How to Avoid Pay To Progress/Play/Win in Fortnite
TL/DR is at the very bottom.
If you Google "Fortnite pay to play or win" not only would you see players of the game complaining about this model, but even respected game journalists mentioning the toxic pay to play and win structure of this game, and how the game is ruined because you have to pay to make any sort of progression.
As I wrote in a previous post, I was so impressed by my friend who is only one level above me, with really crap heroes and weapons (where I had high-tier ones), but nevertheless performing better than me in both building and combat. I wanted to craft her better weapons, since I have some of the top-tier weapons with very good rolls such as increased critical chance and energy damage.
The issue was that I managed to only get enough silver ore from another friend to even make these weapons in the first place, and not on my own, as it was hard for me to obtain silver ore in-game. I had 48 at that time, down from 99 which he gave me as I had to constantly use silver ore to make weapons. Each of my top-tier weapons cost a whopping 11 silver ore.
Because of this issue, she then dropped me two stacks of silver ore (?!?), which comes out to 198! My jaw dropped. I asked her how is she able to give me 2 stacks, in a rather nonchalant way???!!. She said she had 5 plus stacks (?!?). Not only that, the same friend who gave me the initial first stack had 5 plus stacks of even the more rare malachite (?!?), plus he has been stockpiling scores of malachite rocket launchers, that have very powerful AOE but low durability, so these are very resource-intensive weapons.
My friend explained that she would use the traps and weapons that she'd find in crates and chests (I tend to recycle weapons since they're always of lower quality), and only making her own weapons if she runs out. Therefore, she rarely uses silver ore and holds onto them, collecting the impressive 5 plus stacks. It never occurred to me to use these weapons since with my skill-set, I really need the best.
Talking with her, I discovered that Fortnite really isn't pay to progress, play or win if you're patient and good enough with the game. I agree the progression is excruciatingly slow even for me who enjoys grinding, and I wonder if even I could progress with only the standard edition, where you only get the minimum tools. I think I can do it and here's how I can, by following my friend's strategy.
I can see myself having to play only level 1 missions for up to two weeks before I find some sort of competence in both navigating the building menu (which is a bit clunky) and shooting. Whereas, I believe I was mid-way through the first area due to getting all the best items after only 2 weeks of playing due to having the best stuff. Further, using my friend's model, I will have to do a lot of grinding to find weapons, and only making weapons as the last resort, so I will be stuck at level 1 for the first 2 or so weeks.
Then, after gaining some competence, I will progress to level 5 missions, also taking 2 weeks further honing my skills. Interestingly, I would have stockpiled a lot of the rare items that are hard to find initially, such as active powercells, rotating gizmos, and even copper ore. They become almost ubiquitous at later stages of the game, but in the level 1 and 5 missions, they are hard to come by. During the first area in Stonewood, you don't really need traps, so that would further save on materials.
In addition to improving my skill set, I will slowly grind out hero and survivor experience to beef up my common to rare main hero and survivors, as the survivors help with increasing your defense and offense more than getting skills. But I will be stuck at level 5 for quite some time for maybe 2 weeks, and then level 9, and so forth.
If I were smarter, and didn't buy into the limited/ultimate editions and v-bucks, this Monday Musings may have been about how I finally made it to Plankerton, the second area, and further tips on how to progress without paying.
Indeed, I would like to experiment with this, to see if anyone can achieve what my friends achieved, that is at my very inexperienced skill set. I believe almost all players of Fortnite would have way more experience with shooters than me, so by following my friend's methods, I can safely conclude that you don't really need to buy anything, as you don't need the best items in the game to start out with.
However, for non-gamers (i.e. I have almost no skills in shooters so I'm basically a newbie going into the game), can we succeed in progressing without paying? If I'm able to do it, then that's proof that literally anyone can do this all for free, that is once Fortnite is released as a free game in 2018.
Unfortunately, you only have 1 save file per console, so if I were to experiment with this, I'm going to wait for the free access in 2018 and play on the Xbox. I think it would be an interesting exercise, and I might do just that, hoping that there will be a good pool of players in the Xbox Fortnite Community. As I'm playing on the PS4, I can COOP with all PS4 players and my friends who play on PC, so there's a large pool of players to draw into. XBox, strangely, doesn't have cross-COOP with PC players, despite both being Microsoft products.
TL/DR: Play the levels over and over again primarily to scrounge for weapons that you will use, and only make your own if you truly run out.
With the experience gained from grinding missions, slowly increase your main hero's and survivor's stats for more viability. When you find better heroes and/or survivors, you can either add them in your collection book to get resources, or recycle to get most of the experience back.
Anyone with any reasonable experience with shooters can progress smoothly (though slowly), and those who don't have much experience such as me, will have to go at an even slower pace for practice, as we'll be stuck with common to rare heroes and weapons and have to rely more on skill.
The How of Happiness Review
TL/DR is at the very bottom.
If you Google "Fortnite pay to play or win" not only would you see players of the game complaining about this model, but even respected game journalists mentioning the toxic pay to play and win structure of this game, and how the game is ruined because you have to pay to make any sort of progression.
As I wrote in a previous post, I was so impressed by my friend who is only one level above me, with really crap heroes and weapons (where I had high-tier ones), but nevertheless performing better than me in both building and combat. I wanted to craft her better weapons, since I have some of the top-tier weapons with very good rolls such as increased critical chance and energy damage.
The issue was that I managed to only get enough silver ore from another friend to even make these weapons in the first place, and not on my own, as it was hard for me to obtain silver ore in-game. I had 48 at that time, down from 99 which he gave me as I had to constantly use silver ore to make weapons. Each of my top-tier weapons cost a whopping 11 silver ore.
Because of this issue, she then dropped me two stacks of silver ore (?!?), which comes out to 198! My jaw dropped. I asked her how is she able to give me 2 stacks, in a rather nonchalant way???!!. She said she had 5 plus stacks (?!?). Not only that, the same friend who gave me the initial first stack had 5 plus stacks of even the more rare malachite (?!?), plus he has been stockpiling scores of malachite rocket launchers, that have very powerful AOE but low durability, so these are very resource-intensive weapons.
My friend explained that she would use the traps and weapons that she'd find in crates and chests (I tend to recycle weapons since they're always of lower quality), and only making her own weapons if she runs out. Therefore, she rarely uses silver ore and holds onto them, collecting the impressive 5 plus stacks. It never occurred to me to use these weapons since with my skill-set, I really need the best.
Talking with her, I discovered that Fortnite really isn't pay to progress, play or win if you're patient and good enough with the game. I agree the progression is excruciatingly slow even for me who enjoys grinding, and I wonder if even I could progress with only the standard edition, where you only get the minimum tools. I think I can do it and here's how I can, by following my friend's strategy.
I can see myself having to play only level 1 missions for up to two weeks before I find some sort of competence in both navigating the building menu (which is a bit clunky) and shooting. Whereas, I believe I was mid-way through the first area due to getting all the best items after only 2 weeks of playing due to having the best stuff. Further, using my friend's model, I will have to do a lot of grinding to find weapons, and only making weapons as the last resort, so I will be stuck at level 1 for the first 2 or so weeks.
Then, after gaining some competence, I will progress to level 5 missions, also taking 2 weeks further honing my skills. Interestingly, I would have stockpiled a lot of the rare items that are hard to find initially, such as active powercells, rotating gizmos, and even copper ore. They become almost ubiquitous at later stages of the game, but in the level 1 and 5 missions, they are hard to come by. During the first area in Stonewood, you don't really need traps, so that would further save on materials.
In addition to improving my skill set, I will slowly grind out hero and survivor experience to beef up my common to rare main hero and survivors, as the survivors help with increasing your defense and offense more than getting skills. But I will be stuck at level 5 for quite some time for maybe 2 weeks, and then level 9, and so forth.
If I were smarter, and didn't buy into the limited/ultimate editions and v-bucks, this Monday Musings may have been about how I finally made it to Plankerton, the second area, and further tips on how to progress without paying.
Indeed, I would like to experiment with this, to see if anyone can achieve what my friends achieved, that is at my very inexperienced skill set. I believe almost all players of Fortnite would have way more experience with shooters than me, so by following my friend's methods, I can safely conclude that you don't really need to buy anything, as you don't need the best items in the game to start out with.
However, for non-gamers (i.e. I have almost no skills in shooters so I'm basically a newbie going into the game), can we succeed in progressing without paying? If I'm able to do it, then that's proof that literally anyone can do this all for free, that is once Fortnite is released as a free game in 2018.
Unfortunately, you only have 1 save file per console, so if I were to experiment with this, I'm going to wait for the free access in 2018 and play on the Xbox. I think it would be an interesting exercise, and I might do just that, hoping that there will be a good pool of players in the Xbox Fortnite Community. As I'm playing on the PS4, I can COOP with all PS4 players and my friends who play on PC, so there's a large pool of players to draw into. XBox, strangely, doesn't have cross-COOP with PC players, despite both being Microsoft products.
TL/DR: Play the levels over and over again primarily to scrounge for weapons that you will use, and only make your own if you truly run out.
With the experience gained from grinding missions, slowly increase your main hero's and survivor's stats for more viability. When you find better heroes and/or survivors, you can either add them in your collection book to get resources, or recycle to get most of the experience back.
Anyone with any reasonable experience with shooters can progress smoothly (though slowly), and those who don't have much experience such as me, will have to go at an even slower pace for practice, as we'll be stuck with common to rare heroes and weapons and have to rely more on skill.
The How of Happiness Review
Well since that most people won't be up for the grind(me being one of them that's what's keeping me from buying fortnite) the whole "Fortnite is pay to progress won't go anywhere any day soon. Tried making a new account on psn since most games on my ps4 work on multiple accounts but I think the pass for the save the world mode is paid for per account. Also BATTLEROYALE FOR EVER.
ReplyDeleteOh no Omar, I missed the key point, that a lot of people find grind tedious, so I now understand why you want to pay to progress. I must admit, even for me, a grind queen, Fortnite is a bit much, and I actually have gotten my Souls characters past level 500, so I'm no slacker when it comes to grinding, lol!
Deleteis the battle royale really that good? I haven't tried is as I can't compete against other expert shooters!
Being an "expert shooter" has little to do with winning since all the guns except for the sniper have pretty huge spread making it hard to hit your shots even if you were a good shot plus so strategic thinking and good building skills will get you far plus PS4 has aim assist so that helps big time aswell. Hit me up if you wanna hop on BR and I'll help u out :)
DeleteI think my friends were able to land headshots on a regular basis as well as being able to position themselves so they can easily spray down husks. But I agree with you completely, that in addition, you need to know how to build traps where the enemies will go, and learn how to herd them into a straight line, so you can easily pick them off!
DeleteI'm afraid I'll drag down your team in Battle Royale so I may have to pass, but do friend me at FatNyams on the PS4, and maybe we can do the coop missions in Save the World?
In the meantime, I'm very happy to see you here!