Fortnite: Save the World has an interesting leveling system in the form of Power Levels (PL), the number at the top right of your home screen. Your Power Level also appears as the number accompanying your username in-game and your teammates. This guide will take you through everything you need to know about obtaining Survivors, building the right Fortnite Survivor Squads, and maximizing your Power Level over time.
What Are Survivors?
As per the lore, Survivors are humans who survived the Storm that wiped out most of humanity in Save the World. Survivors can be seen in-game as characters you can do quick tasks for in exchange for small rewards. These tasks range from saving the Survivors from zombies to fetching Dennis, the infamous Med-Kit.
However, the Survivors that affect your Power Level are the ones you obtain as cards. You can obtain them via Llamas, mission rewards, Expeditions, and even exchange them for Gold in the Item Shop. Survivors come in the same rarities as Heroes and weapons – Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic. The higher the rarity, the better the Power Level gain. These Survivors can also be slotted in the Collection Book to progress and obtain rewards.
What Are Survivor Squads (Fortnite)?
Fortnite requires you to slot the Survivors in specific Squads. Each Squad requires a suitable Leader. The rest of the Survivors in that squad entirely depend on the leader. Survivors have personalities you need to match to achieve the highest possible Power Level gain.
Each Survivor card also comes with its boosts, such as extra damage, health, or even shields. Matching the Survivor’s personality to the leaders will fetch you this extra boost. These boosts also have additional requirements, such as having another Survivor in the same squad with the same boost and personality.
The best way to optimize your Survivor Squads is to collect as many Survivors as possible. As you gather Survivors of higher rarities, you can recycle the lower rarity Survivors for the resources you can use to level up the Survivors you need. Keep replacing the Survivors in your squads with higher-powered ones till you get to a point where all slots are filled. Then you can start optimizing personality matches and specific boosts.
You can also allocate specific points to each of the FORT values. Make sure you complete the storyline as it rewards you with two Mythic Survivors, both of which were named after Epic employees. You can acquire these from the Canny Valley storyline. Some of the quest missions will also give you Transform cards that you can use to get Survivors of a specific rarity.
What is Power Level? And Why Does it Matter?
Power Level is the most crucial thing in Fortnite: Save the World. It’s a number that denotes your FORT (Fortitude, Offense, Resistance, Tech) stats calculated by a unique formula in-game. While we don’t have the formula – and it doesn’t matter – your Power Level is what determines how strong your Heroes are.
Now Heroes and Weapons have their leveling system roughly related to your Power Level. A Level 130 gun is useless in the hands of a Power Level 10 player. It won’t do the same amount of damage when used by them, making it essential to progress your PL.
Areas in the four zones – Stonewood, Plankerton, Canny Valley, and Twine Peaks – are also locked behind Power Level requirements. Each mission and node on the map also has a minimum PL requirement that you must meet to contribute to the team successfully.
These requirements are, in turn, linked to your Hero level. As you progress through these levels, you also gain enough resources to level up your Heroes and Survivors.
Changes in Power Levels
A recent update strangely affected everyone’s Power Levels. There were no notices about it in-game or a blog post explaining it, but Fortnite: Save the World’s community manager “/u/Magsyt” posted about it on Reddit.
Epic Games had made adjustments to Power Levels to fix some issues and to support the new Promoted survivors. These changes were relatively minor, such as 131 PL players finding themselves at 130. Even if your Power Level has slightly changed, the game hasn’t gotten harder or easier for you. While the number displayed on your UI has changed, the actual FORT stats and the shield or health of Husks are unchanged.
From 130 to 145: The New Power Level Cap
According to Magyst, ratings of Husks over 140 were boosted. He mentioned that “the old ratings were a basic linear sequence that didn’t map to the exponentially increasing power level of the husks. The new ratings better reflect their relative power.”
You will not experience any difference in the amount of damage you’re dealing or taking either. While 130 was the intended cap for level 50 Survivors, the pre-update formula wasn’t accounting for some of the FORT sources, and players were able to cross 130. For years, 131 had been the highest power cap, and now everyone who was at 131 has been brought down to 130. However, due to the ability to Promote Survivors, the new Power Level cap has been increased to 145.
A Word of Advice: Don’t Worry Too Much About the Current PL Cap
Reaching Level 145 might seem impossible to some, but ever since Epic Games has released more ways to enable promotion, you should have an easier time getting there. If you’re still a beginner, these things are still far ahead for you; you need to focus first on getting all the Survivors, leveling them up, and collecting more Survivor personalities. Make sure you redeem the seasonal Legendary Survivor from the shop every time as it will give you a massive boost.
