Received a gift from the Fortnite item shop but you’re unsure how long you get to keep the item for? Let’s figure it out…
As Fortnite: Battle Royale is a free game itself, Epic Games design, create and sell cosmetics through their in-game Item Shop in order to generate revenue. To most people, to begin with, it seemed a strange concept to spend real money on a free game – especially when the skins themselves grant no competitive advantage.
Billions of dollars later, it’s clear that Epic Games knew exactly what they were doing.
Fortnite generates billions of dollars annually just from the sale of in-game cosmetics that offer no competitive advantage. While cycling through daily Item Shop skins, they hold back on certain skins to increase their rarity, then when they finally re-release them, they know the Fortnite community will snap them up with complete disregard that this will mean that skin is now very common.
Skins, pickaxes, dances and emotes can be purchased from the Fortnite Item Shop with V-Bucks, which themselves have to be purchased through the game in specific amounts. The more you buy in one hit, the better value you get.
Cosmetics that are available in the Item Shop can also be gifted between players that have been friends on the game for at least 48 hours. Are these gifts permanent, though, or do they expire?
Will My Fortnite Gift Expire?
If you have been gifted a skin, or any other item, from the Fortnite Item Shop, you will now permanently have this item in your Locker. Your Fortnite gift will never expire.
Although your Fortnite gift will never expire, there are some rules and restrictions that state who can gift items and how often players can gift items.
The primary prerequisite before players can send a gift is enabling Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). To do this, you need to head to epicgames.com and sign in to your account. Then, from the menu, head to the Password & Security section. Finally, choose between SMS Authentication, Email Authentication, or an Authenticator App.
As well as allowing you to send gifts, enabling 2FA will also render your Fortnite account extra secure. Two birds, one stone.
The only other step you need to take to be able to send a gift in the Fortnite Item Shop is to get your account to level 2. This will likely come as a result of playing just one or two games. Then it’s happy gifting to anybody you’ve been friends with on that account for at least two days.
Players are also only permitted to gift up to five items per day.
What Fortnite Items Can Be Gifted?
Most items within the Fortnite Item Shop can be gifted between friends. These items include Battle Passes, skins, Back Blings, pickaxes and harvesting tools, gliders, dances, emotes and lobby music.
These items cost different amounts of V-Bucks depending on their category and rarity. Skins usually cost 800, 1,200, 1,500 or 2,000 V-Bucks each, while pickaxes usually cost around 800 V-Bucks, dances usually cost around 500 V-Bucks and emotes usually cost around 200 V-Bucks, although these prices can differ depending on rarity.
There are a number of items that cannot be gifted, though. These items include:
- V-Bucks
- Starter Packs and skin bundles that are purchased with real currency
- Battle Pass tier bundles
- Anything that is not currently in the item shop
How To Gift An Item On Fortnite
As long as you qualify to gift items as mentioned above, gifting items from the Fortnite Item Shop is very easy. Here’s how to make someone’s day:
- Log in to Fortnite and navigate to the Item Shop tab, as you would if you were purchasing something for yourself
- Find the item that you’d like to gift to a friend
- Select the “Buy As Gift” option, which is just under the usual “Purchase” option
- Select the friend you’d like to gift the item to
- Choose a gift wrap
- Click “Send”
Next time your friend is in the Fortnite lobby, they’ll receive a pop up that shows them that you’ve sent them a gift. They can then accept and view the gift which will now be permanently available in their Locker.
What Are Fortnite’s V-Bucks?
In Battle Royale, V-Bucks can be used to buy cosmetic goods from the Item Shop, as well as the Battle Pass and purchases related to it. Each item or package in the Item Shop will have a predetermined price, and the user may use their V-Bucks to purchase it.
Each season, the Fortnite Battle Pass always costs 950 V-Bucks, and upon completion, the player will have received 1,500 V-Bucks in rewards. If you finish the free version of the Battle Pass to the specified tier, you’ll receive 300 V-Bucks each season. So, if you rarely purchase things from the Item Shop, the Battle Pass can always be free, as well as everything that comes with it.
V-Bucks have their own tab in the Fortnite lobby, which is where they can be purchased in set quantities. They are priced as followed:
- 1,000 – £6.49/$7.99
- 2,800 – £15.99/$19.99 (12% extra)
- 5,000 – £25.99/$31.99 (25% extra)
- 13,500 – £64.99/$79.99 (35% extra)
Do Fortnite V-Buck Gift Cards Expire
Fortnite V-Bucks can also be purchased from some popular gaming stores in the form of gift cards. So, while gifting V-Bucks in-game is not possible, these gift cards can be a great birthday or Christmas gift for those friends, family members or colleagues you usually squad up with.
Not only is there no expiration date on these cards, there are also no additional fees involved, so the gift cards can be redeemed for their stated V-Bucks value whenever and then used immediately in the Item Shop.
V-Bucks gift cards can be redeemed on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or Mobile. Simply sign in to your account and purchase V-Bucks using the gift card payment method.
