Epic Games has made some changes to Fortnite, removing the game's item rarity system.
In a recent blog post shared on April 9, Epic announced that for version 29.20 it has made adjustments to how the 'Fortnite Shop' and 'Locker' works by removing the day one cosmetic color tiers and names for all skins.
"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," the blog post reads. "Different Series of cosmetics - such as the Icon Series or Gaming Legends Series - will still be there to help you find your favorite stuff!"
This means that cosmetic items such as rare, epic, legendary, and mythic will no longer be tiered in their value system. This will also force players to manually sort through all their skins in their Locker's without relying on the color tier system.
The change seems to have come out of nowhere, prompting fans to share their confusion online (via PC Gamer) with some criticizing the new UI design and layout.
"Now that rarities are messed up, navigating through your locker and finding exactly what you want is much much harder, and everything looks the same. No colors make it boring too," one user said on X (formerly Twitter).
Other fans are upset with the removal of the rarity feature because it was a way of keeping prices down, with some saying that this is a way for Epic to "gouge players".
The discussion over on the FortNiteBR subreddit also features some users claiming they think the removal of the item rarity system will allow Epic to price skins however they want, with one user saying, "[I] expect Epic to become more aggressive with how they price cosmetics going forward, now that they’re no longer forced to play by established rules for how to price cosmetics."
Epic Games hasn't responded to the criticism just yet, but over the years we've seen the cost of Fortnite's cosmetic items rise, with some skin packs listed as 2,000 v-bucks or more.
At a minimum, players can only purchase 1,000 v-bucks (£6.49 / $8.14) and 2,800 v-bucks (£17.49 / $21.93), so this means they're required to spend the extra bit more to afford just one cosmetic pack.
