The best weapons and loadouts in Fortnite Battle Royale and Zero Build

Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 4, Shock 'n Awesome, mixes new weapons with returning favourites such as the Sentinel Pump shotgun to create an interesting, varied lootpool—with some standouts.

If you want a victory crown in Battle Royale or Zero Build, you'll need to know what to drop, what to carry, and what to lean on in a tough situation.

Below I'll lay out the best rifles, shotguns, and other weapons to carry this season, including a tier list. I've got a separate section on the new exotic and mythic weapons, and then I'll discuss the best mobility and healing items to carry, including the Shockwave launcher and the joyful Flowberry Fizz.

If you just want to know my best five-item loadout, I'd pick the Holo Twister assault rifle as my primary weapon alongside the Wrecker revolver. Then, I'd carry two mobility items, ideally Shockwave grenades and Tiger's teleporting mask. The final slot is for any healing item I find, but ideally the golden bubble shield, which will both protect you and repair your blue health.

My alternative loadout is the same, except it swaps in the Sentinel Pump shotgun for one of the mobility items. You can shoot and instantly swap between the Sentinel and the Wrecker revolver for a follow-up shot, which is known as "double-pumping" and is a deadly combo up close.

Fortnite best weapons tier list

The Wrecker revolver and the Holo Twister rifle are the best weapons in Fortnite right now. The revolver is basically a shotgun with absurd range, while the Holo Twister is an assault rifle with a sight attachment that makes it easier to aim.

But there are plenty of viable weapons: use this list as a rough guide, but make sure to test different guns for yourself and find your favorites.

S-tier

Wrecker revolver

Think of it as a shotgun that can deal 150-damage headshots up close, but also a reliable 60 per shot at mid-range. It's incredibly versatile, with a decent firing rate and a tight bullet spread when you aim down sights, which you'll want to do most of the time. The Sentinel Pump will do more damage with a single point-blank shot, but the Wrecker is better in basically every other scenario.

When the season released, you could "double pump" these revolvers, switching between them with no delay between firing. An update fixed that but you can still do it between the revolver and a shotgun. The revolvers have been nerfed a couple of times, but they're still incredible.

Holo Twister assault rifle

I was surprised when Epic added the Holo Twister, one of Fortnite's best-ever assault rifles, into Chapter 6 Season 4 in September, essentially upending the entire meta. Surprised, but not disappointed: this is the ultimate versatile rifle. The sight on the weapon makes it easier to land your shots, especially paired with its low recoil, and it spits out consistent damage at both mid and long ranges. This should be your go-to rifle for the rest of the season.

A-tier

Sentinel Pump Shotgun

The old reliable. This is a high-damage, slow-firing shotgun that’s perfect for landing those 100-HP kill shots. You need to be close to your enemies, so chip away from afar with a rifle, use mobility items to close the gap, and finish them off. It's not as good as the Wrecker revolver but it's still a fantastic finishing weapon.

Fury assault rifle

The Fury has been a staple of Fortnite Chapter 6, and it's a reliable assault rifle for short and medium-range fights. It only deals 22 damage per bodyshot at the base rarity, so long-rate potshots are futile, but it's excellent in every other situation. Its fast fire rate and its larger 28-bullet magazine make it forgiving, and its relatively low bloom makes it reliable at tracking moving targets.

MK-Seven assault rifle

A red-dot sight rifle that fires faster than the Fury and has a bigger magazine, but deals slightly less damage. You need to practice to manage its considerable recoil (pull down and a smidge to the right), but once you've got to grips with it you can beam enemies at mid-range, out-damaging the Holo Twister. Beware of its haphazard hip fire: aim down that clear sight whenever you can.

O.X.R. rifle

This was the best rifle of the season until Epic added the Holo Twister, which trumps the O.X.R. as a mid-to-long range weapon. But if you don't find the Holo, the O.X.R. is still a solid stand-in: it's accurate whether you shoot from the hip or aim in, and it deals good damage from mid-to-long range with manageable recoil. It's also the only rifle with a 1.75x headshot multiplier, which can be the difference between life and death. The Fury and the MK-Seven beat it up close.

B-tier

Modular Frenzy Auto shotgun

Epic added the Frenzy when it removed the Twinfire Auto shotgun, which had sadly dwindled into irrelevancy despite a series of buffs. The Frenzy is a slight upgrade: its stats are actually very similar, but its faster fire rate makes a big difference. Just know that its limited range means you need to get really close to your enemy, so I'd only recommend it if you have slick movement and an aggressive playstyle. Even then, the Wrecker revolver is still the better pick.

Swarmstrike rocket launcher

A skilled player with shockwaves and one of these launchers is a menace. It fires a swarm of seven rockets, and one salvo can kill a 200HP enemy in build mode (and leave a zero-build player with a slither of health). You can shoot from the hip or right-click for a laser sight that guides your missiles after you've fired them.

If you can grab mobility items and get airborne so that you're firing on opponents from above, you can rampage through a group. Its downsides are that you might get beamed out of the air, and that it's hard to deal much damage firing from the ground. It also reloads slowly.

Veiled Precision SMG

If you love red-dot scopes then try this SMG. It was buffed in September to fire faster and given a bigger magazine, making it a viable weapon for mid-range fights. It's not quite as good as any as the assault rifles, but it's a fantastic weapon to find as you drop off the bus, or to carry as a side-arm while you're building your loot up.

Precision air strike

A single-use airstrike that drops bombs from the sky, destroying buildings and players in its path. It's relatively easy to get away from with mobility items, but it's useful in the end game for controlling the zone and destroying cover, particularly in build mode and in team fights. Just make sure you don't waste it early in the round.

Hyperburst pistol

A sneaky powerful and accurate burst-fire pistol that can rip through health bars, especially if you land headshots. In the right hands, at higher rarities, it'll out-damage assault rifles, and its magazine capacity has recently been boosted so you can fire for longer without reloaded. Ultimately, I prefer the versatility of ARs, but this is still a fun pistol.

C-tier

Falcon Eye sniper

It's exciting to have a proper sniper rifle in the loot pool, but it's one of the worst ever in Fortnite. At high rarities it will one-tap enemies to the head in build mode (not in Zero Build), and for that reason it can be worth a player in your squad carrying it. Epic has also reduced the bullet drop from previous versions of this weapon, making it easier to handle—but ultimately it doesn't deal enough damage (80 for a body shot) to justify its tiny three-bullet magazine.

Hand Cannon

This Deagle-like pistol sounds menacing, and landing a headshot is satisfying. But its high damage isn't enough to offset its sluggish fire rate: the aiming reticle takes an age to reset after you squeeze the trigger. Good for some pre-engagement hotshots, but it struggles when the fight begins.

Leadspitter 3000

This minigun can tear down enemy builds, but I wouldn't recommend it as a primary weapon because you move slowly when you're firing it, and because it's hard to handle beyond close-range fights. If you're stuffing all 12 of your barrels in an enemy's face and holding the trigger you will melt them—but if you take a step back, the recoil kicks in.

Bug blaster

This explosive blaster should never be your go-to weapon, but it hits surprisingly hard and you never need to reload it. Uncharged shots deal 50 damage and charged shots 100, and its generous area of effect, which can also damage people in builds or behind cover, makes it easy to aim.

It was particularly powerful against queen mini-bosses and bugs (dealing 2.7x damage), but they've been removed from the map completely, negating one of this weapon's biggest upsides.

Sweeper shotgun

Its horizontal fire pattern is far from ideal and the Wrecker and Sentinel Pump are far better, but at higher rarities this is a perfectly fine shotgun that can deal decent damage up close.

D-tier

Stinger SMG

This season's dud. The Stinger fires fast and can pump out tons of damage up close, but it's not versatile enough for me to recommend carrying. It is, however, decent at shredding opponents' builds, so give it a go if you struggle with that.

Mythic weapons

Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 4: Mythics from reaching bunkers

Fortnite's big update at the start of October got rid of exotic weapons and the O.X.R. rank system, changing the way bunkers worked. Previously, reaching O.X.R. rank A let you unlock the bunkers and find exotic weapons inside—now, two of them open automatically at the start of the second zone, and you'll get one of three mythic weapons inside.

These three mythics are the ones you used to get from killing Queen mini-boss bugs (which were also culled in that October update). You'll get one of the mythic enhanced Wrecker revolver, the mythic Sweeper Shotgun, and the mythic O.X.R. rifle. They're simply more powerful versions of the base guns: the revolver is the best, then the O.X.R. rifle, and then the Sweeper Shotgun (which I wouldn't use if I already had a strong shotgun).

Best Fortnite items

This season you’ll want a mix of heals and mobility. The number of slots you have to fill depends on what weapons you're carrying: if you're carrying three weapons (ideally three of the Holo Twister, the O.X.R. rifle, the Wrecker revolver, the Sentinel Pump and the Swarmstrike launcher), you'll want one healing item and one mobility item.

If you're only carrying two weapons, I recommend doubling down on mobility—this is what I prefer. Or, you could take one mobility item plus one of the items that will help late in games, such as the precision airstrike or the Port-a-Bunker.

And if you're playing as a team, think about your overall loot: if one of you has lots of area-of-effect healing, the other could pick up utility items, such as the flare gun.

Heals: Anything will do

The best item is the legendary Slurp juice, which heals you over time for 200, but you can only get it from the rift pod near the end of the game, so you'll be using something else most of the time.

My favorites are the Flowberry Fizz, Mira's x-tra spicy ramyeon, and Zoey's Golden Bubble Shield.

The fizz sprays everywhere, healing anyone nearby, including teammates, for up to 100 shields (but not health). It also makes you jump farther and floatier, which pairs brilliantly with mobility items.

The ramyeon heals for 50 health or shield, depending on how much health you have, and also gives you a hefty speed boost.

And the bubble shield is, as the name suggests, a shield that you can plop down to block all damage, but it also repairs your shield over time.

There are other viable healing items: the Chug Splash is particularly good in teams because you can heal multiple people at once, both health and shields, and you can spray the Med Mist on either yourself or teammates to restore health.

But remember, anything will do. If your health is low then a Med Kit works in a pinch.

One tip: look for Slurp Barrels in the early game, and break them rather than wasting your healing items, which you can save for later.

Mobility: Shockwave mastery

There are three solid mobility items right now: shockwave grenades, the shockwave hammer, and Tiger's teleporting mask.

The hammer is a melee weapon, but if you right click you slam the ground and go flying. You get three uses before it needs to recharge.

But if you can get your hands on them, Shockwave grenades are the most versatile mobility item in the game right now. They fly you further than the hammer, and work in every situation: escaping enemies, chasing a weakened foe down, or travelling large distances by chaining them together. Their only limitation is they're relatively rare. The hammer is better than a couple of shockwaves.

The teleport mask is another top-tier mobility item: you aim an orb, hurl it, and then right click to teleport to it (exactly how the Void Oni mask worked earlier in the Chapter). It's not as instant as the shockwave items so it's not as good for escaping, but it's brilliant for setting up tactical plays. Throw your orb to a flank before engaging them. If they try to reposition, teleport to the flank and finish them off.

As I've said, doubling up on mobility works very well right now: pick one of the shockwave items plus the teleport mask.

There are two more mobility items: the launch pad and Rumi's empowered sword, which is new. The sword makes you sprint faster, but it's not worth carrying over the items mentioned above. The launch pad is brilliant for travelling long distances, but not worth lugging around with you—my advice is if you have a spare slot, take it, and if you don't, grab it and immediately throw it down on the ground.

There are two final items to consider.

There are two final items to consider:

• The Flare Gun: when you fire it into the distance, it pings any enemies in that direction. It's not worth ditching heals or mobility to carry it, but it can be useful for one person in your team to carry it.
• Port-a-bunker: A Zero Build item that gives you portable cover. Can be helpful in the late game.

Fortnite loadout tips

Experiment to find your perfect loadout

Now you have a feel for all the weapons and items, here are some simple tips for picking your ideal combo:

• Play to your strengths: Everyone’s playstyle is different. If you’re good at closing distances with shifty movement, you could ditch a longer-range assault rifle and double up on shotguns (the rfevolverf and the Sentinel Pump, for example). Test different combos until you find some you enjoy.
• Pick weapons that synergise: Ideally, that means something short-range and something for mid-range fights. Also think about your weapons’ strengths and weaknesses, and how they fit together. The O.X.R. rifle is weak up close, so if you’re only carrying one other weapon, you’ll need something that can deal sustained damage at short-range. A weapon with that fires faster and has a larger magazine (the Frenzy Auto shotgun, for example) might work better than a Sentinel Pump.
• Consider swapping to a worse weapon of higher rarity: The Holo Twister is the best rifle for me, but given the choice between a common (grey) one and an epic (purple) Fury assault rifle, I'll leave the O.X.R. behind.
• Remember, there are no rules: Find a loadout you enjoy and stick with it, or vary it up every match depending on your mood.