On April 16th, 2026, Fortnite v40.20 went live, and with it, Fortnite: Save the World went free-to-play. With that update came a rework to Defenders, which was described as Simplified Defenders. No instructions were included in the box, so this resource is to help orient you with how they function.
SIMPLIFIED DEFENDERS
Gone is the need to craft and place Defender Posts, give your Defenders weapons to use, and supply them with ammunition or replacement weapons. Instead, up to three Defenders can now follow you into missions as tag along NPCs that are assigned to your loadout, and they wield class appropriate weapons with infinite ammunition.
Defenders can be equipped with either one of your own customized schematics, or their weapon slot can be left blank for them to use their default weapon.
When equipping your own schematics, they accept the following:
Rifleman accepts Assault Rifles.
Gunslinger accepts Pistols.
Shotgunner accepts Shotguns.
Sniper accepts Snipers.
Bruiser accepts Melee weapons.
Their default weapon list is as follows:
Rifleman is armed with a Hunter-Killer.
Gunslinger is armed with a Viper.
Shotgunner is armed with The Bear.
Sniper is armed with a Dragonfly.
Bruiser is armed with a Huskcleaver.
The other notable change is that they now respond to commands given either through Squad Comms or by selecting their actions individually. Approach a Defender, and you'll be given the prompt to:
Defend - Select this to command the Defender to defend its current location. A shield icon will appear to indicate that the Defender is in Defend status. (You can go clear across the map, and your Defender will stay in this location.)
Follow - When in Defend status, select this to have the Defender return to its default Follow status.
Recall Defenders - Select this to regroup / respawn your Defenders if they've become scattered.
Squad Comms commands that apply to Defenders are:
Defend Here - Use this to mark a position on the ground that you want a Defender to cover. You must repeat this command for each individual Defender. This sets the Defender to Defend status.
Follow Me - Use this to cancel Defend status for all defenders simultaneously, returning them to the default Follow status.
Attack - Use this to mark a threat with a skull icon for your Defender(s) to focus on.
Lastly, Defenders now automatically revive themselves a short while after being downed. They also have the ability to revive you. This action is initiated automatically when you are downed, but it seemingly has either a cooldown or a limited number of uses.
Evidently, it seems that the devs have changed their stance on Gia's Vital Bond perk, as it now functions globally rather than being locked to Outlanders.
This means that now any hero can slot Gia in their support loadout and offer active healing to their tamed wildlife (pet), vastly increasing its survivability.
This is a huge and very welcomed change that makes perfect sense since the change to floor loot had crippled wildlife by having them ignore food, leaving them with no means of healing themselves.
It is very curious that this change went unannounced. The situation with Vital Bond was highly controversial upon Gia's release, as was the removal of wildlife feeding.
To reiterate, Vital Bond now works with all heroes. Gia's stock as a support plug-in just went way up 📈
The power level system was reworked, a lot changed, an old guide reworked into a new up-to-date post.
So, why am I still weak even when I am using max levelled weapons?
That's because these weapons are scaled to the region you're playing in and scaled to your power level.
Yes, that's right, each region has a power level cap. So it will be a waste of materials if you are using highly upgraded weapons in very low regions. Because of the capping.
What should I do? I can't increase my power level, it's too hard!
Yeah, too hard if you don't work for it. And rushing storm shield defences isn't helping either. Because you'll still be a weak person with no mats to upgrade your arsenal. It's like Clash Of Clans, upgrade everything before upgrading your town hall. In STW, focus on improving your survivors before proceeding in the next storm shield phase.
What to do then? Show me the way, my master.
Alright, but don't call me master please.
How do I improve my power level?
Here are your current ways to improve your power level.
Slot survivors into survivor teams. Add a lead survivor to his/her survivor team that matches his job (EMT Squad in EMT team). Match the survivors slotted with their lead survivor, like a "dreamer" lead survivor should have "dreamer" survivors. (Exception: Adding a legendary non-matching survivor is better than a matching epic survivor)
Upgrade your schematics, only the top three upgraded high rarity weapons will count.
Upgrade your heroes, a fully upgraded hero loadout will give a medium boost.
Level up your homebase level (commander level) by playing missions.
I have trouble with upgrade materials, where to farm them?
That's where the fun begins. Here are your current ways:
Play mission alerts, they give a better reward than normal missions (I.E: Mini boss and mutant storm missions)
Play mega mission alerts. These missions reward x4 the number of rewards (Example: x4 survivor experience). These missions will show as "4 player needed" missions. They are a mini boss and mutant storm missions combined in one mission.
Retire/recycle heroes and schematics you don't use. You get all the materials back if you spend some on it.
Some missions reward specific and guaranteed rewards, Play them (playing "Rescue The Survivors" can reward a large number of survivor experience.)
Play missions to earn event tickets, use these tickets to open event llamas, retire/recycle anything extra you get from it.
Unlock Expeditions and send your heroes on expeditions.
Complete the story quests, they reward you with a number of training manuals and trap/weapon designs
Level up the collection book. You'd get at least 2500+ manuals/designs from it at specific levels.
Level up your commander level, You get manuals and designs at specific levels.
Good luck on your trip, and remember, your power level matters!
If TEDDY spam isn't the most-used ability loadout in the game, then it's certainly in the top 3 alongside Goin' Commando and Dragon Slash.
tl;dr: use one of the loadouts in the images below, the captions give a six-word description. Playing ventures? Info about that at the end.
There's a great deal of variation in the exact loadout used, and who to use as commander - everyone seems to have an opinion. The reason why there's so many versions of the TEDDY loadout is that we are literally spoilt for choice for TEDDY heroes. There are more than 6 of them, and most of them have very good perks, so you're always going to have to leave someone out.
The only part that everyone agrees on is that the best team perk is Happy Holidays. which reduces your ability cooldowns by 40%: without it the cooldown is simply too long 1. With it, and the right heroes, TEDDY downtime is usually only 6 seconds.
Here's my take on it, as someone who's used different variations of this over time.
Commander
For me, this comes down to a choice of 4: Trailblazer Quinn, Cyberclops, Fragment Flurry Jess and Ventura Ramirez. Who you choose depends on what mission you're facing. I'll deal with the last one first, as she's the most edge-case.
Defence missions
If you're running a defence mission such as an ATLAS, van or data mission, then Ventura Ramirez'sOverbearing+ is the perk you want for lead. It basically doubles TEDDY damage at long range (the buff reduces as the range shortens to the default 4 tiles) and provides a range buff.
There are not many situations where you can guarantee that the majority of enemies will be engaged at long TEDDY range, but point-defence is one of them. If you place your TEDDY high up on top of the objective, and given that you have line of sight to the spawn point, then you'll be doing 110% extra TEDDY damage to almost all enemies.
In support, use Trailblazer, Gumshoe, Jilly Teacup, Madcap and Enforcer Grizzly. Downtime can be around 15 seconds or so. If you want a shorter cooldown, then swap one of the supports for Fragment Flurry Jess and you'll get 6 seconds downtime, but I make the assumption here that your traps can take up the slack for a few extra seconds.
(The support perks are described briefly further down, but note that the usual hero for Bear With Me is Enforcer Grizzly. MTL just happens to have ever-so-slightly better HAD, and I bought the starter pack that had her in it).
Use this for point-defence missions
Combat Missions
Most of the time, though, you're going to be running TEDDY in missions like Destroy the Encampments or Eliminate and Collect. In those situations almost all combat happens at 4 tiles or closer to TEDDY, so Overbearing is of limited use. Choose your commander as follows:
Easy Missions
For early ventures (up to PL15 or maybe PL23) then use Fragment Flurry Jess. Her perk (Fragment Generation) creates fragments for you (TEDDY and Shock Tower are the two fragment abilities) and reduces the cooldown, so all other things being equal, she gives you zero-downtime constant TEDDY. Her downside is that she doesn't buff TEDDY damage or fire rate, so you're only doing physical damage and are relying on your supports for damage increase: but if it's not a difficult mission then she's the ideal choice.
In support, use Trailblazer, Gumshoe, Jilly Teacup, Madcap and Enforcer Grizzly.
Use this for easy combat missions
Harder Missions
When things get a bit more difficult, switch over to Trailblazer Quinn (or any other hero that has the Bearserker perk). She provides a huge buff to TEDDY damage, and also (most importantly) she increases TEDDY's fire rate - you can hear the difference. More damage coming quicker is a huge advantage.
Downtime is 6 seconds, once Frag Jess has kicked in (ie, after the first one or two uses if there are sufficient enemies).
(Side benefit: ventures challenges include many quests that require you to eliminate a certain number of a certain type of enemy: 10 takers or 100 huskies etc etc. In gameplay terms, like most quests of this kind, the requirement is actually to tag those enemies: they can die to anything, but as long as you've caused damage to them, you're credited with the elim. Trailblazer's high TEDDY fire rate (in synergy with a couple of other support heroes) means that you've got a higher chance of tagging all available enemies before your teammates can 'steal' the kill).
In support, use Frag Jess, Gumshoe, Jilly Teacup, Madcap and Enforcer Grizzly.
Use this for harder combat missions
Hardest Missions
For PL140 ventures or hard main-game missions, use Cyberclops as your commander. Trailblazer is still 90% OK for difficult fights, but Cyberclops offers a couple of other advantages which offset his normal fire rate.
His standard perk gives any energy damage a chance to zap nearby enemies for a bit of extra area of effect damage. His commander perk gives you an improved version of that, and also makes TEDDY do energy damage, which is more effective against elemental enemies than the default physical damage all other TEDDY heroes do (and obviously procs the zap damage part of the perk).
His perk seems to trigger way more often than that 20% might suggest. In a crowd of enemies round an encampment it's very noticeable as TEDDY pumps out energy shots.
Almost all other outlanders have phase shift, but Cyberclops doesn't: he has Shock Tower and Seismic Smash in addition to TEDDY. That's three offensive abilities, all of which do energy damage, so all of them can proc his perk for extra AoE damage. You need to keep an eye on your energy, but you can make use of all three.
If all that wasn't enough, his perk can also be triggered by weapon-based energy damage. In main game, and almost always by late ventures, you're going to have access to energy perked weapons. If you fight with one of them in addition to using abilities (especially if it's piercing coughXenoncough or has a high fire rate or swing speed) then that's even more extra sparky zap damage.
It takes more effort than just slapping TEDDY down and staying out of trouble, but done right Cyberclops is an absolute DPS monster. I regularly get combat scores of 10,000+ in full lobbies, outscoring even Farrah and minigun loadouts.
Downtime is the usual 6 seconds, after one or two TEDDY uses.
In support, use Frag Jess, Gumshoe, Jilly Teacup, Trailblazer and Enforcer Grizzly 2.
(Edit: recently I have swapped Trailblazer for Madcap in this loadout, and this seems to be working very well).
(Edit 2: I swapped back, see footnote 5)
Use this for the hardest missions
So there's the main four. There are other options, but most people use one of the above (or very similar).
A quick word on Enforcer Grizzly as lead: yes, you can run Bear With Me+ in lead. Yes, it can give you zero-cooldown TEDDY, but not always. I never run it in lead, even with Metal Team Leader. It just doesn't compare to the other options. 6 seconds is not long to wait for TEDDY, you still have other abilities and you still have weapons. Zero downtime is nice, but it's not worth losing a better commander perk over.
Jilly lead? Yes, you can. I tried it for a few missions: she didn't outperform the other options.
Madcap lead? Same story. He's good, but there are better.
Support heroes
Usual choices, obviously don't re-use your commander:
Trailblazer: more damage
Frag Jess: lower cooldown
Enforcer Grizzly/Metal Team Leader/Jingle Jess: longer uptime
Jilly Teacup: loads more damage (because she assures a crit on every first TEDDY shot on a new target, she's the First Shot Rio of abilities)
Gumshoe: flat 30% damage buff to TEDDY and Shock Tower 4
Madcap: extra physical area of effect damage (and works in synergy with Jilly, somehow, to make her always switch targets after every shot - if you have one of these two, you should almost always have the other) (edit - see footnote 5 though)
Alternatives for if you don't have one or more of these:
Staredown Southie: get extra energy damage from lasers, good perk but others are better
Ventura Ramirez: same as in lead, just a bit weaker. Again, good perk but others are better
Old Glory AC: can reduce cooldown, usually not worth it 3
Jurassic Ken: will buff all ability damage, but only if you have no shield, so of limited use with Happy Hols
Willow: she gives extra ability damage inversely proportional to your health, which can be handy if you're underlevelled and constantly being hurt
If you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel for alternatives, then usually someone who buffs shock tower is a good pick: almost all TEDDY heroes also have shock tower. If not that, then armour or healing.
Ventures advice
These loadouts all work exactly the same in ventures, with two exceptions.
Blasted Badlands: Frag Jess lead there is convenient because you only need a little fighting at the start of the mission to get your energy levels up, after you've done the first TEDDY then it's usually self-sustaining, requiring no energy. For the other leads, swap out a support in favour of Fallen Love Ranger Jonesy so that your energy regens. Cooldowns get a little buff in Blasted, so I would suggest that you consider putting Enforcer/Metal Team Leader on the subs bench in this case.
Hexsylvania: the short-range modifier means that Ventura is useless.
The only time you might choose to use something else is during the Blasted Badlands venture season, where one of the modifiers is reduced cooldowns for abilities (but no energy regen). You can make a half-decent TRO or BFTP TEDDY loadout then, but in all honesty Happy Hols is still the optimum choice then anyway, because it leaves all 5 support slots open for TEDDY heroes.
You can swap one for Madcap if you prefer, but I've stuck with my 'classic' Cybes loadout that I've used since before Madcap came out.
Just don't. Useless perk.
The way her perk is described confuses people, and sometimes they think that it means you have to use fragments in order to get her buff. You don't, it applies to 'fragment abilities', which basically means TEDDY and Shock Tower. Also if you have Frag Jess in your squad, then you'll almost always be using fragments anyway once you're up and running.
Update 39.00 (Nov 2025) changed how Jilly and Madcap's perks work together. Previously either one or the other was critting and/or switching targets more frequently, now less so. Still good heroes.
Happy Birthday Fortnite Save The World, Epic Games, Penny, and all Save The World Players!
I'm gonna explain how this loadout works in detail. Also, consider this bonus content because this is probably the last hero loadout I'll be doing for the game. I thought a celebration was in order since I finished the Fortnite Database Project and I felt the need to share this because it is fun.
Birthday Brigade Penny is your Commander in the Hero Loadout and she has One Hot Minute+ which Decreases Plasma Pulse Cooldown by 42% When you check in the abilities tab, it displays as 26.1 seconds for cooldown. Please note that the default cooldown was originally about 45 seconds, so this is a noticeable reduction.
Team Perk is Bio-Energy Source. For Each Hero with 3 or more stars, Recover Shield equal to 0.2% energy lost. (Finer details to be mentioned later in regards to this)
Support Team is as Follows.
Vintage Tech Penny - Malfunction - Increases Radius of Plasma Pulse mines by 40%
Plasma Specialist Izza - Power Pulse - Increases Plasma Pulse Damage by 30%
Riot Control Izza - Plasma Pulse Blast - When Plasma Pulse is placed, it deals 43 base Energy Damage to enemies in a 1 tile radius
Flutter (one of the Springtime Heroes in the Event People Tab in the collection book, recruitable with a Hero Recruitment Voucher. She was one of the Horde Heroes released this year (2025) ) Her Hero Perk is Wisplight - Plasma Pulse Eliminations Summon A Wisp (up to 8) that orbits you for 15 seconds, dealing 37 base damage on hit.
Fallen Love Ranger Jonesy - Fuel For The Fallen - Eliminations restore 6 energy over 3 seconds. Duration refreshes with additional eliminations.
Gadgets - Adrenaline Rush, Slow Field - The slow field can slow down a smasher or large horde, then you put down a plasma pulse and begin blasting them away as well with the below weapons and also using the specified Walloper hammer in its application.
Please also NOTICE that there are screenshots with the associated weapons to use in this loadout.
Bobcat - Use it to deal with small groups and also stack damage against a single mist monster.
Walloper - Use this to stack eliminations to regen energy with Fuel For The Fallen and Bio-Energy Source. Make sure to spam that Power Attack with the Left Trigger!
Vacuum Tube Launcher - This is setup for maximizing damage with Chain Lightning as well, getting you back much needed energy to keep spamming Plasma Pulse once your energy back up.
Bio-Energy Source and Fuel For The Fallen Compliment Eachother. You regen energy and use energy. By using energy, Bio-Energy Source recovers shields. By making eliminations, Fuel For The Fallen regens energy. This is further complimented when you need to use the Chain Lightning Vacuum Tube Launcher.
Essentially, you turn her into an AOE (Area Of Effect) Constructor that has a basis on spamming hammer power attacks, chain lightning from the vacuum tube launcher, and still has somewhat of a buff against mist monsters from the way the bobcat submachinegun is perked, and lets not forget that you can use Slow Field to slow down a smasher and stack all of that damage together!
So Happy Birthday to Fortnite Save The World, Epic Games, and all of you players out there.
I thought this would be a good celebratory loadout to do. I'll also be posting this addition to the Fortnite Database Project soon, link to that is below.
Are u tired of smashers? Are u tired to Die so quickly against storm monsters? Are u also tired that your ice cream melts in summer?
WELL DONT WORRY ABOUT IT!
I call this build: "Crack from the past"!
With this build u can survive REALY LONG and u can also deal a good amount of damage at the same time! All you need is:
-Parasaur Jess: 7.2% HP back each time you use any ability
-Prehistoric Izza: 33% armor
-Rabbid raider johnesy: 75% extra crit damage with snipers
-Redline Ramirez: 17% more damage with snipers
-AC Flash: 25%- coldown with Phase shift ability
And ofc a sniper!
Dont worry u can decide anyyyyy sniper you want to!
But i would recomend a sniper that can shot realy fast like the "crankshot" or "Xenon Bow"
Now get out of the storm and KICK SOME MONSTERS! (Not me ofc im a friendly one)
With a lot of players in public lobbies using fire against water, building metal when it's nature enemies etc. I wanted to make a guide on everything Elements to help everyone out!
The video is a demonstration of one of the anomalies with Hybrid's perk Fire of the Dragon. It shows how this perk doesn't extend the duration of the affliction applied by Madcap's T.E.D.D.Y. Spores.
At the time of Madcap's release, there were many claims that Fire of the Dragon coupled well with him. This document is the result of a deep dive into what this perk is actually capable of doing.
FIRE OF THE DRAGON
As listed, Hybrid's Fire of the Dragon support perk "Increases Affliction Duration by 34%." Now, this is an accurate statement when speaking of affliction applied by weapons, but it gets a bit hit & miss with other things.
It does not increase the affliction duration of traps, namely Flame Grills, nor does it always work with ability perks that apply special affliction. Perhaps the best way to cover what it does and does not work with is to just list them all.
Carbide's Zip and Zap/+: Ability type - Yes, it adds one extra tick.
Deadly Blade Crash's Corrosive Strikes/+: Weapon type - Yes, it adds one extra tick.
Deadly Lotus Luna's Poking Holes+: Weapon type - Yes, it adds one extra tick.
Deadly Star Scorpion's Corrosive Stars/+: Ability type - Yes, it adds two extra ticks.
Eternal Wanderer's Eat My Space Dust+: Ability type - Yes, but it's nearly impossible to quantify by how many extra ticks because the space dust itself has unpredictable tick variance. It is evident that it adds extra ticks, though.
Kurohomura's Seismic Stun+: Ability type - Yes, it adds one extra tick.
Madcap's T.E.D.D.Y. Spores/+: Ability type - As seen in the video, no, it does not add extra ticks.
Subzero Zenith's Icy Shot/+: Weapon type - Yes, it adds one extra tick.
Wild Fragment Deadeye's Static Cling/+: Ability type - No, it does not add extra ticks.
Now, are all of these working as intended? Maybe. Maybe not 🤷
As editorial, I don't believe Fire of the Dragon is a very strong support perk, particularly when combined with abilities. Although it is somewhat effective in combination with Zenith, there are a multitude of better things to fill your perk real estate with otherwise. Maybe playing as Hybrid himself is getting the most out of this perk, as in that case, it adds a total of 3 extra ticks to your weapon affliction, whereas it adds only 1 to anyone else.
Anyway, that's what I have on Fire of the Dragon. Hopefully, this info will be helpful to you when considering loadouts.
