How is Erisa a pay-to-win Fortnite skin? Explained

The vast majority of Fortnite cosmetics provide no advantage to players. That's intentional, since it's a completely free-to-play game, and Epic Games prides themselves on keeping it totally fair.

However, they're not perfect. Epic Games has inadvertently released several pay-to-win cosmetics over the years. That includes Lt. Evergreen, Mystique's built-in emote, the Neighborly Hang emote, the Mandalorian, and Midas Rex skins.

Now, they may have done it once again with a Battle Pass skin. Erisa, who is not available until players unlock page eight of the Battle Pass and pay nine Battle Stars, is being considered pay-to-win.

---

How Erisa, the Fortnite battle pass skin, is pay-to-win

While the Erisa Fortnite skin isn't solely pay-to-win, her skin and pickaxe combination is. When players equip the pickaxes with the skin and have them in their hands, they get a significant advantage over their opponents.

Footsteps, both on-screen and in the audio, will not appear or be heard when this combination is in play, no matter what gamers are doing. Although this is understandable when loopers crouch and move around, players should be aware of the enemies walking lurking them.

This is a significant advantage as this combination allows them to sprint or move undetected. They can easily sneak up on enemies and spray them before they're even noticed.

While many pay-to-win advantages are small, this is one of the biggest Fortnite has ever had. Footsteps are a huge part of the game and without them, players are at a unique advantage.

That likely means that this is an unintentional issue with the game. The built-in emote for Mystique is only pay-to-win if used correctly, so many players don't get as much of an advantage from it.

Erisa and the pickaxe provide an advantage (Image via Epic Games)

Erisa, is very easy to take advantage of, so Epic Games will more than likely fix this issue soon. It's not game-breaking, so there won't be an emergency patch, but this advantage will probably go away with the next update.

Tuesday is the date for the v20.10 update, so players have until then to take advantage of the Erisa skin's pay-to-win status. After that, the skin will likely be no better than any other.