There are plenty of reasons why the Fortnite battle pass has been such a successful concept--it's a lot of stuff for not much money, FOMO, etc. But for me, as a collector, I appreciate that many of the highest-quality skins in Fortnite come from battle passes. Not every battle pass skin is a banger, of course--no pass has ever had a perfect record, and that includes the pass for Chapter 4 Season 4.

But while they aren't all home run hitters this time out, there's plenty to love in this battle pass. The emotes that are included are probably the best group of battle pass emotes in this chapter, and oddly enough we've got a really great group of contrails, as well.

At a glance, this battle pass is rather low-key. There's no broad appeal collaboration here, with TikToker Khaby Lame and Star Wars TV character Ahsoka serving very specific demographic targets while being vaguely offputting for everyone else, at least in the abstract. Neither of them is part of the collective consciousness in even remotely the same sort of way that, say, Darth Vader or Spider-Man are. But the quality of most of the skins in this pass, including those collabs, is so high that it ends up being pretty hard to hate them. Well, most of them, anyway. There's certainly one skin in this group that I outright dislike--but all the rest have serious potential.

Let's not waste any more of your or my time musing in the introduction. Let's pass some judgment.

8. Nolan Chance

Imagine an Ocean's 11 reboot starring Ninja as Danny Ocean. That's pretty much the vibe I get from Nolan Chance, and I absolutely hate it. His masked alt style looks like a guy they'd sell for 800 V-Bucks in the shop, but that mask could have been Nolan's saving grace if he could wear it with his nice heist suit. Alas, he cannot.

7. Khaby Lame

I'm an adult in my mid-30s who doesn't use TikTok, so the general appeal of a Khaby Lame skin doesn't exist for me at all. This default style is fine, though, and his anime alt style makes him look like a Dragon Ball character. If you can forget that he's a TikTok guy, that cel-shaded style is excellent. It just might take a while to let that TikTok thing go.

6. Ahsoka

I didn't enjoy the premiere of the Ahsoka series on Disney+, so her inclusion on the pass wasn't my favorite news this week. That said, this is a high-quality, heavily detailed outfit, and I'm a huge sucker for skins that make use of the likenesses of real people--Rosario Dawson, in this case--and so Ahsoka is one of those battle pass skins that could grow on me over time. It's quite odd that she doesn't have a Clone Wars-style alt look, however.

5. Piper Pace

This season's tomboy/Final Fantasy sidekick is a getaway driver/pizza delivery girl, and her jacket style is pretty slick. The style without the jacket makes her look like Paradigm Jr., though, and I'm not sure that's all that cool.

4. Kado Thorne

As a connoisseur of weird skins, Kado Thorne should be firmly in my wheelhouse. But his vampire style is just a bit too clean--I prefer my monster men to be more disgusting. For comparison, check out Fortnite's previous vampire bat skin, Graveyard Drift. His face is uglier, and I like that. This vampire form is just too handsome.

3. Mae

I wanna dock Mae for looking like an alt style for Court Queen Erisa that they tried to disguise by giving her a second braid. But who am I kidding--Court Queen Erisa rules, and I'm glad to have another, similarly adorable bucket hat anime girl in my locker to fight kids online with. That neon alternate style does a lot of work to set Mae apart, though, and she's gonna be a common sight in Fortnite for a long time.

2. Antonia

Everybody was hoping for a new Midas, but instead we got Nolan Chance (ugh) and Antonia--who puts a very slick futuristic spin on that Midas/Marigold look. The color scheme options are all super dope, as is the inclusion of masked styles, and she's got the sort of thin frame that sweaty competitive players love--Antonia will be a staple in the Fortnite Championship Series for a long time. But she's so awesome that the rest of us will use her plenty, too.

1. Fish Thicc

Most of my favorite Fortnite skins are anthropomorphic animals or objects--and the fish people are my favorite subsection within that group. Fish Thicc is the first one of those to use a different body type, which is fun, and the faux-Punisher alt style is so inexplicable that I can't help but feel some kind of affection for it. This skin is just weird, memey nonsense, and Fortnite will always need that as often as possible.