Fortnite season 11: What is Chapter 2, what has changed in patch note update and what was the black hole?
The black hole that replaced the game has some strange Easter eggs and a series of mystery numbers – but nothing that adds up to a clue
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Your support makes all the difference.Fortnite, after being hit by an asteroid, has disappeared and been replaced by a huge black hole.
The game is completely unplayable at the moment, with players unable to start a game and instead simply having to view that black hole as it swirls around.
The events mark the end of Fortnite's Season 10, and presumably the start of Season 11. But they are wrapped in mystery, amid feverish speculation about what will happen next.
Fortnite Season 11/Chapter 2 is now out. For everything you need to know, click here.
What happened?
Fortnite is destroyed – and in its place is just a big black hole.
Developers Epic Games had long teased an event called "The End", which would come on 13 October. It was supplemented by a big countdown clock in the game, which suggested that something big would happen when it reached zero.
And it did. Players that were inside the game saw a flurry of falling asteroids, which destroyed the game – they then fell into a black hole, which replaced the entire universe of the game.
Now, that's all players can see if they try and play. And it's all Epic will say about it, too, since it deleted its social channels and replaced them with a live stream of the black hole.
Can I play Fortnite now?
No. Anyone trying to will be greeted with the black hole.
There is, seemingly, no way around this – no trick to get back into Season 10 or play an older version of the game. Since the battle royale part of the game (and the story mode, too) rely on network features, Epic is able to change or destroy the game whenever it wants and there is no way for players to stop it happening.
Fortnite does include a minigame, however, if you wish to do something in the game. If you open up the black hole and do the Konami Code, a minigame will pop up – though it isn't anything like Fortnite.
There are of course a variety of other battle royale games in which you can get your fix – and some of them, like Apex Legends, are free. So those could be a good way to get your fix while you wait.
But ultimately there is no real way around the outage. Fortnite is down until Epic makes it come back.
Is Fortnite going to come back?
It is almost certainly going to come back. There are a variety of clues, but the ultimate evidence is outside the game: Epic makes vast amounts of money from Fortnite, and it would be very unusual for developers to throw it all away.
That means that after all of this will presumably come Season 11, or whatever Epic chooses to name the next installment of the game.
But we don't know when, how, or with what changes. It may come back in an entirely different form – perhaps, for instance, with a completely different map.
Are there any clues about what will happen next?
Epic has started to offer hints. But it's not clear what exactly they mean, or whether they mean anything at all.
The most meaningful one is the fact that, occasionally, numbers come out of the black hole.
Players found that the first of those numbers, when put into Google Maps, sent players to a huge gathering of crustaceans on a beach – that is, a crab rave, just like the meme. That suggests the numbers could be a largely meaningless joke meant to frustrate users.
New numbers have also started coming out: in addition to the crab numbers (11, 146, 15, and 62), the game is also spewing forth others (87, 14, 106, 2, and 150). The significance of those – whether they are more co-ordinates, or if all of the numbers will eventually form into one big clue – is still a mystery.
Jordan Fisher, a singer who plays Fortnite, has posted this cryptic series of tweets:
He notably says I'll be live, not it'll be live. But still – does that mean the game will be up at 12am PST, and he'll be able to stream it? Does it mean something else entirely? Who knows.
(12am PST is 8am in the UK.)
It certainly doesn't look from Ninja's Instagram stories like he expects there to be an update tonight...
The numbers are coming out of the black hole again (and some people are even suggesting they're coming out faster than before).
But they do appear to be the same numbers, so that might not mean anything.
That's it for tonight: we've reached the end of the day and the game hasn't gone live and doesn't show any sign of doing so any time soon.
In summary, there have been some clues, but only snatches of them and with little substance. What clues there are suggest that the game won't be live until some time on Tuesday – meaning that it will be down for around 36 hours, at least.
We'll be back first thing to see if it's up, and either commiserate or celebrate with you. Until then, good night, and enjoy that blue swirling void!
It's a new day, but still the old black hole. Nothing to report from overnight.
Both PlayStation Network and Xbox Live were hit by problems overnight, according to tracking website Downdetector. They're almost certainly not linked – but it has been a frustrating couple of days to be a gamer!
Streamer Tfue has gone live – and is suggesting that Season 11 or Fortnite 2 is about to kick off. Does he know something we don't?
Nick Eh 30 has gone live too – and written a similar, cryptic message about the update arriving soon...
(Given these streamers are in the US, it's a very unusual time to be waking up: it's 3.30am on the east coast. Why would they be waking up so early?)
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