Fortnite

Fortnite
Active since 2018-06-30
Artifacts from the hugely popular Fortnite are appearing in the real world.
Type	Official
Creator	Epic Games
Discovered	2018-06-30

Main Page > List of Investigations > Fortnite

The Fortnite ARG was an ARG created by Epic Games that appeared to promote Season 5 of Fortnite Battle Royale, a free-to-play battle royale game developed and published by Epic Games. The ARG revolved around a rocket launch that created mysterious rifts spanning the map, leading into the 5th season of Fortnite: Battle Royale, which began on July 12th(2018-07-12).

Rocket Launch

Spectrogram of Audio #1 from the Rocket Launch

Spectrogram of Audio #2 from the Rocket Launch

Throughout June 2018, Epic teased that the rocket would eventually be launched by a character known as The Visitor, who appeared as a skin that could be unlocked by completing weekly challenges in the game. On 2018-06-29, Epic stated that a one time event, the launch of the rocket, would take place the next day at 18:30 UTC. A video of the rocket launch can be found here. During the rocket launch, audio was played while the rocket was in the sky. The same audio was later found in two different forms in the game's files, Audio #1 and Audio #2.

Players, curious about the audio files, decided to analyse their spectrograms. Audio #1's showed the skulls that were present on the TV screens around the map prior to the rocket launch event. Audio #2's shows two sets of numbers that decode to four different coordinates on the game's map. Both are pictured at the right.

Decoding the left set of numbers from Audio #2's spectrogram as ASCII values and the right set of numbers as binary integers results in the following translation:

066 - B, 0b0110 - 6
072 - H, 0b1001 - 9
073 - I, 0b1000 - 8
073 - I, 0b1001 - 9

The coordinates B6, H9, I8, I9, were speculated to be locations related to a leaked game mode that would be taking place at the end of Season 4. Soon after the rocket launch, a massive rift formed in the sky. Shortly afterwards, smaller rifts started to appear in different locations around the map, and over time they both destroyed and created new objects. As of present, rifts have appeared in the following locations:

Lonely Lodge (J4) - Taking the Lonely Lodge sign
Motel (D2) - Taking the Motel sign
Tomato Town (G4) - Taking the tomato on the building
Retail Row (H6) - Taking the NOMS sign
Greasy Grove (C7/B7) - Taking the Durr Burger on the building
Mountain East of Snobby Shores (B6) - Placed an anchor
Hill North East of Prison (I8) - Placed a horse-drawn carriage
Big tree under second 'I' of Moisty Mire (I9) - Placed dinosaur bones

Players speculated that these rifts were teasing new locations for Season 5.

Photo of the items on the desk inside the tent at the Durr Burger Site.

Worlds Collide

IRL Durr Burger which appeared in the California Desert along with Agents investigating it's "anomaly"

Police Car at the Durr Burger Site.

On 2018-07-06, the Twitter account @selashiloni had tweeted out about finding a Durr Burger in a California desert at 15160 E Ave S, Llano, CA 93544. The account had tweeted multiple videos of the burger, and a police car that was designed after the police car located in the game. Soon after, multiple agents appeared at the site, setting up a tent with many different items and putting caution tape around the burger.

Durr Burger Site

Durr Site Tent

At the Durr Burger location, a tent was put up with 13 different items on a desk under the tent. A photo of the items on the desk was taken by a Reddit user.

The items on the desk are listed below:

1. Business Cards	
2. Energizer Hard Case Professional Work Light	
3. UFO Contact From Reticulum by Wendelle C. Stevens, William J. Hermann, and Sharleen M. Spivak	
4. Gods From Outer Space by Erich Von Daniken	
5. The Flying Saucer Reader by Jay David	
6. Flying Saucers 101: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About UFOs and Alien Beings by Harold E. Burt	
7. Super Book of UFOs, Unidentified Flying Objects by Michael Shulan	
8. Empire Level E280 16-Inch Heavy Duty Professional Combination Square w/Etched Stainless Steel Blade and True BlueR Vial	
9. Flying Saucers: Fact or Fiction? by Max B. Miller	
10. Realistic Walkie Talkie	
11. Betty Crocker's Hamburger Cookbook by Betty Crocker	
12. To Men of Earth (Including: White Sands Incident) by Daniel W. Fry Ph.D.
13 (Not Marked, Under 3). UFOs Over the Americas by Jim Lorenzen and Coral Lorenzen	

The purpose of these items is currently not known.

Durr Site Police Car

On-site with the agents & the burger, there was a police cruiser which resemble ones in-game. During a visit, players examined the car on site to reveal the numbers "212" on the inside of the gas cap, the vehicle's VIN (Vehicle Identification Number), and a license plate reading "7WKD070."

It is possible that the license plate is an allusion to the process of the Blockbuster Challenges during season 4, due to the duration being seven weeks, hence 7WK; however, a link for D070 cannot be made.

Durr Site Agents

At the Durr Burger location, multiple agents handed out cards with different agent numbers and a phone number, (712) 380-4091, on the back of the card. The agent numbers were decoded by using a phone keypad to translate the numbers:

Agent #3678 - FORT
Agent #3742 - EPIC
Agent #6483 - NITE

Spectrogram of the second sound file which is C7.

When calling (712) 380-4091 on 2018-07-06, you would get this audio, with a higher quality version available here. When analyzing under a spectrogram, nothing of significance was found.

On 2018-07-08, the sound file played when calling the number from the cards handed out by the agents was changed. The new file can be found here. Spectrogram analysis of this file, pictured left, reveals a hidden code similar to the ones found in the rocket launch sound file. Decoding this code with the same method as the previous codes yields C7, another coordinate from the in-game map.

Loot Llamas

On 2018-07-09, people around Europe found many of the game's Supply Llama's in many different real life locations. The llamas may be related to the recently teased C7 coordinate in the spectrogram of the second audio from the agent phone number. In the C7 region, a tent, a police car, and the former Durr Burger could be found, with a phone booth in the center, much like the phone booth that this llama was found in.

• 

  London, England

• 

  Cologne, Germany

• 

  Barcelona, Spain

• 

  Warsaw, Poland

• 

  London, England

• 

  Cannes, France

• 

  Paris, France

The list of locations in the order of the images is as follows:

1. London, England (51.513021, -0.124785)
2. Cologne, Germany (50.935569, 6.948483)
3. 420 Avinguda Diagonal, Barcelona, Spain (41.395601, 2.156354)
4. Warsaw, Poland (Unknown)
5. London, England (Unknown)
6. Cannes, France (Unknown)
7. Paris, France (48.8539483, 2.3611878) (Currently MIA/robbed)

The Llamas' Call

Spectrogram of the third sound file.

On the early hours of 2018-07-10, a new sound file was discovered by dialing 6 while calling the agents' phone number. Spectrogram analysis revealed the presence of a set of coordinates reversed. The coordinates (48.8539483, 2.3611878) pointed to a location in Paris, France. The location had turned out to be the location of the 7th llama.