Fortnite has an ever-expanding collection of skins to entice players in the Item Shop. They offer all the latest and greatest eye-catching cosmetic options you could desire! Over the years, there have been several breathtaking rare skins to unlock or purchase. Luckily, some of these skins may just make a return to the Item Shop! With all that in mind, we have a compilation of the rarest Fortnite skins made available from Season 1 to Chapter 5 Season 3.
Top 40 Rarest Skins in Fortnite
Fortnite has been played by millions since 2017, although sometimes it seems longer, and this means six whole years of amazing cosmetics have been released. From Season 1 all the way to today in Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 3 and the Fallout collab it added, we have seen popular skins rise and fall. Many have become sweaty staples in some lockers, while others are rarely seen at all. Let’s get into it with our comprehensive list of the rarest skins ever in Fortnite.
40. Double Helix
Double Helix is one of the rarest Fortnite skins. It came as part of a Nintendo Switch hardware bundle in October 2018, so only players who shelled out the cash to pick up this specific Switch bundle have this outfit. It was worth it at the time, though, as it included all the items seen above in the bundle.
39. Hunstman Saber
Unlike other promotional skins, you can still get your hands on the Huntsman Saber outfit. It is part of a specific Xbox Series S bundle called the Gilded Hunter Bundle. While that might not seem all that rare, the bundle is still $300, so it’s not something the average player will pick up just to get the Fortnite cosmetics.
38. Psycho Bandit
In August 2019, the Epic Games Store held a promotion where anyone who pre-ordered or bought Borderlands 3 on that platform before the end of December 2020 received the Psycho Bandit Bundle in Fortnite.
It’s hard to know how many players took advantage of this deal, but maybe everyone who didn’t will get lucky, and it may return with the potential release of Borderlands 4.
37. Frostbite
Frostbite was released in a bundle as part of a physical edition of Fortnite that included a download code for the game. The physical edition was released in November 2018 but is no longer available. Many sites that re-sell game keys have codes for Frostbite, but they aren’t exactly cheap.
36. Surf Strider
The Splash Squadron Bundle that contained this skin was first available to anyone who owned an Intel CPU, and they just had to visit the Intel site to redeem it. When that promotion ended, it later resurfaced, and anyone interested had to earn it through the Intel Gaming Access app. However, midway through that promotion, they ran out of codes. It’s unknown how many people actually got the skin that put in the work.
35. Xander
Xander was part of a long-running Fortnite event called Refer-a-Friend that started in July 2022 and required players to complete tasks with a friend who had either never played Fortnite or had played less than two hours in the last 30 days.
While this sounds like it could be boosted with a second account, the final challenge to get the Xander outfit required the player and the friend account to gain 60 levels each. This was a huge barrier, so it would be understandable if not many people achieved that and got this skin before Refer-a-Friend ended in January 2023.
34. Galaxia
While plenty of Fortnite Crew skins could fit on this list, Galaxia has the honor of being the first skin ever offered as part of the subscription. When the Fortnite Crew was brand new, there likely weren’t as many adopters as it felt a little weird to pay a monthly fee for a free game.
Because of this, fewer players probably own Galaxia than the rest of the Fortnite Crew offerings, making this skin rare.
33. Jack Gourdon
A skin with a pumpkin for a head. We’re all about this one, and that’s why Jack Gourdon is our favorite rare skin in Fortnite.
Releasing back in October 2018 for the Halloween period, Jack Gourdon only returns once a year for the spooky season, which makes this outfit extremely time-limited for players to add him to their collections.
32. Codename E.L.F
Obvious festive Fortnite skin is festive… and rare! Codename E.L.F is one of Fortnite’s rarest skins because it can only be purchased from the Item Shop, and it’s hardly ever in there.
Originally released in December 2017, the skin returned at the end of January 2018 for some reason before being part of the store for the first four months of 2020 as part of the Polar Legends Pack. It was brought back for the first time in three years during Chapter 5 Season 1. It remains a rare skin as it doesn’t seem to be many players’ first pick for a festive skin.
31. Hollowhead
Hollowhead is like the aforementioned Jack Gourdon skin but on steroids that make his head glow ominously. Originally released via the Item Shop in October 2018, the skin has returned every Halloween since then.
It only hangs around the Item Shop for a week before disappearing for another year. Its lack of appearances in the Item Shop makes it a very rare Fortnite skin indeed.
30. Merry Marauder
If you want to play Fortnite as an angry gingerbread man, look no further than the Merry Marauder.
This skin is, once again, a festive skin and has only appeared a handful of times in the Item Shop at Christmas time. It was also released when Fortnite wasn’t massively popular, which helped make it one of the rarest Fortnite skins. The female counterpart was more successful and despite both skins returning every Winterfest, they are still pretty rare today.
29. Fable
The Fable skin was part of the Fortnite Chapter 1 Season 6 Battle Pass and required players to reach Tier 47 in order to unlock it.
This isn’t a reactive skin, nor does it have any kind of special ability or alternate style you can select. It’s rare simply because it’s never shown up in the Item Shop after its Battle Pass debut.
28. Dire
The Dire skin was the Tier 100 reward back in Season 6. In its Stage 1 form, it’s pretty basic and fairly common. However, to go full werewolf with this skin, players had to rack up 250,000 XP in order to get Stage 6.
This Stage 6 Dire skin makes it onto our list of rarest Fortnite skins. With the skin not returning to the Item Shop, if you don’t already have it, you’re fresh out of luck.
27. Ghoul Trooper
The Ghoul Trooper is one of Fortnite’s spooky Halloween skins and is one of the OG skins sought after by so many. Releasing back in October 2017 for Halloween, the Ghoul Trooper skin has only returned to the Item Shop briefly for stints around the spooky season every year.
Given its infrequent appearances, it’s still one of the rarest Fortnite skins. It’s strange that they aren’t more popular. Despite being super rare, she makes our list of sweatiest Fortnite skins too! It seems the few who use these skins absolutely sweat for those eliminations.
26. Galaxy
If you had guessed that this is another one of the platform-exclusive Fortnite skins, you’d be right. The Galaxy skin was obtainable for those who picked up the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 or the Galaxy Tab S4. Once you had either of these devices, you had to download Fortnite and log in with your account to add it to your Locker.
Alas, the Galaxy skin was discontinued after the release of these two devices, meaning if you didn’t get one back then, you’ll never be able to get the Galaxy skin again.
25. Omega
Fortnite’s Omega skin was the Tier 100 reward for the Season 4 Battle Pass. Completing all those challenges and grinding out enough games was what it took to unlock it.
The Omega skin had a number of additional parts and unlockable styles that players could earn by focusing on their Season Level back in Season 4. Therefore, you know you’re messing with a pro if you spot anyone with a fully-decked-out Omega with red, green, purple, or yellow accents. In 2023, Omega joined Ragnarok in a cross-over skin to create Omegarok for Fortnite OG!
24. Blue Team Leader
The Blue Team Leader wasn’t some Tier 100 skin. Nor does it rarely appear in the Item Shop. Instead, this skin is rare because it was exclusive to PlayStation Plus subscribers.
The first PS Plus Fortnite Battle Royale: PlayStation Plus Celebration Pack was a free download from the PlayStation Store for PS Plus subscribers in 2018 and contained the Blue Team Leader skin.
It’s possible that not everyone noticed the free bundle, so it’s impossible to figure out how many players might own this skin, but it likely won’t ever be available again.
23. Trilogy
Looking like something out of Splinter Cell with the PlayStation coloring, Trilogy was also first available through the eighth PlayStation Plus-exclusive bundle. While Blue Team Leader still looks like a default skin, this one instead looks perfectly tactical for taking down opponents.
The bundle, including this skin, was available in December 2019 and hasn’t been seen since.
22. Yuletide Ranger
Yuletide Ranger is a festive skin, as you might have guessed by its name. While it only costs 800 V-Bucks when it shows up in the Item Shop, it’s still fairly rare due to its limited time on sale. The female skin, Nog Ops, returns far more often than Yuletide Ranger so she isn’t counted in this list!
It sticks around in the Item Shop every Christmas season, but it remains one of the least-featured skins. The preference for female skins over male skins makes Yuletide Ranger the rarer of the festive pair.
21. Renegade Raider
Now we’re getting into some of the seriously hardcore rare Fortnite skins. The Renegade Raider was only available to those who played Battle Royale in Season 1. You had to reach Level 20 even to have the chance to purchase it for 1,200 V-Bucks from what was then known as the Season Shop.
Renegade Raider has never appeared in the Item Shop since and likely never will. The closest you will get is the Renegade Lynx crossover skin that was available only in the Fortnite OG Pass.
20. Aerial Assault Trooper
The Aerial Assault Trooper is another incredibly rare Fortnite skin for a similar reason to the Renegade Raider.
This skin was only available during Season 1 and required players to reach Level 15 before they had the choice to purchase it from the ‘Season Shop’ as it was called back then for 1,200 V-Bucks. Considering hardly anyone was playing Fortnite back then, these are stupidly rare.
19. Dusk
Dusk is part of the Nite Coven set and originally appeared as part of the Fortnite Chapter 1 Season 6 Battle Pass. Players had to reach Tier 71 in order to unlock it.
Since then, Dusk hasn’t featured in the Item Shop. Given her relatively high Tier unlock requirement on the Battle Pass all those seasons ago, it’s one of the rarer skins you can get in Fortnite.
18. The Reaper
Before the officially licensed John Wick skin was released in 2022, Epic Games was kinda sneaky and had The Reaper. Despite now claiming it’s not supposed to be John Wick since its release (it totally is, though), The Reaper was so sought-after because everyone wanted to be the Boogeyman of the Battle Royale island.
Getting the skin required players to reach Tier 100 back in Season 3. It was totally possible, but with significantly fewer players back then and a tougher grind up to Tier 100 back then compared to now, it’s still incredibly rare. As there is an actual John Wick skin in the game, it is assumed The Reaper is gone for good.
17. Blue Squire
The Blue Squire is another of the skins that can be tracked all the way back to Fortnite Season 2. This one wasn’t quite as tricky to get as the Renegade Raider or Aerial Assault Trooper, though. All you needed to do to get the Blue Squire was buy the Season 2 Battle Pass.
Despite how simple it was to get, people just weren’t really playing Fortnite back then, and those who did were more skeptical about spending money on skins or Battle Passes for a game that hadn’t yet proven itself.
16. Purple Glow Skull Trooper
For a while, the original Skull Trooper was considered one of the rarest Fortnite skins. Having been released as part of the Halloween event in 2017, it had not been seen in the shop for a year.
In 2018 however, it returned, making it more common among the masses. However, only those who owned the original Skull Trooper from 2017 were given the Purple Glow style. The Purple Glow Skull Trooper now steals its crown as one of the rarest Fortnite skins.
15. Honor Guard
The Honor Guard skin has only ever been available for those who purchase the Honor 20 smartphone. Just like the Galaxy skin, those who played Fortnite on their Honor 20 would have the Honor Guard skin added to their Locker.
The racing jumpsuit look is rather basic, but that blue really pops. The skin was due to hit the Item Shop once the promotion had finished, but for whatever reason, this still hasn’t happened.
Given the Honor 20 wasn’t a massively popular phone, the Honor Guard skin is, without a doubt, one of the rarest skins in Fortnite.
14. Black Knight
The Black Knight was one of the original rewards for reaching the top tier of the Battle Pass. Specifically, if players reached Tier 70 in the Season 2 Battle Pass, they’d net themselves the Black Knight skin.
The skin has never been made available in the Item Shop, making it nearly impossible to get now. He also makes an appearance of a top sweaty skin to see in Fortnite.
13. Royale Bomber
This marks yet another platform-exclusive skin. The Royale Bomber could only be obtained by either purchasing a PS4 hardware bundle or by picking up a DualShock 4 controller with promotional packaging.
Either of these would net you a code that could be used to redeem the Royale Bomber skin alongside other cosmetics. It’s never come to the Item Shop or been made available any other way, and likely never will.
12. Black Widow
Previously our number one rare skin, the Black Widow skin originally featured as part of the Marvel’s Avengers event that celebrated the release of Avengers Endgame in cinemas back in April 2019. While the skin was made available in the Item Shop for two stints of three days each in April and May 2019, Black Widow only returned again very recently.
Epic Games did give players the chance to obtain a slightly different-looking Black Widow skin as a reward for earning a set amount of points in the Black Widow cup in the Marvel Knockout Super Series back in November last year. Still, it’s not the same as the original skin.
Black Widow outfit returned to the shop during Fortnite OG, which brought mixed reactions from players. While some welcomed her return, others who enjoyed the fact they owned such a rare skin felt a little bitter. Her return saw a few more players purchase Black Widow, which bumps her down our list, but she remains a pretty rare skin!
11. Drift
Let’s get one thing right out of the way: the basic Drift skin isn’t what’s rare here. This could be unlocked by simply purchasing the Battle Pass in Season 5.
Instead, what’s rare is its Style 6 look, which required players to earn 200,000 XP to unlock. Drift cannot be purchased, so if you missed out on it, then it’s a lost cause. This style isn’t seen often and if you are lucky enough to have him in your locker then you are one of a very few number of players!
10. Ragnarok
Another big Season 5 skin was Ragnarok. This was earned by reaching Tier 100 on the Battle Pass. Just like Drift, though, Ragnarok had a number of additional styles that could be unlocked.
To unlock its final stage requires 500,000 XP. Only the most hardcore Fortnite players have Ragnarok’s full set, making it one of the rarest Fortnite skins. His crossover with Omega in the Fortnite OG Omegarok skin is the next best thing, to be honest!
9. Sparkle Specialist
Landing in the top ten of our list is yet another Season 2 skin. Players needed to reach Tier 56 on the Battle Pass to earn the Sparkle Specialist.
It has never been featured on the Item Shop and likely never will—a true rarity in Fortnite. In all my years playing Fortnite I personally have never seen her in action!
8. Travis Scott
Travis Scott was released April 22, 2020 and is currently the rarest Icon Series rarity skin in all of Fortnite. This was the 6th Icon Series skin ever made, but the older ones have all been seen more recently.
This skin was only in the Item Shop across the six days, beginning with its introduction. It has been over 1,325 days since it was last up for sale.
7. Radiant Striker
Despite having featured a number of times in the Item Shop since its original release on March 14, 2018, Radiant Striker hasn’t returned to the Item Shop since May 2, 2021.
That means the skin has been missing for almost 1,000 days at the time of writing. It’s not the most exciting of all the rarer skins, so there’s a chance it’ll never return to the Item Shop in favor of more impressive designs. If you see him return it may be worth grabbing it before he disappears for another 1,000 days.
6. Trench Raider
With a cool name like Trench Raider, you just know this has gotta be a cool skin anyone can get, right? Well, that would be some terrific wishful thinking.
Sometimes when we say something has only shown up twice on the Item Shop, we mean it was available for two stretches of time. For the Trench Raider skin, it has shown up twice, meaning one day each time. The first was its debut on November 16, 2019, and the last time was on January 18, 2020. Will he ever make a return?
5. Cole
The Cole outfit has a few things going for its rarity, the least of which is that it’s one of the only uncommon rarity items on this whole list. The main evidence of Cole being usually rare is that this skin appeared in the Item Shop merely three times on separate days.
First released on May 6, 2019, it was later seen that year in June and on December 8, 2019, over four years ago. It hasn’t been seen since. At this point, we doubt he will ever return.
4. Shaman
The Shaman skin is easily one of the coolest-looking of the rare Fortnite skins. This Epic-rarity skin was available in the Item Shop for 1,500 V-Bucks but has only ever been available on four separate days, beginning March 31, 2019.
Since then, it only appeared in April, July, and December of 2019 for a single day, which puts it over four years since its last appearance. It remains to be seen whether or not the skin will return, but we really hope so, as it’s an exceptionally well-designed skin.
3. Tracker
The Tracker skin was first added in Fortnite’s very first season, arriving in the Item Shop for 800 V-Bucks. It’s another fairly generic-looking skin based on one of the default skins you get if you don’t equip your own.
Tracker hasn’t been in the Item Shop since November 20, 2019, and has only appeared on nine separate days since it first debuted on November 1, 2017. He hasn’t been back for years so it is unlikely we will see him again!
2. Chief Hopper
Chief Hopper is one of the Stranger Things skins added to Fortnite in July 2019 to celebrate the release of the third season of Netflix’s supernatural series.
Appearing for a three-day stint from July 5-7, 2019, as its debut, Hopper returned to the Item Shop on November 6 that year. He came back for the first time in a long time on December 5, 2023 but that return didn’t boost any Hopper sightings!
1. Demogorgon
You can’t have a good guy skin like Chief Hopper without their evil counterpart, and that’s what the Demogorgon skin represents. The big bad of Stranger Things appeared in Fortnite’s Item Shop for the same three-day stint in July 2019 as Chief Hopper to celebrate the crossover and then once in November 2023.
Demo returned with Hopper once in November and December 2023 for its 5th and 6th appearances. The fact it comes for a day and leaves again for apparently no reason makes it still the rarest skin in Fortnite. Perhaps it will return for the next Stranger Things season!
For more on Fortnite, check out everything we know about the Chapter 5 Season 3 weapons, and skins in the new season.
