Since Fortnite’s launch in 2017, its free-to-play climb to prominence has made waves among the gaming community. Giving the game away made it one of the most popular games across platforms and gave rise to a new marketplace in the Fortnite Item Shop. While vehicle paint jobs, pickaxe styles, and gliders are always fan favorites, no items are as sought after as character skins.
Epic Games has occasionally had to remove a few different skins from Fortnite for a few different reasons, including competitive advantages, international laws, and even real-life controversy. Whatever the motivation, gamers always notice when skins aren’t in the Fortnite Item Shop any longer, making them even more valuable.
Boundless Super Hero Skin
Introduced in 2020, the Boundless Super Hero skins allowed Fortnite players to have full customizability of the character’s appearance. With full control from head to toe, the Boundless skins allowed players to put their own personal touch on the Fortnite experience. Unfortunately, gamers quickly took advantage of the unique skin.
To gain a competitive advantage, some players would edit the skin to be entirely a single color, typically black or green. Doing so allowed them to blend in with the background and made the characters nearly impossible to see. It became such a distinct advantage that Epic Games completely banned the skin from competitive play, though it was still allowed in casual matches. If players tried to use the skin in competition, it would drop them into the match with the default red and white color scheme. Epic eventually unbanned the skin from competitive games, but the all-black variation was never restored.
Travis Scott Skin
While this skin hasn’t been officially banned, the Travis Scott skin has been slowly phased out of the Item Shop. Players who already own the skin are still able to equip it, but it likely won’t be made available for purchase again. The skin was initially added as part of Fortnite’s Icon Series, a collection making the biggest celebrities and content creators available as in-game characters, including Ninja, LoserFruit, Neymar, Ariana Grande, and LeBron James.
Travis Scott has been the subject of much real-life controversy recently. In late 2021, eight people died during his Astroworld tour in Texas. Scott received a fair amount of criticism for not stopping the concert during the incident and putting fans in an unsafe situation. Immediately following the tragedy, Fortnite removed a custom Travis Scott emote. This looks to be the next step for Epic Games as it further distances itself from the rapper.
Skins Banned in China
Due to strict laws forbidding skulls from schools and school-aged children, several skins have been banned in China as well. Some skins are completely unavailable, while others have had the appearance altered slightly from their international counterparts. Either way, gamers in China will notice that their Fortnite experience may be a little different from their peers.
The biggest missing skin is Fortnite’s Skull Trooper and Skull Ranger. Introduced in Season 1 as one of the first custom skins, Skull Trooper and Skull Ranger have several styles as part of the Skull Squad set. The skins typically are available in the Item Shop around Halloween each year, but with a skeleton design, they are completely banned in China.
Oro and Orelia, the male and female versions of each other, are two more of the best skins in Fortnite. These two Legendary skins that released in early 2020 as part of the Midas storyline. The skins’ unique look of flashy gold and undead spookiness has made them popular among players, but these were once again struck down by China with their golden skull faces.
The Eternal Voyager skin, on the other hand, had its look changed to allow players in China to get their hands on it. Released in August 2019 as a variation on the Space Explorer set, Epic Games found it easier to change the skin’s face slightly. In the rest of the world, Eternal Voyager features a person in a leather jacket with a flaming skull for a head, reminiscent of Ghost Rider in Marvel’s Midnight Suns. The Chinese version replaced the skull with a flaming mask and got the stamp of approval.
Fortnite is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.