Fortnite: Pros & Cons Of Playing On Mouse And Keyboard

Fortnite has become the definitive battle royale and one of the most recognizable games worldwide in a handful of years. Its mass popularity is largely due to its free-to-play model and its accessibility that lets gamers play the third-person shooter on PC, consoles, and mobile platforms. When PC and console-owners pick up Fortnite for the first time, they'll have to decide if they want to play using a controller or a mouse and keyboard. While the latter might be the best choice for other shooters, like Call of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite is a special case.

Even PlayStation and Xbox owners can hook up a mouse and keyboard to their systems to play like PC gamers, but they might want to think twice about doing so for Fortnite. While mice typically give users far better control of their aim, the battle royale has actually made aiming with a mouse more difficult overall. That's due to Fortnite's aim assist mechanic, one of the game's continuous features since launch.

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Fortnite's aim assist is only available for controller users. It is meant to make up for controller users' inability to flick their reticle to adjust their aim at the last second. The feature will momentarily snap players' reticle directly over enemies' heads when they aim down sight and is significantly more noticeable than other games. That luxury has led many of Fortnite's top players to pick up controllers instead of mice and keyboards. That's an issue that streamer Turner "Tfue" Tenney has noted in the past and continues to be pervasive in the title's competitive scene. Even so, there's one major reason why players still might want to consider using a mouse and keyboard.

No access to aim assist had led many Fortnite fans to avoid a mouse and keyboard set up altogether. While players have more freedom over their aim, precisely positioning a reticle with a mouse requires more mechanical skill than relying on the game's aim assist to do most of the heavy lifting. Gamers who have played PC shooters for years may want to stick with a mouse and keyboard for simplicity's sake. Still, anyone else should consider exclusively playing the game with a controller for this reason alone.

Luckily, Fortnite isn't just about pixel-perfect aim. Fortnite's complex building system is a crucial part of gameplay and is the determining factor in top-level play. Using a mouse and keyboard gives players more freedom to bind various keys (like the mouse wheel) to help them build more effectively. They can also whip their mouse around to build walls around themselves quickly in a sticky situation. Fortnite's building system is vastly more difficult to manage on a controller, which partially balances the aim assist advantage controller users have over mouse-and-keyboard users.

Next: Fortnite Or Smash Bros: Which Has More Crossover Characters?