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Save the World is one of the most elusive and mysterious parts of Fortnite battle royale for many players. Some newer players do not even know what it is. To finally crack the code on this not-free-to-play part of the game, I finally purchased the campaign for this Fortnite Save the World guide.
Save the World was always a part of Fortnite that I was interested in, even before the game’s release. As a fan of battle royale, I knew I would eventually check it out, but almost five years passed without touching it.
Thankfully, I have now spent many hours with it and can let you know all you need to know about the mode in this Fortnite Save the World guide.
Bottom Line Up Front
Fortnite Save the World is the original game mode for Fortnite. Save the World existed before there ever were battle royales and 100 players in a match. It was the original purpose and reason for Epic Games creating the game in the first place.
Instead of being player versus player, it is a player versus environment (PvE) experience where the player fights back against the storm and its monsters.
With its unique weapons, progression system, and storyline, Save the World is the story mode for Fortnite about expanding the safe zone of this world. But it is also one of the least played areas of the game because it is the only playable part of Fortnite that you have to spend money on to enjoy.
What is Save the World?
Fortnite Save the World is one of the three core game modes in Fortnite. I would consider Save the World, battle royale, and Creative the main areas.
You go to battle royale for the classic 100 players fighting to the death on the island, you go to Creative mode for building your maps and modes, and you go to Save the World for its PvE-focused storyline.
Save the World is very much unlike anything else that exists in Fortnite. While it may not be as flashy (or free) as other parts of the game, it is the reason that Fortnite even exists in the first place.
Without Epic Games creating this mode, we would have never gotten the battle pass, seasonal content, and countless crossovers to date.
Save the World was the original mode that Epic Games showed off years ago when it first announced Fortnite. The game’s title dates back to this experience where players build to survive the night against the monster hordes that attack your fort or base.
This idea is what gave way to the materials gathering, crafting, and building that we see in Fortnite. When the game first launched in early access in 2017, Save the World was the central part. Unfortunately, though, players had to pay to enjoy it.
Battle royale would soon follow, capitalizing on the PUBG popularity, and was free-to-play. Epic Games stuck to its guns over these past five years in keeping Save the World locked behind a paywall. It is the only playable part of Fortnite to do that. This is unfortunate since it is unique compared to everything else in the game.
How to Unlock Fortnite Save the World
If you are interested in checking out Fortnite Save the World for yourself, there are some key points you should know about. Unlike other game modes, you cannot play Save the World for free. You have to spend some money or V-Bucks to purchase it.
Thankfully, it is not as expensive as it once was in the game. These days, you can pick up the Fortnite game mode much cheaper than at launch. And Epic Games is excellent at giving additional rewards to players who purchase it. But the method for actually buying it changes regularly.
When writing this, the version of the game that is available is through the Mecha-Pop Pack. This is also the game version that I purchased to check out. It costs about $15-$17, depending on the currency that you have in your country.
With this pack, you will receive more than just the Save the World game mode. In addition to that experience, you will get the Mecha-Pop skin. This skin features an adorable robot character that only has one glowing eye. You will also get the Pop-Pack back bling item that matches his skin and the Pneumatic Pop-Axe pickaxe.
Most notably, though, you will get the unique Save the World daily quests with this bundle. If you play the game mode and complete these quests, you will earn 1500 V-Bucks in total through them.
In this way, you are essentially getting paid back for buying Save the World. Though this means that you will have V-Bucks, not real money in return, it is a fantastic deal for those players who will do the daily quests and have items they would like to spend the currency on.
Platforms
Unfortunately, one of the lamest parts about Save the World is the fact that you cannot play it everywhere. Unlike Fortnite battle royale itself, Save the World is only on specific platforms. Some of these are understandable, but there is one missing platform that is a bit surprising.
Save the World is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S. What you will notice missing from this group are the two mobile platforms of Android and iOS.
Now, of course, Fortnite is not even ordinarily available on iOS devices these days, so that does not matter too much. Android is unfortunate since you can still easily play Fortnite there, just not through the Google Play Store.
However, the most surprising omission is the Nintendo Switch. Despite being one of the major consoles and a massive platform for Fortnite, you cannot play Save the World there.
This is possible because the Switch version of Fortnite is most similar to the mobile ones. Though this could change in the future, I don’t expect it to at this point, or else it already would have, so please do not buy Save the World if you only play on mobile or Switch.
Save the World vs Battle Royale
There are several critical differences between Save the World and battle royale, as well as the rest of Fortnite. These glaring differences go beyond just that Save the World costs money to play while the rest of Fortnite is free.
One of the significant differences is that Save the World is not at all about competition. If you want online competitive multiplayer, look elsewhere, as there is no player-versus-player mode in Save the World. That said, it does have multiplayer, just a cooperative form.
Save the World can be played in an entire squad of four players online, where you work together to build and stop the monsters. Another key difference is that it uses unique weapons, items, and characters in situations. Though some are shared, there are entire regions and items that you will not see outside of this game mode.
The progression system is quite different, too, as it has the traditional seasons and battle passes you expect from Creative and battle royale.
Leveling up is different as well, and there are other types of rewards that you can unlock. Crafting has even been in this mode since its creation, and it plays a much more significant role than that of battle royale.
Gameplay Explained
The gameplay in Save the World uses many of the same ideas and features as in the rest of Fortnite. If you’ve played the rest of the game, you will not be entirely out of the loop.
However, it can be surprising how different Save the World is when it comes to certain items, buildings, and even enemies. Here’s what you should know about playing this game mode to get started on the right foot.
Enemies
There are many enemies in Save the World, and they appear as the story missions continue. For the most part, the monsters that you will fight are similar to the cube monsters from battle royale. However, there are some slight changes, namely the fact that there are so many classes of them.
Some enemies will charge at you really fast to try and take you out in melee range. Others are ranged foes and will throw items at you. Still, others might be hulking behemoths that are difficult to take down and can ram through your defenses like it is nothing.
The more missions you do and the higher your heroes’ levels get, the more complex the enemies you fight will be. There is enough variation to the enemy count from the several hours I played and a steady stream of new foes to at least keep my interest in that regard.
The game is not overly complicated, though, and this is likely due to several factors. For one, there were a lot of free gifts and rewards I was given just for starting the game.
These gave me a heavy level boost for the early missions in the story. In addition, the overall difficulty was just relatively low, even when I was playing by myself.
Building
The building is the entire reason Fortnite exists, and it is at the core of Save the World, even more so than in battle royale. The whole premise of the experience is to build out your storm base and prepare for the fights ahead. Occasionally, enemies will attack your headquarters as you try to expand the safe zone.
To prepare for those fights, it is imperative to build out your base further. This includes creating walls, floors, ceilings, doors, and more to protect the storm shield. This shield is the only reason that you and the other survivors can stay alive on the planet.
For this, you, of course, need materials, and these are gathered in much the same ways as you expect. You can destroy cars, trees, and other buildings to gather materials to customize your base. I think the edit feature is also crucial in this mode, compared to battle royale, for creating small walls for cover, doors to pass through, etc.
Also, far more critical in Save the World than anywhere else are the traps. Traps are a massive part of the meta for surviving the waves of enemies. Players can set up various traps, some of which are exclusive to this mode, as a last (or first) line of defense against the horde.
Classes
At the core of Save the World are the squads that you create. When you play, you take the role of the hero that you select. There are many different heroes out there, each with their own unique abilities and stats that they use. However, the main idea is that they each come down to one of four classes.
Those classes are as follows:
- Constructors
- Ninjas
- Soldiers
- Outlanders
Constructors are for the builders in the group. If you are someone who prefers to create elaborate traps for the horde to run into, this is the class for you. A Constructor can build using fewer materials than the other classes and have higher health than most others.
For the Ninja class, this one can use melee combat as its focus. If you prefer running around lightning-fast and using melee weapons, this is the class for you. There are some excellent skills that these heroes can learn to make swords and other melee weapons more valuable on the battlefield.
Then there are the Soldiers. These are your all-around combatants in Save the World. They have skills that let them do better with grenades, ammo, and other ranged weapons.
Lastly, there are the Outlanders. They are solely meant for looting purposes. The Outlander can find treasure chests around the map more easily than the other classes can.
In addition, when they do stumble upon a chest, they typically can find better loot inside of them than the others can. Me, personally, I am a fan of the Soldier for their flexible combat nature but the Ninja class is pretty good, too.
Weapons and Items
What players will find in Save the World is that the weapons and items there differ considerably at times from those in the rest of Fortnite. Sure, there are many shared guns like pistols, SMGs, and so on, but there are some rather unique ones as well. These are only found in Save the World.
For instance, one of the weapon types that are mostly only found in Save the World is melee weapons, besides the standard pickaxe. Though battle royale has had melee weapons in the past, this only lasted for a little bit of time before being taken away again.
In this game mode, however, you can find melee weapons here constantly in the game, and they never leave it. In fact, melee weapons play a huge role in the meta gameplay since an entire class is built around them.
What is also fascinating is the fact that even some of the shared weapons in Save the World with other modes work differently. For instance, the primary assault rifle may surprise players in how it handles compared to its battle royale counterpart.
In battle royale, the AR is a slow-ish firing weapon that is great for mid-range fights. In Save the World, it is a very fast-firing weapon that is more akin to an SMG and is still good at mid-range but has heavy recoil with sustained fire.
There are many items, too, that are unique to this game mode. There are many traps, as mentioned earlier, that you will only find here as well as grenades, other explosives, and special abilities like gadgets that can turn the tide of battle like sending in an airstrike.
Crafting
Players can acquire new weapons, traps, and items in the game by opening up treasure chests around the map. There are also plenty of llamas in the game that you can purchase using tickets and currency to get a set of new, randomly chosen items.
However, one of the most prominent methods of getting new items is the crafting system. This feature is a significant part of Save the World, and there is a lot to it. For starters, you must already own the weapon schematic to be able to craft it. You can get those as rewards or in llamas.
With the crafting schematic in hand, you can then see what materials you must gather to make the item. Each weapon and item that you craft is ranked from one star to five stars, with five being the best. This will give you an idea of the strength of that particular item.
The items with the higher stats will likely require rarer materials. In addition, items and weapons in the game mode have durability. Over time, they weaken and eventually break. It is possible to repair some of these items, but you will often need to craft a brand new one.
Research and Upgrades
The progression system in Save the World is deep and somewhat confusing. First, there is the overall account level that you have. These affect general stats in the game and some of the content you can enjoy. The main level that you will deal with most of the time are the heroes’ levels.
These are the levels of the characters that you have unlocked in the game so far. The higher the level that they are, the better they will do in battle and be more prepared for higher-level missions. Leveling up will occasionally give you points that you can then apply to the upgrades tree.
It is here that you can learn new skills and upgrade your squad’s overall stats to do better in battle. In general, there are more than a dozen different upgrade paths that you can take here. Some of them are gadgets, which are special abilities that can dramatically change how the battle will go.
Each of these has different levels that you can upgrade using the skill points to get even more out of those gadgets. On the other hand, some of the upgrades are for more general stats like your storage and more. Research, on the other hand, has its own set of points.
These let you upgrade the four FORT stats: fortitude, offense, resistance, and tech. These increase your health, damage, shields, and other damage, respectively.
You earn research points the more that you play the game mode and can then upgrade those stats to earn the ability to do better in battle. Research points are not super effective on their own, though, and take time to build up. Each research point that you apply to one of the four FORT stats will only raise them by 1% per research point.
Missions
The crux of Save the World’s progression system has to do with the missions and quests that you go on. Several regions of the world are further broken up into different leveling zones. There is a recommended level for each of the zones that the player should abide by.
The main missions in the story will typically ask the player to do something and naturally progresses you as you level up your heroes. They have to do with various tasks like expanding your storm shield zone, rescuing survivors, and defeating certain enemies in battle.
There are even extra optional objectives in some of the missions that you can take on. These might involve surviving in the battle with most of the storm shield intact or defeating a specific number of enemies in the battle. The more of these tasks and missions that you do, the more rewards that you will receive in the end.
As you complete the main story missions, you will progress through the plot and unlock new rewards and quests. There are also event and seasonal quests that players can take on for some limited-time rewards.
Is Save the World Worth Buying?
Finally, I would like to conclude my Fortnite Save the World guide with my final thoughts on the game mode. Since it came out, I have wanted to play this game mode, and I finally did it for this guide. Given how long it has been since it was released, it does beg the question: is it worth playing at this point?
More importantly, it is even worth buying at this time? The answer to this question will be a complicated one that is both positive and negative.
The overall answer is that, for some players, it will absolutely be worth it, and you should check out Save the World. For others, though, including hardcore Fortnite fans, it may not be worth it for you. At least, it won’t be until it, hopefully, goes free-to-play at some point.
In the end, it comes down to your situation. In my case, I really enjoyed Save the World, but I do not see myself coming back to it that often. In fact, I will likely gravitate towards battle royale and playing with my family and friends there more often that not.
What I liked about Save the World is the fact that it offers something so unique compared to the rest of Fortnite. In many ways, it feels like an MMO or other game with the different segment areas that you can visit. Each one has its own missions and recommended level, similar to an MMO.
I think that this gives a unique feel to the game mode. I think the mission structure is fun and there is a lot of content to enjoy here. It’s great alone or with friends. The best part is that the game is constantly rewarding you, which feels good.
However, there are downsides to the game as well. Not having the more modern aspects of Fortnite like sprinting, mantling, and all that is unfortunate. The movement is good in battle royale these days and Save the World feels like a step backwards.
I would say the same about the presentation and UI. The UI feels overly complex and dated. Meanwhile, there were numerous bugs that I experienced, despite its old age like a cutscene randomly being in German for no reason, monsters and characters glitching in and out, and so on.
The graphics are not as impressive, either, feeling a couple of years behind the rest of Fortnite.
But that is my opinion. Who I think will like Save the World are ones who love the idea of an Outriders-like (I mean this loosely, of course) take on Fortnite. Or want to learn more about the lore behind the game.
Everyone else is better off sticking to the rest of Fortnite. Unless, of course, you don’t mind spending the money since you will get V-Bucks back after completing the daily quests.
FAQs
Question: How do You Get Good at Fortnite Save the World?
Answer: If you are looking to get good at Save the World, there are two main tips that I recommend to. First, I think that you should play with friends online. Just like in battle royale, you can learn from others in this game mode and excel when you play with others.
Second, you should practice as much as you can. Familiarize yourself with the different weapons and crafting systems, and you should get better the more you know and use them.
Question: How to Level Up in Save the World?
Answer: The requirement for leveling up in Save the World is earning experience. You do this by going out and doing missions, finding survivors to add to your group, and defeating enemies. The more that you do, the more experience that you will earn.
Once you have a lot, take a look at your survivor heroes and you can select which one you want to level up there. At the same time, you have your general power level as well for your character. They level up as you gain experience and grants you skill points for the tree.
Question: How do You Get V-Bucks from Save the World?
Answer: If you want to get some V-Bucks from Save the World these days, there is actually a great way to do so. Right now, at the time of writing this guide, you can buy Save the World for less than $20 in V-Bucks.
However, the great thing is that doing so will grant you some special daily quests. If you complete all of these, you will earn 1500 V-Bucks back. Basically, you almost get paid back for the cost of Save the World just for playing it. It’s a great way to justify taking the risk to play it yourself.
Conclusion
As you can see in this Fortnite Save the World guide, I really enjoyed finally taking the plunge and playing this game mode. Though it is several years old, it is most definitely worth the experience and money. That is, of course, if you are able to play it on your respective platform of choice.
Whether or not you are able to play Save the World, though, there are still other parts of Fortnite that you can enjoy. For instance, one of the other two pillars of the game is Creative.
We’ve previously given some tips on how to build your own Creative mode and map so that you create your own experiences to rival that of Epic Games’ own official modes.
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