Friday 'Nite is a weekly Fortnite column in which Mark Delaney takes a closer look at current events in the wide world of Fortnite, with a special emphasis on the game's plot, characters, and lore.

The Fortnite story is an ever-changing and unpredictable adventure full of timeloops, kaiju battles, hostile invasions from Marvel baddies, and the more-than-occasional dancing banana. Epic loves to stay tight-lipped on the official plot, which leaves the community of players, writers, and YouTubers to fill in the gaps to the best of their abilities. While some of the story comes to us as merely our best guesswork, other aspects of the story are considered canon. The game's massive cast of characters is always a point of emphasis. What are their motivations? Where did they come from? How come that one looks like a tree?

In this updated feature for 2022, we're taking a fresh look at the 10 most important characters in Fortnite lore. We last published this list in November 2021, and as you can see below, there's been a lot of movement based on characters arriving on the scene, disappearing, or even dying off. We'll continue to revisit the Fortnite story and rank the most important Fortnite characters, so bookmark this page so you don't miss a story beat.