174 articlesSurvive the Horde in Fornite drops you onto a volcanic island with no pickaxe farming, limited supplies, and wave after wave of husks coming straight for your bases. You are not gathering resources the normal way here. Everything you get comes from Supply Drops that arrive between waves, which means how you build, what you craft, and how fast you move between bases matters a lot more than it usually does.
There are three bases to defend out of four possible locations, and they are randomly selected each run. The waves get harder as you go, the time between them gets shorter, and the final wave throws everything at you including Smashers, Flingers, and Mini-Bosses all at once. If you are jumping in without a plan, it is going to feel overwhelming fast. In this guide, I will cover everything you need to know to get through it.
Complete Guide For Survive The Horde
Let’s first talk about the rewards. For surviving all 15 waves, you get a hero called Hotwire. He is a Constructor whose perk lets his hammer strike chain lightning to nearby enemies while in Goin’ Constructor.
For clearing 15 waves with the weekly challenges active, which are the modifiers that rotate each week and add extra difficulty, you get Flutter. She is also a Constructor. Her perk summons wisps that orbit you and deal damage when you get eliminations with Plasma Pulse. You can unlock both heroes together as well by completing 15 waves once with weekly challenges.
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In Survive The Horde mode, you defend three resource bases out of four possible locations: Mine, Cavern, Depot, and Volcano. The mission picks which three at the start, so you do not know what you are defending until you load in. If a base falls, you get fewer Supply Drops between waves. Lose all three and the mission fails. If a teammate goes down, you only have a short window to revive them. If the whole team goes down, the run is over.
There are 15 waves total. Eleven of them are mainly composed of Husks, with the number you need to kill going up each wave. Three of them require you to find and destroy multiple Pillars that spawn around the base. As the waves go on, the time between them gets shorter, so you have to move fast. The final wave lasts five minutes and the storm throws everything at you: Smashers, Flingers, Lobbers, Sploders, and Mini‑Bosses all at once.
Resources
In this mode, you cannot farm resources with your pickaxe. The only way to get materials is through Supply Drops that arrive between waves. Only one person needs to open the supply drop, and everyone on the team automatically gets the resources added to their inventory.
Metal and brick are going to be very short. I recommend saving them strictly for protecting the objectives and not wasting them on random builds or unnecessary ramps.
Team Roles
To make this efficient, it is wise to divide your team into specific roles. You want a looter whose main job is grabbing Supply Drops as soon as they land. This player needs to be fast and aware of where the drops are coming down. When they are not running to collect supplies, they can still help with attacking husks, but their priority is making sure the team does not miss any resources.
Next, you want a builder whose main job is focusing on defenses around the bases and setting up traps. This is usually someone playing a Constructor with perks that reduce building cost, increase trap damage, or give you back materials. Having one dedicated builder keeps everything organized and prevents people from wasting materials on overlapping or messy builds.
Then you want your main damage dealer, the attacker. This player should be running a strong offensive loadout, usually a Soldier or an Outlander with high single‑target damage for Smashers and Mini‑Bosses. Their job is to stay on the front line and take down the big threats before they tear through your walls.
The last player can be either another attacker or a second builder. Defending three bases gets hectic, especially in the later waves, and having a second person helping with builds and repairs can make a huge difference. If you go with two builders, the looters and attackers can focus entirely on kills and supply runs.
Best Weapons
For weapons, I recommend sticking with the Vacuum Tube for crowd control. For dealing with mini‑bosses and Smashers, you want something that hits hard. The Storm King’s Wrath does massive burst damage if you have one.
The Potshot is another great option, especially if you are running a Soldier with launcher perks. The Black Drum also puts out high single‑target damage and works well if you are up close.
If the attacker on your team is running a shotgun build, the Ground Pounder is a solid choice too. It has good fire rate and consistent damage, and it lets them stay mobile while taking down big threats.
Easiest Way to get the Rewards
If your main goal is to unlock both heroes, I suggest finding and joining a lower power level team, something like around 40. The mode gets significantly easier at those levels because the final waves will not scale up to the insane enemy levels you see in higher power levels.
A Good Strategy to Play
One strategy that works well is recognizing when a base is not worth defending. If one of the bases is positioned poorly or just too hard to keep up, you can let it go and shift your resources to protecting the other two. Losing one base means fewer Supply Drops, but that is a small price to pay compared to splitting your team and materials three ways and watching all three fall. You save time, traps, and a lot of frustration by focusing on the bases you can actually hold.
However, I would not recommend dropping down to only one base. When you are down to a single base, the Supply Drop penalty becomes severe, and you have zero margin for error. One mistake, one wave that spawns a Smasher right on top of your walls, and the run is over. With two bases, you still have a backup if one gets overrun, and the resource income stays manageable.
An effective way to deal with large groups of enemies is to funnel them into a small area leading to your traps. You can build walls to block off paths the husks would normally take, forcing them to walk through a single choke point where your traps are waiting. And when you are setting up traps, it helps to use different types so you do not run out of a single resource too fast.
Wrapping Up
That is pretty much everything you need to know to get through Survive the Horde. The mode punishes you if you go in blind, but with a clear plan, proper team roles, and a smart strategy for resources and defenses, the 15 waves are very doable. Focus on keeping two bases alive, funnel husks into traps, and make sure someone is always grabbing those Supply Drops.
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