One of the most persistent rumors or theories about Fortnite’s inner workings relates to how the game can have such diverse skins and cosmetics, without having a competitive advantage. Do all Fortnite skins have the same hitbox?
Between the different looks in the game, there are clearly major differences. Even the default skins have varying sizes. However, once we factor in the best Fortnite skins, it gets a bit crazy. How can the Giant Chicken skin have the same competitive playing field as a short female skin? Visually, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to players. One is an enormous target and the other isn’t. This has led players for a long time to believe there’s something weird going on with hitboxes. That every character has one of a few hitbox models.
How true is it exactly though? The female superhero sweat skins might be some of the smaller ones, but is there actually any logic behind using them over the bulkier characters? The question really comes down to how much of an advantage skins give, and if they alter your Fortnite skin hitbox.
Source: Epic Games
Something that’s a little hard to believe about the skins on offer in Fortnite is they don’t provide a competitive advantage. Some definitely give an advantage in terms of camouflage, but what about your hitbox? The answer to the question, do all Fortnite skins have the same hitbox, might be hard to believe. But as far as we know, they do. Aside from one weird case.
According to dataminers who have dug into the game, to find both Fortnite leaks, and information on how the game works under the hood, all Fortnite skin hitbox models are the same. Essentially, no matter what the model displays in-game you do have the same hitbox as every other player.
Source: Epic Games
The smallest female skins preferred by those sweaty Fortnite names in the lobby, through to the giant skins mainly worn for shock value.
One good way of visualizing this is to look at one of the most popular Fortnite characters, Peely. Pelly is much taller than your normal skins. Despite him being a banana and not a man in a suit, his head isn’t harmed by bullets.
He’s been in the game so long everyone is kind of used to this, but shoot a Peely at the top of his model and nothing really happens. You have to aim for the normal hitbox’s head, which is around his face. This works on a smaller scale with all Fortnite skins.
No matter what visuals there is for a skin and its body, the actual gameplay result is always the same. That underneath the visuals, it’s the same hitbox. Although, that doesn’t mean the bigger size doesn’t affect gameplay in other ways. Pretty much all skins have the same hitbox, at least they did for a very long time.
One skin has broken the norm, in Chapter 5 we got a skin with a unique hitbox. The first, and so far, only skin, of its kind.
There’s a single Fortnite skin which dataminers have found actually had a slightly different hitbox, the Giant Chicken. It’s visually much bigger than everyone else, which causes real messes with clipping through walls and other areas with his extended parts not having collision. His hitbox is also slightly larger for some reason, but it’s the only time Epic has done this. Everyone else, even the bigger ones, has the same smaller hitbox.
What’s strange is the Chicken doesn’t have a dramatically different hitbox. That’s why 9t has such issues with clipping. The majority of its body is just extra material that doesn’t count. However, it does mean you’ll have a marginally easier time shooting at a Giant Chicken in Fortnite than any other skin added in Fortnite updates since.
Source: Epic Games
Fortnite hitboxes are all pretty much the same, so what makes up the rest of a skin’s body? The hitbox is the core of the character, and some characters can have extra material visually around that. It doesn’t really get in the way during gameplay, and most players probably don’t notice it
Something you’ll probably run into from time to time is Fortnite’s problems with cosmetics. Skins don’t always load in. Often, players will show up as defaults in your game when they’re using skins. Sometimes it even switches after a fight is concluded. This would naturally cause problems if skins had different hitboxes.
Players would be aiming at a hitbox that doesn’t match what other players see. Having Fortnite skin hitboxes as a single standard size stops this from causing problems. It means lower powered platforms can sub out all those big flashy skins for defaults, and gameplay remains the same.
Pretty much all Fortnite skin hitboxes are the same, but does that mean skins don’t affect things? No. Skins of different sizes do impact your gameplay. It’s much more of a factor than how rare Fortnite skin you got.
For a start, big skins take up more screen space. It can be a problem for the especially big ones, who can block out major parts of the screen. Some skins have arms which just aren’t designed for the scoped in view. We saw characters like the Futurama collab skins have designs which completely block the view in first person mode. Others take up way more of the screen when ADSing.
Smaller skins also seem to perform better in an extremely minor way, at least if the “zero-lag” clean skin thinking of the best Fortnite players is true. Then there are skins which have camouflage in one way or another. While the Giant Chicken has a slightly larger hit box, the bigger problem is that’s he’s brightly colored and huge. Pretty hard to miss compared to a sweat skin. The louder skins tend to have a competitive disadvantage.
There’s plenty of minor ways that your pick of Fortnite skin affects gameplay. However, skins do have the same hitboxes outside of that one unique caase.
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