A newly discovered mystery in Red Dead Redemption 2 could help explain one of Rockstar Games’ longest‑running unanswered puzzles: the Mt. Chiliad mural in Grand Theft Auto V.
For more than 12 years, players have tried to decode the mural hidden inside the cable car station on Mt. Chiliad. The image has fueled countless theories involving UFOs, jetpacks, and hidden triggers, but Rockstar has never confirmed its purpose.
A New Link Across Two Rockstar Games
Recent findings suggest the solution may not exist only within GTA V. Instead, players believe Rockstar designed the mystery to span multiple games.
YouTuber Oddheader reported that GTA V contains two strange spider webs located on Mt. Chiliad that appear only between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. One of these webs sits directly beneath the cable car station where the mural is found.
Despite looking unfinished, the webs have remained in the game since 2013, even as Rockstar updated or removed other environmental assets.
Shared Technology Suggests Intent
Dataminers have confirmed that GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 use the same shader to render spider webs. This means Rockstar knowingly recreated the effect in both games, five years apart.
This discovery challenges the long‑standing belief that the Mt. Chiliad webs were unused or forgotten assets.
The Spider Dream Mystery in RDR2
In Red Dead Redemption 2, players recently uncovered the Spider Dream Mystery, which features:
- Eight spider webs that appear only during short nighttime windows
- Shootable feathers attached to each web
- Internal file names labeled “spiderdream”
- Nearby carved spider symbols on telephone poles
At the center of these locations is a unique web that appears earlier than the others and aligns with nearby poles to form directional markers.
Clues Point West — But the Puzzle Is Not Solved
Following the alignments leads to carvings reading “W” and “NW.” The meaning of these directions remains unclear, and search efforts are ongoing.
So far, no final trigger or reward has been discovered.
Rockstar Has Crossed Mysteries Before
Rockstar has previously linked secrets across its games. A number sequence first found in Red Dead Redemption 2 later appeared in GTA Online, where an arcade machine references a tangled web that takes years to unravel.
This has reinforced theories that Rockstar enjoys long‑term, multi‑game storytelling through environmental puzzles.
A Multi‑Game Puzzle by Design
With a former Rockstar QA tester recently stating they never expected players to uncover the Spider Dream Mystery, fans now believe Red Dead Redemption 2 provides missing context for the Mt. Chiliad mural.
If true, the mystery may have always been intended as a cross‑game secret, rather than something meant to be solved in GTA V alone.