How to get the Harley Quinn skin in Fortnite and complete Birds of Prey challenges
Here's how to put on your virtual clown makeup.
The first major crossover for Fortnite: Battle Royale since December's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker event is here, and it features Harley frickin' Quinn to celebrate the Birds of Prey theatrical release on February 7.
How can Fortnite players dress up like the Maiden of Mayhem and wreak havoc on trees, buildings, rocks, and more with a giant hammer pickaxe? Here's what you need to know about Fortnite X Birds of Prey, the fantabulous follow-up to Warner Bros.' previous Batman crossover in the game.
Renowned Fortnite leaker Lucas7Yoshi first teased the existence of a Harley Quinn bundle via Twitter on Wednesday when they discovered its existence within the game's files, along with a small batch of new challenges. That came more than a week after the official Fortnite Twitter account tweeted "See you soon Harley!" to a Warner Bros. tweet featuring the Birds of Prey cast. So it should come as no surprise that on Thursday — the same day the earliest public screenings of the film happen — Fortnite officially confirmed the crossover.
Epic Games explained in a blog post that "Harley Quinn, Gotham City’s iconic Maiden of Mayhem, arrives in Fortnite starting February 6 at 7:00 [p.m. Eastern]." The Harley Quinn Bundle includes the Harley Quinn Outfit, along with the Harley Hitter and Punchline pickaxes. In other words, Harley's two pickaxes are her signature baseball bat and oversized hammer. Both of these should be fun improvements on most pickaxe variations, but they won't ever compare to lightsabers.
The default Harley skin is called Lil Monster XoXo Harley, referencing the character's outfit from Suicide Squad where Harley wore a crop top that said "Daddy's Lil Monster." At that point in time, Harley was still madly in love with the Joker, but the core premise of Birds of Prey is about their breakup with Harley learning to become a more independent woman. Hence the full title: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).
As such, through completing a short series of straightforward challenges in Fortnite after purchasing the Harley Quinn Bundle, players can unlock the option to change the skin to Always Fantabulous Harley, an obvious transformation that reflects her newfound independence.
Lucas7Yoshi leaked the Harley Quinn-focused challenges before they were officially released.
At face value, these challenges might not feel particularly themed at all, but they actually resonate with the character pretty well. Harley is almost always seen wielding some kind of weapon, so smacking an enemy with her big hammer or baseball bat, aka "deal damage with pickaxes to opponents," feels like something Harley would do. Hitting weak points also feels like a light riff on her tendency to aim for kneecaps and other vulnerable parts of her enemies when using the aforementioned bludgeoning weapons. And Harley's also pretty fantabulous, so obviously she should be ranking pretty high in any kind of battle royale scenario, right? The themed nature of these challenges feels subtle, but we're into it.
Epic Games notes in the blog post that Harley Quinn will remain in the Item Shop until February 17, which isn't too long before Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 2 is slated to begin.
The Fortnite crossover with Birds of Prey will run from February 6 to 17.
