Fortnite is heading underground. Following The Big Bang event on Saturday, which led to the destruction of the Chapter 4 island, some big changes are coming to the battle royale in a new season dubbed “Underground.” That includes a new island, gameplay features like boss battles, Lego skins, and of course more licensed characters like Metal Gear’s Solid Snake and Peter Griffin from Family Guy.
Let’s start with the island. In the update — which brings the game to Chapter 5: Season 1 — the battle royale island has been completely changed, which means a number of new locations. There’s a railway — complete with a train you can actually travel on — as well as marinas, mansions, and an all-new grassland area. There’s also quite a bit of snow.
As for gameplay changes, the island is now littered with five boss characters — one of whom is Peter Griffin. Defeating them will earn players a medallion with a very useful feature: the ability to regenerate shields over time. But it comes with a drawback as well, as holding onto a medallion will alert other players to your location on the map. “The more medallions you have, the more precise the radius of your exact location,” Epic says.
Other additions include: an SUV to drive around in, a weapon called the Ballistic Shield that let’s you “defend yourself with the shield while shooting the pistol at the same time,” the option to move while healing or restoring shields, and the ability to mod weapons in certain locations around the island. There’s also a new kind of in-game cosmetic; now, in addition to customizing your character and weapons, you can customize vehicles. You can choose different bodies, decals, and wheels, and once you hop in a sports car in game, the vehicle will shift to your choices. (Certain items from Rocket League will carry over for those who play both games.)
For those who snag this season’s battle pass, they’ll eventually be able to unlock all of the new boss characters, alongside a new version of Jones and, later on in the season, Solid Snake.
And then there’s the Lego. On Saturday, Epic announced an upcoming in-game experience called Lego Fortnite, part of an ongoing partnership that’s described as a “survival crafting” game that will launch inside of Fortnite on December 7th. But the collaboration also extends to the game’s skins. Most existing skins — over 1,200, according to Epic — will include a Lego style option which does exactly what it sounds like, rendering characters like Peely the banana in Lego bricks. It appears that these styles will only be useable in Lego experiences inside of Fortnite, however.
The launch of Chapter 5 comes at a very busy time for Fortnite. The game received a huge boost in popularity with the release of Fortnite OG in November, which brought back the original island and many fan-favorite locations, items, and characters. According to Epic, this led to the biggest day in the game’s history, with more than 44 million players on November 4th. This all culminated with The Big Bang live event on Saturday, which not only saw the Chapter 4 island destroyed, but also featured a virtual concert from Eminem.
