What is the Best Material for Building in Fortnite Season 9?

In Fortnite there are 3 material types:

• Wood
• Stone
• Metal

But which one is the strongest?

Here is a table showing the starting health, max health, health per second and time to max health for a wall of each material:

Material	Starting Health	Max Health	Health Per Second	Time To Full Health
Wood Wall	90	150	16	4 seconds
Stone Wall	99	300	18	11.5 seconds
Metal Wall	110	500	16	24.5 seconds

Because wood has the lowest starting health and max health it is obviously the worst material to build with.

Wood and Metal gain health at the same rate (16 per second). But Stone gains it a little faster (18 per second).

So which should you build with?

Here is a graph showing a graph of your wall health over time for each type of material in Fortnite:

Listen up: For the first 6 seconds, metal has the most health. Then, at precisely 6 seconds, your stone wall and metal wall have the same health (198).

Then for the next 6 seconds stone has more health. But when it completes its building after 11.5 seconds metal is stronger because it has 200 more health.

So metal is the best material for building in Fortnite Battle Royale because it has the most health for the majority of the time.

But that’s just for a wall.

Building stairs, floors or pyramids

Did you know that the material health when building a wall is different from the other building types?

Here is a table showing the starting health, max health, health per second and time to max health when you build stairs, floors or pyramids:

Material	Starting Health	Max Health	Health Per Second	Time To Full Health
Wood Ramp/Floor/Pyramid	84	140	16	3.5 seconds
Stone Ramp/Floor/Pyramid	93	280	16	12 seconds
Metal Ramp/Floor/Pyramid	101	460	16	22.5 seconds

If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that stairs, floors, and pyramids are strictly worse than walls because they have a lower starting health and max health.

And, of course, wood is the worst material again. But stone and metal now both gain health at the same rate.

Therefore metal is strictly stronger than stone when building a ramp, floor or pyramid in Fortnite because it has more starting health and max health at all times.

Here is another graph to prove that point:

Wood used to be the best material to build with

Did you think wood was always the best material to build with?

Well, it was.

In Season 5 (2018).

Here’s what happened in patch v5.10:

• Wood wall starting health to 80 from 100.
• Stone wall starting health to 80 from 90.
• Wood wall max health to 150 from 200.

And a further change in a later building balance update:

• Wood wall initial HP increased from 80 to 90
• Stone wall initial HP increased from 80 to 100
• Metal wall initial HP increased from 80 to 110

So, you see, wood is the material that has been nerfed the most by going from the highest starting health to the least.

Here is how Epic Games explained the changes: “By increasing initial wall health values based on material type, material strength should feel more intuitive when making decisions”

In other words, they made the materials more intuitive by basing their values more in line with what they are in real life.

Because in the real world metal and stone are more robust than wood. And now that is true in Fortnite, too.

However, there are still guides that tell you that wood is best. But as you now know this is not true.

When should you build with wood?

Because wood is weaker than metal and stone in all situations you should avoid using it when possible.

But wood is the easiest material to farm because there are so many trees and other things in Fortnite that provide a lot of wood.

So, you are probably going to have more wood than your other materials.

But the question is: What do you do with all that wood?

Well, wood is best used for scaling mountains or to reach a chest. So you can save your stone and metal for when you really need it to protect you in a fight.

Build with a different material to your opponent

Here is my final tip regarding material in Fortnite: Build with something different to what your opponent is using.

Let me explain why using an example.

Imagine you are in a build battle with an enemy. You both have 999 of each material.

Now assume you both use 900 wood during the fight and you kill your enemy. Here is what you are left with:

• 99 wood
• 999 stone
• 999 metal

Of course, your enemy has the same amount of material, too.

And when you loot his body you will gain an extra 99 wood. But you can’t carry any of the stone or metal since you already had the maximum amount.

So you will have a total of 198 wood, 999 stone, and 999 metal. Or 2,196 total material.

Listen, here’s a slightly modified scenario.

Imagine again you are in a build battle and you both have 999 material. But this time you build with stone while your opponent builds with wood. You both use 900 material.

Here is what you are left with:

• 999 wood
• 99 stone
• 999 metal

But because your enemy built with a different material, you can loot all of his stone.

Therefore, once you loot the body, you will have 999 of each material. Or 2,997 total material. That’s 801 more than before.

Have you learned something new from this post? Let me know in the comments below if you have!