Honestly, looking back at the launch of Underground, it’s easy to forget how much of a seismic shift the Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1 Battle Pass actually represented. It wasn't just another 100 tiers of cosmetics. It was the moment Epic Games decided to turn their battle royale into a "platform." You had the high-octane racing, the LEGO survival stuff, and a rhythm game all fighting for your attention, but the Battle Pass was the glue holding it all together.
Some people hated the movement changes. Others were obsessed with the new weapon mods. But almost everyone had an opinion on Peter Griffin being in the game. It felt surreal.
The Peter Griffin Factor and the Power of Memes
Let’s be real for a second. The inclusion of Peter Griffin from Family Guy was the biggest draw of the Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1 Battle Pass, and it wasn't even close. For years, "Peter Griffin in Fortnite" was a literal meme—a fake leak that people joked about on Reddit and Twitter. When Epic actually did it, they knew exactly what they were doing.
But they didn't just port the character model. They gave him a "buff" version because, as the lore goes, the "slurp juice" got him ripped. It was a clever way to avoid the massive hitbox issues that would have come with his traditional design. You unlocked him at Level 70, and his "Bird is the Word" emote became an instant, albeit annoying, staple of every lobby.
Then you had Oscar. He's this refined, tuxedo-wearing tiger that basically looks like he walked out of a high-end fashion ad but wants to hunt you down with an auto-shotgun. The contrast between these characters is what makes Fortnite, well, Fortnite. You've got a French revolutionary like Valerie, a stone-cold elite like Montague, and then a cartoon dad from Quahog. It shouldn't work. It weirdly does.
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Solid Snake and the Quest for Stealth
A lot of players forget that Solid Snake wasn't available on day one. He was the "Secret Skin," though "secret" is a bit of a stretch since his face was plastered all over the promotional material from the jump. Unlocking Snake required a specific set of challenges that dropped mid-season.
These weren't just "deal damage" quests. You had to use the EMP Stealth Camo and hide in Cardboard Boxes. It was a genuine nod to the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Most players focused on the "Old Snake" style, which provided that gritty, veteran look that stood out against the more vibrant, neon-soaked aesthetics of the Underground season.
The Grind: V-Bucks and Leveling Logic
If you're looking at the Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1 Battle Pass from a value perspective, it followed the standard 950 V-Buck cost. If you completed the whole thing, you walked away with 1,500 V-Bucks. That’s essentially a 550 V-Buck profit.
The leveling system changed here, too. Because Epic launched LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival simultaneously, you could suddenly earn Battle Pass XP by playing things that weren't Battle Royale. You could literally spend five hours building a village in LEGO and come back to the lobby to find you’d jumped ten tiers.
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- Nisha: The duelist with the fencing mask.
- Hope: The "rebel" lead character who played a massive role in the narrative.
- Montague: A diamond-skinned villain who looked like he belonged in a Bond movie.
Some people found the "Underground" theme a bit muddy compared to the clean lines of Chapter 4, but the sheer variety of styles—from street chic to high-fantasy—covered almost every player's niche.
Why the Weapon Mods Changed the Value Prop
In previous seasons, a skin was just a skin. In Chapter 5 Season 1, the Battle Pass skins felt more tied to the gameplay because of the introduction of Weapon Mod Benches. When you saw an NPC like Oscar or Nisha on the map, you knew you weren't just fighting for a victory; you were fighting for their Mythic weapon.
Oscar’s Frenzy Auto Shotgun was arguably the most broken weapon of the season. If you had that in the final circle, you were basically guaranteed a win unless you choked a snipe. The Battle Pass characters acted as the "bosses" of the map, creating a loop where you were playing as the characters you were trying to defeat in the vaults.
It’s also worth noting the "Super Styles." These are the high-level rewards for people who push past Level 100. The Glasswork, Radiant Blue, and Gilded Elite styles for Montague and Valerie were particularly sought after because of how they interacted with the game's lighting engine.
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The Controversy of the Movement Update
We can’t talk about this specific Battle Pass era without mentioning the movement. Epic tweaked the animations—making them more "realistic"—which slowed down the base walking speed. The community went into a full-blown meltdown.
Even though the Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1 Battle Pass was packed with great content, the early conversation was dominated by how the characters moved. It felt clunky. Epic eventually sped things up again, but for the first few weeks, using a skin like Peter Griffin felt like navigating a tank through molasses.
What You Should Do Now
If you missed out on this season, unfortunately, Battle Pass items from this era are currently considered exclusive and won't return to the Item Shop—though Epic has hinted at changing this policy for future passes. For those who do have these skins in their locker, here is how to maximize their utility in the current meta:
- Check your Archive: If your locker is cluttered with the 100+ items from Chapter 5, archive the "fluff" like the basic stickers and emoticons to find the high-quality skins like Hope and Montague faster.
- Combo with LEGO: Remember that almost every skin from the Chapter 5 Season 1 pass has a high-fidelity LEGO variant. If you’re playing survival modes, Hope and Oscar have some of the most detailed brick versions in the game.
- Snake’s Utility: If you’re playing in "OG" or creative maps that allow for stealth, Solid Snake’s darker color palette still offers a genuine tactical advantage in shadows compared to the brighter, more "modern" Fortnite skins.
- V-Buck Management: If you haven't spent the 1,500 V-Bucks you earned from that season, save them for the upcoming "mini-passes" which often provide better value-per-item than the standard daily shop rotations.
The legacy of Chapter 5 Season 1 isn't just about the skins; it's about the moment Fortnite stopped being a game and started being a hub. Whether that’s a good thing is still being debated by the fans, but the quality of that first Chapter 5 pass is hard to deny.