Epic Games
We’re closing out 2020 in style in Fortnite with the Operation Snowdown event, which is effectively this year’s Winterfest.
The season of giving is here and there are plenty of free skins, emotes, sprays, etc. being given out just by logging in and completing the various challenges that are available.
There are also a variety of holiday skins in the Item Shop on any given day and they give players the chance to really celebrate the season.
As it turns out, some of these skins can actually provide a competitive advantage over others if you’re willing to try out a few meme strategies.
Fortnite YouTuber and streamer SypherPK showed us three different situations where these skins can actually give you the jump over an enemy that could easily result in a free elimination.
Let’s take a look and determine if some of these skins are actually “pay to win” or if he’s going a bit too far.
Fortnite “Pay to Win” Skins
Sypher made a brief video showing three different skins that could potentially be considered pay to win, depending how willing you are to switch up your playstyle.
As you know, the island has been redecorated for the holidays, so you have things like Holiday Trees and Nutcrackers appearing all over the place.
Well, by throwing on the Tree Jonesy skin, you can hide inside of trees or bushes, effectively blending in and hiding yourself from sight. If you sit in these for long enough, you’ll be able to get the jump on enemies without them even knowing what happened.
You can do something similar with the Nutcracker skin just by posing next to a bunch of decorations. The Nutcracker is a common decoration people put up for the holidays, so many players won’t really think much of running into one when they see it. Just imagine their shock when they realize it’s a player who’ll turn the tables on them quickly.
The final skin is actually Season 4’s Mystique, who has the unique ability to copy the skin of a player she just eliminated. If you land on the Snowmando NPC, who is actually a free skin that isn’t out yet, you can pretend to be him.
The idea is that by sitting still and pretending to be an NPC, people will come right up to you trying to interact which is when you’d pull out your gun and eliminate them.
What’s the Verdict?
Well, after seeing the video and these skins in action, calling them pay to win is probably going too far. Obviously, he meant it as a joke as you’re not going to be very successful in pulling these strategies off game in and game out.
However, it can be fun to mess around in a game or two by seeing what you can accomplish. Becoming a new skin with Mystique is always fun because you can just blend in anywhere if you’d like.
I have to admit, I didn’t realize you could become an NPC as Mystique, so that could be something we see more players try to do if this strategy actually catches out.
As it stands right now, this all seems to be in good fun, so get out there and try it for yourself!
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