How to Boxfight for Beginners

How to Boxfight for Beginners

If you've found yourself getting frustrated as you boxfight, we've got the guide for you. Check out our Beginner's Guide to Boxfighting!

Do ever you find yourself tilted when you run into a skilled player that builds circles around you? Then you need to take the time to learn how to boxfight! These techniques will help you confuse, defend, and find openings that you can use to win more matches. So we’ll start at the basics and build up toward the ultimate techniques that you need to know.

Boxfighting to Its Basics

The most important fundamental in boxfighting is… well, the box. This box is more than your method of defense. As long as it stays up and you control all of the pieces, you can dominate any opponent that you come across. However, boxes are more than just builds in this situation. It’s also the ultimate goal you and your opponent are striving to control. Hre’s a quick and simple rundown of how boxes are used in Fortnite.

You can defend yourself using the box, protecting you from enemy fire or giving you time to heal up. Boxes can also be used offensively, boxing around your opponent to keep them from moving around. It also cuts them off from any building until they clear the way.

Finally, regardless of if you’re inside of a box or outside of one, you’ll need to always try your best to edit your box in ways that you can use to your advantage, whether it will be opening up a peek or getting yourself out of harm’s way.

Defending With Your Box

One of the things that newer players will often do is build a few walls around them if they take damage. This is a good instinct to have, but sometimes, you’ll only build in the direction of the gunfire, which leaves you open in other directions.

Once the box is up, how do you defend it? The obvious answer is to keep opponents from claiming your walls and open up a window whenever you can to return fire. However, most boxfights involve more than a single box and the longer it lasts, the more builds will be made as you jockey for control.

One strat you need to start using is building a double box at the beginning of the fight. If you own two boxes connected to each other, you give yourself more room to work with, even if your opponent invades one of those spaces. This can also be used to keep your enemies guessing.

Also, consider swapping out your medkits for floppers. They’re some of the fastest healing methods in the game, and in a boxfight, they can restore your health fast enough to keep you in battle. Given that players will attempt to keep a mental note of their opponent’s HP, sneaking in a fast heal can throw an enemy’s count off.

Finally, the last mistake we often see is when players switch from defense to offense. Players may feel like that is the right time to edit a peek, but instead, they end up getting smoked. So what happened? Well, their timing was wrong. They made the edit while they were standing directly in front of the opening. Keep defenses, and stop confirming your edit before you reach cover. Get to cover first, then confirm! If you want to be a bit more cheeky, make an edit that your opponent can’t see first.

Combat: Which Weapons to Use?

It can be pretty tricky to boxfight or take on an opponent inside of the box. Fighting in the box relies on confidence, observation, and patience. It also requires you to know which weapon is optimal in different situations.

If you’re boxfighting, shotguns are best used immediately after an edit to take as much HP away from your opponent as possible. SMGs should be used to deal damage to different walls, or even punch through and chip away at an opponent. They’re not always going to be the game-ender, but they can deal enough damage to apply pressure. Also keep in mind that you could always pickaxe your opponent’s wall to weak it before you punch through with the SMG.

Snipers aren’t as good in a box fight once it begins, but you can get a good shot in before engaging, which can tilt the fight in your favor. You can use ARs while you box fight, but they don’t deal massive damage unless you open the fight up with a good beam. Unlike the sniper though, you can still use it to smack different walls from a distance and keep opponents on their heels.

Usually, boxfights will begin the moment that either of you hits the other. If you hit the opponent and they box up, now is your chance to apply pressure. Keep poking at different walls to pressure them off of a heal. Your opponent won’t know which wall you plan to punch through and they’ll be forced to focus on you.

Combat: Observation

One thing that a lot of beginners do while learning how to boxfight is rush their opponents once they land a few good hits. You’re mainly focused on getting the box out of the way as quickly as possible, but in reality, this is a mistake. A good opponent will be watching your movement and if they’ve picked up some techniques, they’ll be able to predict where you’re coming from and take a perfect defensive angle. Even if you think you’re being slick, they’ll be able to take you down quickly.

Becoming better at observation can help you predict your opponent’s movements, which can help inform you on where to place your next piece or edit.

One great way that you can improve your technique is to review your VODs. If you got into a good fight during a match, you can go back to it from the main menu by visiting the Combat Records tab. Here you’ll find some of your previous matches saved, and you can view them at your leisure. You can even see your eliminations and deaths on the timeline, allowing you to navigate the VOD.

This is a great tool because if you lost, you can see the movements that your opponent made to prepare for your failed attack. Watch the VOD back in slow motion, as it can help you spot important details that you’ll need to look out for in the future.

Using Your Edits Offensively

Now, let’s talk about some editing techniques every beginner should know. If you’re at least somewhat familiar with Fortnite, you’ve probably already seen players open windows to take shots. While this is essential, it’s also one of the more basic techniques and it’s not always the best option.

As we mentioned earlier, getting a box around the opponent is a great way to trap them. However, you can also trap your opponent using stairs. Say you open up a window, but your opponent is being careless, you can then place a stair piece inside their box to pin them against your own wall. You can also try this if the opponent is attacking your box, as it creates an additional layer between them and you.

It’s very important that you also learn how to reset edits. Doing this will allow you to open a peek, take a shot, and close the hole in the wall before the opponent can retaliate.

Phasing Techniques

One of the most essential techniques you’ll need as a beginner is phasing into your opponent’s box. When you’re trying to get into a box that your opponent is using, the ability to quickly bring a wall down and enter is essential for catching them off guard.

Some players will damage the roof of the box and then drop down, swinging their pickaxe for that final bit of HP. This allows them to enter the box before the opponent has a chance to seal the breach.

Other players will attempt to use cones to build up momentum to slide, take down the wall, and then zoom by their opponent before they can repair.

Learn to Strafe Inside the Box

Once you manage to get into the opponent’s box, you’ll need to be ready for some close-quarters combat. This is usually where beginners will make or break their boxfights, depending on their confidence. Yes, getting up close and personal can leave you open to getting pumped, but if you can strafe, you won’t need to panic.

If possible, always start with a hit from your shotgun, then swap out to your weapons with faster rates of fire as you move around the opponent. You’re so close that ARs will be difficult to aim, and if you move fast enough, your opponent will struggle to focus their pump shots on you. Be sure to keep firing as you strafe to apply even more pressure which can throw them off even more. The rest from there, is all up to you to finish what you started.

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