These skins are the rarest skins Fortnite has to offer.
Over the course of several seasons, numerous changes and tweaks, and four chapters, Fortnite has seen its fair share of skins come and go. Some Fortnite skins are fairly easy to come by, but others are so rare you might only ever see them once or twice in all your time with Fortnite Battle Royale. Only so many skins can be in the shop, so naturally, some rare skins never see the light of day after their initial debut, making them incredibly rare. Some exclusive skins weren’t even available for purchase via conventional means, instead only being given to those who bought physical products or console bundles.
These following skins are some of the rarest skins in Fortnite.
Skull Trooper (Purple Glow)
The Skull Trooper skin is probably the first skin that comes to mind for a lot of people when they think of rare Fortnite skins. This elusive skin first appeared in Fortnite’s item shop in October 2017, just when Fortnite was beginning its meteoric rise to the top of the battle royale scene.While Skull Trooper now reappears every Halloween, an exclusive ‘Purple Glow’ edit style was granted to players that purchased Skull Trooper when it was first released. This style is completely unavailable to all other players, causing heads to turn whenever any enter the lobby.
Royale Bomber
The Royale Bomber has become a bit easier to acquire since it was released, but it’s still one of the more expensive skins Fortnite has to offer. Originally, Royale Bomber was bundled with select PlayStation 4 consoles, and that was the only way to get it for some time.
The skin was later bundled with select DualShock 4 controllers, but those seem to have sold out just as quickly as the PS4 bundles, making the skin very hard to find today.
Galaxy
The Galaxy skin is one of the more well-known Fortnite skins. Before Fortnite was officially released on mobile devices, the Android beta was available early exclusively on Samsung phones. Anyone who went the extra step and purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 or Samsung Note 9 got the Galaxy skin.
On top of originally only being available on a select few expensive mobile devices, the Galaxy skin isn’t even offered to Samsung users anymore (it was replaced by the Glow skin), truly making it one of Fortnite’s rarest skins.
The Reaper
The John Wick skin before the John Wick skin, The Reaper was the ultimate status symbol in the early days of Fortnite. It was included in the Season 3 Battle Pass, only awarded to those who reached Tier 100. Maxing out the Battle Pass is no easy task, and considering this skin was only available during Season 3, not many people had the opportunity to obtain it because Fortnite wasn’t the gigantic global phenomenon it is today.
The Reaper has never been made available outside of the Season 3 Battle Pass, so you can’t get it anymore. At least there’s always the actual John Wick skin based on the movie.
Black Knight
Just like The Reaper, the Black Knight skin was only available to the earliest Fortnite players. The Black Knight was rewarded to those who maxed out the Season 2 Battle Pass, which was actually capped at Tier 70, unlike recent Battle Passes.
The Season 2 Battle Pass was actually the first Battle Pass in Fortnite history, making the Black Knight the first-ever max-tier Battle Pass skin. Season 2 of Fortnite didn’t see as many players as the game has today, so hardly anyone playing the game today has this skin unless they were there from the beginning.
Renegade Raider
Going back even further in the Fortnite timeline, Renegade Raider is a rare skin that was only available during Season 1, the earliest days of Fortnite Battle Royale. This skin is so old it predates the Battle Pass.
There weren’t a lot of players during the first season, so not many people had the opportunity to earn this skin. To obtain it, you would have had to reach Level 20 during Season 1 and then buy the Renegade Raider skin for 1,200 V-Bucks. If you see someone with this skin, they’ve been with Fortnite since the very beginning.
Dark Voyager
Dark Voyager was a very common skin when Fortnite was just starting to become popular. Unlocked by reaching Tier 70 of the Season 3 Battle Pass, almost every dedicated Fortnite player back then earned this skin.
Now, two years later, not many people are still rocking their Season 3 skins. That means you won’t see Dark Voyager on the Battle Bus very often anymore, making it one of the game’s rarest skins by default. As Fortnite gets more and more players, this skin will only get rarer, too.
Aerial Assault Trooper
Another skin that’s rare simply due to its age is the Aerial Assault Trooper. Like the Renegade Raider skin, the Aerial Assault Trooper was only available in Season 1. It cost the same price, 1,200 V-Bucks, but you only had to reach Level 15 to be able to purchase it.
While the Level requirement isn’t as high, fewer people bought the Aerial Assault Trooper because of how unassuming and boring it looks. Of the Season 1 skins, Renegade Raider has the most unique look, so most people elected to spend their V-Bucks on that instead of Aerial Assault Trooper, making this skin one of Fortnite’s rarest.
Double Helix
The Double Helix skin was only available as part of a Nintendo Switch bundle in late 2018, making it one of Fortnite’s rarest skins and also one of the game’s most expensive skins. You had to buy an entire console just to get your hands on this skin.
Even if you wanted to go out and get Double Helix right now, you wouldn’t be able to. The Double Helix Nintendo Switch bundle has been sold out at every retailer for a long time now, so the only way to get this skin is to buy one from a third-party seller at a super high price.
Ragnarok
When it launched, Ragnarok might not have been a very rare skin, but so much time has passed since that it has become one of the harder skins to find in Fortnite. Ragnarok was the Tier 100 Battle Pass reward in Season 5, so only the most dedicated Fortnite players could acquire this skin.
Even rarer is the maxed-out Stage 6 style, which requires you to earn tons of XP to unlock. Ragnarok is already a rare skin, and it will only become rarer as time goes on.
Sparkle Specialist
Like many of the skins on this list, Sparkle Specialist could only be obtained during the early days of Fortnite. It was unlocked by reaching Tier 56 of the Season 2 Battle Pass.
This skin was actually pretty popular during Season 2, but considering Season 2 was so long ago, not many people have it or use it anymore, and it’s unlikely that new players will ever get a chance to get it for themselves.
Glow
Like the Galaxy skin, the Glow skin is a Samsung promotional skin, although you could get it on a much larger selection of devices. The promotional period has ended, though, so nobody can get this skin anymore.
This skin is one of Fortnite’s rarest just because of the cost. Only those with relatively new Samsung devices could redeem the Glow skin, so a large percentage of Fortnite’s player base was alienated.
Omega
Because each Battle Pass is limited to one season, Battle Pass skins get rarer and rarer as time goes on. Omega was the reward for reaching Tier 100 on the Season 4 Battle Pass.
Season 4 was a long time ago, and very few Fortnite players are still rocking their Omega skins, thus making it one of Fortnite’s rarest.
Honor Guard
Many of Fortnite’s rarest skins are tied to certain devices, and Honor Guard is no different. This skin is only available to those that purchase the Honor View 20 smartphone, which is very expensive and much less common than a Samsung phone.
When the promotion first began, the skin wasn’t even available in the United States, forcing dedicated Fortnite fans to import an expensive device if they wanted the Honor Guard skin. The phone has since been released globally, but its asking price is still considerable.
Brilliant Bomber
Brilliant Bomber, by far, is the rarest skin in Fortnite. Epic Games had planned to introduce the ‘Annual Pass’ to Fortnite in 2020, which would include 7 exclusive cosmetics, free ‘Battle Bundles’, and 25% off content in the Battle Pass throughout the year. The Annual Pass was scrapped and never made it to live servers, being replaced with ‘Fortnite Crew’ in December 2020 instead.
However, some players managed to purchase the Annual Pass through Fortnite’s API and were rewarded Brilliant Bomber, the first exclusive Annual Pass cosmetic. Most accounts had the skin removed from their account and were subsequently punished. However, a very, very small amount of players somehow managed to avoid this punishment and still have Brilliant Bomber to this day.
Black Widow Outfit
Today, Fortnite has an abundance of unique Marvel skins that are regularly available in the shop. It wasn’t always this way, though. In one of Fortnite’s first-ever collaborations, Epic Games released Black Widow Outfit and Star-Lord Outfit to coincide with the release of Avengers: Infinity War. These skins used existing models and added outfits to resemble Black Widow and Star-Lord respectively.
In November 2020, Black Widow (Snow Suit) was released, which featured a completely unique model that resembles Black Widow much better. Since then, Black Widow Outfit has yet to reappear, appearing to be completely replaced by its fancier-looking counterpart. As Star-Lord is yet to receive another skin, Star-Lord Outfit still regularly appears in the Item Shop.
Travis Scott and Astro Jack
Travis Scott and Astro Jack were only available to purchase between April 22 – 27, 2020. The two skins based on the famous rapper were released alongside Travis Scott’s in-game live event concert, Astroworld. Due to Travis’ real-world controversies in recent years, it’s very unlikely that Travis or Astro Jack will ever return, solidifying them as some of Fortnite’s rarest skins
Fortnite is available to play for free on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Android devices, and Nintendo Switch.
- This article was updated on January 18th, 2023
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