Crimson Desert's Kliff MacDuff is getting a Fortnite skin, but you must pledge your allegiance to Epic to get it

I should be numb to it by now, but I’m still constantly surprised by some of the Fortnite crossovers that get announced. Many just make sense – the mini season themed around The Simpsons was great. Others just fry my brain a little – I mean, The Office? Really? However, I do quite enjoy seeing some of gaming’s most iconic characters battling it out on the same ridiculous island. Solid Snake. Master Chief. Geralt of Riva. Soon, they’ll be joined by one Kliff MacDuff, the terrifically named lead of upcoming fantasy game Crimson Desert. That’s right, the grizzled member of the Greymanes is getting his own Fortnite skin, but there’s a catch, as you’ll need to pre-order Crimson Desert on the Epic Games Store to get it.

Now, there’s been plenty of, erm, healthy discussion this week about the Epic Games Store and exclusivity – Remedy Entertainment recently downplayed claims that making Alan Wake 2 an EGS exclusive led them to “financial crisis.” While maybe not as big a talking point, locking a Fortnite skin behind pre-ordering one of 2026’s most promising new games on your platform could rub some up the wrong way. Having just gone gold and affirming its March launch date, Crimson Desert has now revealed this pre-order incentive, and there’s a chance its limited distribution may be rued in the future.

I’m not predicting that Crimson Desert will definitely be a classic, or that Kliff MacDuff will become as iconic a name as those mentioned earlier, but there is a chance. From what I’ve played of Pearl Abyss’ open-world epic already, it’s shaping up to have one of the most exciting and broad combat sandboxes around. It’s also promising great exploration, with secrets and unexpected locations scattered around the world of Pywel. If the game delivers, Kliff may one day become a famous, beloved character – a name that striking and memorable gives him an even better chance, too.

So there’s a possibility that, in the future, you’ll log into Fortnite and see Kliff running around in the pre-game lobby and feel a pang of frustration and regret. Maybe the skin will be available by some other means eventually, but right now, it appears that getting Crimson Desert on EGS is the only way.

We haven’t actually seen what his skin looks like yet, but it’ll likely reflect the base appearance we see in Crimson Desert’s promo art and trailers – rugged black armor, jet black hair, and those blue stripes across his face. It’s not clear at the moment whether there’ll also be a special pickaxe or back bling with this Kliff skin, but his sword and shield could work for those.

One of the coolest abilities in Crimson Desert (and an area where it does actually share some common ground with Fortnite) is that Kliff has a magical ability that lets him make a glider out of black, tentacle-like entities. This lets him soar around the game’s vast open world, and Fortnite could definitely make a bespoke glider item with that as inspiration.

Pearl Abyss says more info will be revealed soon about the Kliff MacDuff Fortnite skin, but we do know that you can secure it right now by pre-ordering Crimson Desert on the Epic Games Store. You’ll also be granted the skin if you simply buy the game from EGS after the Crimson Desert release date of Thursday, March 19 has passed, so there’s not an immediate rush.

It’s worth noting that Crimson Desert is not an Epic Games Store PC exclusive, it’s just the Fortnite skin that is. You’ll also be able to play it on Steam if that’s your platform of choice (and you’re not too worried about seeing Kliff hit The Griddy).