Seven years after came out, the game’s very active community has just stumbled onto a major mystery and is scrambling to get to the bottom of it. This one goes deep.
In late December, discovered several spider webs scattered on telephone poles throughout the game’s open world. These eight webs appear for exactly one in-game hour each day and release a feather when shot. , a popular Red Dead YouTube channel that has been documenting the hunt for answers, credited Reddit user with discovering a larger web hung in a tree at the center of the other eight webs.
That web contains the letter N, along with an image of a telephone pole. Heading directly north from there leads players to an ordinary-looking pole. However, chipping away at its wooden base with a firearm reveals a hidden message underneath—a W with five telephone pole symbols.
Walking five poles west and shooting its base reveals another hidden message: NW and a guitar symbol. Following these directions leads players to the Fort Wallace settlement, where a series of guitars eventually takes them to a roof. There, players found two bird symbols carved into the tiles. Heading in the direction the two birds seem to be flying leads players to the very edge of the map, where, if you peer toward a specific mountain with binoculars, you can make out a giant question mark etched on the mountainside.
This question mark can’t be reached, as the mountain is out of bounds. Fans aren’t sure whether this particular punctuation marks the end of this mysterious journey, or if there’s more to this tangled web. While the hunt for answers continues, another layer to the mystery suggests that it extends beyond Red Dead’s world. Last month, Grand Theft Auto 5 players discovered two spider webs on Mount Chiliad, the map’s largest mountain. Both webs look exactly like those found in Red Dead 2, and also appear only during a specific in-game hour. Additionally, a coin-operated fortune teller named Madam Nazar (who’s actually ) seems to mention these webs when activated in GTA Online.
“I see a web, still tangled after years of unraveling,” she says. “Will you be the one? I wonder!”
Keen-eyed players have confirmed that the spider-web mystery has lain dormant within Red Dead 2 since it launched in 2018, suggesting that whatever this is leading to isn’t related to the likes of or the Red Dead Redemption 2 remaster. However, its ties to GTA Online imply that Rockstar is teasing something big.
We’re not sure how this will all end, but we’re on the edge of our seats. If you’re as intrigued as we are, I suggest monitoring the for the latest. Or, if this is putting you in the mood for your own western adventure, the original Red Dead Redemption was just on modern consoles, and it’s as great as it was 15 years ago.