Fractone

Fractone
Artwork from Donkey Kong Bananza
First appearance	Donkey Kong Bananza (2025)
Latest appearance	Tetris 99 (48th Maximus Cup, cameo) (2025)
Variants Architectone Bloomintone Chiptone Constructone Fragment Fragmentone Glamtone Groovetone Growtone Hiddentone Securitone Seekertone Smashintone Stufftone Styletone Trustytone
Notable members Collectone Exploritone Iron Jailer Quiztone

Fractones are stone-like creatures native to the Underground World in Donkey Kong Bananza. They come in various shapes and materials and have large expressive eyes. While some maintain their form, others shapeshift as soon as Donkey Kong approaches them and revert back once he moves away. Donkey Kong can punch Fractones to partially or completely destroy their bodies. However, they do not react to this, and after a few seconds will return to their original state. He can also throw soft materials at them to add to their bodies.

Most Fractones are composed of Fractonium, a soft, crystalline material of different colors, usually a shade of azure blue. Fractones made of other materials also exist. Fractones appear in every layer of the Underground World; however, they are first encountered in the Hilltop Layer, as they are not present at the Ingot Isle Cave-In or Lagoon Layer until the post-game. Some Fractones mimic the appearance of animals on the layer they are found in, such as zebras and elephants. Other Fractones take the appearance of giraffes (in the Canyon Layer) and lions (in the Feast Layer), animals that no longer reside in the Underground World.

When talking, Fractones use nosism, and they refer to themselves and one another with plural they/them pronouns. Non-Fractones such as Poppy Kong and Pauline refer to individual Fractones with "it", however. Fractones also make vocalizations that adaptively harmonize with the background music in the area. Additionally, Fractones often speak in rhymes, and most are friendly to other characters; the Fractones in the Forbidden Layer are notably less friendly than others. The fractones that mimic animals also copy the speech mannerisms of those animals, such as the ones that look like zebras often ending sentences with "brah". The Fractones in the Planet Core have difficulty speaking.

One Fractone, the Exploritone, explored the Underground World in hopes of discovering the origin of the Fractones. It is implied they were created in the Planet Core by the Banandium Root, as the Exploritone's supposed gravestone refers to the root as "the Mother".

In Tetris 99, Fractones appear as the Tetriminos while the Donkey Kong Bananza theme is in use.

Profiles

• Nintendo Today! description

  • Character Intro: Fractones: Chipper rock creatures that have lived in the Underground World since ancient times. They'll regrow any part of their body, no matter how much they're fractured or smashed!

Gallery

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  Loading screen artwork

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  Screenshot of a regular Fractone

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  A Fractone shaped like a Salvager Monkey

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  A Fractone shaped like a giraffe

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  A Fractone shaped like a zebra

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  A Fractone shaped like an ostrich

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  A Fractone shaped like an elephant

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  A Fractone shaped like a snake

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  A Fractone shaped like a lion

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  Donkey Kong Bananza ending

Naming

The name "Fractone" is a portmanteau of "fractal" (a geometric shape with detailed structures at small scales) or "fracture" (referencing their breakability) and "stone" or "tone".

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ワレルヤの民たみ Wareruya no Tami	「ワレルヤ」is a portmanteau of「割われる」(wareru, "to break") and「屋や」(ya, a suffix to denote a personality trait), overall roughly meaning "breakable," while「民たみ」means "people/folk." Overall, the name literally means "the breakable folk," denoting a sense of plurality. Fractones use the pronoun「ワレワレ」(wareware) to refer to themselves, which is a pun on「我々われわれ」(wareware, plural first-person pronoun) and「割れる」, and is consistent with the plurality of「ワレルヤの民」.
Chinese	碎碎岩居民[?] Suìsuìyán Jūmín (Mandarin)	Fracture-Rock Inhabitant A direct translation of the Japanese name, without an explicit sense of plurality.
Dutch	Fractoon[?]	From fractuur ("fracture") and toon ("tone")
German	Frakton	Fractone
Italian	Frattale	Fractal
Spanish	Fractono	Fractone