Fortnite Battle Royale best weapons guide

Get a leg-up over the competition by keeping an eye out for these best weapons in Fortnite.

Long-time fans of battle royale games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will no doubt be excited by Fortnite’s latest expansion that includes its own version of the hugely successful genre. One of the challenges of diving into a battle royale mode is that you can’t bring your own weapons to the fight. Instead, you must scavenge for all of your gear. The problem here is knowing what are the best weapons for Fortnite’s Battle Royale and what gear you should be picking up!

Fortnite Battle Royale Best Weapons

As with Fortnite’s basegame, there are dozens of weapons to potentially find and use as your trek across the map, but only a few worth holding onto. We’ll be outlining a few of the top contenders, so if you happen across these, be sure to pick them up and get some practice in!

(Psst! If you're really looking to up your Fortnite game, take a look at our loot locations guide.)

Assault Rifle – Scoped

Assault Rifles in any Battle Royale game will be your bread and butter for pretty much the entire match. In Fortnite, you can also find Scoped Assault Rifles, and as the name suggests, these come with optics. You’ll have the fire power of an Assault Rifle but you’ll also be able to fight from range, giving you the upper hand on the battlefield. The Scoped Assault Rifle has had it's damaged upped recently, and also benefits from the new 100% accuracy update, meaning so long as you can lead your targetand control your rate of fire, you should be securing long range kills with ease.

Shotgun – Double Pump

If you want to enter every fight in Fortnite’s Battle Royale with a good chance of winning, you’ll want to ensure you’re ready for every effective range. Shotguns are incredibly powerful in Fortnite, but while the semi-automatic might seem like the most powerful choice, players have discovered a neat trick to make the pump shotgun insanely useful. By equipping two pump shotguns in your inventory, you can skip the pump action of each gun by swapping between the two after each shot. By doing this, you'll get a higher fire rate than with the semi-auto shotgun, with the higher close range damage of the pump. Even the grey shotgun is capable of putting out absurd damage when you land headshots, and at close range you can often land a lucky shot without much aiming needed. If you're fighting in a close range environment like Tilted Towers, make sure you've got at least one pump equipped.

Assault Rifle – SCAR

Much like the Scoped Assault Rifle, the SCAR is an Assault Rifle that excels at almost all fronts. With a decent rate of fire, good stopping power, and acceptable range, the SCAR becomes a deadly weapon in the right hands. If you happen to find, pick it up and use it over every other gun you find – except maybe a Scoped AR. The Legendary SCAR is unquestionably one of Fortnite's most powerful weapons, and one you'll want to have in your hands whenever possible.

Pistol - Silenced

Pistols don't really stack up against most of the weapons in Battle Royale's armory, but the Silenced pistol is a surprisingly good edition. Capable of firing fairly rapidly with decent accuracy, it'll serve you well at mid range, especially if you get your hands on the Epic variant. For those who prefer a sneakier approach and enjoy hiding in bushes, the Silenced Pistol makes for a superb companion.

While these are only three weapons in Fortnite Battle Royale, they are currently the best. But as always, your own mileage may vary and you may find that you prefer the handling and feel of other weapons. The best thing to do is sink in some time into Fortnite Battle Royale and see what weapon you think is the best for your own style.

Sniper Rifle - Bolt Action

When it comes to snipers in Fortnite, the semi-auto variant leaves much to be desired, and unless you're wanting to show off your aiming skills, the crossbow is a tricky weapon to handle. Put simply, the only sniper worth its weight is the Bolt Action, capable of downing a full health enemy at great distance in a single shot. With bullet drop to contend with, the bolt action is a weapon that'll require a good degree of skill to make use of, but is one of the game's deadliest guns in the right hands. In the closing stages of a match, snipers are near essential when battling it out with an opponent peaking their head over a well-fortified base.

Rocket Launcher

Speaking of well-fortified bases, this weapon is the antidote to that problem. Whether playing in a squad or solo, the Rocket Launcher is an incredibly valuable pickup which will demolish even the toughest bases. Remember when someone has built up into the sky, you'll only need to destroy the base of their structure to send it all tumbling down. When engaging with it at range, fire off a few rockets before swapping to an Assault Rifle or Sniper to hit your enemy as the rockets breack their cover. If you're caught up close, it can easily down an opponent if you hit the ground nearby - just don't aim too close or you'll find yourself leaving a mess of loot as well.

Sam Chandler is the Australian piece of the AllGamers puzzle. Out of all his gaming-related passions, collecting N64 games, speedrunning, and Souls games rank among the most important. You can reach Sam through Twitter, @SamuelChandler, or through his email, sam.chandler@allgamers.com, at any time of the day or night on either side of the globe.

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