Fortnite: Epic Games employee confirms major changes to OG Skull Trooper skin

Skull Trooper is an OG skin in Fortnite that was introduced to the game in Chapter 1 Season 1. Much like other popular outfits, it has also received numerous styles over the years. Given its popularity among community members, this was a good move on Epic Games' part. However, this came at a cost.

Following a cosmetic update in 2018, all variants of the skin received an unwelcome change. Epic Games gave the Skull Trooper's eyes a sinister glow. While this was not a major issue, those who owned the skin were not given a prior warning or an option to switch the effect on and off.

Since changing something about a cosmetic item is breaking terms of service (TOS), to an extent, Epic Games was wrong to do so. That said, after four years of this change (and much backlash), developers will finally implement changes to the skin. Here are all the details.

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Skull Trooper's eye will glow no more in Fortnite!

A few hours after the Fortnite update v22.30 went live, a user took to Reddit to complain about the "eye glow" effect that is present on the skin. The user in question, Sussy_Dora, had this to say:

"So I buy a skin in 2018, then you add an eye glow that I can't take off and never offer refunds for changing something I bought."

As previously stated, changing how cosmetic items look and function is disregarding the TOS. In many instances, Epic Games has offered a refund for the skins. However, in this scenario, nothing was offered as compensation. The user went on to state:

"What's going on here Epic? Either add an option or offer a refund because this wasn't what I bought."

To make matters worse, since the game jumped over to Unreal Engine 5, the physics for many cosmetic items seems broken. This made the "eye glow" for the Skull Trooper appear slightly above the eyes rather than inside the sockets.

Based on the evidence provided by several Fortnite users, this is not an isolated incident. There are numerous skins with broken "eye glow" effects that look out of place. That said, the effects of many skins will have to be worked upon by the developers. However, there is a sliver of hope.

After the user posted about the "eye glow" problem, an Epic Games employee addressed the issue with positive and welcoming news. User EmptyTux had this to say:

"We're addressing this in our next big game update in the coming weeks, and will be adding a glow color to the Inverted and Gold styles for Skull Trooper as well as updating it so there is a separate toggle for eye glow for every style across the board."

Since the new Fortnite update v23.40 will go live on November 15, 2022, players will not have to wait long for the fix to be implemented. Hopefully, this solves things and puts an end to the problem once and for all.

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But wait, what about other skins in Fortnite that have a similar problem?

While the Epic Games employee mentioned that the developers would rectify the Skull Trooper's "eye glow" issue, they said nothing about the other skins in-game, like Joltara. The particle effect of her "eye glow" is out of place and looks very odd in-game (more so than Skull Trooper's), yet nothing was said about it.

By the looks of it, the developers are going to fix the issue with the Skull Trooper before looking at other skins. Given his popularity, fixing him first seems obvious. That said, they'll likely get to fixing similar issues on other skins soon. The only question that remains is when?

With only a month left before the season ends, the developers have little time to look at individual cosmetic items. Such being the case, fixing particle effects for certain Fortnite skins will have to wait a while longer.