Fortnite quietly drops 14 free skins but you have to act fast

Free Fortnite skins? In this economy? Believe it or not, it’s happening. Epic Games just added 14 new skins, breaking their usual “pay up” strategy.

Fortnite, a free-to-play game, thrives on cosmetic sales. Skins are its golden goose. Players typically get them from the Item Shop or through the Battle Pass – both of which require real or in-game currency.

Free skins are almost unheard of. But today, Epic broke tradition, handing out casual-style defaults at no cost.

Epic introduced these 14 skins as an alternative to the previous military-heavy defaults on March 25, 2024, with the Fortnite OG Season 3 update.

Fortnite is handing out a new set of default skins for free

For the first time, players can ditch the combat gear for something more relaxed. Maybe it’s a sign of the rumored no-weapons mode that Disney’s CEO hinted at. Hard to imagine a princess battling a soldier.

Follow these steps to find them:

1. Open your locker.
2. Click the three dots. Select “Edit Styles.”
3. You’ll see your usual defaults, but there’s a new tab in the upper right – click it.

That said,we recommend you use them while you can. Epic has a history of snatching free skins and turning them into premium, high-rarity collectibles.

The original defaults were free once. Now they’re sold in bundles for 2,000 V-Bucks. No guarantee these casual defaults won’t follow the same fate.

Players, as expected, have opinions. Some are thrilled: “I love that you can crank as Claire Dunphy now.”

Others see the bigger picture: “Clearly prepping for a new ‘Casual Royale’ mode, and its obligatory ranked Zero Build version.”

A few note the significance: “First new defaults since the start of Chapter 3.”

But skepticism lingers: “Will they permanently stay though? Prior ones haven’t.”

And of course, someone had to mention Epic’s monetization strategy: “Epic doesn’t want a wide variety of default styles in fear it’ll hurt skin sales.”

Fortnite is at a crossroads. Player counts hit an all-time low before Fortnite OG’s season 3. Needless to say, the game needs momentum. More customization, more variety, and maybe – just maybe – more free skins could be the key to keeping players engaged.