For the past few months, keen eyed players of Fortnite: Battle Royale have noticed a small glowing object in the sky somewhere over the popular landing location of Tilted Towers.
It started as a tiny light in the sky, barely visible in the daylight, but it gained more attention when players noticed the object was slowly getting brighter. As time passed, the object grew close enough to look definitively like a meteor burning through the atmosphere. While the meteor isn't visibly moving in the game, it's clear that the developers of Fortnite are up to something.
It could just be an Easter egg for dedicated fans to ponder over, yet other clues indicate that this may be a hint of things to come in Fortnite’s fourth season set to start April 30th. Here's everything we know so far.
Update 4/27: Impact begins
As players are pointing out on Twitter, the Fortnite meteors are finally making impact. Meteors can be seen hitting the ground in a variety of locations (including popular landing spot Titled Towers), though they don't seem to be destroying or modifying the map in any way -- yet. This seems like the final breaking point before some major changes for Fortnite's Season 4, which Epic teased today.
The meteor is positioned near Tilted Towers
The position of the meteor over Tilted Towers suggests it may be on a collision course with this popular landing spot. If this is the case, then it likely means the developers have some plans for changing the layout of that area in a future update. If you're hoping for something as dramatic as a live impact event, you probably shouldn't hold your breath. Perhaps it will be replaced with an impact crater with less loot to encourage players to land in different areas of the map more often.
Telescopes can be found on nearby hills pointed at the meteor
Elsewhere on the map you can find telescopes pointed in the direction of Tilted Towers and the meteor’s position in the sky. In recent updates, Epic has added treasure chests next to these telescopes. so it’s not like the developers want this to be a secret. If anything, they’re trying to draw our attention to these hints.
Morse code signals have been discovered
If all of that weren’t enough to suggest something’s afoot, several players have said their controllers have begun vibrating suspiciously when close to the meteor’s position. Because the vibrations come in a series of short and long bursts, it caused Reddit user Vigilancefoetracer to translate the pattern using Morse code.
The result is “SOS D5 418”. SOS is a universal distress signal, D5 is the map coordinates in Fortnite for the location of Tilted Towers and 418 could mean April 2018 or perhaps April 18th. If this is proof of anything, then it’s also proof that it’s happening soon.
MORE: Why Is Fortnite So Damn Popular — and Will It Last?
Other space-themed content has been added
All of this mysterious activity could also be a hint about additional content coming to Fortnite, like a new map or new mode, that is in some way outer-space-themed. Aside from the encroaching meteor itself, space suit skins have shown up for sale and to earn in the Battle Pass, as have space themed harvesting tools. A recent update brought with it some new secrets in the game’s code that a few internet sleuths have uncovered. Namely a file listed in a “Playlists” directory called “Playlist_Impact_Solo,” giving further credence to new space-themed content and perhaps a new gameplay mode involving the impact of this very meteor.
The new replay camera uncovers more secrets
After a recent update that added a replay mode that lets players freely control the camera and pause the action, people have taken the opportunity to more closely examine the sky around the meteor. Shooting stars can now be seen in various places and in the meteor’s tail, which now looks much more like a comet than a meteor. The new replay camera has also let players take a peek under the map to find a strange oval object beneath Tilted Towers. It’s uncertain how long it’s been there, and it seems to have been removed in a subsequent patch, but it’s possible this is a placeholder object that will turn into the meteor once it lands in a future update.
Credit: Epic Games
