When you're not exploring the wilderness and collecting items in LEGO Fortnite, you're probably building something. You can build entirely for pleasure, if you want, but LEGO Fortnite also encourages its players to build villages - and if you want a village, you'll need people to live in it.
This guide will help you recruit new villagers for your villages in LEGO Fortnite. The process is pretty straightforward, though you'll have to put in some legwork before anyone will agree to stay in your village.
Step 1: Create a Village
Before you can invite anyone to stay in your village you need a village in the first place. To accomplish this you'll need to run around and grab some Wood and Granite. This will allow you to construct a Simple Shack and a Crafting Bench. Put the Crafting bench inside the Shack. This unlocks several more Recipes, including the Village Square.
A Village Square costs 10 Wood and 10 Granite. Gather the materials you need and create one in the middle of the area you want to use as your village. Choose your location carefully, as you'll need to build around this spot from now on.
Step 2: Wait
Once you have a Village Square in place it is just a matter of time before someone new shows up to populate your village. The character who appears will be random, though they will stand out from anyone already living there. Run up and say hi. The character will express interest in finding a place to live... though they probably won't commit to staying in your village just yet.
Step 3: Upgrade your Village
In order to welcome a traveler into your village you'll need an empty population slot. Inspect your Village Square and you'll see the Village Hub screen. On the left side of the screen are five locked slots, each of which can be filled with a character.
To unlock these slots you'll need to upgrade your village. The second tab on the Village Square menu is Upgrade Village, and here you can allocate resources to expanding the scope and capabilities of your village. On the left are the required materials for expanding your village, and on the right are the rewards your village receives for going up a level.
You can add new villagers to your village at levels 1, 3, 5, 8, and 10. You can only add five villagers per village.
Step 4: Create Shelter and a Bed
Great! You now have an open slot for your new villager. Now all you need is somewhere for them to sleep. For this you need to fulfill two more requirements:
- Create some shelter. It doesn't need to be fancy - even a Simple Shack will do - you just need somewhere with a roof. Get building!
- Create a Bed. Beds cost 10 Wood in their simplest form. You'll find Beds under the Furniture tab in the Build menu.
Place the Bed inside your new shelter. Voila, you're ready for a new friend.
Step 5: Invite the Newcomer
The traveler who showed up will remain at your village for a while until you're ready to invite them into the fold. Speak to the character, then choose 'Live in my village!' to add them to the population. All done! You now have another villager.
It's important to note that travelers won't stay in your village for too long. If you wait for a day or two without inviting a traveler they will decide to move on. In this way you can decide for yourself whether or not you want to invite a particular character in your village. (Though you may want to have a bed set up and ready in advance, in case someone you like shows up.) Different, rarer travelers will show up once your village reaches level 5.
Villager Abilities
In addition to just adding liveliness to your village, your villagers can perform a series of tasks for you. They are as follows:
- Villagers will automatically defend the village from any monsters that try to invade. They're pretty good at it, too. At levels 1 and 5 your villagers will gain bonuses to their health, making them stronger fighters.
- If you speak to your villagers you can ask them to explore. This will attach them to your character, and they will roam the lands with you, helping you fight enemies. Always good to have a bodyguard. Speak to the character again to dismiss them back to the village.
- At level 2 you can ask your villagers to forage for Wood and Granite, as well as refine those materials into other items at a crafting table.
- At level 3 villagers will give you items. Speak to them to receive the item.
- At level 4 you can ask villagers to cook, extract seeds, or tend to dirt plots. Basically work on your food stores. At this level any villagers assigned to woodcutting will also produce different types of Wood.
- At level 6 you can ask your villagers to smelt metal, refine textiles, and collect gems. Any villagers assigned to stonecutting will also produce different types of Granite.
- At level 7 villagers' gifts will start to include Recipes, for building new items.
- At level 9 you can ask villagers to head off to different biomes to scavenge items, rather than staying close to the village.