. We imagine this will be a quick-use button to deploy yourself to the map.
• Edicts – A core part of Tropico is the ability to change and mould various aspects of your Government and general way of life through Edicts. Some of these will only help yourself, some will help your citizens but will come with a one-off or regular cost. Deciding what kind of nation you want to be and choosing the right Edicts is a key gameplay loop, and quite rewarding.
• Overlays – Like any city-building game, being able to look at different types of information is important in knowing where to build. Knowing where the best resource deposits are, or which ground is the most fertile will help you with the placement of your economic buildings. This area will probably have several different filters you can use to help with these decisions.
• Construction – Pretty much what is says on the tin. Not all buildings will be available to build – some will be gated behind Edicts, or milestones, or even minimum relationships with foreign powers. Whatever is available to build though will be found here.
• Almanac – Tropico was great in the sense that it provided a lot of granular information on induvial citizens. Their name, relationship, political leanings, education level… it all feeds into the mechanics elsewhere, so keeping tabs on your populace is important. Other stats like your diplomatic relationships and the book-keeping will also be found here.

The only thing we imagine a decent UI can’t solve is the finnicky-ness of building and placement itself. Being a tropical island, the terrain doesn’t always lend itself to block or grid based building (apart from maybe residential areas) – being able to finely manipulate and place buildings to optimise resource output etc… was a key part of the game, so it’ll be interesting to see how Feral handle this particular challenge.

At the moment, there’s no concrete release date, but Tropico for iPad should be out by the end of the year.