This article looks at the history of animals in Fortnite, how to capture, care for, and maintain animals you can now ride on in-game. Included is a possible spawn map, diet of the animals and tips and tricks to use riding an animal to your advantage in Chapter 3, Season 3.
As with any new season of Fortnite, there are a multitude of new skills, weapons, points of interest and game mechanics that need to be learned by players. In Chapter 3, Season 3 the creators at Epic introduced the ability to ride on both wolves and boar, which players can use to zoom across the island and outpace the competition. In this article we will look at Fortnite animal history, the mechanics of becoming an expert animal wrangler, how to care for your noble steed, spawn locations, and tactics to use against your enemies.
Fortnite is not new to having animal companions roaming the map. In Chapter 2, Season 3, Fortnite introduced animals onto the island. At first, they were a quick source of health when shot and were sometimes a nuisance if they attacked you when unprepared. Later, the animals on the island became an integral part of the “Primal” season when bones were needed to upgrade to diverse types of bows with special properties. Taming the animals was a quick source of fun once Epic allowed us to use food to subdue the animals and interact with them, and if you had the patience, you could create an animal army. Eventually loot animals were introduced (and are still in C3S3) that give you a gold or purple gun if you manage to kill the animal.
Though the ability to ride the sharks has been around since Epic introduced them in Chapter 2, Season 3, riding them in water was a quick and fun mode of transport, but bringing the water-bound animals on land is a different story. Surfing along behind a shark out of water becomes a somewhat slow and tedious process which can leave you dangerously vulnerable to attack at such a slow pace. But now in Chapter 3, Season 3 our relationship with the Fornite fauna has evolved once again.
In Fortnite Vibin’, players now can ride boar and wolves across the map. To do so, the player simply needs to jump on the back of an animal. There is a technique to do so without causing damage, but sometimes a little luck is needed. The boar may charge if faced head-on, and the wolves (who usually stay in a pack of two or more) will attack on sight. Sneaking up behind and jumping on an unsuspecting animal is the safest way to get a boar to ride, but there is another method to ensure you do not take damage.
The same as taming the animals in the past, if you throw down fruit or vegetables for the boar, or shoot one of the two wolves in a pack, the animal will get distracted by the meat or food, giving you a few seconds to easily jump on the animal’s back. You will see the animal is distracted by food by question marks appearing around the animal. Check to be sure you have your bindings set for riding animals in the settings tab, as some players may not have this automatically set.
Once you have secured your seat, even if you jump off, the animal will follow you around with an icon of your skin and name hovering above it. You can then quickly mount and dismount the animal to use at your leisure. This does not stop others from using your ride if you are not in the saddle, as any teammate can jump on your subdued animal. Doing so does make the animal change ownership, so if a teammate snags your ride, you may be back at square one and will need to find another animal to ride.
Just like boats or cars, animals do require fuel to continue being an active part of your team. You will see two bars above your health and shield that indicate your animal’s health and stamina. When you use your animal’s sprint ability, it will make the stamina bar decrease at a faster rate. Once depleted, you will have to either feed your animal, or abandon the spent animal in lieu of a fresh steed. If you are not paying attention to your animal’s stamina bar, you will know the animal needs fuel because it will lay down and refuse to be ridden.
Wolves will accept any type of fish or meat, even turning to cannibalism if you shoot another wolf. The more stamina your wolf needs, the more pieces of meat or fish. Boars are a little pickier in their meals and will not eat meat. Klomberries are a great snack for boar, and they can be quickly found randomly across the map. If you cannot find Klomberries, head to a gas station or residential area to look for boxes of food containing fruits or vegetables. Objects that would normally give a player a boost in health (campfires, splashes, chug barrels, chug gun), will also give health to the animal, and food items will give the animal stamina.
While you are mounted on your animal, you can walk, sprint, heal, reload, open chests, collect loot, farm mats, build and swim, though it does make some of these actions a little more challenging or slow. When riding an animal, much like a player driving a car, if visualized sound effects are activated, an icon will show up from fairly far away, denoting that a player is riding an animal companion.
When riding an animal, if you jump from a height, the animal will take damage, but the rider will not, even if it is from a normally catastrophic height. This will cause the instant death of your animal, but the rider will not take damage, much like riding a car. Though beware–if you double jump before coming to the edge of a cliff, the animal will launch you off and send you flying to your doom.
You can check on your animal’s status by looking at the two bars above your health/shield bars. Wolves have more health at 250 points, while the boar only has 120. If you are running from the storm or have someone shooting at you, the wolf may be the better option as it is not killed as quickly. However, that seems to be one of the few benefits the wolf has to offer over the boar. The boar comes in with 120 health, but boasts faster speed, more stamina (twice as much) and a boar will break through items that get in your way.
On a wolf, when sprinting and coming to an obstacle like a wall, the wolf will just slide around the wall or stop. A boar will bust through and keep running, well after the wolf wears out. Also, the spawn rate of boar is more frequent, and they can be found in most areas of the map. Wolves are less common, more aggressive (though a boar will charge you if you get in its area) and mostly populate the exterior edges of the map.
To exit the animal, you can either double jump (though you will be thrown from the animal, so do not do this near a large drop) or use the interact button you use to get on the animal. Once the animal is paired with you, it will follow you around. Some people may view this as a benefit (the animal is near if you need a quick escape) but the animal will destroy things to get close to you, and it can show your position. You cannot push a button (at this time) to “dismiss” your animal to make it leave. Trying to shoot the animal does nothing, as it will not take friendly fire. A few tactics may work, like rifting away from the animal or throwing fireflies at it, but if you do not have those items in your inventory, you may be stuck searching with an unwanted wolf in your wake.
Another method is to jump your animal from a tall height, so it dies from fall damage. If there are no cliffs around, build a ramp up and run off the ramp, being sure to not excessively jump and launch yourself to your doom. The animal will dissipate, and you will not have a shadow. If there was one improvement that Epic could make, it should be to give the option to dismiss the animal.
The first most obvious advantage that riding an animal will bring to you is the ability to quickly move across the map or outrun the storm. Riding an animal gets you overland quickly without having to worry about sticking to a road, and the “fuel” for an animal is easy to find. Add to that the frequency that animals spawn, if you get caught looting or fighting and the storm rolls in, there is usually an abundance of animals around.
Secondly, approaching a fight on an animal and double jumping can launch you up into the build, giving you a leg-up on scaling an enemy build. You can make it up the build faster and give yourself a jump on the competition. Just be aware, riding an animal does make you visible earlier to players with visualized sound effects on, so weigh your options accordingly.
From loot sharks to Klombo, Fortnite has given players a variety of animals to interact with in a variety of ways, and this step in the evolution of animals in-game seems to be a natural next step. It will be interesting to see where Epic goes from here–will they bring back the fierce raptors who will attack powerfully on your behalf? Will Klombo reappear with riding capability? While the future of Fortnite animals is unknown, players can take advantage of a movement tactic never seen in any other season.
