Fortnite Ammo Guide: Light, Medium, Heavy Bullets, Where to Find

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Fortnite is all about trying to survive in battle royale until the very end to be the last remaining player or squad in the match. To do this, you are going to need weaponry and lots of ammo to supply your fights. This Fortnite ammo guide is going to break down all that you need to know about these important items.

After all, what’s the use of having a gun in Fortnite if you do not have any ammo for it to use. This Fortnite ammo guide is going to give you some details about the different types of ammo in the battle royale game, what weapons use them, and how to find more when you need it. Let’s get started.

Bottom Line Up Front

Fortnite ammo is the ammunition from which your weapons can fire in the game and deal damage. Without them, weapons are meaningless. There are eight main types of ammo:

  • Light bullets
  • Medium bullets
  • Heavy bullets
  • Arrows
  • Rockets
  • Shotgun shells
  • Energy cells
  • Grappler ammo

Ammo can be found in Fortnite by opening up ammo boxes, locating new weapons on the ground, using a vending machine, or just taking ammo from the loot that your defeated enemies drop.

What Is Fortnite Ammo?

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Fortnite ammo is short for ammunition or bullets and other items that power a weapon in Fortnite. Without them, a weapon is utterly useless and unable to be used for fighting. Players can collect and pick up various ammunition that they can then use in combat to shoot and blow up enemies.

Fortnite ammo is such an important but less interesting part of the battle royale game. While ammo is something that will keep you going in battles to the very end, it is not an element of the game that many players will discuss unlike in the case of shield potions, new weapons, and so on.

Ammo can be rather scarce in Fortnite, making it so that players have to look for it or else they may find themselves stuck at the end of the match without any ammo left to fight with. This could result in an unfortunate end to the match whereas they could have won.

To help you learn more about Fortnite ammo, we have created this guide to all eight of the main types that there are in the game at this time. Keep in mind that while some of these ammo types do exist, not all of them are being currently used in the game while others are simply more important overall.

Why Fortnite Ammo Is Important

For starters, it is important to know why Fortnite ammo is so important in the game. Ammunition is not only just important for allowing you to use your weapons in combat but it is also crucial to the very foundation of each match. After all, this is a survival game where every life and decision matters.

Being that it is a survival game, ammo is hard to come by at times, and every bullet counts. You do not start the game with everything that you need so you have to find gear yourself. If you have no ammo to fight with, it is ultimately on you for not looking enough so your success rises or falls depending on your looting diligence.

Admittedly, there are plenty of times that I have found myself in situations where I did not get enough ammo or fought way too many battles and lost in the final moments because I was struggling to fight with the limited resources that I had.

Conversely, I’ve had moments where there was an entire squad of four players and I was by myself or with only one partner, and we won simply because the other team did not have anything left to fight back with. This is why it is so important that you loot as much as you can and use your weapons wisely in battle, not wasting too much.

Light Bullets Explained

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First up in the ammo selection, there are the light bullets. Light bullets are exactly what they sound like: smaller bullets that are meant for lighter and less heavy-duty weapons in Fortnite. As such, you might have already guessed some of the weapons that will use light bullets in combat.

Light bullets are used for smaller guns like handguns and pistols. However, there are some exceptions like in the case of the SMGs (submachine guns), miniguns, and the tactical assault rifle. All of these will use these light bullets in combat and they are, thankfully, relatively easy to find because of this.

Given the nature of the light bullets, they are designed to be used in quick succession and, typically, are in great supply. While some bullets should be used only when necessary, light bullets are at least more commonly found and, therefore, useful for blasting away when needing to draw attention and so on.

If you are someone who likes SMGs or miniguns (when they are in the game), the light bullets are going to be highly useful for you. Other than that, light bullets are not too important since pistols are weapons that you should be otherwise avoiding except for the early-round fights.

Medium Bullets

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Next up are the medium bullets, which are going to be among the most important ammo type for a large portion of players. When it comes to longer-range fights, you are going to want to have a weapon that is capable of firing from afar, in addition to any short-range damage partner you have.

To that end, one of the fan-favorite weapon types in Fortnite is the assault rifle. The AR is a powerful beast that is rather flexible, capable of firing at mid-range and being decent enough in close-range if you have no other choice. With how important the assault rifles are in Fortnite, it is understandable that their bullets are among the most important, too.

Most assault rifles use medium bullets in combat, including the variants that you have like the burst assault rifle, scoped AR, and so on. If you are an AR fan, you will need a lot of medium bullets since you can run through these rather fast. Try to focus on getting as many of these as possible as they can be a little bit harder to find at times than light bullets.

There are a couple of weapon exceptions that also use the medium bullets and these include a few handguns that are more powerful than the usual pistol and happen to use this. And then there is the beloved automatic sniper rifle that uses medium bullets instead of our next ammo type.

Heavy Bullets

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Lastly, for the three main ammo types in Fortnite that you will constantly be coming across, we have the heavy bullets. As you might have noticed with this trend, the heavier the bullet, the more heavy-duty the weapon that it is used for is. This is the same with the heavy bullets, which are for weapons that are much more devastating than an AR.

In general, the most common weapon type that you will deal with in Fortnite that uses heavy ammo is the sniper rifle. Sniper rifles are known for their slow-firing but insanely powerful damage. As such, they need large and strong bullets to use, hence the heavy bullets ammo type.

Most of the sniper rifles use heavy bullets in combat, with the main exception being the automatic as mentioned earlier. This includes all of your standard variants like the bolt-action, heavy sniper rifle, and so on. That said, there are a few exceptions to the rule that also use heavy bullets.

Some very powerful handguns have been known to use heavy bullets like the fan-favorite hand cannon. While most pistols and handguns are forgettable and not worth using unless you have no other option, the handguns that use heavy ammo are definitely worth your time.

It is also worth mentioning that there have been seasons in Fortnite where the sniper rifles are unavailable and vaulted. In this case, the heavy ammo is also temporarily removed from the game since there are no weapons that use it. There is a chance that Epic Games could remove snipers again in the future so keep that in mind.

Arrows

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From here, we enter the realm of the ammunition categories that are a bit less common and unnecessary in matches. These are for weapons that are maybe harder to find or simply not a requirement in every season of Fortnite, like in the case of the three main bullet types.

But for someone like me who loves the bow in Fortnite, the arrows are among the most important ammo types. I love the bow, which is my best weapon in the game, and it uses arrows. The same goes for similar weapons like the crossbow when it has been in the game.

This includes almost all variants of the bows, including the double crossbows, flame bow, stink bow, and so on that have been in the game. That said, there is one exception to this in the case of the boom bow, which uses a different ammo type that we will get to in a bit.

What is also weird about the arrows is that they used to be an infinite ammo type that you did not have to worry about. If you found a bow in an early season of Fortnite, it could fire over and over without issue. However, with the launch of Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 6 Primal, bows suddenly had a limited arrow ammo count.

Bows and crossbows are not currently in the game but they could return in the future so do keep that in mind.

Rockets

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A staple ammo type in the Fortnite scene but not necessarily super common are the rockets. Used in the explosive weapons out there like the rocket launcher and others, this is a type that is difficult to find. Notable for their large appearance in the game when you do find them, they are highly sought-after for some players.

While not everyone is a fan of rocket launchers, they are useful for taking down structures and buildings. To balance this aspect of the rockets, you can only have a few of them at one time in your inventory. In this way, you’ll need to make each rocket count in battle.

Shotgun Shells

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Among the main weapon types found in Fortnite, there is one final weapon that we have not gone over yet and that is the shotgun. When it comes to close-range fights, few weapons are more useful than a shotgun. Blasting an opponent at point-blank range can be an instant end to them.

As such, you will need lots of ammo types that shotguns use, which happen to be shotgun shells. Noted by their small red appearance, they are some of the easiest to find in the game in my experience. I even have an easier time finding shotgun shells than medium bullets.

Almost all shotguns in the game use shotgun shells, including the versions like the automatic shotgun, double barrel, tactical, and so on. The only exception to this rule is not a shotgun but a different weapon entirely that happens to also use this ammo type.

Oddly enough, Epic decided to have the boom bow, which is an explosive and interesting bow type, use shotgun shells rather than arrows. However, the majority of the time, that gun is not even available in the game so you do not have to worry about that too much.

Energy Cells

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Energy cells and other laser ammo types are unique ones that are rarely ever featured in Fortnite battle royale. They are very few weapons that have ever used this ammo type and they are only ever in the game for a limited time.

The first initial use of the energy cells was in the Avengers Endgame event when the Chitauri weapons that you could pick up and use had them available. This was further expanded upon in the Star Wars event that occurred around the launch of The Rise of Skywalker movie.

In that event, you could use the energy cells for the First Order blaster rifles that some of the NPC enemies would carry around. There are also alien weapons like the ray gun that have used a similar ammo type in the past.

There are a couple of things that energy cell weapons have in common. For one, there is the limited nature of them, only being available for a limited time event or a single season. And then there is the fact that when they are in the game, you do not have to worry about finding this ammo since all of the energy weapons automatically have unlimited energy cells as soon as you pick them up.

Grappler Ammo

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The final ammo type that we would like to talk about is used for various limited ammo items like the grappler and Spider-Man web-shooters. These items technically have ammo for them but they are not weapons nor are you able to replenish their ammo supplies.

In the case of the grappler, there are grappling hooks that look like plunger heads that you can shoot out and launch yourself towards it. There are only a few grapples that you can do, noted by the limited ammo count of either 10 or 20.

Once you are done with that limited supply, you cannot use that item anymore and you cannot find more ammo. You can find a new weapon with fresh ammo of its own to replace it with but that is it. The same goes for the harpoon gun that works on a similar system.

Most recently, there have been the Spider-Man web shooters in Chapter 3 that have around 80 webs that you can shoot out to swing around the map. Once you are done with those, you either have to stop swinging or find a new set of web-shooters to use in the match.

Max Stacks

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Doing well in Fortnite means ensuring that you have plenty of ammo to handle a situation. This means maximizing your resources as much as possible, just like you should with the gathering materials. When it comes to ammo, the general rule of thumb is that you can have an insane number of them if you want.

Most ammo types have a max number of 999 that you can hold in your inventory at one time. This includes the ammo types like light, medium, and heavy bullets. Even the arrows that you can hold for your bows can be up to 999 now that they are no longer infinite in the battle royale game.

While most of the ammo types allow you to hold up to 999 of each of them at one time, there are some exceptions to this rule. The main ones are the rockets in the game and the limited items like the grappler that only have as many as you have when you pick them up.

For the rockets, you can only have a measly 12 at a time stacked up in your inventory. This is to keep the game balanced so that you cannot just infinitely shoot rockets everywhere in a match.

For some players, they may be wondering if it is even possible to get 999 of an ammo type in a single match and it is. It has happened to me a few times. You do not have to spend the entire match looting, either, as I did it by winning several fights in the match where each person had more than 150 or 200 of an ammo type for me to collect. It has rarely happened, though, and having 999 ammo is pretty unnecessary.

Where to Find Ammo in Fortnite

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Part of the Fortnite experience is learning how to get more ammo in the game and that is where we come in. There are a few different ways that you can get more ammo, starting with the ammo boxes themselves. The ammo boxes are a container, like treasure chests, that contain loot.

In this case, though, the ammo boxes only contain bullets and other ammo for you to collect, and that is it. They are smaller than treasure chests and are not found in the same places. They are slightly different, requiring you to look around in various parts of the island.

Fortunately, in my experience, it does seem like the ammo boxes are at least more common than the chests so there is that. Sometimes you will find them atop a counter in a room that you enter while other times they will be outside in a random location near a wall.

When I’m looking for an ammo box, though, the place that I go is to a house and then head to the stairs and check underneath them. There is a high chance that an ammo box will be there and that will grant you a good bit of ammo in the process.

Another place where you can find ammo is by just finding weapons on the ground. Every weapon that is floor loot will have a bit of ammo to go along with it and you can pick that up without getting the weapon if you don’t need it. Keep in mind that this does not necessarily work the same for weapons in chests.

Opening up a chest will find weapons for you but this does not guarantee that they will come out of the chest with ammo in tow. It will have some default ammo on the weapon itself but it may not contain extra ammo for you to collect without the weapon.

There are also some vending machines and NPCs in certain seasons of Fortnite that will offer ammo for you to buy using the gold bars. Gold bars are earned by opening chests, eliminating enemies, completing bounties, and the like.

And last but not least, there are the enemies themselves. When in doubt, taking out an enemy will usually allow you to take the ammo off of them that they had. It is worth noting that this is a chance-based system, though, since you have no idea how much ammo that person had.

They could have been an easy target since they had no ammo whatsoever while others may be a treasure trove of various valuable items and hundreds of bullets. If ammo is seriously a problem for you, though, we recommend visiting locations that are less commonly visited by players.

Places on the outer edges of the map or circle are going to be less frequented and could have items and ammo that have not been taken by other players already. Just keep in mind that certain ammo types like rockets are much harder to find and could take some time to get in matches.

FAQs

Question: How do you ask for ammo in Fortnite?

Answer: This is a great question. Since ammo is scarce in battle royale, you do need to rely on your teammates at times if you find that you have looted an entire area and have nothing else to fight with. There is a way to let your teammates know that does not require having voice chat enabled.
Of course, if you have voice chat on, you can always just vocally ask your squadmates for ammo and they may be able to supply you with some, even if they do not have mic themselves. This can be through either marking some ammo on the ground that they find or dropping their own.
That said, if you do not have a mic, what you want to do is open up the emote menu in the match. When you do this, you can select your emotes to use in combat but there are some quick chat options as well that you can use that will alert your team.
There is a particular emote option that looks like three little bullets. This is the one that you want to select and it will put this chat bubble above your head for all of your teammates to see. They will know that you are out of ammo but the only unfortunate thing is that they may not know which ammo you need. In that case, be sure to just hold the weapon of the ammo you are looking for.

Question: Where can I buy sniper ammo in Fortnite?

Answer: There are a couple of places where you can buy sniper ammo in Fortnite. Sniper ammo is known as heavy bullets and they are quite difficult to find at times. The first way is by visiting an NPC on the island and seeing if they have ammo or a sniper weapon in stock.
Buying that weapon or ammo from them will allow you to start using your sniper rifle again. On the other hand, there are vending machines in some seasons that will have weapons available at them for purchase using gold bars. You may be able to buy some sniper ammo or a new rifle there to get back into the fight.

Question: What is the ammo box in Fortnite?

Answer: The ammo box is exactly what it sounds like: a box that is meant to store ammunition. They are found throughout the island and they are crucial for finding quick supplies of bullets. However, it is worth noting that it is random which ammo you will get so keep that in mind.
As for where you can find ammo boxes, you will want to look in closets, little rooms, and underneath various objects. One of the easiest places to find ammo boxes is to go into a house and look under the staircase. There is a high chance that there will be an ammo box there for you to open up.

Question: What is the max ammo in Fortnite?

Answer: As mentioned before, the max ammo that you can carry around in Fortnite battle royale is 999 of a particular ammo type. Each of the main ammo types can have up to 999 bullets in your possession, which is more than enough to get the job done in a match.
That said, there is an exception to this with rockets where you can only have up to 12 rockets at once in your inventory to balance out these powerful and explosive weapons. The same can be said for stuff like the grappler since you only have around 10 or 20 rounds and that is it with no way of replenishing that ammo. In these situations, you will either have to find new items, like in the case of the grappler or wait to get more rockets once you use up all old ones first.

Conclusion

Fortnite ammo is a crucial part of the battle royale survival experience. Without any ammo, you will get nowhere with your weapons since you will be unable to shoot at the enemies that you come across. Ammunition may not be the most glorious or interesting topic for the game but it is a necessity nonetheless.

Another necessity that players should know about that is much more interesting and fun in Fortnite is crafting. In some seasons of Fortnite, crafting is available, which allows the player to create or upgrade an item using various materials that they have. It is a nice way to make the most out of the items and weapons that you have in your inventory.

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