How the Shoulder Ride Works

Fortnite hides a full-on piggyback feature in plain sight, and Chapter 7, Season 2 suddenly makes it mandatory. One of Hope and The Order’s story tasks asks you to “ride on a player’s shoulders to gather intel on their movements,” which sounds goofy until you try to find the option. It’s not an emote—at least not in the usual sense—and most players have never triggered it before.

This interaction lives inside the game’s Social Interactions menu, accessed through the emote wheel. Crucially, you must be the rider for the quest to count. That means a teammate has to offer the Shoulder Ride, and you accept it. Doing the lifting won’t tick the objective.

Step-by-Step: Start the Shoulder Ride

First, queue into any mode with two or more players. Duos and Squads both work. Solos won’t, since you need another person to carry you. If you’re trying to knock this out quickly, party up with friends so you can coordinate.

Land on the main island before you do anything. The pre-match lobby area might let you trigger the prompt, but it won’t register for the mission. Touch down, regroup with your team, and then set it up.

Have a teammate initiate the offer. They should hold their emote button to open the wheel, switch to the “Social Interactions” page, and select the “Shoulder Ride” action. When they do, they’ll start gesturing and a blue arrow will appear over their head, signaling they’re ready to carry.

Walk up to that teammate and accept the prompt. You’ll see a button next to “Shoulder Ride.” Press it and you’ll hop onto their back. The objective completes as soon as you’re aboard—no need to travel a certain distance or wait for a timer.

Tips for Squads and Randoms

Communication helps a lot. In a pre-made party, just ask someone to fire off the “Shoulder Ride” from the Social Interactions page and stand still while you accept it. If you’re matchmaking with randoms, ping yourself or a nearby safe spot, crouch-spam to get attention, and type a quick note like “Need Shoulder Ride” in party chat. It’s clumsy, but you’ll usually find one person willing to help between fights.

Stay close to teammates when you land. The window between early looting and the first engagement is the cleanest time to pull this off. If the circle’s hot or you’re under fire, relocate to cover first. You don’t have to carry for any length of time; a successful mount is enough to log progress.

Remember the role requirement. For this specific story beat, you must be the passenger. If you accidentally initiate the carry yourself, it won’t count. Ask a teammate to offer again, then you accept.

Pay attention to visual cues. The “glowing blue arrow” and the back-gesture animation mean the offer is live. If you don’t see that arrow, your teammate likely opened the wrong wheel page or canceled the action. Have them retry via “Social Interactions,” not a standard emote.

What to Do After You Complete It

Once your objective pops, return the favor. Trigger a “Shoulder Ride” yourself so squadmates can hop on and clear the same mission. Cycling everyone through takes less than a minute and saves repeat matchmaking.

With the piggyback out of the way, you can focus on the rest of the Chapter 7, Season 2 checklist for Hope and The Order. That includes tasks like “decrypting a recording from The Imagined at a holotable,” finding “The Foundation’s lost helmet and cape,” collecting all “Chaos Cubes,” and using the “Jam Track Player.” None of those require the Social Interactions menu, but this quest is a good reminder that Epic’s tucking more story progress behind low-key features.

This mission looks bizarre on paper, yet it’s simple when you know where to look: emote wheel, Social Interactions, “Shoulder Ride,” then accept. Expect more objectives to lean on the same menu as Chapter 7 rolls on. Learn its layout now and you’ll shave minutes off future story beats, whether you’re speedrunning challenges or just trying to get back to the firefight.