Not available straight from the beginning of the game, the Collection book has some players scratching their heads about its functionality and why it’s worth playing around with at all.
Below we cover everything you need to know to access the Collection – and how to earn some nifty rewards along the way.
Just getting started? Be sure to check out our other Fortnite guides:
Map Exploration and Resource Gathering Guide Fortnite Class Guide Beginner’s Guide to Defending Storm Shields Fortnite Base Building Layout Guide Navigating the Skill Trees Understanding F. O. R. T. Stats and Using Squads V 1. 03 Bug Fixes
Fortnite Collection Book
Accessing The Fortnite Collection Book
Before you can even pull up the Collection book screen, you need to have earned at least 10 skill points (if you go straight for the Recycling And Collection Book skill and don’t take any detours).
This starting skill is available in the Tier 1 Skill Tree in the horizontal blue segment, just after the first Tech upgrade. You can’t automatically put anything in the Collection straight away, though, even after picking up that first skill to unlock the book.
More Collection retiring skills are required to let you recycle better cards of any given type. For instance, the Recycling And Retirement II skill lets you retire up to rare quality Schematics, Survivors, Defenders, and Heroes.
This one is also in Tier 1 and is found just to the right of the Unlock Survivor Squad: Scouting Party entry. To get here (without any detours) will require a minimum of 15 Skill Points.
Unlocking Recycling And Retirement II
Using The Fortnite Collection Book
Now that you’ve got the Collection book unlocked, what exactly does it do? It’s basically a scrap book of cards you’ve found through loot chests and reward llamas… but you have to give up those cards to add them to a book page.
That’s right – retiring an item to the Collection is permanent. You actually lose that card from you armory entirely and can no longer use that Hero, Schematic, Survivor, etc. If you give up a Trap, you won’t be able to build that Trap in a quest or on your Storm Shield base.
It’s usually a good idea to wait until you get a second instance of any particular card through a loot llama, but if you find you never use a particular Hero or Trap, then go ahead and retire it to the Collection because there are significant rewards for filling up pages of the book.
Retiring Heroes (over any other type of card) levels up your Collection the fastest, but more rare cards of any type will offer faster leveling than less rare cards, as does retiring cards that are higher level.
In fact, you may notice that if you click Inspect Collection Item, the Level Up and View Evolution commands remain in place for retired cards just like with any other card. You can continue to level up cards after you retire them, and this does give you a boost to your Collection experience.
Getting rewards for leveling the Collection
Collection Book Rewards
Every time the Collection book hits a new level, you receive rewards just like you had completed a quest. Leveling up the Collection frequently gives rare materials you need for evolving cards, like Drops of Rain, Lightning in a Bottle, or Training Manuals. You can also earn Skill Points, which makes leveling the Collection a very lucrative option.
Unlike the randomized loot chests and reward llamas, the Collection book level rewards appear to be the same for everyone at each level (although since the game is in Early Access, these may change over time). The current reward load out is as follows:
What’s the highest level and rarity of card you’ve had the courage to retire yet, and did you get any different rewards for leveling the Collection book? Let us know in the comments section below!
