Pets in Fortnite: Your complete guide

Pets coming to Fortnite have been rumored for a while now, and all our dreams have come true: You can now drop into battle with a puppy strapped onto your back. But do you want to? Are the implications of this act too disturbing to think about?

Nah, they’re cute enough that it’s worth risking their lives for your own selfish amusement. Let’s take a look at one of Fortnite’s newest features.

What are they?

The pets are back bling, and are unlocked and used like other backpacks or decorative items. The difference is that they’re alive, adorable and react to what’s going on around you. It looks like the poor little puppy is trying to hang on for dear life when you drop into battle, for starters.

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Your dog currently starts with the sort of orange color you see below, but you can also unlock a gray, black and brown look at tier 59 and tier 90, respectively.

How do you get them?

Bonesy the dog is unlocked at tier 12 of your battle pass, Camo the chameleon is unlocked at tier 29 and Scales the dragon is unlocked at tier 43.

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You put each animal on your back by selecting them as back bling.

How much do they cost?

There are only three pets that we know of so far, and they’re all included in the season six Battle Pass, which costs 950 V-Bucks. It would cost you 6,450 V-Bucks if you wanted to buy the necessary levels to unlock all of the pets instantly, as each level costs 150 V-Bucks.

You can also buy the Battle Pass and the first 25 levels for 2,800 V-Bucks, which would get you Bonesy right off the bat. As of this writing, you can earn all three just by buying the basic Battle Pass and playing the game, and there aren’t any other pets you can buy separately.

But if Epic Games likes money, we’re guessing more pets will be added to the game as cosmetic purchases, whether by themselves or as part of a set.

What do they do?

They look cute! That’s basically it. Epic Games doesn’t add cosmetics that impact the game — although we have a few questions we’ll get to later — so having pets that run around and bring you weapons or anything else would unbalance things.

They do react to what’s going on around them, though. The dog looks fierce when you look down the sights of your gun, and your pet will look worried if you get knocked down in a firefight.

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Getting knocked down with a pet just makes me feel bad.

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Why the heck would you take a chameleon into battle?

I have no idea. She clearly doesn’t want to be there.

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Does the Chameleon change color?

You bet she does.

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Is it possible for a chameleon to look fierce?

You tell me!

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What happens when you die?

This is kind of the big question because it seems horribly irresponsible to bring adorable creatures into battle with you. From the point of view of the player with the pet, however, it seems as they stick around for a few frames after you get eliminated, and then they disappear.

I have yet to see what this looks like when you kill someone with a pet, because the update has just come out, not many people have leveled their battle pass enough to unlock the animals — and I’m terrible at Fortnite.

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Is there any downside to wearing a pet?

Bonesy does bark and howl as you play matches, but I’ve confirmed with Epic that these noises can only be heard by you and other friendly players. Your pet will not give up your position, so there are no good or bad reasons to wear one or not. They’re purely an aesthetic choice.

An adorable aesthetic choice.

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