Season 5, week 15 of Fortnite is underway, giving us one last batch of challenges before the new season arrives on March 16. Most of this week’s challenges involve talking to various NPCs around the map, which you should be familiar with if you’ve played throughout the past few months. However, there are some challenges that require you to burrow through sand, and if you tend to stick to the areas outside of Salty Towers and Colossal Coliseum, you might not be aware of how the mechanic works.
One of the more skill-dependent challenges of the week is for spending five seconds within 20 meters of enemies while sand tunneling. This is tough because finding an enemy player who is unaware of your presence isn’t guaranteed. But luckily, we’ll share everything you’ll need to know about completing this challenge with ease. Here’s how to spend five seconds within 20 meters of enemies while sand tunneling in Fortnite.
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How to spend five seconds within 20 meters of enemies while sand tunneling
Before being able to tackle this challenge, you do need to complete its prerequisite — stage 1 — first. Stage 1 is for simply tunneling through the sand for 500 meters. This stat is tracked cumulatively, meaning you don’t have to do it in one match (but completing it in one match is simple enough). Once you’ve finished it, you can go for stage 2.
The biggest hurdle to overcome with stage 2 is that there’s a bit of luck involved. To increase your chances of getting it done, we advise you attempt this in a Team Rumble match (currently referred to as Team Rumble: Solid Gold). Then, you should land around Salty Towers and allow yourself to sink into the sand. Typically, at least one enemy team will land in this area. So sit tight and wait until a team comes by. With a little luck, you’ll run by an entire squad of four, which will put you much closer to completing the challenge.
The idea with this one is to get close enough to your enemies without them seeing you. With this, there isn’t a whole lot you can do to avoid being seen, but you might have a better chance if you catch your opponents fighting another team. That’s how we were able to finish this challenge in one match. We basically crept up to a squad of four who were battling it out against another team up close, so when we burrowed our way toward them, we ended up completing the challenge within 10 seconds or so due to the number of enemies nearby.
It’s worth mentioning that after five seconds, an enemy spotted us while burrowing, so we then moved away as quickly as possible. Depending on where the team is looking, you might be able to move very slowly to get close enough, but there are lots of variables that could impact this. You should have a good idea of whether the team can see you underground, so pay attention to the closest opponent and be prepared to move if they spot you. A lot of times, simply sitting still will work wonders. In other cases, you’ll want to move away quickly to avoid being taken out if they have their sights on you.
One thing to note is that you might have better luck with this one after the first circle closes. Typically, the portion of the match that takes place within the first circle is the slowest since the teams are more spread out. That’s why it’s best to wait until the map is smaller, so the teams are more condensed — giving you ample opportunities to come across players. When we completed this challenge, the next circle was on the opposite side of Salty Towers, so we waited on that side, and sure enough, an entire squad came past us to get to safety. Again, there’s some luck involved, but you should have a better chance if you attempt this in Team Rumble, as you’ll be able to respawn if you die.
Sometimes, the next circle is nowhere near the sand. That’s okay. If this happens, do as we did, and position yourself in the sand between a high-traffic area and where the next circle will be. This way, you might have a chance of coming across a team that’s making its way to safety. Better yet is if the inner circle takes place within the sandy areas. That would be the best-case scenario, though it might not always work out that way.
Either way, upon completion, you’ll earn 40,000 XP for your hard work.
