Island Battle Royale Guide: Drop, Loot, Beat the Zone and Win

Island Battle Royale is small enough to learn in one evening and hard enough to lose most of your first matches. This guide goes through a match in order — the menu, the drop, looting, fighting and the zone — using the game's own rules. (If you came for Fortnite: it has no browser version. This is the closest honest thing that runs in a tab.)

Set the match before you start

The menu on the right decides how hard the match is. Match sets the length (10 minutes by default) and Respawn the wait before you come back after dying. The dropdowns choose the weather (Sunny, Rain, Dusk, Fog, Night), the camera (1st or 3rd person), the number of players (5, 10, 20 or 30), the bots (Easy, Normal, Hard) and the graphics (Low to Ultra). The game itself notes that fewer players run smoother. For a first match: 5 players, Easy bots, Low graphics, Sunny.

The drop

After START you are in the plane. The screen shows F Jump: press F when you like the ground below you. You free-fall first; press F again to open the parachute, then steer with WASD. The minimap in the corner shows the island and the circle; land inside it and close to buildings. The houses, the warehouses and the tall broken tower are where the gear is.

Loot: what to keep

• A main gun. M4A1, AK47, SCAR and HK417 rifles are the all-rounders; the M249 sprays; MP5 and P90 are for rooms; Kar98K and SKS for distance.
• Its ammo. Rounds come as 5.56, 7.62 and 9mm, and ammo spawns near guns. Check that what you carry matches.
• Armour. Vests and helmets come in levels 1 to 3. Swap up whenever you find a better one.
• A bigger backpack. Also levels 1 to 3. "Backpack full!" is the game telling you to drop something.
• Healing. Bandages and first aid kits cannot be used above 75 health; the med kit takes you to full; painkillers and soda help too.

F picks things up and opens doors. New guns go into slots 1, 2 and 3 and the game tells you which key to press. Scopes (2x, 4x, 8x), a stock, a compensator and a quick mag attach automatically.

Fighting the bots

Let the bots come to you: from a doorway, a window or an upper floor you see them first. Right click aims through the scope, left click fires, R reloads. Easy bots miss a lot; Hard bots do not, so use cover and fight at a range where your gun is better than theirs. If you get eliminated with respawn on, you come back after the timer.

The zone and the clock

The top bar shows the time, your kills and how many players are still alive. The circle on the minimap is the safe zone; being outside it when it closes eliminates you ("Caught outside the zone"). Start moving toward the centre early, loot on the way, and let the bots fight each other at the edge.

Airdrops and the car

Supply drops land during the match. Open the backpack with Tab next to one to take what is inside. There is also a car: F gets in, and you have to stop before F lets you out. Crashing it can eliminate you — the game has a message just for that.

Ready? Jump into Island Battle Royale, or read every setting and key explained.