Fortnite’s co-op mode used to be paid, but now its doors are open to everyone. And newcomers are in for a treat: Save the World isn’t just a “zombie version of Battle Royale.” It has a ton of mechanics, and one of the key ones is the hero system. The heroes you put in your squad affect literally everything: damage, survivability, base effectiveness. We’ve put together a complete guide on unlocking and leveling up.
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How to get heroes in Fortnite Save the World?
The most obvious way is to simply play. Quests and missions regularly drop heroes, especially if you check the “Hero Quests” section in the journal. But that’s not the only option. Here’s the full list:
Completing missions and quests – check your rewards; sometimes a specific character is found there.
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Opening Llams – those piñatas that drop random loot.
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Exchange Shop – you can buy heroes with gold, but the shop won’t open until after the 5th Stormshield Defense.
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Promotions—for example, Urban Assault Headhunter was once awarded through Twitch Drops.
Early missions typically yield common, uncommon, and rare heroes. However, closer to the endgame, epic, legendary, and even mythic heroes drop. Epic and legendary heroes are sold in the Exchange Shop—get them if you’ve saved up gold.
Llamas are a bit trickier. If you need a high-ranking hero, aim for Superhero Llamas, Superhuman Llamas, and Legendary Troll Llamas. They appear in the rotation in the “X-ray” section (also in the Exchange Shop), and sometimes drop as mission rewards. Coincidence? Unlikely—Epic Games clearly encourages players to check the storefront every day.
By the way: heroes here aren’t just “skins.” Each has a class, perk, and tactical role. So even a legendary character might not fit your build—while a rare one, on the contrary, might fill a gap. Experiment.
How to level up heroes in Fortnite Save the World?
The main resource for upgrading is Human Experience. It’s earned for missions, quests, and unlocking certain Llamas (for example, Upgrades). Incidentally, this experience is automatically allocated to Survivors, Defenders, and Heroes—but not equally.
Survivors are easy: they level up automatically. Heroes require manual leveling. Go to the “Command” → “Heroes” → “Management” tab. Select a hero, click “Upgrade/Inspect,” and then “Level Up.” The system will show how much Human Experience you’ll spend and what stats will increase: health, shield, and other parameters. You can set multiple levels at once—convenient if you’ve accumulated the resource.
Hero Evolution: How to Remove the Level 10 Cap?
By default, the maximum level for any hero is 10. To raise the bar, you need to evolve. Find a character that has reached the level cap and select “View Evolution” in the same inspect menu. Here, you’ll need three things: Human Experience, a Pure Drop of Rain, and a Tutorial. But there’s a catch: first, you must complete the “Plankerton Stormshield Defense 1” campaign mission. Without it, the evolution button won’t activate.
Hero Evolution Mechanics and Resource Consumption?
Evolution in Save the World doesn’t work on a “remove the limit and move on” basis. The system is divided into four stages, each requiring its own resource pool and unlocking a new perk slot for the hero or enhancing an existing one. Epic Games deliberately stretched this progression: reaching the second star consumes hundreds of thousands of Human Experience and a pack of rare materials. Let’s break it down: what’s spent, when, and where to get it.
Character Evolution: Requirements & Resources
Important: Pure Drop of Rain only covers leveling up to level 30. Above that, only the Stream of Purity works, and that’s a whole other level of scarcity.
Where can I farm Pure Drops of Rain and the Stream of Purity?
Raindrops come from several sources at once. The first is the Homebase Daily Reward, starting on the 25th day of logging in. The second is Silver and Gold Tickets in event shops. The third is the Collection Book, which awards drops in stacks for filling specific slots. The Stream of Purity is more restrictive: it’s an endgame resource. It’s awarded for Storm Missions in 70+ zones, daily quests in Twin Peaks, and for gold in the Exchange Shop. Coincidence? Unlikely—Epic Games deliberately hid the Stream of Purity behind the progression to prevent new players from wasting it on weak heroes.
The situation with textbooks is simpler. The Training Manual is obtained from the Enhancement Llama and Silver Llama, while the Evolution Guide is obtained from the Golden Llama and rewards from the Twin Peaks Storm Missions. Farming here is predictable.
Expenditure of Human Experience to level 50
The numbers are truly stinging. Levels 1-10 require 50,000-60,000 Human Experience, but beyond that, the consumption increases almost exponentially. Here’s the breakdown for one Legendary Hero:
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Levels 1-10: ~55,000 XP
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Levels 11-20: ~180,000 XP + 4 Pure Drops of Rain
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Levels 21-30: ~420,000 XP + 8 Pure Drops of Rain
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Levels 31-40: ~950,000 XP + 12 Streams of Purity
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Levels 41-50: ~2,100,000 XP + 20 Streams of Purity
In total, this is about 3.7 million XP per character from base to level 50. Therefore, STV veterans choose 2-3 key heroes for specific roles (farming, Stormshield defense, dungeons), rather than trying to build their entire collection. Spreading yourself thin is a dead end.
How to conserve resources when leveling heroes?
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Don’t level up Common and Uncommon heroes above level 10. You can’t extract the experience invested in them—the system doesn’t allow you to transfer it to another character.
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Save Pure Raindrops for Legendaries. It’s more effective to reach Epics through Flux and Rarity Increase than to use drops on them.
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First, complete the Stormshield Defense for the corresponding Plane, and only then accumulate materials. Otherwise, resources will sit idle in your warehouse until you reach the trigger mission.
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Don’t skip a single day of your daily reward. A 336-day cycle yields dozens of Raindrops and several Streams of Purity—every missed entry impacts your progress.
Increasing Hero Rarity through Flux
This is a separate mechanism, unrelated to levels. It works through Flux—it’s purchased in the Exchange Store or obtained through the Collection Book. The process is the same: go to “Upgrade/Inspect,” then “Upgrade” → “Increase Rarity.” Spend the desired Flux, and your character advances to the next level: from rare to epic, and finally to legendary. Again, the requirement is to complete “Plankerton Stormshield Defense 1.” Typically, Epic Games likes to tie progression to story milestones.
How do I build a hero deck in Fortnite Save the World?
How do I assign a squad leader in Save the World?
Log into Homebase, open the “Hero Management” section, or directly click the “Heroes and Build” tab in the “Command” menu. There, you select the character who will lead the squad on the mission. This is the commander.
Each hero has their own set of unique stats and abilities tied to their class and type. Some abilities are shared by all classes, but there are also some exclusive ones. Activate them during battle with the assigned keys, and after use, the ability goes on a short cooldown.
By the way, here are all the classes currently available in PvE:
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Soldier
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Constructor
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Ninja
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Seeker
Support Team and Passive Hero Bonuses
Heroes who aren’t in your main slot aren’t idle either. Assign them to your support team, and each one provides a passive bonus. What exactly is it? It depends on the hero type: some will increase weapon damage, others will improve their abilities.
Coincidence? Unlikely. In many builds, bonuses are only truly unlocked if you choose support heroes of the same class or with specific abilities. The right combination can also boost team perks—and that’s a whole other level.
At first, you won’t have many support slots, but as you progress through Save the World, you’ll unlock more. And yes, you can create multiple builds and quickly switch between them to suit the situation.
