For the article on the Save the World mechanic of the same name, please see Health (Save the World)
Health is a Gameplay Mechanic in Fortnite: Battle Royale. It was introduced in the Pre-Season. Health is a fundamental part of Battle Royale, as it dictates the survivability of the player, in how much damage they can take from specific sources.
Functionality[]
The HP meters in Chapter 1
The HP meters from Chapter 2: Season 1 to Chapter 2: Season 5
The HP meters from Chapter 2: Season 6 to Chapter 3: Season 1
The HP meters as of Chapter 3: Season 2
HP is a combined value of both your Health levels, and your Shield Levels for each player in a match. Health is positively affected from Healing Items, and negatively affected from damaging items, such as weapons or The Storm. Players start with 100 Health and 0 Shield in standard Battle Royale playlists. In Creative, the maximum Health and Shield can be adjusted.
Health[]
Health is the term used to refer to the Green bar attributed to each player. Health determines whether a player can be eliminated / knocked, as when it reaches 0, the player will be knocked (in Squad based modes, in Solos they will simply be eliminated). Health is taken away from the player after their Shield and or Overshield level reaches 0. Some items and damage will bypass this rule, such as The Storm or Fall Damage.
Vehicle Health[]
When riding a vehicle, a separate Health bar appears for the vehicle above the shield bar. When it reaches 0, the vehicle is destroyed.
Shield[]
Shield is the term used to refer to the Blue health bar attributed to each player. Shield is used to protect the player's health value, and to increase the player's health in general and to absorb more damage before being knocked. Shield will be taken away first unless an Overshield is present. If the player reaches 0 Health but still has shield, they will retain the shield when knocked, but only once revived. When knocked, the player will not have shield protection.
Overshield[]
Overshield is a mechanic which gives the player 50 extra Shield on top of their existing 200 HP threshold. Overshield is a separate measure, regenerating over time and not contributing to any healing items which cap at a certain amount of shield. Players will take damage to overshield first, and it will regenerate slowly after several seconds of not taking damage. It is also not given to the player on immediate spawn, instead generating several seconds after leaving the Battle Bus as well as several seconds after being rebooted or revived. It is only present in Zero Build playlists.
Down But Not Out (Knocked)[]
Down But Not Out (or DBNO in short) is the term used to refer to players who have had all of their health removed. The player will briefly become invincible, but afterwards be vulnerable to attacks. The player will lose 2 Health per second when knocked, and their Health bar will be red. This Health can be restored to prolong death indefinitely via different means. When the player loses all their Health in this state, they will be eliminated and drop a Reboot Card (if the mode allows rebooting). If the player is knocked when they still have shield, upon being revived, the Shield will remain, but the player does not receive the protection when knocked, unless the shield was applied when they were already knocked through something like Flowberry Fizz, in which case they will take shield damage while knocked. Players can revive a knocked player, by interacting with them for 10 seconds. In Trios or Squads, having multiple teammates interact a downed player will speed up the revive. On revival, the player will return to 30 Health.
Increasing HP[]
HP (Hit Points) can be increased in various ways, both Health and Shield. Items that increase health can be found at the Healing Items page. Items which can heal both Health and Shield are known as Effective Health items. Some items such as the Infinity Blade increase the total HP pool, rather than filling it back to full.
Dealing Damage[]
When dealing damage to an enemy, the damage points that have been dealt appear above the enemy. They can be different colors depending if the damage reduces Health or Shield. The tags do not appear when receiving damage from an enemy, but a blue (for Shield Damage) or red (for Health Damage) arc appears indicating the direction of where the damage was received.
The damage tags are rounded to the nearest integer, making it appear to deal 200 damage but not cause an elimination. For example a headshot with an Epic Ranger Shotgun deals 159.75 damage, but is displayed in game as 160 damage, and two hits with the Harvesting Tool is 40 damage for a total of 199.75 damage. Because of the rounding it would display as 200 total damage but leaves the opponent with 1 HP from the full 200 HP.
| Image | Color | Source |
|---|---|---|
|
White | Health Damage. |
|
Blue | Shield, Overshield, or Critical Hit Damage to player with Overshield or Shield. |
|
Yellow | Critical Hit Damage. |
|
Orange | Vehicle Damage. |
|
Purple | Cube/Sideways Monster Damage. |
|
Burning Orange | Fire Damage (To Health only). |
Items that Affect Health Values[]
As a general rule, all weapons will lower a player's HP when they are attacked by an opponent. On top of this all listed Healing Items impact HP.
Below are a list of sources that will lower a Player's Health without impacting their Shield Values however. As well as the listed items, The Storm, Fall Damage, Lava Alien Parasites and Glyph Master Raz's Magic also ignore Shield.
| Name | Icon | Rarity |
|---|---|---|
| Fire Damage | ||
| Flare Gun |  |
Rare |
| Firefly Jar |  |
Rare |
| Doctor Doom's Mystical Bomb |  |
Mythic |
| Cozy Campfire |  |
Common,
Rare |
| Gas Can |  |
Common |
| Propane Tank |  |
Common |
| Dragon's Breath Shotgun |  |
Epic |
| Legendary | ||
| Dragon's Breath Sniper Rifle |  |
Exotic |
| Fire Trap |  |
Uncommon |
| Bottle Rockets |  |
Uncommon |
| Primal Flame Bow |  |
Epic |
| Legendary | ||
| Storm Damage | ||
| Storm Flip |  |
Epic |
| Poison Damage | ||
| Poison Dart Trap |  |
Uncommon |
| Stink Bomb |  |
Rare |
| Stink Flopper |  |
Uncommon |
| Primal Stink Bow |  |
Epic |
| Legendary | ||
| Poison Fiend |  |
Common |
History[]
Pre-Season[]
- Update v1.6: Added Health and Shield mechanic with Battle Royale.
Season 1[]
- Update v1.8: Changed icon for Shield.
Unknown[]
- Players will not take Shield damage when knocked.
Chapter 2: Season 1[]
- Update v11.00: Updated Health and Shield meter, now located in the bottom left of the HUD.
- Update v11.30: Health and Shield meter makes a shaking effect when the player receives damage.
Chapter 2: Season 6[]
- Update v16.00: Changed the font for the numerical value of Health and Shield.
Chapter 3: Season 1[]
- Update v19.00:
- Revive time is now increased by 100% per allies which interact on the knocked player.
- Knocked player's movement speed increased.
- Knocked players can now interact with containers, pick up items, drop items, and arrange their inventory whilst knocked.
Chapter 3: Season 2[]
- Update v20.00:
- Updated the Health and Shield meter, returning to a straight bar instead of slanted similar to Chapter 1.
- Added Overshield in Zero Build playlists.
Chapter 3: Season 3[]
- Update v21.30: Overshield now Siphons in Zero Build competitive modes.
Audio[]
Trivia[]
- Aside from the Stink Bomb and Poison Dart Trap, all other items that prioritize Health damage, can also damage teammates in one way or another
- For the Fire items, it must be as a result of the fire spread.
- In Chapter 3: Season 2, a milestone grants progress for gaining Health when a player uses any Shield increasing item, going against all previously stated naming conventions in game.
- Some HP meter assets were not updated to the Chapter 3 standard, this can be seen when viewing another players current HP status with certain items such as the Chug Cannon, which still use the Chapter 2 HP meter assets.
- This was later fixed.