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Your support makes all the difference.Fortnite, after being hit by an asteroid, has disappeared and been replaced by a huge black hole.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.
People are seeing the black hole, according to Tfue's live stream.
But eventually that resolves into the cinematic trailer, which was leaked earlier and which you can see below.
Fortnite's official website is still offline, which means we still can't see the patch notes.
If you still haven't got the update, make sure to quit the game and check on your console or launcher that it's not waiting to be downloaded.
The update is going down very well with streamers. Tfue just described his first go at it as the sickest game of Fortnite he's ever played.
The Fortnite website is live again. You can see all of Epic's information about the new update here.
Here are all the updates, from Epic's official page:
Drop into a new world
Choose your landing spot and explore an all-new island featuring 13 new locations
New water gameplay
Swimming, fishing, motorboats and more.
Support your squad
Heal your squad with the bandage bazooka, carry your fallen teammates to safety, and celebrate with new group emotes like high fives.
Hideouts and explosives
Hide in haystacks and dumpsters to get the drop on your opponent or go in blazing by blowing up gas tanks and explosive barrels.
Upgraded combat
Get back to basics and battle enemies with a streamlined weapon arsenal. Upgrade weapons using resources at the upgrade bench.
More fun, less grind
Level through an all new battle pass featuring a brand new XP system and medals you earn in match.
On Tfue's stream, players are speculating the new skins (of which there are many) are causing problems for performance. So if you get in and it feels laggy, it might be worth trying the default skin or similar to see if that improves the speed.
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