What does the gold hand mean?
Epic Games
Fortnite is currently in its longest season since the game’s start. The new season — Chapter 2 season 2 — is set to launch on Feb. 20, and to get the hype going, developer Epic Games started an international alternate reality game.
On Sunday, posters and digital advertisements for Fortnite began appearing in cities across the globe. These ads show a gold handprint and a local number to call that has a recording referencing an agency. The first advertisement seen by Fortnite fans was at a metro station in Brazil, according to one data miner.
A sort of ad for Fortnite showed up at a metro station in Brazil. When you call the phone number, it says this:
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Yes sir
The agents were called
Card to access the safe(vault) purchasedPotential ARG?
— FortTory – Fortnite Leaks & News (@FortTory) February 16, 2020
The number on the ad is a recording that says in Portuguese, “The agents were called. Card to access the safe purchased.”
Another Fortnite poster with the golden handprint and phone number was found in Russia.
A Fortnite data miner compiled the list of numbers, messages and locations into a tweet Monday. The recordings mention agents being recruited and then mobilizing. There’s also a reference to a mission changing.
Another data miner compiled all the voice recordings into one video clip.
A German number was found Monday afternoon, and its voice message mentions some map coordinates: D3, G4 and F2. So far there have been no discoveries in those areas.
On the official Fortnite Discord Sunday, a bot called The Agency began recruiting members seemingly at random.
Then on Monday morning, the official Fortnite Twitter account sent a tweet saying “Transmission Intercepted” while the rest of the message was whited out similar to a document with redacted info.
Not long after that initial post, the account tweeted a second image with part of the whited-out text revealing showing “FN.CH02.S02,” which likely refers to Fortnite Chapter 2 season 2.
The Fortnite account tweeted a third time Monday with a third image that revealed more. This time, the word “origins” can be seen. The third image resembles a face with several words on it.
Monday evening saw a fourth tweet from the Fortnite Twitter account. This time, the final text was revealed, “Origin == Au” and the start of Chapter 2 season 2, “022020” or Feb. 20, 2020.
Au is the periodic symbol for gold, which ties into the gold handprint and theme used in the teases. The completed image, however, does not have a clear meaning as of now.
What exactly this agency refers to and how this will change the game will likely be made clear in the coming days when Fortnite Chapter 2 season starts on Feb. 20.
Fortnite is available for PC, PS4, Android, iOS, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
This article was originally published on Feb. 17 and is updated when new information is discovered.