Best Building Materials in Fortnite

Fortnite is set apart from other Battle Royale games like Apex Legends by Epic Games’ complex building mechanic. Fortnite players have learned to become builder pros and translated their skills into being deadly combat professionals. Whether you play on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, or PlayStation 5, building is going to be a central part of your Fortnite Battle Royale experience. Learn all about the best material in Fortnite to take high ground from your opponents in Fortnite Battle Royale.

What’s the Best Building Material in Fortnite?

There are three different building materials in Fortnite Battle Royale. The three materials are wood, stone, and steel. Each of these building materials have different pros and cons. We are going to take an in depth look at each of these building materials, so we can tell you which is the best building material Fortnite.

Stone

Stone is the best of the building materials in Fortnite Battle Royale. The stone building material matches a balance of speed to harvest and resilience as a material perfectly. Stone can be harvested at a rapid pace if you know where to harvest. Some larger stones around Fortnite Battle Royale will grant Fortnite players over 100 stone building materials from just one rock.

The stone building material has decent health, however it takes a while for stone to reach full health after being placed. The length of time it takes to build to full health can leave you vulnerable while attempting to box up and heal. You may end up turbo building stone walls instead of popping back a shield potion as intended.

Wood

Wood is the weakest structurally of the building materials in Fortnite Battle Royale. However, you don’t want to write off this building material because of the low structure health. Wood is the easiest material to harvest. The Fortnite Battle Royale map is littered with trees, fences, pallets, and many more wood material structures. An interesting pro for this material is that wood has small holes in its walls, stairs, cones, and floors.This allows players to keep an eye on the battle while being completely surrounded by walls or stairs.

Careful though, the small holes can also allow enemy players to see you through your walls. Although, they won’t be able to harm you unless they shoot out your wall. Wood may be the weakest structurally of the building materials, but it’s not the weakest in game. Wood is easy to come by, and because of that can be used liberally, allowing players to not worry about running out of materials when building for high ground. Look out for fire damage when building with wood! Flare Guns, Firefly Jars, and Dragon’s Breath weapons can deal nasty damage if they catch your wood builds on fire. Avoid this damage by switching to stone or metal to continue building.

Metal

Metal is the strongest material of the three materials in Fortnite Save the World and Fortnite Battle Royale. However, metal is also the most difficult material to harvest. Especially since Fortnite made cars drivable in Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 3. Before the drivable cars Fortnite Season Fortnite players could drop in at Steamy Stacks and collect max metal with ease.

Since Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 3 lowered the materials collected from cars, reaching max metal is a far more difficult task. The scarcity of metal is the reason it is not at the top of the best building materials Fortnite list. With the scarcity noted, there are still some solid ways to harvest metal. For example metal fences, shipping containers, and there’s even some metal pallets at Tilted Towers.

Tips to Maximize Your Building Materials

Building materials seem straightforward at first. However, there is a lot of strategy that goes into knowing when to use which building materials. If that sounds daunting don’t worry! I’m going to give you all the tips and tricks you need to maximize your building materials.

Use Different Building Materials Than Your Opponent

Let’s say you’re in a one on one build battle in Fortnite Battle Royale. In this scenario you both are at max materials for everything. If you both use wood, after you eliminate your opponent your inventory will look like this:

• Wood - 0
• Stone - 999
• Metal - 999

You would also be leaving 999 stone and metal on the ground for another player to come grab for free! If you were to switch to stone during the fight you’d be able to maximize your materials better so your inventory looks like this:

• Wood - 999
• Stone - 999
• Metal - 999

Keep this tip in mind when you’re entering a build battle in Fortnite Battle Royale. This could be the difference between you outbuilding a builder pro in the final circle, or being a hopeless low ground warrior because you don’t have the Fortnite building materials to compete for high ground.

On top of the potential to have more materials post fight, there is one more advantage to using a different building material than your opponent. Using a separate building material differentiates your materials look, so you can tell who has ownership of a wall easier. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been eliminated because I didn’t realize the wall to my left was owned by my opponent. Then my opponent does a simple window edit and one pumps me. This is easily avoidable by using a separate Fortnite building material.

Conserve Heavy Building Materials for Combat

Controlling the kind of materials you use outside of combat will ensure you can bring your stronger building materials into combat. If you’re running around looting you should be chewing through your wood materials. This way when you get to combat you’ll have a reserve of your heavier materials like stone and metal. Oftentimes, having a stronger building material can be the slight edge that wins you a build battle, so don’t waste them climbing a building to grab a couple shield potions.

Go Through Maxed Materials First

When you hit 999 Stone, you should refrain from using metal for your build battles. When you reach the max of any Fortnite building materials it should be your default building option. When you have a maxed out Fortnite building material and using some other material you’re slowing down the rate at which you can earn materials.

Let’s say you’re at 999 stone, and 500 wood, but you’re still using wood. Now when you open a chest, hit a rock, or eliminate an opponent with stone you’re leaving stone materials on the ground. If you have been building with stone you could collect stone as you go and reach max again, while also building up your wood materials. This way you can get a higher total materials number.

Now that you know all there is to know about building materials in Fortnite Battle Royale I can tell you’re going to snag loads of Victory Royale’s in the near future. Hop into Fortnite Creative to test out your new building techniques, and make sure to keep in mind our tips to maximize building materials. Also, remember when in doubt stone is the best building material. If you need a new Fortnite skin to show off your epic building abilities check out The Best 50 Skins For You To Stand Out In Fortnite.