A beginner's guide to 'Fortnite' on iPhone: How to download the game, and some basic controls

"Fortnite" takes something familiar — shooters — and twists it in a subtle way to make it fresh.

If you own a game console, chances are you're familiar with shooters — be they first-person (like "Call of Duty") or third-person (like "Gears of War"). "Fortnite" falls into the latter category, with your character's avatar taking up prominent screen space.

The goal, in the broadest sense, is simple: You have one life, and winning means survival.

But living through the cartoon violence of "Fortnite" is difficult — there are a few dozen other players also trying to be the last person alive, and they've got weapons.

And like the games that inspired "Fortnite" — "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," "H1Z1," and more — "Fortnite" is based on a single, large island with an ever-shrinking habitable area. If you're outside of that area, your health begins to drain until you're dead. In this way, players are forced together rather than able to hide.

It's important to aggressively go after the enemy. But also, watch your back!

"Fortnite" is often compared to another popular shooter, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds." There's good reason for that: They're very similar.

The first thing you do in "Fortnite" is jump out of a purple flying bus and parachute down to an island. The island is full of distinct regions, and it's littered with resources: Guns, explosives, med packs, shields, and various materials (wood, brick, metal).

With nothing other than a pick-axe, you desperately need resources to survive. This is a nearly direct mirror of the experience in "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds."

But there are major differences right off the bat. Rather than simply picking up weapons and healing kits, "Fortnite" also has a construction element to it. Thus why you're picking up materials — stuff like wood, brick, and metal. Alternatively, you can use your pick-axe to mine the materials yourself, like you would in "Minecraft" (as seen above).

The world is destructible, so with every swing of your pick-axe you'll wear down whatever object you're striking — whether it's a tree or a brick wall.

There are loads of parallels between the two games, but "Fortnite" is immediately distinguished by this crucial difference.

You might be wondering how Epic Games managed to turn a console and PC multiplayer shooter into a mobile game without changing its core functionality. The mobile version of "Fortnite" can even be played cross-platform with friends on PC and console.

The answer, unforutnately, is virtual buttons. As you can see above, "Fortnite" on mobile is controlled by putting your fingers directly onto the screen. You can drag your thumb around on the left side for movement, and you can drag your thumb around on the right side for aiming. 

At the moment, there's no way to use a Bluetooth gamepad with "Fortnite" on mobile. 

If you're looking for more precise controls, "Fortnite" can be played on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC and Mac — for free — with gamepads and mouse/keyboard setups. It's entirely possible (likely, even) that "Fortnite" on mobile gets support for gamepads in the future. For now, it's not there.

Basically, yes — for now, Android owners can't play "Fortnite" on mobile. The game is said to be coming to Android "in the next few months." 

If you want to be among the first people to learn about "Fortnite" on Android, you can also sign up with your email to be alerted when it happens. Alternatively, you can obsessively refresh Business Insider every day until its announced. Up to you!