How to get the Recon Scanner in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2

Scan the battlefield.

Jon Yelenic
May 24, 2022
Fortnite Guides

Master Chief slides while holding the Recon Scanner weapon

Screenshot by DoubleXP

Where to find Recon Scanners in Fortnite

You can grab Recon Scanners from chests scattered throughout the island. Unlike the weapon’s previous appearance in Chapter 2, it’s no longer an exclusive drop from IO Chests; you can grab it from any chest out there. However, it does seem to have a rather slim drop rate, at least when compared to the Rail Gun.

In our time spent playing, we found the Recon Scanner inside chests located at both Tilted Towers and Greasy Grove. In both instances, however, we only found the weapon after opening several other chests, none of which contained the coveted scanner. If you want to grab a scanner right off the bat, we highly recommend dropping into an area with a lot of chests — such as The Daily Bugle — at the start of a match and then proceeding to loot chests until you find one.

Master Chief finds a Recon Scanner — Screenshot by DoubleXP

Alternatively, you could keep an eye out for any enemies that have a Recon Scanner. The scanner projectiles fired by the weapon are pretty distinct, as they project large fields of energy once they hit something. Given that there are limited-time quests available for this weapon, there’s a very high likelihood that whoever snags one in your game will be seeking to use it as much as possible — you can then identify and eliminate them to steal the scanner.

Recon Scanner quests in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2

List of Fortnite quests, description of Recon Scanner quests provided in paragraphs below — Screenshot by DoubleXP

As the name implies, the Recon Scanner is not a high-damage weapon; its primary purpose is reconnaissance. When you fire it at a surface, it will project an energy field that automatically marks enemies, chests, or other objects of interest in its field. Appropriately, its limited-time quests are built around this unique feature.

There are two quests involving the Recon Scanner. One of these asks you to deal a total of 500 damage to enemies after scanning them with the weapon, which will net you a nice 25,000 XP. The other is a multi-stage quest also worth 25,000 XP that asks you to mark enemy players using the Recon Scanner. If you have a quality offensive weapon on-hand, you might be able to knock both of these out at once. Remember to act fast, however, as the quests will disappear on May 31.