Mordhau Battle Royale tips - how to consistently win Mordhau's Battle Royale matches

So Mordhau has a Battle Royale mode, because of course it does. I've only recently come round to trying it out, because the servers (at least in Europe) were always pretty janky. But in the last few weeks I've been playing it rather religiously, and y'know what? If you haven't given BR as much thought as the other modes like Frontline or Skirmish up until now, consider this an open invitation to start now. The below Mordhau Battle Royale guide is packed with practical tips and tricks for dominating this mode, frequented by some of the finest warriors the game's playerbase has to offer.

While you're here, why not check out our main Mordhau guide page? It's packed with some really good practical tips on how to improve faster than anyone else around you, and you can also find links to all the other areas of our ever-expanding Mordhau guides series from there - we've got it all covered, everything from Mordhau melee combat to the best Mordhau builds/loadouts out there.

Mordhau Battle Royale guide - tips and tricks

For those few left upon the Earth who aren't yet intimately familiar with the concept of a BR, I'll start with a brief overview of Mordhau's Battle Royale format and how it all works, before moving on to some in-depth and practical tips specifically for consistently winning matches on Battle Royale servers. Click any of the links below to skip ahead to a particular section.

Mordhau Battle Royale overview - how it all works

Mordhau's Battle Royale mode will be instantly familiar to any who have played Fortnite, PUBG, Apex Legends, or any of the other games currently dominating the genre (and the games industry as a whole). You and up to 63 other players are dumped into the largest variants of Mordhau's maps (which are still all exceptionally small for a Battle Royale of 64 players) and, starting with nothing but your fists, you must loot chests for weapons and equipment, and fight to be the last person standing.

Much like other BRs, there is a border which starts outside the bounds of the map and slowly contracts, forcing players closer together by damaging those caught outside - but in Mordhau's case, this border will instantly kill you if you step outside it. So yeah, keep an eye on it - and also look for opportunities to play the border by forcing enemies into it, because that's just about one of the most satisfying ways to kill a good player, let me tell ya.

Health also works less like it does in regular Mordhau modes like Frontline, and more like in Horde (or indeed other Battle Royale games). Rather than healing up quickly after a few seconds outside of combat, the only way you can replenish lost Health is by killing enemies, or by using Bandages.

As you reach the final 20-or-so players in the lobby, the game will start to scare you with big "CHONK" noises, letting you know that your chances of coming out on top are slowly but surely increasing the longer you remain alive and whole. Keep an eye on this counter at the top of your screen, because the number of players left in the game should determine your style of play. If there's just one opponent left then you can feel free to run around seeking them out; but with 10 other players still in the game, it may be wise to play in a slightly less attention-grabbing manner.

Mordhau Battle Royale tips and tricks - how to consistently win matches

Now let's get stuck into what you can do to help overcome the 63 obstacles in your path and start winning some Mordhau Battle Royale matches of your own.

• Use the warmup period to practice your fist-fighting. While Mordhau loads enough players into a server to start the match, you're free to run around and punch the living daylights out of any players you come across. Take full advantage of this warmup period to learn to fist-fight well, because there'll be times in the first few seconds where you're forced into a frenzied fisticuffs faceoff over the only nearby chest.
• Don't neglect armour and bandages while looting up. As mentioned above, besides killing enemies your only way to recover lost Health in Mordhau Battle Royale is by applying bandages. Which makes them so much more useful than in any other gamemode. And I've also seen a lot of players completely disregarding armour when looking over the loot of a dispatched foe, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Don't just focus on looting weapons and then moving on; you need to do as much as you can to increase your chances of survival, and that means keeping an eye out for better armour and rolls of bandages as you explore.
• Keep your head on a swivel at all times. Third-partying is a huge part of any Battle Royale, and perhaps even more so in Mordhau, because fighting 1v1 is a very different beast to fighting 1vX, and many players often aren't able to mentally switch gears quickly enough to save themselves from an unexpected third party. This is why you need to always keep your head on a swivel, particularly while fighting an enemy. If you're skilled enough to be proficient in heavy drags and accels that allow you to cover more viewing angles during a strike, then you'll have an advantage over those who keep their screen locked on a single enemy.
• Always look for the third party opportunity. On the flipside of this, look out for opportunities to be the third party to a fight yourself. This is often the very best way to deal with the strongest players, because even level 50s or 60s can be caught off-guard by a sudden shift from 1v1 to 1vX, particularly if everyone involved knows what they're doing. Just watch out for the change in strategy that comes with forcing an enemy to suddenly start thinking in 1vX terms. Prepare yourself for target-switching and un-interruptable ripostes.

• Find a bow. Bows are so powerful in Mordhau Battle Royale. More powerful than in the other game modes, because there's no passive healing. Each shot really counts. And you don't want to be the guy trying to zig-zag towards that other guy on top of the house aiming at you with a Recurve Bow. You've a tonne of slots on your hotbar in this mode, so be sure to fill at least one of them with a bow of some description. If you're unsure of your bow skills, be sure to check out our Mordhau archery guide.
• Look for opportunities to escape a bad encounter. Because Mordhau is primarily a melee combat game, its Battle Royale mode allows more opportunity for retreating and escaping a bad situation than many BRs where guns are involved. I've had many situations in Mordhau BR matches where I'm fighting an enemy, and then we both see a third party heading towards us, and we split apart in order to prepare ourselves for this change in the fight dynamic. More often than not this gives you the opportunity to retreat if you don't like your current circumstances, and sometimes it's best to retreat so you can heal up and head back into a simpler fight.
• Inventory management is key. While we're on the subject of hotbars, with five slots for weapons and equipment it can get difficult to keep your inventory straight in your head. And that's important, because you often need to switch to a box or a bandage and back quickly - so it's best to keep those things in the same slots so you can build up a muscle memory. In case you don't know how to sort your hotbar: you need to throw the item(s) in question on the ground and pick them back up in the order you want them. I know, it's clunky and unintuitive, but it's what you gotta do.
• Learn to fight. So everything above is more specific to Mordhau's Battle Royale mode in general, but here's the main tip: get good at fighting in Mordhau. I know, it's a bit of a copout "tip", but seriously. All the other tips will help you, but if you don't know how to hold your own in this intricate system of parries and chamber-morphs and drag-accels and target-switching and all that gubbins, then you'll need to have a good read of my Mordhau melee combat guide. It's worth it, I promise.

Right, I think that should be enough to give you a boost with your Mordhau Battle Royale-ing for the time being. Let us know in the comments how you get on, and be sure to check out all the other pages in our Mordhau guide series for all the latest stats, tips, explanations, and strategies for this wonderful medieval decapitate-'em-up.