Mats and heals

01How many mats you need

With few mats you can neither rotate cleanly nor see a fight through.

1. Offspawn

Around 200 mats or more, so you can fight if you have to.

2. Zone 4

At least 1,000 mats, and cap is ideal. The exception is when you got fought and had no chance to farm.

3. Late midgame

By now you should be close to cap mats. If you are not, you made a mistake earlier, and in solos small mistakes add up: the next one gets punished harder.

4. Endgame

Low mats in Zone 8 or Zone 9 are not a mistake if you go and find a refresh, see Refresh.

5. Deep saves mats

From Zone 4 on, deep gives you a double advantage: you spend fewer mats and you reach every zone early enough to refarm. Edge is the opposite. You cannot refarm, and you spend more because players who are already deep hold you off and you have to waste mats.

6. Make them last

In solos you always want to save mats, unless you have a lot of them in the endgame. You basically only build boxes, two at most, to stay safe in the endgame, each with a cone and no floor. Add a floor only when you could get sprayed from highground or lowground, or maybe when you are in wood. No tarps, unless you go into the last moving zone of the match with around 500 mats or more, have spare mats from a kill, or keep refreshing. Tarping over to another player's box and replacing it takes too long and costs mats you do not have.

02Which mats go where

Wood is for moving, brick and metal are for your boxes.

• Wood: Ramps to get up a layer or to make distance should be wood. One or two hard builds are fine, more is too many. Metal on walls you never use again is wasted, because you need it for your boxes. In the midgame, when someone only shoots at you from far away, wood is enough to block it. On an endgame rotation, use wood to block shots while you shock or to catch yourself before you build a real box.
• Building up to height: Use hard mats, or you get shot down easily.
• Boxes: Brick or metal. A wood box gets jumped or sprayed easily. That includes the box you build on the way in the late endgame, when the zone pulls so far that one Shockwave does not get you in. A wood box on the way is only fine when you are low on mats before the rotation and need your hards for the box in the zone.
• Under pressure: When you get sprayed or you are low, build metal.
• Brick and metal in the endgame: Alternate them. 300 brick and 300 metal is better than 500 brick and 100 metal, because once a sort is at cap you pick none of it up from a kill. In the midgame the split does not really matter.

03What to carry in solos

In solos you only want two heal slots.

1. A Chug Jug plus a second heal

Ideally you carry a Chug Jug, which gives you whites and shield, plus minis or biggies for shield. As the second heal, Chug Splashes or minis are better than biggies, but biggies are okay. Two Chug Jugs give the most HP but no quick heal.

2. Two slots, not three

Chug Jug plus minis plus biggies is a mistake, because then there is no room for your rotation item. Only when you have no Shockwaves anyway, in the last zones or outstorm before you found any, do you take more heals.

3. Always carry shield

No bandages. They are pretty much the worst heal there is, and you do not really want to play Med Kits either. With a Med Kit, a 100 hit puts you on 100 and you cannot heal any higher, while a player with shield heals back up to 200. When you compare heals, add up the HP and count shield first: two minis and a biggie beat a Med Kit.

4. How much is enough

Three minis and a biggie in Zone 5 is far too little. A Chug Jug and four minis is enough, and you do not need a vending for three more biggies. When a vending detour is worth it is in Rotations.

5. Offspawn: pop it right away

If you pick up a biggie in the offspawn and you are under about 70 shield, pop it right away, unless you are under pressure or have to rotate that second. It frees the slot, and the spot is still open, so you can get beamed from any side. If you walk around on 150 with a biggie in your inventory, two AR hits crack you. The other player thinks you have nothing and keys you.

04Heal or push

Your own HP is only half the picture. The call depends on his HP, his build and the heals you have left, and to push at all you need more HP than him.

• You are clearly ahead: You have 130 and he has 10. Go in and kill him quick.
• You are even: You both have around 100. Heal full, otherwise it is an unnecessary 50/50. If you are under about 150 and no lower opponent is in reach, heal as well.
• You won the trade and have quick heals: You did 100 to him and he did 50 to you. Throw two Chug Splashes, and you are back up before he has even finished two minis, so you can pressure him again right away.
• His build: If you see you have an edit on him, keep pushing. If he is boxed in wood with around 100 and you are over 130, pressure him. If he has built himself into metal boxes and it gets hard to keep pressuring, heal full and look for a play.
• No heals left: Pressure him so he cannot heal either, or disengage with your Shockwaves.

What to do right after a kill is in Third party.