Fortnite will soon offer past Battle Pass items in Shop after 18 or more months in a change aiming to let new players access popular character skins.
The days of grinding to complete those Fortnite Battle Pass quests to unlock exclusive items may soon be coming to an end.
On Wednesday, Epic Games announced a major change to Fortnite and its Battle Pass, the paid tier of the hit free-to-play online video game.
"Items in future Fortnite Battle Passes might be offered for purchase in the Fortnite Shop after 18 or more months from the Battle Pass’ expiration," reads a statement posted on Fortnite's official website.
This means that Emotes, Pickaxes, Back Blings, Wraps, Loading Screens, Outfits, and – most importantly – outfits a.k.a., skins that were once Battle Pass exclusives may be available for purchase in Fortnite's in-game Shop, even if the player missed out on the Battle Pass that these items were a part of.
The company says all other Battle Pass benefits will remain the same, including the price of the pass which costs 950 V-Bucks, Fortnite's in-game currency, or $8.49.
While Fortnite is free to play in its online multiplayer mode, the game is monetized via skins and other items that are sold in-game.
These items don't give players any advantage in the game. However, as Fortnite has continued to partner with popular media properties such as Marvel and Star Wars, players have spent billions of dollars each year in Fortnite in order to play as their favorite characters.
However, some items can only be locked via Fortnite's Battle Pass.
Every few months, Fortnite starts a new season with new characters, new maps, and new additional features. Players can purchase a Battle Pass for that season, and they can then complete quests to earn XP, level up, and unlock more than 100 exclusive rewards during that season.
But, previously if a player missed out on gaining enough XP by the time the Battle Pass ended, they would permanently lose out on being able to access items that were locked beyond their level in the Battle Pass.
If someone was completely new to Fortnite, that means they permanently missed out on ever being able to play as character skins that were part of previous Battle Pass seasons such as Optimus Prime or Darth Vader.
According to the Fortnite Team, this was one of the major factors in their decision to change the exclusivity of items in future Battle Pass offerings.
"One reason for this change is that we want players down the road to enjoy Battle Pass content such as Outfits based on popular licensed characters," reads the statement. "While there is no guarantee that a Battle Pass item will come to the Shop after this change, IP content from future Battle Passes might come to the Shop at least 18 months after the Battle Pass expires."
It's unclear if this means that previous Battle Pass outfits and items are still forever unobtainable by those who missed out. Mashable has reached out to Epic Games for more information on this.
However, it is clear that going forward some Battle Pass items will no longer be exclusive. The purpose of the Battle Pass rewards will now be the guarantee of getting those items and the lower 950 V-Bucks price point to try and unlock them all.
Fortnite is still a massively popular game with hundreds of millions of active players. But, the number of players that Fortnite has at any given time seems to ebb and flow with that particular season's offerings. Perhaps, this change will interest some new players who were previously turned off because they missed out on the Battle Pass that would've let them unlock their favorite characters.
