Community Terminology

This page contains information which is not detailed in the game. Although some terms here are not exclusive to Fortnite, or its community, as well as several mentions of them in official sources, the information presented here is non-factual, and not official information.

This page details information which is not officially documented in Fortnite: Battle Royale, Fortnite: Save the World, and Fortnite: Creative, such as game mechanics, community terminology, and fan concepts, but is notable in community as an existing concept. The information presented is unofficial, and serves purely as a fan dictionary for terms often used within the Fortnite Community. Many terms here are also not exclusive to Fortnite.

Battle Royale Terminology

• 200 Pump - This refers to eliminating an opponent with a headshot achieved with a slow-firing shotgun that deals 200 or more damage, enough to instantly eliminate an enemy with full health and shield in build modes. This is not possible with the Legendary Pump Shotgun since Chapter 3: Season 2 due to having a damage cap of 185 and no longer dealing 200 damage, but can be done again in Chapter 4: Season OG.
• Aimbot - This is a commonly used term, referring to hackers and cheaters who use a program that gives perfect aim. These players are quickly detected and banned permanently from Fortnite.
• Blue - This is a term used to communicate to your teammates that you have damaged them for shield damage, not health damage. This term originated from the color of the damage tag (numbers displayed when dealing damage).
• Bot - This term can be in reference to two things, either using it as an insult or as a factual statement. If a player is facing an AI, they can be referred to as a bot which is factually correct. However, the term can be applied to players of low skill, in reference to their behaviour being similar to that of an AI, which is programmed to be easily fought. The term existed before the actual implementation of AIs.
• Bot Lobby - A lobby in which the majority of players are either very low skilled, or Bots. A bot lobby is usually achieved by playing with a new account on a mobile device or Nintendo Switch, which puts the player into a lobby of new players, or AI. This is usually done to achieve easy Victory Royales.
• BR - Short for Battle Royale.
• Broken - Broken refers to a weapon or item that is very overpowered to the point it 'breaks' the game balance. Notable examples that are considered Broken by the community are the Infinity Blade and the B.R.U.T.E.. The term Broken is also used referring to a game mechanic that is buggy. Often synonymous with the phrase 'game-breaking'.
• Buff - An improvement to an item or feature.
• Bush Camper / Camper - Someone who hides in things such as bushes and hideouts.
• Code - Short for Creator Code.
• Cracked - This term refers to a player who is exceedingly good at the game, and is used in a positive sense. This can also be used when talking to teammates, signalling that you have "cracked" an opponent's shield, meaning they have no more Shield.
• Cranking 90s / 90s - A term used for the action of quickly building a ramp, two walls, and a floor, in order to gain quick vertical height, and offer substantial protection for the player. This term is referred to in game by a randomly generated bot name, in reference to the concept. This concept is called a 90 because the player turns 90 degrees to perform one "90".
• Crown Wins - How many wins someone has while holding a Victory Crown.
• Default - A term used to refer to a player without any outfits or other cosmetic items, aside from the Recruit outfits given to every player.
• Double Pump - A term used to refer to the action of using multiple slow firing shotguns such as a Pump Shotgun and quickly switching between them after each shot to fire them faster. It used to be possible in Battle Royale, but the strategy was patched out with a cool-down between switching shotguns. This term is immortalized with the Double Pump Banner added in Season X. It can be done in Save the World.
• Elim - Short for Elimination, or being reduced to 0 HP in Solos and 0 HP after being Knocked in team game modes.
• Emoji/Stickers - Another name for an emoticon.
• Getting the Dub / Dub - A term used to refer to winning a game and achieving a Victory Royale. The phrasing 'dub' refers to the letter 'W' (as in Double-U), used in the opposite way to using the letter 'L'. The Dub also refers to the Exotic Double Barrel Shotgun.
• GOAT - The Greatest Of All Time, or GOAT, is a term that refers to someone or something amazing. Originally a term used in sports, this gained wide usage in Fortnite. If someone says you're goated, take it as a compliment.
• Hitscan vs Projectile - Hitscan weapons are ones where the bullet fired instantly connects with a target, for example with an Assault Rifle. Projectile weapons are ones where the bullet has travel time, and sometimes falls downwards over range, for example a Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle.
• Kill - To Eliminate a player from the game (HP reduced to 0). The term Kill was officialy used until Season 3 where it was replaced with Elimination. It is still used internally.
• K/D - Kills per Death. A statistic that refers to the number of eliminations per match.
• Knock / Knocked - Short for Knockdown, which is when a player is reduced to 0 HP in a team game mode. Their health ticks down slowly until they are Eliminated, unless a teammate Revives them.
• LTM - Refers to a Game Mode that is only available for a limited time (Short for Limited Time Mode).
• Meds - An item that heals you.
• Nerf - An item or feature that is made worse with an update.
• Noob - Short for 'Newbie'. Someone who is new to the game and isn't very good.
• OG - Short for 'OriGinal'. This refers to anything related to Fortnite in Chapter 1, such as a player who played the game since the start of Battle Royale. In Fortnite lore, OG refers to the car company that manufactures the BEAR and is the official name for the default Glider in Chapter 1.
• OP - Abbreviation for 'Over Powered'. When something is stronger than it should be, whether it's a character, a weapon, or any other in-game element, it can be referred to as overpowered, or OP. It generally means that it has too much power. The superlative of OP is Broken.
• One-Shot/One Tap/Single Tagged - This refers to a player being one shot away from being eliminated, due to low HP. This can also refer to the One Shot (LTM).
• Pay to Win - This refers to purchasing Cosmetic Items that have a competitive advantage. The opposite is 'Pay to Lose', where a cosmetic item has a competitive disadvantage.
• Ping - When you mark a location or item for you or others to go to.
• Pub - Short for 'Public'. This refers to the core Battle Royale and Zero Build playlists and not the Competitive Alternatives.
• Ready up - When you're in a lobby, before you can join a party or enter a game, you have to Ready Up by clicking the "Play" or "Ready" button. This will change your status from Not Ready to Ready. When enough friends in your party have readied up, your party will enter the game. Players will usually say this to someone who is taking a long time to ready up or when the Party Leader is ready to play another match.
• Refresh - Refresh refers to obtaining materials or loot from eliminated players.
• Rev / Rez - Short for Revive / Resurrect. Refers to when a player is knocked and needs to be revived. A player will ask their teammates to "Rev me" or "Rez me" when they need to be revived.
• Rocket Ride / Riding - This refers to the tactic of jumping on a rocket fired from a Rocket Launcher or Guided Missile by another player (usually a teammate). This is normally done in order to travel distances or to have high ground over enemies.
• Roleplay - Someone who acts out a story in-game.
• Rotate - Repositioning to prepare for or get into the next Storm Circle.
• Rubberbanding - The effect of a latency in online gaming where a moving object appears to leap from one place to another instantly. Can also refer to an effect in a mode designed to balance game difficulty dynamically. For example, AI characters falling behind might get a buff, while those too far ahead of the players might get a debuff. This is usually used in Gun Game modes.
• Skin - This term refers to Outfits. As many other games refer to cosmetic alterations as Skins, the same often happens with Fortnite.
• Shambles - Shambles is a competitive term meaning a player or team with a poor loadout or very low materials in the mid or end game.
• Solo Squad - This refers to the concept of playing a game of Battle Royale, without filling in the teammates slots, and purposely putting yourself at a disadvantage in a game. This can be done as a challenge, or due to other factors such as potentially requiring enemies to be knocked.
• Stream Sniping - Stream Sniping is the concept of purposely queuing for a game at the same time as a streamer you are viewing, in order to get into their lobby. This is often malicious. A stream sniper could use the ability to locate the streamer and kill them prematurely as their exact location is known, or they can purposely die in order to aid the streamer. Due to this, many streamers use the built in setting to delay their matchmaking a random number of seconds to stop players from queuing into the same game as them. Stream sniping is a bannable offense.
• Spray / Sprayer - Someone who gets easy Eliminations by using a weapon that fires very quickly.
• Sweat / Tryhard - This refers to a player who appears to be exceedingly good at the game, but used in a negative sense, such as someone who demolishes a very bad player. The concept of being 'sweaty' is referred to in game with the location Sweaty Sands.
• Tag / Tagged - Refers to when you hit an opponent and deal damage.
• Teaming - Teaming is when you purposely play alongside an enemy, instead of attacking them or moving away from them. Teaming is malicious as it gives an unfair advantage to you and the other enemy against the rest of the lobby, as it can lead to squads of players larger than that of the enemy squads. Fortnite has a built in feature which kicks players out of a match after several minutes of being in close proximity to another player without attacking them.
• Taking the L - Taking the L is a term used for someone who has failed at an objective. The term L refers to 'Loss', so for one to 'take the L' they are accepting a loss. The term is referenced in game by both text in the kill feed (before Chapter 4: Season 1), and also with two emotes of similar names (Take the L, Take the Elf).
• The Circle / The Zone - Refers to the Storm Eye (The Safe zone on the map where there is no storm).
• Third Partying - When you are fighting an enemy, a third enemy attacks one or both of you. This is common, as the third party has a health and surprise advantage,
• Troll - Someone who intentionally ruins the fun for everyone else. They will do everything they can to annoy people. This term can also refer to someone who pretends to be someone that they aren't or someone who pretends that they have an item that they don't.
• Stormtrooper Aim - This is a reference to Star Wars Stormtroopers who have bad aim. This also applies to players who have really bad aim.
• W-Keying - This means that someone is pushing everyone they see. The term comes from keyboard and mouse players usually using their W Key to move forward and pushing someone means going forward.
• [#] White - A callout to teammates when you hit someone for white health damage, such as "30 white!", which lets them know to focus down that target before they can heal. White refers to the color of the numbers displayed when dealing damage. Blue for shield damage can also be called out.
• Win / VR - Another term for Victory Royale (coming in 1st place).
• Zombies - Another term for Cube Monsters, as they behave like Zombies.

Competitive Terminology

These terms are chiefly used in Competitive.

• CC - Short for Cash Cup.
• CCC - Short for Console Cash Cup.
• Comp - Short for Competitive or Competition (a Match).
• Grands - The Grand Finals of a Tournament.
• Meta - The metagame. The preferred loadout of the currently available loot pool and mechanics in the game.
• PR - Power Ranking. A player's score on Fortnite Tracker based on their performance in all Competitive matches.
• Qual - Short for Qualification, but can also mean Qualified as in "Qualed for Grands".
• Roles - Player assignments on a competitive team:
  • Fragger - The player in a team who mostly does the fighting and earning eliminations.
  • IGL - An In Game Leader, the player who leads the team. Responsible for deciding where/when the team lands, fights, rotates. Often building or staying off the front line.
  • Tarper - The player in a team who does the building.
• Tarp - The build-level (building floor) the player is on. In the endgame there will often be builds 10+ tarps high.
• Tarping - Building a protective tunnel for yourself and your team.

Weapons and Items

As most weapons in Battle Royale are based on real world weapons, the community refers to the weapons by their real world counterpart, rather than how it appears in game.

• All Assault Rifles (Chapter 5) - AR(s)
  • Assault Rifle (Legacy) - M4, AR-15
  • Assault Rifle (Chapter 4) - SCAR
  • Heavy Assault Rifle - AK, AK-47
  • Burst Assault Rifle - FAMAS
  • Striker Burst Rifle - AUG
  • Drum Guns - Tommy Gun, Drum
  • Light Machine Gun - LMG
• All Shotguns - Shotty(s)
  • Pump Shotgun - SPAS, SPAZ, Pump
• All Submachine Guns - SMG(s)
  • Compact SMG - P90
• All Sniper Rifles - Sniper(s)
  • Zapotron - Zapatron, Zap
• All Suppressed Weapons - Silenced Weapons
• All Mythic Weapons - Mythic Weapon (e.g. "Mythic Combat Shotgun")
• Collab Items - Mythics
• Rocket Launcher - RPG
• Remote Explosive - C4
• Healing Items - Heals
  • Small Shield Potion - Mini(s), Mini Shield(s)
  • Shield Potion - Big Pot(s), Big Shield(s)
  • Chug Splash - Splash(es)
• All Weapon Mods - Mod(s)
  • P2X Optic - ACOG
  • Suppressor - Silencer

Rarities

Rarites are sometimes referred to by their color:

• Common - Grey
• Uncommon - Green
• Rare - Blue
• Epic - Purple
• Legendary and Mythic - Gold, Orange, or Yellow

Creative Terminology

• 1V1 - An elimination-based game mode where two players are placed into an arena, and each has the goal to eliminate the other player the maximum number of times before being eliminated. This mode often features build fights.
• Backfill - When a player joins a game that's already in progress by taking the place of another player who dropped out.
• Boss - A boss is an AI in a game that is stronger and harder to defeat or eliminate than other opponents. Winning against a boss generally takes more skill and knowledge of the game mechanics than what's needed against most AIs.
• Box Fight - A game where 2 or more players start in a box-like zone where they can only build and can't move for roughly 10 seconds. Then the game starts and they must build and fight others while the storm comes in. Last player standing wins and respawns are usually off.
• Calibration - When an island that uses accolades is published, it will go through a calibration process to evaluate how often players receive each accolade compared to how long they play. The calibration system requires a number of play sessions over time to make the calculations it needs to accurately calibrate the island. Once calibration is complete, the weights for each level of XP award are determined.
• Easter Eggs - An easter egg is a hidden message, object, image, or other surprise that players may find as they play.
• Edit Course - A game that contains a track with solid walls, floors, or roofs that the player has to edit to make doors, holes, and so on, in order to continue. These can sometimes be incorporated with 1v1s to make a 1v1 where players can only edit.
• Exploit - To take advantage of a design or programming flaw and use it to unfairly win.
• The Purple Thing - Another name for the Damage Amplifier (A device in Fortnite: Creative). This term is usually used when a player is about to attack you but has the unfair advantage ("[Username or pronoun] Has the Purple thing!"). This is typically used by people who do not know the real name of the device, or are saying it quickly because they need help.
• Zone Wars - A type of Creative game that is similar to a late game in a Competitive match.

Save the World Terminology

• Alpha - Alpha is derived from the beta testers of Fortnite: Save the World. Players who were able to gain access and test out the game during the game's online tests.
• ATLAS / Double ATLAS or CAT 2 / Triple ATLAS or CAT 3 / Quad ATLAS or CAT 4 - Another term for Category 1, 2, 3, or 4 Fight the Storm Missions.
• Trading - Trading is the idea of exchanging items with another player in exchange for itms they do not possess. The idea is infamous in low-level StW lobbies for contributing to inactivity and players not contributing to the objectives.
  • Scamwood - Players have changed the name of Stonewood due to the popularity of trade scams.
• Modded - The term Modded comes from the weaponry side of STW. Players have gained access to Schematics/weapons that have unique stats that are unobtainable. The alleged origin of these dates back to 2018–2019, when players would falsely claim to Epic Support that they have recycled Schematics with XYZ perks; perks that were not actually present, and request them back. This also led to the emergence of double or even triple-element weapons.
• 1/1 - 1/1s (or 1 of 1s) are allegedly 'one of a kind' weapons with perk configurations that aren't available on any other copy of said weapon. This is simply a hoax made-up by the trading community to deceive players since its legitimacy cannot be proved.
• Godroll - Before the Perk Recombobulator was introduced in late Season 4, Schematic perks were locked; randomized for standard weapons and pre-set for Event Weapons. Schematics that had near-perfect or fully optimal perk sets (random, or pre-set as with the Grave Digger) became known as Godroll Weapons. The term has devolved and is used to refer to weapons that have all Legendary perks.
• Legacy (Weapon) - A term used to refer to Weapons and Schematics that have not been converted to the updated Perk Recombobulator system. Legacy items have perks such as Critical Hit Chance (instead of Critical Rating) but their perks cannot be changed or customised.
• Plank / Canny / Twine - Plankerton, Canny Valley, and Twine Peaks.
• RtL - Abbreviation for Ride the Lightning.
• RtS / Shelter - Abbreviation for Repair the Shelter.
• EtS / Evac - Abbreviation for Evacuate the Shelter.
• RtS / Rescue / Survivors - Abbreviation for Rescue the Survivors.
• RtD / Data - Abbreviation for Retrieve the Data.
• Radar - Abbreviation for Build The Radar Grid.
• DtB / Bomb - Abbreviation for Deliver the Bomb.
• EAC - Abbreviation for Eliminate and Collect.
• DtE / Encampments - Abbreviation for Destroy the Encampments.
• SC - Abbreviation for Storm Chests.
• MSK - Abbreviation for the Mythic Storm King.
  • CSK - Abbreviation for the Canny Storm King
• SSD / SSE - Abbreviation for Storm Shield Defense / Endurance.
• StW - Abbreviation for Fortnite: Save the World.
• Fortress - Used to refer to Fortnite's earliest versions. Named after Project Fortress and/or FortressGame which was Fortnite's code name and internal name respectively.
• Flex - Players of the trading community who showcase their account. Usually in a way to overthrow doubters.
• Zombies - Another term for Husk Monsters as they behave like Zombies.

Fortnite Festival Terminology

• FC - Short for "Full Combo" (officially known as a "Flawless"), meaning the player did not commit a miss or a strike throughout the entire song.
• PFC - "Perfect Full Combo", meaning every note hit was a Perfect.
• Pad - Refers to normal Lead or Bass gameplay to distinguish it from Pro Lead or Pro Bass. Derived from "gamepad".
• Highway - The gameplay area where all the notes appear.
• Fret - The highway is divided into either four or five lanes, called "frets".
• Chart - Refers to how the song is formatted on the note highway.
• Alt Charting - Formatting an instrument other than a guitar on a Lead chart. An example of alt charting can be found in Carry on Wayward Son.
• Overchart / Underchart - Means a chart has more or less notes than necessary.
• Sightread - Refers to a playthrough of a song where the player is only seeing the chart for the first time.
• Playread - Means the player has seen the chart before, but is playing it for the first time.
• Coyote Time - Also known as "fret forgiveness", it refers to the short window of time where the player is able to strum before holding the correct fret.
• Arrow - Short for Lift Notes.
• HOPO - "Hop-on/Pull-off" notes.
• Wall - Refers to a repeated sequence of notes in a singular fret, most often requiring rapid inputs.
• Trills - A repeating two-note pattern. An example of a trill can be seen in For Latveria's Pro Lead chart.
• Triplets - A three-note pattern. An example of a triplet can be seen in One's Pro Lead chart.
• Quads - A four-note pattern. An example of a quad can be seen in Paradise City's Pro Lead chart.
• Plastic Guitar - A guitar controller that is used to play Fortnite Festival. Examples include the PDP Riffmaster and the Gibson X-Plorer.
• Snipe - The act of targeting a player's score on a leaderboard with the intent on overtaking it.
• TTFAF - Through the Fire and Flames.
• RTL - Ride the Lightning.
• MOP - Master of Puppets.

Terminology for Other Modes

• Party Royale Player - Someone who spends most of their time in Party Royale. They typically like to flex their outfits/skins and aren't normally very good at combat. This can also refer to players who play role play Creative games.