Is The Division 2 sending secret messages via flashing lights and Morse code?
Joy Division.
Players believe a room hidden within The Division 2 is communicating secrets by way of lights flashing Morse code.
While we've not intentionally included any plot or story information in this story, there may be accidental spoilers here, so if you've yet to play or would prefer to uncover this for yourself, please click away now.
According to a Reddit thread (thanks, Joe Parlock), players believe the lights may be intimating clues about a hidden - or possibly upcoming - mission concerning the Washington Court Hotel.
"So everybody knows the secret mission and the weird G. Phillips Protocol side mission after it, you go into the house, open the doors, and mission complete, inside there's some loot and that's it..." wrote u/Ancop. "Something is off. First, remember Manny telling you it was morse code? Well, this lamp is flickering in a pattern.
"You can see how it dims and stops in a pattern. Then there's this downstairs - after you shoot out the lightbulbs there are those flashlights aimed at the corners of the room. I don't know, but somethings up with that room."
"I think there's more to this room than meets the eye, but I haven't figured it out yet," agreed u/DocEnglish. "1. The quest ends at a really strange place, without any apparent real conclusion. 2. There is evidence of recent construction, possibly leading to other rooms (but nothing I could blow up with grenades!) 3. Above the stairs is an emergency exit sign, with no door below it. This possibly suggests that the staircase is new? 4. Downstairs there is: a) Water dripping from the ceiling pipes, b) Dust periodically dropping from the ceiling, c) I could see red "sparkles" like fireflies in the air next to the falling dust (this might be from the grenades I used!). 5. All of the items in 3. appear to be coming from the room above which you cannot access.
"I've been trying to figure this out as well," added u/mhenke10. "So you can actually look at the bulbs directly if you angle the camera underneath it. The lampshade thing adds a weird flicker effect. But the light bulbs are constantly flickering in this pattern: Off, Flicker on/off, long light, off, extra long light, repeats. So I timed the time the first long light appears after the flicker. About 2 seconds. The longer light after the next off is 4 seconds. So I'm thinking: .- /- -(dot dash off dash dash) or "AM" in Morse code. Well that means nothing to me.
"So then I'm thinking "okay, what if the Long lights are actually 2 a piece, so: . - - / - - - - (dot dash dash off dash dash dash dash). Well that translates to: (according to coincidentally the SC Phillips website on Morse code) "WCh". So then I googled WCH in Washington and that's apparently the Washington Court Hotel, which you can actually go to in the DZ East area of the game. I looked but found nothing."
Intriguing, right? "The Washington Court Hotel must be something important I bet, it cannot be a coincidence," said one poster, while another suggested the "AM" message might intimate the location has to be visited in the morning. No-one seems to have found much else yet - "it just says "Hotel" on the outside and you can't even go in :/" reported someone else - but now, some are even suggesting it might be worth visiting the area in real life.
Interestingly, it may be different combinations depending upon your actions in-game, too. "It seems to do a different final pattern when you shoot them out in the hallway," pointed out u/Nephiko. "Also the lights on the floor downstairs have 2 different patterns when you shoot them, easier to see if you shoot out the roof lights too."
"The interesting thing with the Icon for the mission," added u/DeBeard. "A sword with wings usually means, power, protection or Guardian Angel. Which makes sense with the name of the mission G. Phillips which was a soldier that died by jumping on a grenade to save his squad in 1945. This also matches the WW2 Uniform and the map that you find in the previous mission that's for Sep. 15 1945."
U/n0tJohnLocke thinks they've discovered more, too.
"When you were given the mission the first time, in that room there's a map. It has a lot of places marked, including white house, washington mounment, pentagon, etc. There are 4 places that's currently not in playable map, including pentagon. BUT, there are 2 places marked where you can go to.
"The first one is the washington circle park, where you have the bunker mission. Not that special I guess... BUT, the other one is the Carnegie library at mt.vernon square, where you have the odea mission. So I went there again trying to find something (not in mission, just free roam), AND I DID!
"There is this strange noise from a wall in a corner. It is definitely not random. It is so out of place and clear, that it has to be intentional. I do not know morse code so I can't tell, but I think it has to mean something and is related to the g phillips mission because the location of that building is marked on that map."
What do you think? Just a random flash pattern that has no purpose or meaning, or could the lights really be communicating secret messages?