Fortnite Treasure Hunters Sprites: every ability, the best picks and how to level them

Sprites are the companions that ride along and hand you a passive bonus, and Fortnite has gone a bit overboard with them this season. There are 13 base ones, Fortune and Cursed copies of most of them, and Gold versions coming on November 12. Pick badly and you spend a whole match with a Sprite that does nothing for how you actually play.

None of it is hard, but the game explains almost nothing about keeping a Sprite once you’ve got one, and most people find that out by losing a good one.

All Treasure Hunters Sprites and what they do

Every Sprite levels from 1 to 5. The one you’ve equipped is the only one that works and the only one that gains XP, so the table below is really a list of what you’re choosing between.

Plundarrgh and Sweet Dreams are the two Mythics, so they’re the ones everyone is chasing. Sweet Dreams has the stranger deal. It keeps handing you items as it levels and finishes with Mythic loot, which is a decent payment for looking after it.

Fortune, Cursed and Gold Sprites

Most Sprites come in extra versions that carry the base ability over and tack on a second effect. Fortune shows you nearby chests, which is what you want while you’re hunting loot. Cursed improves your odds on rare Sprite variants and makes water damage you. Gold, back on November 12, boosts the XP your Sprite earns from eliminations.

Eleven Sprites have Fortune and Cursed versions. Transponder Snail and Sweet Dreams are the two that don’t. The Cursed versions come with the November 7 Captain’s Day update. Lil’ Uzi Vert Jr., the newest Sprite on the list, arrives alongside that Captain’s Day.

Which Sprite to equip

If you fight a lot, Re-Pete. Faster reloads and the odd bullet handed back is the one effect that helps in every gunfight, and it doesn’t need a river or a chest nearby.

Chester is my pick for general looting. You get extra items out of chests and the fall damage disappears, which is nice after a cannon launch.

For the Pirate Shop token hunt, put any Fortune Sprite in the slot. Seeing chests through the scenery matters more than whatever the base ability is, and every chest is another roll at the token.

Plundarrgh is the one I’d most like to own. A speed boost every time you open a chest keeps you moving between them, but it’s a Mythic so you’re waiting on luck.

Exmarks and Wayfinder are collector Sprites. Exmarks finds Wanted Posters and Treasure Maps, Wayfinder finds other Sprites and squeezes more out of buried chests. They’re great in a match built around finding Sprites and not much use in a fight.

Sweet Dreams has the highest ceiling if you can get it to level 5. Barry O’Fish and Kelper only earn their slot when your route has water in it.

How to get Sprites

Rip a Wanted Poster off a wall and it turns into a Sprite Treasure Map pointing at a buried Sprite Chest, which you dig out with your pickaxe to collect the Sprite inside. That’s the reliable route.

The other routes come down to luck. Any chest you open can drop a Sprite now and then. A Lucky Locator from the Mastery rewards can point you at buried Sprite Chests with no map needed. If you want to open more chests per match, where you land decides how many you pass.

Extract a Sprite before you die

A Sprite only counts once you’ve extracted it. Get eliminated or leave the match first and it’s gone, which is a miserable way to lose a Mythic.

There are three ways to bank one. Walk it to an Extraction Site and summon a crate, use a Portable Extractor wherever you happen to be, or win the match, which counts too. Each extraction pays at least 500 Sprite Dust.

Levelling and mastering Sprites

A Sprite gains XP while it’s equipped. Opening containers, downing and eliminating players and extracting all feed it.

You master a Sprite by getting it to level 5 and extracting it. Mastery Monday speeds that up a lot. It starts at 9 AM ET each week and gives you double Sprite XP and double Sprite Dust for the whole day.

Every mastered Sprite pushes the Mastery track forward, and you’ll find it on the Treasure tab in the lobby. A fresh page of rewards unlocks each week (Lucky Locators, Golden Fireworks and a few more gizmos), and the Strongbox back bling gets an upgrade as you progress. Master 40 Sprites and you get the Navigator’s Nosedive Umbrella, which is a hell of a lot to ask from a roster with 13 base Sprites.

Equip something that fits how you play, don’t die before you reach the crate, and let Monday do the levelling.