Here’s how to open Fortnite llamas a whole three seconds faster

One of the thing in Fortnite that’s guaranteed to make your heart sing with joy is the sight of a purple llama on the horizon. Those mauve mammals (fake ones made out of cardboard, like a pinata...or so I hope) are filled with building resources, weapons, ammo, and healing gubbins that no player would turn their nose up at. Opening them can take quite a while though, so we’ve tested out various methods to bring you the quickest way to open the lavender llamas faster. 

TL; DR: Use a pickaxe. Holding down a button to open them - which changes depending on what you’re playing Fortnite on, obviously - takes six seconds. Switch to a pickaxe, however, and you can crack the ungulate (a hoofed mammal, there’s some learnin’ for you) in three seconds, letting you get your mitts on that loot even faster. Shooting it with a gun takes even less time - 1.5 seconds, to be precise - but makes a lot more noise and will probably alert nearby players to your location. Unless you have a silenced weapon, that is. If you don’t, and you’re already being hounded by them, I would heartily recommend keeping your firearm holstered. 

Blowing a llama up with a grenade and then going to collect the loot scattered around is the most time-guzzling option, as it takes about eight seconds in all. Don’t cut down a tree in hopes of making the llama nestled in its leaves fall down, either: once the tree is no more, the mammal will stay hovering in the air so you’ll have to build your way up to it using those wood resources you just gathered. Not particularly efficient. Have you got a secret way to open llamas faster? Let us know in the comments below!

Zoe Delahunty-Light

While here at GamesRadar, Zoe was a features writer and video presenter for us. She's since flown the coop and gone on to work at Eurogamer where she's a video producer, and also runs her own Twitch and YouTube channels. She specialises in huge open-world games, true crime, and lore deep-dives.