How to earn free V-Bucks in Fortnite and redeem V-Buck codes

fortnite free v-bucks
(Image credit: Epic Games)
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Everyone wonders how to get free V-Bucks in Fortnite, especially once they've discovered a new skin they love. I'm not ashamed to say I've justified buying new skins as a business expense, be it a robot samurai schoolgirl, an obvious parody of The Dude, or a cartoon cat. You know, flair. All that said, it can be frustrating getting your hands on enough V-Bucks to actually buy them. Thankfully, it's slightly less frustrating ever since Epic dropped V-buck prices by 20%. That makes the average 1,000 V-buck purchase only $7.99 USD instead of $9.99 like years past.

There are a few tried and true ways to get V-bucks in Fortnite, but infinitely more ways that people will try to scam you out of your real-world money, so be careful. We've rounded up a couple of ways that you can safely earn V-bucks.

Free VBucks in Fortnite: How to earn them

Earning through leveling up

Most of Fortnite’s unlockables are tied to each season's battle pass, both the free and premium paid version. V-Bucks are a semi-common reward that can be collected through leveling up and reaching higher tiers with experience points and the game's progression system. You can see what prize you earn at each battle pass tier by checking out that page on the home menu.

It used to be that Fortnite would offer you battle stars, which were basically free tier upgrades that help catapult you through the battle pass. However, they were replaced with a new progression system that rewards you with experience points for fulfilling basic tasks in Fortnite, like lasting to a certain player count, harvesting materials, getting kills, and more. So don't feel like you have to play with the sensibilities of a spartan. You'll get rewarded just for engaging with Fortnite's many other distractions.

Don't forget about Fortnite's mission challenges. Often, completing those lists will net you a few hundred or thousand XP. You can see a full rundown of each mission's reward by simply going to the battle pass tab and selecting the challenge table. Most of these challenges are pretty simple, straightforward tasks, like getting 10,000 damage with a certain kind of weapon. For the more involved challenges, just check out our Fortnite page for all our guides.

Usually, if you make it all the way to level 100 of the battle pass (which is no small task), you'll have acquired approximately 1,500 V-Bucks, which is plenty for a basic battle pass at the start of next season.

Long story short, play enough Fortnite and you'll slowly be rewarded with the occasional batch of free V-bucks.

Getting bonuses from Fortnite: Save the World 

Fortnite’s original mode, Save the World, offers a number of daily challenges, as well as a daily login bonus that gives you V-Bucks just for checking into the game. While that can snag you some easy V-Bucks, the catch here is that you have to buy the game since the core Save the World part of Fortnite isn't free. It’s currently listed at $40 dollars on PC, but it's discounted often.

If you want to take this route and purchase the game, Fortnite V-Bucks can be earned through daily challenges that include destroying objects like fire trucks and TVs, discovering construction sites and parking lots, killing different types of enemies, and completing Storm Shield Defense missions (some of the main quests in the game). Purchasing this mode in the game will net you more V-Bucks than buying them outright, but that initial price tag is fairly high. But put in the time and you'll earn hundreds of V-Bucks with daily log-ins. 

How to redeem Vbuck

Let's say you got a gift card for V-bucks in Fortnite from a family member, or maybe you won something from a favorite streamer. The next step is to redeem it on the store platform of your choice. If you're playing on PC, that'd be the Epic Game Store/Launcher.

After opening the launcher, click on the button on the top right with the first letter of your username. That'll open up a menu, and midway down you'll find "redeem code." Simply enter your code into the page that pops up.

fortnite vbuck codes

(Image credit: Epic Games)

(Image credit: Epic Games)

Avoid free V-Buck scams

A simple Google or YouTube search will net you dozens of results that claim to get you free V-Bucks, this has become such a widespread problem that Epic has addressed it themselves, advising players to avoid any services or websites that claim to offer free V-Bucks. 

The solution is simple: never trust any link or video that claims to get you free V-Bucks that doesn't point to any official, Epic-verified source. They will most likely ask for account, credit card, or other personal information which could be used to steal from you. Never give this info out to a person that claims to be able to give you free in-game currency because it’s almost guaranteed to be fake.

(Image credit: Epic Games)

It's also worth pointing out that engaging in some of these practices, like one YouTuber sharing an exploit that he managed by using the Chinese client of Fortnite, could result in your account getting banned. Epic clearly has no qualms about giving cheaters or scammers the boot, no matter how high-profile they are, as we saw in the FaZe Jarvis incident

Even on a less serious note, these YouTubers who are trying to sucker ten-year-olds often end up spending a stupid amount of time trying to get their own exploits to work. That same YouTuber playing on Chinese Fortnite had a ping of 300 and had to remap all of his buttons in a foreign language. So, in other words, it's just not worth the risk.

Joseph Knoop

Joseph Knoop is a freelance writer specializing in all things Fortnite at PC Gamer. Master of Creative Codes and Fortnite's weekly missions, Joe's always ready with a scoop on Boba Fett or John Wick or whoever the hell is coming to Fortnite this week. It's with a mix of relief and disappointment that he hasn't yet become a Fortnite skin himself. There's always next season...