Beginner Survivor Squads

The Survivor Squads section in the Fortnite Save the World interface.

If you haven't already read the Survivors Basics Guide and don't understand how survivors work, please refer to that quick guide first. Before starting this one. While this is a Beginner's guide to Survivor Squads, we will be going over some of the more advanced parts of putting your Survivor Squad together so it can be the best it can possibly be. We will be assuming you know some of the basics already.

We're going to take a lead from Autofill's example. If Autofill has taught us one thing, it's this, Fortnite cares about the Power Level of your Survivors first and foremost. The rest of the Survivor stuff comes after. We will start with that philosophy and we won't deviate from it that much, depending on how far into the game you actually are. And if you're beyond any early point in the game, you might want to check out our Advanced Survivor Guide instead.

In order to get the most gains, we're going to start with the Survivor who gives the most gains. The Lead Survivors.

The Survivor Squads section in the Fortnite Save the World interface.

Step One: Slot Matching Lead Survivors

Your biggest Power Level boosts come from Lead Survivors properly slotted with a Leader Match. They still gain Power Levels at the same rate as Subordinate Survivors of the same Rarity but when matched correctly, you get twice the boost from it. With a Leader Match every one level functions like two.

It doesn't matter how far into the game you are, the story is always the same when beginning to slot your Survivors manually. You want to put the highest Rarity Leader Match in each squad. It's ok if you do NOT have a matching Leader Type but we want to focus on those ones first. In the case you don't have a Leader Match, you go with the next best thing. The highest rarity non-match Lead Survivor of your choosing.

Work your way down the rarity scale, Mythic, Legendary, Epic, Rare, and finally Uncommon, until you find the highest level one for your squad that you have available. Skip all of the squads that don't have a Lead Match for now. Only add the ones that do. All Squads with Leader Matches should have a Lead Survivor slotted and all the other Squads should be empty.

When you're done, go back through any remaining Squads that do NOT have a Lead Survivor match already and add the highest rarity/Power Level unused Lead Survivors you have. Until each Squad has a leader. This prevents us from putting a Leader Match into a non-matching slot by accident.

Every available squad open to you should have a Lead Survivor in it now and at least three additional empty slots. We have established what each Squads Personality Type is. In the EMT Squads case, the Personality Type is Dependable. Now we know who to slot next.

The Survivor Squads section in the Fortnite Save the World interface.

Step Two: Add Highest Power Level Survivors

Now that you have your Lead Survivors slotted, we know what Personality Types we are trying to match to. You may or may NOT want to match Personality Types, depending on what the Rarity Level is of your Survivor in question. What really is important at the moment is getting the highest Power Level Survivor into each slot and at the same time, seeing if we can match some types for later use.

The reality is a rare Lead Survivor like the one in the image only gives you a +3 Power Level boost to your matching survivors. It doesn't make sense to level up a matching Epic Survivor over a non-matching Legendary Survivor because the Legendary Survivor will still contribute more to your overall Power Level than the Epic one will. Also important is the fact you will upgrade your Lead Survivors later and as they go up in Rarity, they will also be changing Personality Types. Changing the priority of who to slot. There are thresholds to this where these numbers can change.

Set Bonuses shouldn't be a major concern this early in the game. You most likely won't have enough Survivors to match Set Bonuses and even if you do, their signifigance is too small to really matter over something more important like the Survivor's Power Level. Which will give you the most gains towards your F.O.R.T. stats and actual Power Level. Match them when you can, don't worry about when you can't. I wouldn't sell out to do it.

The Survivor Squads section in the Fortnite Save the World interface.

Step Three: Next Best Survivors

It's time to put the remaining Survivors into the last available slots. We can fall back on the advice that Autofill gave us if you like. That the higher the Power Level the Survivor, the more Power Level boost you will get from it. At this point it comes down to which Survivor is the highest PL, regardless of Rarity Type. You may choose one over another if they have a certain Set Bonus you want to match but that's completely up to you.

As you can see in the image above, it just so happened to work out that I was able to get a Melee Damage Bonus from the Set Bonus. That's fortunate but not everyone is going to be so lucky for every squad. Take what you can get, where it makes sense.

Survivor experience in the Fortnite Save the World interface.

Survivor Experience and Recycling

It's important to consider your Survivor Experience and try to at least make the most of it to some extent. This was especially true when recycling used to take some resources away as a penalty but that no longer appears to be the case. We will do some more testing to see exactly what is happening in that regard.

It is our recommendation if you really want to make the most out of your resources, to only invest experience in your Lead Survivors and Legendary regular Survivors you get during the game. For the most part, save the rest of your Survivor experience and always work on acquiring more Legendary Survivors with good matches. Getting the perfect synergy of Survivors and Lead Survivors is going to take a long time.

You're never really done with a Squad until you have a Mythic Lead in it. Then you have a definitive Personality Type to work with. Just make sure you enjoy the process until you get there! When you're ready to really dive in deep to later stage Survivor setups, visit the Advanced Survivor Guide.

TL;DR - Beginner Survivor Squads

If you need a quick reference to all the items above. Check out the cheatsheet below.

  • Leveling Survivors
    1. Level Leads over Subordinates.
    2. Level Survivors 1-10 before 10-20. So on and so forth.
    3. Level up the highest Rarity Level Survivors you have first. Mythic > Legendary > Epic > Rare > Uncommon > Common.
  • Prioritize your Survivors for Slotting
    1. First and foremost you want to use the highest Power Level Survivors you have in each slot.
  • Slot Lead Survivors First
    1. Slot highest level Leader Match Lead Survivors in all Squads available.
    2. Slot highest level Non-Matching Lead Survivors in all remaining Squads available. If any.
  • Slot Subordinate Survivors Second
    1. Add highest level Personality Matches first.
    2. Add highest level non-matches second.
  • Match Set Bonuses when you can but don't prioritize them over higher Power level Survivors when slotting.
  • Enjoy the higher Power gains!