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5 Fortnite tips to guide you to a victory royale in Season 5
How to use rifts, atks and smgs to your advantage in Fortnite's new season.
Season 5 has arrived and after a few weeks of speculation about what the rift in the sky would bring, it all ended a little disappointingly. We were given no context as to why the Visitor was here, what the rocket launch was meant for, or the point in the film theme behind the entirety of season four.
Fortnite fans have to put all that behind them now as Season 5 has brought a host of new mechanics and map changes to get to grips with. So, if you’re looking to get the advantage over your foes, read on for some new tips to stay on top of the metagame.
1. Use rifts in almost any situation
You can use a rift to escape the storm
© Epic Games
One new mechanic introduced this season is the rifts scattered across the map. When you jump in one, you’re teleported into the sky, directly above where you entered. There are two major benefits to using a rift, although remember that as soon as you come out of one, it emits a loud explosion sound so anyone in the vicinity will know that you’re diving down.
If you’re in a fight and there’s a rift very close, using it can give you a huge advantage. When someone uses it for the first time, the rift only persists for five seconds or so, meaning it’s unlikely your opponent can follow suit. From the sky you can either flee the fight by deploying your glider early, or dive right down on top of them for the height advantage. Unlike when you use a launch pad or dive from the battle bus, your glider doesn’t deploy until you’ve nearly hit the ground so you don’t need to float above them for a few seconds.
The other huge benefit to using rifts is to scout out the area and float in the sky for a while, or escape from the storm. There’s a number of them around the map so in a lot of scenarios, you’ll be in a good position to make a break for a rift, then fly away from the purple clouds. It’s a great way to take the bird’s-eye perspective and find unsuspecting players or squads to invade.
2. All Terrain Karts (ATK) are great to escape the storm
These buggies are great for escaping the storm
© Epic Games
These four-person golf buggies with off-road tyres are by far the most hilarious addition to the game since shopping carts were introduced. It has a powerslide function like in Mario Kart, your teammates can emote on the back and the passenger can build floors beneath you as you drive. No doubt many people have died because they've stayed in their ATK rather than hopping out and going for those victory royales.
However, they do actually have a use outside of being the source of many laughs, as they’re much faster than simply sprinting. They can mainly be found on the outskirts of the map, meaning that when the storm is approaching and there are no rifts nearby, hopping in one of these bad boys can be the difference between life and death.
Do remember, though, that when you’re trundling along, they are loud. They can be heard anywhere in the immediate area so if there’s some other poor fellow trying to escape the storm, you may have a fight on your hands as he tries to shoot you out of it. Also, beware of Boogie Bombs as they’ll automatically evict anyone sat in the ATK.
3. Don’t use two shotguns anymore
Don't bother using both shotguns at the same time
© Epic Games
Double pumping means to carry two Pump Shotguns and switch between them after every shot, meaning you can shoot far quicker than when you're waiting for the pump animation to happen with one.
Epic heavily nerfed it a few months ago but it was brought back recently. With the addition of Heavy Shotguns and Tactical Shotguns receiving a buff though, the meta drifted away from double pumping to just carrying two shotguns in general.
With the release of patch 5.0, there is now a delay between shotgun shots when you switch between any of them. That means that even if you’re rocking the Heavy + Tactical combination, you’ll be unable to shoot the second for longer than it’d take the first one to shoot again. It’s changed the metagame up significantly, taking what was a widely used tactic and completely removing it from the game.
As an alternative, SMGs act as fantastic supplements to carrying one shotgun if you want the edge in close-quarters combat. They’re fantastic at taking down structures, they have a rapid rate of fire, and they recently received a buff. Some players are even taking Suppressed SMGs over Assault Rifles now. Another option is to roll with Dual Pistols. They have a high amount of bloom and can be tricky to get to grips with, but if you connect your shots they do an insane amount of damage.
4. Stick to the edge of the circle at the end of the game
Get close to the edge of the storm in the end-game
© JokeKim / Reddit
Prior to this patch, the circle gradually got smaller and the storm closed in until there was no safe area left, dealing 10 damage per tick. Now, when the game reaches the seventh circle, the safe zone will appear back inside the storm. When the timer counts down, a safe passage will gradually appear as the circle migrates to its new spot. This will happen for the seventh, eighth and ninth safe zones before the storm completely closes in.
This means that when you’re in the end-game with just a few players left, you want to be as close to the edge of the storm as possible. You don’t know where the next circle is going to appear but since it will be inside the storm, you’ll be in prime position to be the first into the safe passage if you stay near the edge.
5. There’s no need to grind XP this season
Do the weekly challenges as soon as possible
© Epic Games
One of the major complaints last season was that reaching level 80 to unlock all the styles for Omega was too much of a grind. Reaching tier 100 was no problem for most because of the weekly challenges, but level 80 became quite the slog, especially if you weren’t playing with friends for the XP bonus.
Thankfully, Epic have changed how it works this season. You still need to earn a high amount of XP to unlock all of the styles for both Drift and Ragnarok, but progression carries on from this season to the next. This means that there’s no time restriction on when you can unlock the skin upgrades and the end of the season won’t be so much of a grind.
We’d strongly recommend doing the weekly challenges as soon as possible and getting your battle pass tiers up, though, as the Road Trip skin will be rewarded as soon as you complete all the challenges for seven weeks.
