Weapons, items, and cosmetics in Fortnite all have a rarity associated with them along with a color so that players can easily distinguish one rarity from the next.
For those unfamiliar with the game, this can be a bit confusing at first.
What rarities pair with which colors?
What does rarity actually even mean in-game?
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The 7 Rarities of Fortnite
There are seven different rarities when it comes to weapons and items in Fortnite.
An item's rarity in-game determines how hard it is to find or obtain during a match, or how expensive or hard to get a cosmetic is to get.
There are no Exotic rarity cosmetics in Fortnite, though there are other cosmetic rarities described later in this article.
Common items, originally known in Fortnite Save the World as Handmade, are the most readily available items found in the game.
The weakest of all the weapons and items, Common items are essential to survival in the early game, though are quickly replaced by items of a higher rarity as players open chests or find them in harder-to-reach areas.
Uncommon items are the true "base" items in Fortnite, easily obtained and slightly more powerful.
Uncommon items are an even better way to start off a match, available as ground loot for Fortnite players to find as they explore Apollo Island.
Rare items are the last rarity of an item the can be found as ground loot in Fortnite, offering better stats than uncommon items, and a good kick-off point for upgrading the rarity of items through crafting or by paying certain NPCs to do so.
Epic items are either powerful weapons, or harder to find items such as Jump Pads.
Only available from Chests, Supply Drops, or NPCs, Epic items are excellent end-game weapons to have, and useful items to keep in a player's inventory.
At Epic rarity, certain weapons shift in their visual appearance and stats a bit. Assault rifles become SCARs, SMGs become P90's, and bows can be crafted into Epic Stink Bows, Flame Bows, Shockwave Bows, and Explosive Bows.
Legendary items are the best items players can loot in the usual ways in Fortnite.
Offering superior stats over the previous rarities, having Legendary items often leads to placing higher in matches.
Mythic items are generally obtained in a special way in Fornite, such as defeating Glyph Master Raz in Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 6. Because of this, there is generally only one Mythic item on the island at a time, offering whichever player obtains it a great advantage at an incredibly difficult cost.
Exotic weapons and items are only available to purchase for Gold Bars from NPCs and are items that break the rules of Fortnite in one way, shape, or form.
Some of these items tend to be goofy, such as the Egg Launcher available in early Spring.
Others are deadly items that players seek out as soon as they can, such as the Hop Rock Dualies or Shadow Tracker pistol.
Offering players additional abilities, at a cost, Exotic items always add an interesting twist to Fortnite matches.
Additional Cosmetic Rarities
Cosmetic rarity has no effect on Fortnite other than how hard an item is to obtain or how much it costs in V-Bucks.
In addition to the above rarity types, minus Exotics, there are also the following special rarities for cosmetic items in Fortnite, denoting an items series more than anything else:
Marvel Series
As the name implies, these are skins licensed from Marvel.
DC Series
As the name implies, these are skins licensed from DC.
Dark Series
The Dark Series contains "darker" variants of popular Fortnite skins, often giving them a more gothic or evil-looking flair.
Icon Series
The Icon Series of Fortnite cosmetics include items taken from real-world inspiration.
These items include skins based on famous Fortnite content creators, real-life dances taken from TikTok, TV shows, and music videos, and other pop culture references.
Star Wars Series
As the name implies, these are skins licensed from Star Wars.
Lava Series
The Lava Series is a cosmetic line with items that have a common look, with magma being a binding factor between each cosmetic.
Gaming Legends Series
The Gaming Legends Series is one of the newest cosmetic series in Fortnite, with items from popular gaming series such as Tomb Raider and Horizon Zero Dawn.
Slurp Series
An interesting series, the Slurp Series focuses on Slurp-based variations on popular Fortnite characters, such as Jonesy, Ramirez, and others.
There are also unique cosmetics in the series, like the popular Rippley vs Sludge skin.
Shadow Series
The Shadow Series is heavily based on a greyscale color scheme, favorite blacks and dark greys with hints of white.
These cosmetics are often varients of popular Fortnite characters, though the series contains a few unique characters as well.
Frozen Series
The Frozen Series features popular Fortnite cosmetics with a frozen theme, using glacial blues and whites.
Transcendent Rarity
Transcendent rarity items are only available to Fortnite developers and testers and are never available in the production releases of the game.
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