Nah, but a few purchases can greatly improve your gameplay.
Fortnite is free. And in general, the things you can buy in the game won’t improver your performance. It’s just cosmetics, like different skins, fun dance moves, and load screens to look at while the match is loading.
But there are some things you can buy that will affect your gameplay. Here are the items I think are most critical. And full disclosure – the links below are affiliate links; I’ll get a few bucks if you click on them when making a purchase.
Controller – Back Paddles are Important
Your choice of controller is a big deal. My favorite controllers are ones that have paddles on the back. The paddles can be programmed to your preferences. My controller, the XBox Elite 2, has 4 paddles. They’re programmed to jump, switch weapons, run, and slide. Why is this important? I can access these moves without having to take my thumbs off the control sticks or off the triggers. This gives me a huge advantage over standard controllers. For example, I can jump, aim, and shoot at the same time. Have you been shot by someone jumping over you? Could have been me. And with paddles, it could be you.
I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. If you have bendy fingers and want to “play claw”, you won’t need paddles on the back. But in that case, you probably aren’t the kind of person reading Fortnite For Old People.
So just use that money you’re making to give you an edge over the kids that need to save their allowance to get this. Strike while you can!
You can also get the Elite 2 Core, which doesn’t include paddles, and then buy paddles on your own. That’s what I did. My paddles are red.
Buying the Elite Core 2 and paddles separately is cheaper than buying the Elite 2. But the Elite 2 comes with a few other accessories which you might want, such as a case and wires, in addition to the paddles. It’s really up to you which you want.
Headphones
The game plays best with headphones, because you get a fuller surround sound experience and better audio quality. The surround sound is important: with headphones on you can better localize sound. Though the need for this is mitigated greatly when using Visual Audio, which you’re surely doing if you read my article on Must-Use Settings.
When I play with family members, I use the headphones to talk and catchup. The social element of Fortnite can be very strong, and headphones make that a reality.
I recommend the Microsoft headphones. They’re inexpensive and great quality, also comfortable.
What if You Can’t Use Headphones?
Reality is that if you’re reading this, you can’t totally shut-off the rest of the world to game. You need to hear your partner yelling something about trash day and the kids shower and the laundry and school lunches. So in this case, you have a couple of options.
Usually, I just lower the volume on the TV and rely fully on the visual audio. This works well, and is how I usually play.
Alternately, you can get bluetooth headphones that don’t prevent you from hearing what’s around you. That usually means bone conduction headphones or headphones with a transparency/ambient audio mode. The drawback of anything bluetooth is that there a delay of a few milliseconds between when your game plays the sound and when you hear it. It’s not a huge problem if you’re using visual audio, but the delay is perceptable. This is why I just usually play with the volume down.
Gaming Platform
I play on an XBox Series X. The Seriex X is great, the Series S is ok. Anything older and you’ll lose out on the faster performance and rendering (esp refresh rates), which can hamper your gameplay.
The Playstation is also a solid choice.
If you like the controllers but want to play on a PC, both the XBox and Playstation controllers can be used on PC, so you get some extra value from them that way.
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