[SOLVED] How to slide kick in Fortnite

It’s no Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, but did you know that there’s a way to get a bit more hands-on in Fortnite Battle Royale?

(Or maybe we should say “a way to get a leg up on the competition”? Puns are hard.) 

Starting in Chapter 4 of Epic’s blockbuster battle royale, the game’s developers started adding much more mobility to the game. The earliest iterations of Fortnite only allowed player models to run at set speeds, jump, and walk—in comparison, modern Fortnite gamers can sprint, sprint jump, mantle ledges, and slide. 

This last movement enables some interesting environmental interactions, including a technique called “slide kicking.” 

Sound interesting? Read on, and we’ll tell you what slide kicking in Fortnite is, how to do it, and why you’d want to slide kick in the first place. 

The power of movement

Many battle royales, like Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone, feature advanced movement options to create a more enjoyable, immersive, and dynamic experience for players. In Fortnite specifically, these advanced movement options allow players to more easily move into zone, lessening reliance on movement-based vehicles like golf carts or the B.R.U.T.E.! 

But to temper the temptation to just sprint all over the map, these battle royales implement a stamina bar that slowly drains the more players slide—or execute any other high-effort movements, like super jumping or sprinting. This limitation means that, especially in intense gunfights or high-pressure situations, players need to carefully select when and wear to use up their stamina; otherwise, they risk exhausting themselves out in the open, with no cover and very little mobility. 

So how do you slide? It’s simple: by crouching while in a full sprint, the player’s character model will hit the ground with its knees and start accelerating forward. This movement will continue until the player either presses the crouch button again, inputs a jump, or runs out of speed naturally. 

How do you slide kick in Fortnite? 

Conveniently enough, once you master sliding, that’s all you need to master slide kicking.

(Well, that, and maybe a little bit of aim.) 

When you want to slide kick someone or something, simply sprint up to them, initiate a slide, and collide with your target—any enemy player, and some objects, that you contact will go flying!

(Admittedly, “slide kicking” might feel like a bit of a misnomer for any real-life sports fans out there: the foot doesn’t make any contact at all with your target, just the knees. But animating a realistic slide kick would probably be more trouble than it’s worth for Fortnite’s animation team, so we understand.) 

In 2022, Fortnite used the slide kick mechanic for one of its trademark challenges: the game tasked players with dislodging boulders via a slide kick to send the boulders tumbling down the hillside. 

Fortnite hasn’t really used the slide kick mechanic in a notable way since that series of challenges—but the technique still has its uses! They’re just a bit… unconventional.

Slippery eliminations with slide kicking

Several items in the game, such as the notorious Grappler, let players quickly reposition around the map, gain height advantage, and confound enemy players by appearing in unexpected positions. 

The most intrepid of Fortnite gamers can execute a flashy combo to secure an elimination: 

1. Use the Grappler or another method of quick movement to position next to an enemy on a hill or place of major elevation. 

2. Execute a full sprint and start sliding toward the enemy.

3. Collide with the enemy and send them flying off the hill, eliminating them via fall damage. 

Is this combo efficient? No. Will it work most of the time? Probably not. But it sure does make for a great Twitch clip.