My friends aren’t into games so have to brag here. I won a solo match of Fortnite without firing a single shot. I think the way I play may be pretty unconventional. I stay on the bus until kicked off then open the umbrella right away. By the time I’m halfway down I see where the first storm circle is going to be so head there. I’ll find a weapon and some place to hide until forced to move by the storm circle.
The other day I needed to move and found a boat on a river that would take me the right way. Along the way I spotted the helicopter and jumped into that. By this time there were only around 10 players left. I went up to max altitude and stayed just inside the circles. It got down to just two of us and a tiny circle. The player on the ground must have had a bad weapon because they weren’t shooting that I could tell. They then started building a big tower. I assume they were trying to get high enough to get an effective shot. Once shots started to hit, I just went straight down on top of the platform they’d built. There wasn’t much room, they fell off and “didn’t stick the landing” so I won!
The author John Green has a whole series of YouTube videos where he tries to “win Fortnite as a pacifist”. Quite entertaining considering it is only him hiding in bushes and philosophizing about the cruelty of being forced into a Hunger Games situation by an unfeeling Epic Games.
I’ve never won without firing a shot myself, but I’ve won a few times without any of those being at the second and third to last players.
I think I’d get a bit bored with the game if I didn’t occasionally go looking for the action though.
I never got the hang of building except to get up cliffsides and into second stories without going indoors and up the stairs. But you can win and enjoy the game without that.
I’m undefeated in Fortnight (interpret that as you will :)), but back in the days of Scorched Earth, I often won a round without use of any damaging weapon, and a few times without using any weapon at all.
I’ve only won 4 solo matches, and only one by eliminating #2. The first one I had planted myself in an upstairs bathroom and was waiting with my only weapon pointed at the door, because I though another player was coming after me. As luck would have it I ended up sitting there undetected through 2-3 storm cycles. When it got down to 3 players I spotted a shed just inside the circle that I could crouch beside. I saw the message that #3 had been eliminated, then almost immediately saw “Victory Royale” at the top of the screen. That was around the same time I discovered that you can watch replays of previous matches from different players’ points of view. I saw that second place had just been engulfed by the storm after eliminating #3 and tried to use a medpack before getting into the circle.
I won a later match because #2 and #3 fired at each other simultaneously.
I think building is way overrated for the most part. I started getting more notches in my gun after I gave up on building and started just charging other players more often.