How to find and use a lightsaber in Fortnite

How do you get a Fortnite lightsaber? Following the galaxy-consuming Star Wars event, lightsabers in Fortnite are officially a thing, and holy Baby Yoda, those things are OP.  I'll be frank with you, dear reader. I suck at Fortnite: I averaging one kill a game.

I killed like 10 people in my first match with one. I'm basically Bugha now.

That said, finding one of the various Fortnite lightsaber locations is like finding a droid in a Mos Eisley cantina: that's pretty dang difficult, and just as perilous. So I've gone ahead and compiled all the biggest questions players have about how to find a lightsaber in Fortnite and how to best use it.

How to get a lightsaber in Fortnite

You can find Star Wars' famous sci-fi swords in dark blue chests. These rare treasure troves are typically located where you'd regularly find chests—in other words, I went back to the same spot in a different game and it was just a regular old chest again. Check out what one looks below.

Open one and various lightsaber colors will spill out: red, blue, green, and purple. You can equip all of them if you want, although they all act the same, aside from some sound differences. No one will judge you if you walk around with all of them: they're pretty freakin' cool.

Fortnite lightsaber tips

Attacking with a lightsaber is as easy as shooting with any other weapon: press the left mouse button and your character will unleash a couple of wide horizontal arcs, and finish with a downward slice.

While you're not entirely useless at a distance (more on that below), you're best bet is to get up close. If your opponent tries to build some cover or hide in a building, get slashing to make quick work of any cover. Keep track of your opponents location through their cover and pressure them until they panic. Then try to get a few strikes in and put them down for good. Most of my strikes connect for about 40-60 damage, which is plenty to kill someone with just a few swings.

Also, try to approach enemies from lower positions. That might seem counter-intuitive ('I have the high ground', and all that), but considering the lightsaber only swings horizontally and ends with one downward slice, you're not going to break through floors beneath your feet as efficiently as you might like. It gives opponents a big window to return fire.

Blocking with the Fortnite lightsaber is even easier than attacking: hold the right mouse button down and watch your character take a defensive stance. This is where the lightsaber really shines, especially at mid-range. As long as you're blocking and keeping your enemy from attacking at an angle, you can block every single shot, including shotgun spread. Use this to close the gap on an opponent and get in their face.

I'm surprised at how powerful the lightsaber in Fortnite is. While it might only take a day for everyone to adjust to this temporary meta, I look forward to the inevitable YouTube clip shows of frustrated players getting tragically cut down like the novice padawan learner they are.