Fortnite Crafting Guide: How to Craft and More

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One of the many layers to Fortnite battle royale and its complex systems is the crafting system. Our Fortnite crafting guide is here to give you everything that you need to know about this particular part of the game, from detailed explanations to the items that you are able to craft.

There is so much that is involved in the Fortnite crafting guide that you could play the game for dozens of hours without ever touching this feature at all. That is where we come in as we will be sure to explain it for you, teach you how to use it in the game, and help you understand why this is an important system that you should use.

Bottom Line Up Front

Crafting in Fortnite is a system that you can access by opening up your inventory and tabbing over to the crafting side right in the middle of a match. By gathering various materials and weapons beforehand, you can upgrade certain weapons to a different version with new features like fire suppression, explosive rounds, and more to help you get the edge in battle.

What is Fortnite Crafting?

craft

Crafting is a major part of the Fortnite battle royale experience, offering players the chance to make weapons and items from scratch. This is something that is helpful in battle as it means that you can upgrade on the fly in a match to be instantly prepared for the next fight.

In some ways, it is similar to other games like Minecraft where there are some limited items that you can craft anywhere that you are. That said, crafting plays a different role in Fortnite as it is not necessarily a required feature in order to win fights and matches, but it is a highly recommended one.

After all, the battle royale game still focuses mainly on the loot that players are able to get from other players, treasure chests, and so on. Even still, it is a nice supplemental feature that allows the user to get the best use out of the gear that they have.

This is also separate from general upgrading in Fortnite (more on that in a bit) that involves the limited upgrade stations and the like. Crafting is something that the player solely does themselves without any outside help at all from other stations, unrelated items, NPCs, or vending machines.

History of Crafting in Fortnite

crafting

Fortnite crafting is a feature that harkens back to the very beginning of the game when it was known to be a completely different title entirely. If you are an Epic Games fan from before Fortnite was released like me, you might remember the game’s announcement from years ago.

The general idea for the game had nothing to do with battle royale and only focused on the Minecraft-meets-Horde mode from Gears of War that it was trying to do. It was going to be a building game where players built forts to survive the night against the undead hordes that would attack them over and over.

Players would gather materials and try to survive in this third-person shooter environment that was mostly colorful and cheery. In this initial showing of the game, there were some alphas that were used to test out the game for a select number of players who had the chance to try out the original Fortnite.

Crafting was actually part of the game right from the start in the alphas and it involved the user creating items and weapons that would help them to survive against the zombies in the player-versus-environment experience. This is something that would eventually turn into the Save the World mode as we know it now.

Not nearly as flashy as battle royale, Fortnite does have the Save the World PvE mode that is similar to what the initial concept for the game was. The mode is all about groups of players completing missions, surviving, and taking on monsters that are around an open world map.

As part of this, there is a crafting system that has been part of Save the World since the very beginning of early access and it is actually much more detailed than what we have experienced in battle royale so far. That said, it did not end with Save the World as it would eventually come to battle royale down the road.

It took basically 16 seasons for crafting to come to Fortnite battle royale and it finally did with Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 6 Primal. In this particular season, the biome of the map changed considerably as Epic reversed time to a more primal period on the island with dinosaurs even roaming around.

This more prehistoric time period for much of the map meant that it had lots of animals that were crossing paths with players. Epic took the time here to introduce crafting into battle royale using the materials that players would be able to get from the animals on the island. This newfound system was quite popular and would last in the game for the rest of Chapter 2.

Save the World vs Battle Royale

battle royal

There are some major differences between the crafting in Save the World and in battle royale. For one, there is the fact that it took several years for it to come to battle royale while crafting has always been part of the Save the World PvE game mode.

Furthermore, there is a lot more to crafting in Save the World than the simplified version that we have in battle royale matches. There are so many more materials and items that you can craft, including different rarities, recipes, and more.

Gathering the different resources in Save the World is more of a challenge than in battle royale since there are so many of them that players have to deal with in that mode, from the batteries to the crystals to the ores that are available. And even within those categories, there are other variations and rarer versions.

On the other hand, battle royale has not really done much beyond just a few different crafting materials and a handful of items that you can make each season. In fact, the types of items that you can make in battle royale also pale in comparison to Save the World.

For battle royale users, there is only one item that has been available and certain weapon types, and that is it. But when it comes to Save the World, players are able to craft traps, some melee weapons, several different rarities, and much more. Even still, Save the World is a great game mode but one that is not nearly as popular as battle royale proper. As such, we are going to focus on crafting in battle royale as that is where most players will be doing it.

How to Craft

fort craft

When you are ready to finally craft, the process of doing so is rather simple in Fortnite. In the end, it depends on your input, be it the keyboard & mouse, controller, or touchscreen. No matter what, you want to start out by opening up your inventory.

If you are using a controller like me, this means pressing the “up button” on your directional pad. When you do this, it will open up your inventory where you can rearrange all of the items that you currently have on you. While this is normally an important place for organization, it is also where you can craft.

This is something that you can easily miss in the midst of battle but the inventory screen also houses the crafting area. To get to it, while you have your inventory open, use the bumper on the controller (the little button above your trigger) to tab over in the menu to the crafting area.

While you are here on the crafting screen, you will be able to see all of the weapons and items that you are able to craft in the game. It will show you the list based on the weapons that you currently have. So, if you do not have a specific weapon in your inventory, it will not waste your time by showing it.

From the list of weapons and items that you have in your inventory already, you will be able to craft better versions of them. Select the weapon version that you want and then press the correct button to craft it. This will close the screen and show your character crafting in-game for a few seconds.

During the few seconds that it takes to craft, you are vulnerable so players should watch out for enemies sneaking upon them. That said, you can cancel the process by moving your character in case you do run into someone while you are crafting. When the time is up, your newly crafted weapon will be available to you. That is, of course, if you have the right materials in your inventory already.

Where to Get Materials

crafting materials

Materials are necessary for crafting and there are quite a lot of them that have been released over the course of the various seasons since the feature’s introduction in Fortnite. You can find the full list of the Fortnite crafting materials that you need to know about below:

  • Animal bones
  • Meat
  • Mechanical parts
  • Nuts and bolts
  • Cube monster parts
  • Firefly jar
  • Gas canister
  • Stink sac/fish
  • Grenades
  • Shockwave grenades

The majority of these materials were necessary for creating items in Fortnite Season 6 when the crafting system was introduced in battle royale. The process of gathering materials was simplified in later seasons, but there is no guarantee that Epic Games will not return to this more complicated method down the road.

As such, here is the lowdown on how to get all of these materials in the battle royale matches that you do. For animal bones and the meat, they are fairly self-explanatory but they come from the animals that roam around the island. This means simply taking out any boars, wolves, chickens, and more that you encounter.

Mechanical parts, on the other hand, are a bit weirder but are just as necessary for crafting a lot of weapons. These are found by destroying items that are mechanical in nature, like cars, tractors, and other vehicles. You can destroy them however you like, be it using your pickaxe, gun, or explosives.

Nuts and bolts are materials that came out in a later season and are a major resource for crafting. These can be found in a lot of different ways, be it by opening up treasure chests, toolboxes, defeating enemy players, and even talking with other NPCs who will give them to you.

For cube monster parts, these are from Fortnite Season 8 Cubed. In that season, the cube monsters returned to the island in a massive way, and taking them out would give players the cube monster parts that could then be used to craft special items in the match.

Those are the basic crafting materials in Fortnite. However, there are supplementary ones that are used to craft certain types of branching weapons, like choosing between the explosive one or the shockwave one, and so on.

For the supplemental materials that are not always necessary, there is the firefly jar up first. This is gathered by coming upon a group of fireflies that light up the night sky and interacting with them. You do not need a jar to gather them as your character will somehow automatically gather them into a jar conjured out of thin air.

The gas canister is an alternative item used for crafting fire-centric weapons and is found at gas stations and around the island. For the stink sac and fish, this is found by taking out frogs on the island or fishing with a fishing pole at various bodies of water.

Lastly, grenades are sometimes also used for explosive weapons. Grenades and their shockwave variants can be found in treasure chests, off of other players, sometimes as floor loot, and more. They are fairly common so finding the grenades does not take much at all compared to some of the other material items.

All Craftable Weapons and Items List

Bow

With your materials in hand, you are finally able to craft the weapons and items in the game. Well, that is if you happened to be playing during a season in which the crafting system is available. We are going to cover all weapons and items that have been available for crafting over the course of Chapters 2 and 3 so far.

You can find the full list of the weapons and items that are craftable below, including their particular season where they launched and their recipe. It is also worth noting that crafting is not usually making the item from scratch, but taking an existing item and upgrading it or changing it into a new version:

  • Mechanical Bow (Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 6): Makeshift bow, four mechanical parts
  • Mechanical Explosive Bow (Season 6): Mechanical bow, six grenades
  • Mechanical Shockwave Bow (Season 6): Mechanical bow, two shockwave grenades
  • Primal Bow (Season 6): Makeshift bow, four animal bones
  • Primal Flame Bow (Season 6): Primal bow, a firefly jar, or a gas canister
  • Primal Stink Bow (Season 6): Primal bow, three stink fish, or one stink sac
  • Classic Assault Rifle (Season 6): Makeshift rifle, four mechanical parts
  • Primal Rifle (Season 6): Makeshift rifle, four animal bones
  • Classic SMG (Season 6): Makeshift SMG, four mechanical parts
  • Primal SMG (Season 6): Makeshift SMG, four animal bones
  • Classic Shotgun (Season 6): Makeshift shotgun, four mechanical parts
  • Primal Shotgun (Season 6): Makeshift shotgun, four animal bones
  • Classic Revolver (Season 6): Makeshift revolver, four mechanical parts
  • Primal Revolver (Season 6): Makeshift revolver, four animal bones
  • AUG (Season 7): Assault rifle, nuts, and bolts
  • Burst Assault Rifle (Season 7): Assault rifle, nuts, and bolts
  • Rapid Fire SMG (Season 7): SMG, nuts, and bolts
  • Lever Action Shotgun (Season 7): Shotgun, nuts, and bolts
  • Sideways Rifle (Season 8): 15 cube monster parts for rare, 20 for epic, 25 for legendary, 50 for mythic
  • Sideways Minigun (Season 8): 15 for rare, 20 for epic, 25 for legendary, 50 for mythic
  • Suppressed Assault Rifle (Season 8): Burst or regular assault rifle, nuts and bolts
  • Charge Shotgun (Season 8): Pump or lever-action shotgun, nuts, and bolts
  • Hunter’s Cloak (Season 6): Meat, two animal bones

Hunter’s Cloak Explained

Crafting CLoak

The Hunter’s Cloak is a rather unique item in that it is the only non-weapon that players have been able to craft in the game up until now. It was only available during Season 6 Primal and is not currently in the game. It was built around the taming of animals that you could do in that particular season.

With boars, wolves, and velociraptors running around the island, players could add them to their team by taming them in battle. This usually involved getting up close enough to the animal in order to interact with it and have it join your party for the rest of the match. This was a great asset as it meant an extra NPC partner in battle.

However, the problem with the animals was the fact that players could not get close to them without them attacking the player first. Therefore, there were only two options when it came to taming them: finding meat to give them first and distract them or using the Hunter’s Cloak.

With the Hunter’s Cloak in your possession, players could wear it and the animals would not notice them for a short period of time. This would allow the player to get close enough to the beast to interact with it, tame it, and have it fight alongside you for the rest of the match.

The Hunter’s Cloak was definitely an item meant for that specific season, so there is no guarantee that it will ever come back, especially with the more limited amount of animals on the island these days. That said, there is no reason at all why Epic Games might not include future items that players will be able to craft that are more traditional, like healing and other helpful items. We would be surprised if the Hunter’s Cloak remains the only one for much longer.

Fortnite Upgrading Explained

Before crafting ever arrived in Fortnite, there was another way that players would be able to modify their weapons and this was through the upgrade stations. The upgrade stations were introduced in Chapter 2 and were found throughout the island at various locations, including named points of interest.

Players could visit these immovable upgrade stations and customize their weapons this way. However, there were some limitations to how this worked that made it quite different from the crafting that we know now. For one, there was the fact that players were unable to do it anywhere they like.

You had to go to one of the upgrade stations to do it, which meant that there could be other players hogging it for themselves. Furthermore, the upgrades you could do were usually limited to the rarity of the weapon and making it rarer or even legendary, rather than actually changing it to a new weapon type.

Furthermore, there were no crafting materials at the time of the upgrade stations so they used the regular building materials that players gather: wood, stone, and metal. Players would have to collect a whole lot of these beforehand and then could trade them in to upgrade their weapon to the next rarity in exchange for diminishing their building capabilities.

In later seasons in Chapter 2, the gathering materials would be switched out for the gold bars currency. Players could earn this currency in battle, chests, by completing bounties, and so on. The gold bars could then be used to upgrade the weapon to a higher rarity color if you had enough of them.

How Crafting Works in Chapter 3

crafting 3

When it comes to Chapter 3, specifically, Epic Games did away with crafting to streamline the gameplay systems at the beginning. This is not necessarily a permanent vaulting of crafting in the game, so there is the chance that it could return in the future.

In fact, if we had to guess, it will likely come back in a future season (sooner rather than later) with a more simplified approach to gathering crafting materials. There will probably only be a few materials needed but a lot more items that you can make in the game.

We would not be surprised if new additions like recovery items and sniper rifles were allowed in the crafting mechanics at that point. Until then, though, there is only one way that players are able to customize their weapons in Chapter 3.

To do this, visit NPCs on the island and they will sometimes offer players the chance to upgrade one of the weapons in their inventory to a better rarity. If that is not offered to you when you visit an NPC, they will usually sell you an exotic weapon, instead. Either way, it will cost some gold bars to do this.

FAQs

Question: What items can you craft in Fortnite?

Answer: There are a lot of different items that have been available for players to use in Fortnite in the past. Many of these items are meant for recovery aspects while others can be used for fighting against enemies in battle. However, only one item has ever been made available for crafting it was not the usual weapon. Here is the single item as taken from the above list of all items and weapons:
• Hunter’s Cloak
What is interesting is that much of the crafting in Fortnite has been dedicated almost entirely to weapons. That said, there has been a single item that is a non-weapon that was craftable in the past. This was only possible during Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 6 Primal and it is not currently available anymore.
The Hunter’s Cloak played a large role in the sixth season and the emphasis that it had on the animals that were now roaming the blast from the past version of the island. The animals on the island, like the wolves, were able to be tamed and could join your party for the duration of the match.
In order to do so, players had to go through several different methods as mentioned above in order to tame the animal. Fortunately, the Hunter’s Cloak made the process really easy by allowing the player to sneak up on the animal with ease and tame them to join your party.

Question: What weapons can you craft in Fortnite?

Answer: There are a lot of weapons that could be crafted in Fortnite in the past. As mentioned, these weapons can no longer be crafted at this time as the feature is currently not in the game. That said, here are all of the weapons that have been available in the past for crafting, taken from the above list:
• Mechanical Bow
• Mechanical Explosive Bow
• Mechanical Shockwave Bow
• Primal Bow
• Primal Flame Bow
• Primal Stink Bow
• Classic A ssault Rifle
• Primal Rifle
• Classic SMG
• Primal SMG
• Classic Shotgun
• Primal Shotgun
• Classic Revolver
• Primal Revolver
• AUG
• Burst Assault Rifle
• Rapid Fire SMG
• Lever Action Shotgun
• Sideways Rifle
• Sideways Minigun
• Suppressed Assault Rifle
• Charge Shotgun
As mentioned before, some of these weapons were available during Season 6 Primal only while others arrived in Season 7 Invasion and still more arrived in only Season 8 Cubed. As such, we expect that there will be even more craftable weapons when the system finally returns sometime in Chapter 3.

Question: Does Fortnite have to craft right now?

Answer: As we mentioned already a couple of times in this Fortnite crafting guide, there is no crafting available in the game right now. Unfortunately, it is not in Chapter 3 at this time, however, that could very well change at a moment’s notice.
The crafting system was quite popular at the time of its release and has been something that I and my friends have used considerably when we played the game in Chapter 2. With milestones in the game hinting at crafting, there is a strong chance that it could reappear someday down the line in a future update or season in Chapter 3.

Question: How do you make a Fortnite weapon?

Answer: While we already went over this part of crafting in our more detailed guide, here is a quick breakdown of how to do it. First, you need to make sure that you have the right materials and base weapon that you wish to upgrade, like animal bones and a makeshift bow, for instance.
Once you are certain that you have all of the necessary items in your possession, be sure to open up your inventory and tab over to the crafting section of the menu while in a match. From here, you will be able to see the full list of all weapons and items that you can craft in the game.
If a particular weapon is grayed out, that means that you do not have a piece of the recipe like the weapon or the right materials. But if you can craft it, that means that you have everything that you need and can do it right then and there. It takes a few seconds to craft in Fortnite so be sure to watch out for enemies that could be lurking around the corner waiting to take advantage of your vulnerability.

Conclusion

Learning more about the different parts of Fortnite battle royale is not too easy as there is so much that is in the game, with crafting being just a single slice of it all. As such, we have created other guides that are here to help you get more acquainted with the battle royale title and all of its intricate systems so that you’re not too overwhelmed by everything.

Now that you’ve found more about how crafting works in the game for when it does finally return, we recommend checking out everything that you need to know about the Fortnite quests in the game. Quests are a major part of progression and, in fact, some of them in the past have even involved crafting in their objectives.

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