The 10 Best Fortnite Pickaxes in 2023
Fortnite is a game that strongly goes against pay-to-win practices, despite being completely free. This means that certain items in the game can never have any gameplay advantages, no matter how much you paid for them.
One such item is the pickaxe - which lets you deal mild damage to enemies and break everything in sight. Though its gameplay stats are always similar - the developers change them visually in creative ways. For example, some of them are a single sword, while others can be things like claws, and lightsabers.
With hundreds to choose from, picking a few is not easy. But it's undeniable that some pickaxes are just outright special.
Thus, here's our list for the top 10 best Fortnite pickaxes!
The Best Fortnite Pickaxes
Although we are picking the best pickaxes from Fortnite, this list is not necessarily ranked in order. We love all of them equally – and we hope you feel the same way.
1. Captain America's Shield
Whether Captain America is your favorite character or not – there is something about the shield that just makes you want to have it. A sense of responsibility, and power too. After all, it’s made out of Adamantium, and often designed by none other than Howard Stark himself in the canon.
You can wear it on your arm and break stuff around with it. And additionally, if you get the shield Back Bling too – then it even comes on and off based on whether you’re using it or not. Which makes it especially special, because not a lot of pickaxes in Fortnite share this interactive quality.
This pickaxe was paired with the Captain America skin in Fortnite. And that includes Sam too – not just Steve.
2. Leviathan Axe
Even though there is a pickaxe in Fortnite that suspiciously looks like the Blade of Chaos – that’s not what the developers gave us with the God of War collaboration. Instead, we got Kratos’ trusted Leviathan Axe which was an absolute delight to use in the 2018 video game. And of course, it did not lose its relevance in Ragnarok either.
The best part about this axe is that it does not just look cool – it actually comes with the freezing effect from the game too. The more you use it, the more it freezes. And lastly, it has an emote too which lets you freeze it a little and then knock that snow off to show off your attitude.
3. Soulfire Chains
The Soulfire Chains are hands down one of the coolest sets of weapons in the world of comic books. Ghost Rider swings these chains around to subdue and eliminate his foes, trapping them inside hot iron that melts them away.
Not only are these dual pickaxes so cool to use – they also come with an explosive fire effect that makes sure that you remember who they belong to.
My favorite part about this is that this pickaxe suits a lot of other characters too, such as Kratos to name an immediate example.
4. Plasmacore Claws
Claws are a very creative way to give pickaxes more variety, since your character then swings their hands around. And one of the best-looking claws in Fortnite are the Plasmacore Claws – which are a part of the latest Battle Pass as of writing this guide. Though they match the Mizuki skin a lot, you can find many other characters that these claws look good on.
There are also two colors for this pickaxe in the game, so you can unlock the extra one if you are willing to put in the effort. So, customizable, dual-wielded, and they come with unique animation? We’ve got a contender of one of the best pickaxes in Fortnite right here.
5. Phantasmic Pulse
Fortnite offers a good deal of customization for some of the character skins that you can find in the game. However, the same cannot be said for pickaxes as they usually only offer a few extra variations.
Fortunately, there is one exception called the Phantasmic Pulse which offers a ridiculous amount of customization. Firstly, there are three different visual styles for it that you can choose from. And then, we have a long list of primary and secondary colors that you can mix up too. It’s easily one of the best pickaxes in Fortnite thanks to the freedom it gives to the player.
6. Swag Smasher
Sometimes, all you need is a little bit of pirate magic in your life. And what better way to go about it than to have a golden treasure chest engulfed in a dangerous octopus. Of course, this is no ordinary octopus either, it’s keeping guard and holding a sword that is stuck inside the aforementioned chest.
Not only is this a great pickaxe in terms of its theme, but its animation also makes it stand out too since not a lot of them have a living being attached to them. Last but not least – this pickaxe is kind of rare too since only old players have it and it hasn’t been back to the item shop in recent times.
7. Star Wand
Star Wand is one of the best-known pickaxes in Fortnite and there are a number of reasons behind it. Firstly, it looks adorable and has a smiling star accompanying the top end of it – which is as joyful as it sounds despite all the people trying to shoot each other.
Secondly, this pickaxe has unique sound and visual effects that pop up every now and then, based on what you’re doing in the game. And that makes it one of the liveliest pickaxes that you can use in the game, because only a very few of them react to different changes on the battlefield.
8. Astral Axe
When it comes to beauty in Fortnite, the Interstellar set is always on top of the list due to its dreamy design. The best part of it comes in the form of the Astral Axe, which has beautiful shades of color and a design that looks like a wonderful crescent.
Even though the skin isn’t tagged as reactive, it does have active animation in the game and changes shade based on what you’re doing. And it glows brighter when you don’t use it for a while. Thus, it’s nothing short of eye candy and a great pickaxe altogether.
9. Gum Brawler
Everyone loves a good game of whack-a-mole, and hammers are a pretty good weapon overall too. This list would be incomplete without a hammer since the entire point of pickaxes in Fortnite is smashing things – and our favorite is the Gum Brawler due to its hilarious design.
It comes in three color schemes which all look pretty good. And the best part is that there’s a small gum person stuck on its spikey design, who even shakes around when the player is moving.
We do feel bad for the gum person, but him being there is also what makes this hammer worthy of this list.
10. Designated Hitters
The Harley Quinn bat in Fortnite is pretty good – but I personally prefer this dual pickaxe set instead. It comes with a unique color combination of yellow and red which makes a surprisingly good contrast, and it has a spikey design that truly looks like it’d hurt.
On top of that, it has an alternate style too which has a blue flame burning on its top – which looks just as cool as it sounds. It’s a great package overall and can satisfy anyone who likes to use bats in combat.
That’s it for our list of the top 10 best pickaxes in Fortnite!
We hope that you like these as much as we do, but we know that there must be many fan-favorites that we did not include. After all, it was difficult even for us to pick only ten, but we’re very happy with the result. For more Fortnite goodness, keep browsing Esports Driven.
