Fortnite: What is the mysterious floating ice sphere and why is it important? – Everything we know so far

A mysterious ice sphere has appeared above Polar Peak on the Fortnite Battle Royale map and many players are confused as to what it is and what it’s there for. 

Having first appeared after the massive v7.20 update went live on January 15, the orb-like has a glassy surface made of ice, has a light blue glow radiating around it, and is located precisely over the courtyard of the castle that sits atop Polar Peak.

Players have obviously tried to build and get close to it, and anyone who ventures within touching distance of the sphere sees their screen get whited out by a swirl of ice and snow.

Furthermore, the sphere continuously emits is a low pitched echoing noise combined with the sounds of the swirling snow, which adds an extra layer of eeriness to its presences.

• Read More: Every change made to Fortnite map in v7.20 update – Polar Peak, Tilted Towers, and more

All this considered, it’s safe assume that the sphere is not there just for aesthetic purposes; there has to be a reason for its addition and data miners have been hard at work trying to figure out what that reason is.

One popular theory is that the sphere is somehow tied to the Ice Storm in-game event that has been leaked and is apparently coming soon to Fortnite.

Not only do the visual aspects and effects of the sphere support this, game files have been discovered that point to this being a very likely possibility.

According to files leaked by prominent data miner Lucas7Yoshi, the sphere will at some point shatter and cue the start of the event, which the developers have seemingly nicknamed ‘Mooney,’ according to the files.

As for the eerie low-pitched noise, Reddit user MomoRM8 has recorded the sound and put it on a spectrograph to see if there’s anything interesting that might show in the scan results.

This is, of course, not a randomly thought of idea; players have always analyzed odd noises in Fortnite using spectrographs and have often been met with teasing and revealing clues.

As was the case then, MomoRM8’s scan in fact did reveal something very interesting about the noise, as can be seen in the results below.

The circled shape in the scan very much resembles the figure used by Epic Games to tease Season 7 prior to its launch, which turned out to be the face of the Legendary Ice King character and cosmetic skin.

It turns out that the presence of the Ice King’s face in the scan is far from a coincidence; Lucas7Yoshi would later discover that hiding inside the floating sphere is none other than the Ice King powering its existence.

Using programming tools, the data miner was able to view a later stage of the sphere in action, and it shows the Ice King inside it a flares of blue fire emanate outwards from its surface.

Although there is no evidence to support or refute this, it’s likely that the video below shows the sphere in one of its stages prior to its final form, which is when the Ice Storm event would supposedly begin.