Epic Games confuses fans by unexpectedly removing a key feature that had been in Fortnite Battle Royale since its launch.
The long-awaited v29.20 patch brought tons of content to Fortnite, but many fans were taken aback when they found out that Epic Games had removed cosmetic items’ rarity system. Before the Battle Royale game mode was released, Fortnite only consisted of Save the World. The tier system which was then implemented in Fortnite Battle Royale stemmed from the original rarities in Save the World.
There are item rarities in Fortnite as well as cosmetic rarities. Both share Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary as rarities. However, items can be considered Common, Exotic, and Mythic as well. On top of this, certain cosmetics don’t have the typical rarities, as they are part of a cosmetic series instead, such as the Gaming Legends Series, the Marvel Series, or the Slurp Series for example; these classifications are designed for cosmetics that are part of exclusive collaborations or that fall under a certain theme.
The tier system has been part of Fortnite since its debut in 2017, but that is no longer the case as of April 9, 2024. Update v29.20 added tons of content to Fortnite, such as the anticipated Avatar: The Last Airbender skins, but it also removed cosmetic color rarities from the locker and Item Shop. This means that gamers won’t be able to classify skins as Epic or Legendary anymore. The only tags that remained in the game were those associated with cosmetic series.
Fortnite has made a comment about the state of the locker!
— FNBRintel (@FNBRintel) April 9, 2024
"The Shop has evolved significantly to support multiple types of cosmetics and items across games, so we’re retiring the old Battle Royale-inspired system of colors and tags for cosmetic quality." pic.twitter.com/0jv6pLUvlB
Vaulted Fortnite Cosmetic Rarity Tags
- Uncommon
- Rare
- Epic
- Legendary
Remaining Cosmetic Tags
- Dark Series
- DC Series
- Icon Series
- Frozen Series
- Gaming Legends Series
- Lava Series
- Marvel Series
- Shadow Series
- Slurp Series
- Star Wars Series
Many players were not happy with this change, as it makes it significantly more difficult to filter through items in the Fortnite locker and find a cosmetic in particular. On top of this, it also becomes harder to identify how much a cosmetic costs based on its color rarity. Before, it was simple. For example, 2,000 V-Bucks for a Legendary/Yellow skin, and 800 V-Bucks for an Uncommon/Green skin. This way, seeing as there’s no way to rate a skin’s rarity, prices fluctuate a lot more despite the cosmetics’ simplicity or complexity.
This isn’t the first change that Epic Games has made to the locker that was not well-received by the community. In early December 2023, Epic removed rarity backgrounds from Fortnite, and fans were extremely displeased with this change to the locker UI. In retrospect, it’s possible that this could’ve been preparation for the overall removal of cosmetic rarities.
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By ASHELY CLAUDINO 9 April 2024
