Fortnite Love and War challenges guide: How to play Search and Destroy

Epic Games is celebrating Valentine’s Day in Fortnite with a new event, the first of its kind in 2020. The Love and War limited-time event is underway, letting players experience a game mode crafted by players in the community that brings new challenges to take on and rewards to earn.

Fortnite Love and War challenges list

There are a total of 12 challenges available in Love and War that will run for almost two weeks until February 17. Like the Winterfest event in December, various objectives will release each day. The full list of what’s to come follows below:

• Play five Search and Destroy matches: Completing gives metal mask spray
• Plant or defuse two bombs in Search and Destroy games: Unlocks 15,000 experience
• Place in the top 15 in five duos or squads matches with a friend: Thorny love spray
• Purchase five items from vending machines in Search and Destroy: 15,000 experience
• Heal teammates for 100 health with a bandage bazooka: Beacon trance wrap
• Eliminate five opponents in Search and Destroy: 15,000 experience
• Eliminate or revive three players in a single match: “I Declare!” Emote
• Earn 2,500 gold in Search and Destroy: 15,000 experience
• Thank the bus driver in seven different games: Visions of love loading screen
• Purchase a common item from the vending machine: Visions of war loading screen
• Deal 1,000 damage to opponents: War banner
• Gain 500 health or shields: Love banner

Now, here’s how to complete all 12 objectives:

How to play Search and Destroy

Search and Destroy is a new game mode that is available for the duration of Love and War. The community-created event mirrors the similarly-named gameplay feature in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare where two teams of six take turns as the attacking and defending teams.

The attacker’s job is to plant the bomb at the designated site and blow it up while the defenders try to prevent this from happening. Both teams can also claim victory by eliminating all opponents since players only have one life.

The first challenge in Love and War is a simple one: Play five matches of Search and Destroy. You can find it under the current match options in the battle royale lobby.

Plant and defuse bombs in Search and Destroy

The second objective is to plant and defuse at least two bombs in the Search and Destroy mode. Either will work for this challenge, so it just depends on what team you find yourself are on. There are two bomb sites in each round. If you are the attacker, you need to head to one of these spots and arm it.

As a defender, you need to wait until a bomb is planted to interact with and disarm it. Be careful, though, doing so will leave you vulnerable for several seconds. This is a three-stage task with each stage adding more bombs that you need to plant or defuse, so this will take several matches to complete.

Place in the top 15

For this mission, you need to place in the top 15 in five duo or squad matches with a friend, meaning you’ll need to add someone as a friend and play with them for this to count. You can get to the top 15 easily by avoiding popular areas and named locations.

Purchase items from vending machines

Two challenges require buying items from vending machines. One is a three-part objective that requires you to buy a common item, then a rarer one, and finally a legendary item. The other asks you to purchase five items in total.

Vending machines are found at the start of each round in Search and Destroy. You have a few seconds before the session begins to use up any gold you’ve earned from getting eliminations and the like to buy these items.

Heal teammates objective

One mission has players use the bandage bazooka item to heal teammates for 100 points. This can be done in any battle royale mode and across multiple matches. You can find the bandage bazooka in treasure chests. To use it, simply aim at teammates and “shoot” to heal them.

Eliminate five opponents challenge

In this challenge, you need to eliminate five opponents in Search and Destroy. It can only be this mode, but you can do it across several matches. If you have a hard time taking out enemies, we recommend sticking together as a team since you only have one life in each round.

Revive players mission

This task requires you to revive or eliminate three players in the same match. The match type doesn’t matter, so we recommend Team Rumble. You have respawns here and plenty of time to get three eliminations or revive fellow downed players.

How to earn gold

You need to earn 2,500 gold in Search and Destroy. Gold is used to spend toward weapons at the start of each round and can be obtained by planting the bomb, defusing it, and eliminating enemies. It is possible to get around 100 gold or so per round if your team wins it. With up to 11 rounds per match, you can finish this in just a few full matches.

How to thank the bus driver

You can thank the bus driver only while you are still in the battle bus at the start of a match. For this, you need to do it in seven different matches. Here are the various inputs for all platforms:

• Mobile: Emote button in the top right corner of the screen
• Console: Press down on the D-Pad
• PC: B key by default

Deal damage challenge

You need to deal 1,000 total damage to enemy players. The game type doesn’t matter in this, so your best option is Team Rumble. For inflicting the most damage, we recommend explosives like rocket launchers or the motorboat’s cannon. Getting to 1,000 is a lot, equal to around five players with full health and shields, so you can do this across more than one match.

How to gain health or shields

The final challenge in the Love and War event is to gain 500 health or shields. Like others on this list, you don’t have to complete this in a single match. Aim to get full shields in every match you do, and it will only take five matches to complete this.