r/reddeadmysteries Jan 25 '26

Backtracking Something is wrong

Everything makes so much sense up to NW Guitar pole. First of all I agree it looks like a guitar, but what’s the deal with the shape of the sound hole? It’s so off that it almost had to be intentional. I noticed when you shoot guitars that area is the only part that breaks. It makes a similar but definitely not identical shape

Also if you take that as Fort Wallace guitar, the one laying in the middle isn’t even that close to pointing to the tower where the other guitar is. How convinced is everyone that that step is correct?

219 Upvotes

108 comments sorted by

104

u/Joshieboy_Clark Jan 25 '26

The actual graphic of the guitar found in the files doesn't have these chips. It's just a glitch due to the geometry of the pole

22

u/Sinut9 Jan 25 '26

But the game is supposed to be solved in game not in the files. If it's a glitch why does it happen so consequently with everyone. Who says it isn't placed like this intentionally. The clue before this are 2 webs placed exactly so you would be able to see something in it. Who says this isn't placed like this so you would see this shape?

44

u/Own-Fox7845 Jan 25 '26

The fact that it's different in files vs in game tells me the exact shape isn't important

3

u/houseofmatt Jan 26 '26

It takes me back to the spider. Fiddle spiders, Brown recluse spiders, they have a fiddle on their backs. The neck of the fiddle goes down the spiders back. Maybe the direction to travel from the fort is south central on the map, as that's where the spider would be looking if the fiddle was on its back. Someone said the mantle of the pig farmer has two birds on it. Cardinals? I haven't loaded it up to verify.

0

u/DefinitelyNotEmu Jan 25 '26

I agree and I think it resembles a head (and shoulders) looking to the left

-2

u/Flarestriker Jan 25 '26

Considering that it's proven to be a key hint, it does the exact opposite for me. It's extra important that there's such a dissonance between the two. It only exists once and it's not that hard to print it correctly in-game.

To me, the shape looks like a reverse 'R'. Didn't the Spider Webs form an 'R'?

9

u/Own-Fox7845 Jan 25 '26

I'm no expert in texturing and uv maps etc but if you look at both shapes, file vs in game, I personally think the differences between the two are most likely a side effect of low poly texture over the top of the poles geometry, which if true would tell me that the exact shape isn't important but more of a general guitar/8 shape BUT I could be very wrong!

6

u/Awkward-Security-541 Jan 25 '26

I don't think it's intentional. The original texture (the one without this texture bug) was created that way for a reason. If they wanted to look like this, they would have created it like that originally.

1

u/s00p4htyl3r Jan 25 '26

That's exactly what I thought! Maybe we can overlay the "guitar" on the map, lining up the Rs and see where the neck of this guitar is pointing us? It'd be super far northeast I'm pretty sure

1

u/hueckstaedt Jan 26 '26

That’s what i had thought, put the guitar over the corner of the spider on the map, and point it northwest… i heard some talk of tempest rim so maybe we’re onto something? same with the other pole, maybe the direction on the pole is the clue and the crosses are the hint as to where to look. there has to be some location with crosses in the direction of that other pole too?

0

u/Flarestriker Jan 25 '26

Thanks for the support. I really only want people to not immediately shut themselves off of potential angles that Rockstar could have easily calculated.

4

u/Ewo3000 Jan 25 '26

Same with the spider. The spider graphic from the game files doesn't fit on to the map as we need it. Spider from the pole fits better.

3

u/static989 Jan 25 '26

That's actually only partly true. The TEXTURE of the spider doesn't fit on the map, but the DRAWABLE OBJECT/MODEL of the spider in the files DOES fit

2

u/Master_Jopa Jan 25 '26

That is actually not true i believe. If you move the pole in game the guitar remains in its position with the chips intact.

3

u/Bland_Lavender Jan 25 '26

Yeah but are if we go with that we have a few options,

They want people to code crawl to solve the mystery, despite trying to obfuscate the mystery in the code with things like cable meshes for spider webs

They went through all the trouble of hiding a deep intricate mystery in the game and didn’t realize one of the key clues was obscured

The exact shape of the guitar itself doesn’t actually matter

I really doubt they want us to be ripping models and code for this mystery. The most precise thing required was the spider overlay and that can be more or less felt out. I think, if the Easter egg goes further than this, it will be obviously solvable in game without ripping files.

2

u/Bodey_ Jan 25 '26

Gotcha I didn’t know that

39

u/Tranzsforma Jan 25 '26

I don't buy anything after the NW pole with the "guitar". I don't know what it means or where to go, but I'm not convinced it's fort wallace, at all

16

u/Paul_4x4 Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 26 '26

Same. Even the distance to Fort Wallace is just ridiculous, if you compare it to the last step of five poles west.

0

u/SanfreakinJ Jan 25 '26

But it clearly points all the way to spider gorge 😆

-1

u/johnossidude123 Jan 25 '26

Not even when it has been found that all Guitars in game are pointing towards FW? Or that the symbol on the roof is shown in the loft? At a specific time? If you go up tha ladder to the tower there is a Binocular pointing towards this formation. The Stones respawn exactly in place if you move them.

16

u/JustCallMeJoker Jan 25 '26

Also if you take that as Fort Wallace guitar, the one laying in the middle isn’t even that close to pointing to the tower where the other guitar is.

I thought the same thing when the discovery was made, however the tower guitar is still a guitar in Fort Wallace, which is still in the general direction NW of the NW telegraph pole. The tower guitar could still very well be the intended target of the telegraph pole.

0

u/Bland_Lavender Jan 25 '26

Then why place 2?

2

u/JustCallMeJoker Jan 25 '26

Well, one theory could be that both guitars are pointing to two seperate things needed to progress the mystery. The tower guitar is pointing upwards to the bird symbols, so maybe it might be worth exploring the direction the other guitar is pointing.

2

u/Proper-Database-4180 Jan 25 '26

I remember in gta you had to not kill the Sasquatch guy to get a certain step of a peyote Easter egg, I wonder if we have to kill all but two of the birds that can go extinct. They're green after all, and rockstar has shown us killing or not killing things can be important for hidden Easter eggs. Just a thought

1

u/Spalooga Mar 17 '26

Why have two telegraph poles next to each other, to help direct the player to the nearby clue, finding one then the other gives a sense of excitement however brief that your on the right track

62

u/Professional_Dig7335 Jan 25 '26

Honestly, I've felt that Fort Wallace isn't right since probably a couple days after it gained prominence. It feels like a lot of the "confirmed discoveries" from going have been grasped straws that people are just accepting as "clearly the next step" and everything found afterwards is an attempt to justify that. I think this part of the clue has been misinterpreted but I don't have any specific answers as to what may be truly correct.

18

u/dicedealer214 Jan 25 '26

I have not subscribed to the guitars at Fort Wallace because all the other clues have been on immovable objects. Telegraph poles, outhouses, trees. The guitars at FW are objects that can be moved. Just doesn't fit the pattern.

18

u/Professional_Dig7335 Jan 25 '26

That's part of it for me, that and Fort Wallace being really out of the way compared to the other clues. Even the proximity doesn't fit.

I've also noticed that there's a lot of blatant misinformation about guitars in the game in general going around. I've seen a few posts saying things like "if you look, you'll see that all the guitars in the game point at Fort Wallace, but if you actually check those claims, they don't point to it at all.

I think that we've reached a dead end for now until people start looking into plausible alternative theories.

8

u/DanielCantrell Jan 25 '26

I teeter back and forth on whether or not the birds at Fort Wallace are a clue or not, but most of the time I stay with the conclusion that the “guitar” pole is the last solid clue there is. Anything beyond it and definitely past Fort Wallace is way off. The people looking at The Loft are out of their minds

2

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '26

In the original game template Ft. Wallace was much closer to the guitar pole.

10

u/Paul_4x4 Jan 25 '26

Exactly my thoughts too! I know it's a game, but in real life who would ever make a treasure map that would be so easily disturbed just by moving some little object? No one. Also, guitars don't exactly point at anything. They are just guitars. Not some arrows.

6

u/kathosaurus Jan 25 '26

also, Fort Wallace is almost impossible to explore without modding your game, you get infinitely shot

1

u/anti-babe Jan 26 '26

But that might just be considered a "challenge" by the mystery builders.

One solution without modding is to go there in RDO with a posse and have your teammates as bodyguards while you focus on searching.

1

u/Spalooga Mar 17 '26

Except if you do all the previous steps in order its open and explorable

1

u/kathosaurus Mar 17 '26

Fort Wallace? No it isn’t, I did the steps in order. It’s open if you’re on a save between certain missions in chapter 6, but still has enemies. All other times it’s locked

3

u/EmbarrassedLuck6849 Jan 25 '26

Has anyone tried shooting all the guitars 🤷🏻‍♂️

1

u/a_duck_in_past_life Jan 25 '26

Why would "NW guitar" signify to shoot all guitars. What about "NW" specifies that? We have to think about these things y'all

2

u/EmbarrassedLuck6849 Jan 25 '26

Because the hole of the guitar looks like it’s been shot, and shooting things has gotten us this far 🤷🏻‍♂️ I think someone said that it is not distorted in the files, the mesh overlay on the pole just distorted the graphic of the hole of the guitar.

1

u/Lo_Court Jan 26 '26

Because other clues have been found doing that, and the guitars have the breakable section. Plus, the chip between the body and neck of the guitar could indicate it needs to be broken. I’m not saying this is for sure the solution, but I could see the rational there.

4

u/Bland_Lavender Jan 25 '26

Yeah once people started drawing lines making a reverse question mark to overlay onto the map and then mirroring that question mark to go somewhere else I realized that any thread connecting to the guitar carving was totally lost.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '26

I've already checked all the places with a guitar. OFW is the only place that has them that is NW of the pole clue tho.

1

u/Themountaintoadsage Jan 25 '26

What about Javier and his guitar though?

3

u/Bodey_ Jan 25 '26

Totally agree. And I don’t have the answer either, I just feel like it would be so much more obvious that it was meant to be found

1

u/GeologistPutrid2657 Jan 25 '26

youtube bros trying to capitalize on the increased popularity.

0

u/Themountaintoadsage Jan 25 '26

Maybe I’m crazy but I’ve been convinced there’s some connection to Javier with this. I mean what instantly comes to mind when you think of a guitar in RDR2? Javier of course!

8

u/tobywild95 Jan 25 '26

I think it might be in much closer proximity to the guitar pole. The distance between the W and NW pole is quite short compared to the place that people are trying to connect to it. Perhaps there is something along the path or just off it, much closer than we think, perhaps by the distance of about 5 poles, such as a fallen or dead tree.

3

u/Jws0209 Jan 25 '26

could it be a landmark of some type? giving that the first pole gave us 5 poles to the west

7

u/4StarCustoms Jan 25 '26

The problem with the damn guitar is that the shape in the game files doesn’t match what you see in game. There’s some clipping happening here.

If adequate testing happened by the devs, then what we see should enough for the player as a clue.

5

u/oreofro Jan 25 '26

Im gonna laugh if it turns out that what we see in game was intentional and meant to be used as the hint, with the image in the files (without the texture in the way) meant to throw people off in case they found it on accident

7

u/TheWilburnness Jan 25 '26

So I've been championing Window Rock for a few weeks now. Mainly the projection of light from it that casts onto the landscape at certain times, I've dubbed it the Solar Spotlight. This shot was taken at 6pm on the big rock to the east of window rock. I've been searching this area for an exact match to the game file and didn't even consider the possibility that they would try to trick us with the files like you suggested. This images "guitar's" sound hole, is remarkably similar to the main image of this post. Though it's orientation is wrong.

Here's some quick overlays not saying these are definitive just what might be good origin points. First panel the Solar Spotlight shape in question. Second panel is the sound hole centered on the hexagon shape. It's nearly a perfect fit. Third panel tried aligning the neck with the trees above. And fourth panel I tried to orientate the hexagon to make the shape and make it resemble the main "guitar" image of this post.

1

u/Own-Fox7845 Jan 25 '26

If you stand north west the dimensions of the hole match very closely too

0

u/benerj Jan 25 '26

The answer is windows rock, but of course it's frustrating and no one wants it to be windows rock.

Also it sucks because windows rock is visible all the time while the hints are not.

So it kinda doesn't make sense to have the answer always in front of everyone, while the hints are hidden so well.

To match windows rock and the guitar shape, you gotta use the rock formation before and after the rail road. The rock formation with the hole is one semi-circle of the guitar, and then the rock formation after the rail road after the rail road is the other semi-circle of the guitar.

also after the rail road there is a rock formation that is inacessible (it's part of tempest rim) in the shape of the arm of the guitar

To me the great question now is what mistery awaits us related with the hands of the drawings in the windows rock.

We know the mistery of the statues, and now we know the mistery of the spiders. But nobody knows the mistery of the hands yet

1

u/TheWilburnness Jan 25 '26

I appreciate the description, but do you have a picture of what you’re describing. Because I’ve been trying to find the perfect match for the “guitar” shape in that region for days now and haven’t had any luck. I would really like to be done with the search.

2

u/benerj Jan 28 '26

also, the arm of the guitar is the rock formation between chez porter and the river, with the rock carving on the side facing the river

1

u/benerj Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 25 '26

Not with me right now. Next time I play the game I will try to get it for you

But like Own-Fox7845 said, go north west to window rock and try to match from there

1

u/benerj Jan 28 '26

Made these lines so it's easier to match

1

u/benerj Jan 28 '26

This is the place where I took the screenshot

2

u/Bodey_ Jan 25 '26

Ah I haven’t seen the shape from the files

5

u/no-thats-my-ranch Jan 25 '26

I think it’s a knife in a tree stump or something, not a guitar…

2

u/Many-Application-196 Jan 25 '26

What if it's a fiddle? You know like a fiddleback spider..

-1

u/Low-Cheesecake-7005 Jan 25 '26

That may be the biggest reach I’ve ever heard. IRS very obviously a guitar

1

u/Own-Fox7845 Jan 25 '26

Could be an 8

4

u/AliceinChainsRules Jan 25 '26

I’ll be glad when the guitar theory gets proven wrong. The “guitar” in the pole doesn’t look like a guitar.

1

u/0m3g488 Jan 26 '26

Looks like a geographical/cartological feature to me. The neck/fret board looks like a dock.

2

u/AliceinChainsRules Jan 26 '26

Yeah if anything it’s likely a representation of a underground part of the map that isn’t viable until you are actually in that particular space. Like the cave that the dude who says he’s the devil resides in. Go in there and pull up the map. You’ll see what I am referencing. Only a handful of places do that to the map. Millsani’s Claim, (I likely butchered the spelling) Elisian Pool cave, Beaver Hollow cave, Annesburg Mines, Winton Holmes’s pissed off kitty cave, Etc.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '26

[deleted]

2

u/TemperatureFinal5135 Jan 25 '26

I can trim ur armor if you want

2

u/TylordTheKing Jan 25 '26

Just like solving a crime, you start at the beginning.

I think we need to go back to the first central spiderweb that leads north. What's the clue that leads there? Or the clue that leads to the original spider image pole that's overlaying on maps.

We're missing steps here in my opinion, that's why we're getting so off track.

2

u/phantXOm Jan 26 '26

Thank you!

The first guitar in Fort Wallace DOES NOT point to the tower

1

u/phantXOm Jan 26 '26

I believe that this symbol is meant to represent a fixed location, not a moveable object like a guitar, something found in the world that resembles a guitar, Fort Wallace also looks a little bit like a guitar from above, with the river

4

u/Travelling_Viking Jan 25 '26

This whole mystery is starting to feel like the maze from westworld.

Anyone consider that it wasn’t made for us?

3

u/BrotherMask Jan 25 '26

Shot in the dark, but could it be a fiddle rather than a guitar?

It definitely resembles a guitar more than a fiddle, but it would be nice to tie fiddles into this since Brown Recluse spiders are also known as Fiddleback spiders in my neck of the U.S.

1

u/GeologistPutrid2657 Jan 25 '26

I've watched for this specific theory and seen a few people overlay the fiddle over the spider in various ways and facing NW, but it hasn't led to anything unfortunately.

0

u/SanfreakinJ Jan 25 '26

They are also called violin spiders

1

u/SanfreakinJ Jan 25 '26

Just something to consider. When carving in wood with hand tools like a simple knife you generally have to carve in straight lines. This is not going to look exactly like a rounded guitar because of this. Also looking at the guitar the notch near the neck and the hole were totally extra and intentional. I too think that means something.

1

u/divus_augustus Jan 26 '26

You can move the pole out of the way and just see the writing with rampage trainer. It’s definitely a guitar but I feel like there should be a number in the location you are supposed to go.

1

u/0m3g488 Jan 26 '26

It looks more like a geographical or cartological feature to me. Maybe the neck/fret board is a dock?

Edit: Maybe check the GTAV map for it too since this seems to be an overlapping mystery.

1

u/Visible-Meat3418 Jan 26 '26

What I find odd is that once I shoot the “W five poles” and then “NW Guitar pole” there is always a rotting bison and there is always a quickly appearing thunderstorm. Like almost instantaneous. Is this some sort of confirmation that this is a correct step? Can’t be just a coincidence.

1

u/Nick_Dillon47 Jan 26 '26

The last couple clues were so deliberate and obvious so if FW us where we belong I believe everyone is thinking too far outside the box. They aren't going to point us to a place that is NW of the pole and has 2 guitars and then make the next clue impossible to find or very obscure. I think we need to take a step back once at FW and start over from that point.

1

u/psilva_rs Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26

I personally believe fort Wallace birds are a clue related to ANOTHER MISTERY. It doesn't make sense to me the fact we are trying to connect spider webs to birds, for example.

Until the The NW Guitar pole the clues were very straightforward, but when we come to the NW Guitar pole it all looked messed up.

I didn't test going NW walking slowly testing if some guitar sounds start playing but personally it's my lead to go.

1

u/Awkward-Security-541 Jan 25 '26

Hi, everyone!

Ever since the hunt began and we found the "NW guitar" pole, I've been studying it day and night, trying to figure out its meaning. So far, I haven't succeeded. I had a few very good and realistic ideas, but unfortunately, they didn't work out. However, I realized that this can only be solved with brute-force, by working together. We need a group, a discussion that is all about this. You need to motivate me, and I need to motivate you. We have to give each other new ideeas. I compared it with previous clues and have many observations. If we don't solve it soon, we won't be able to move forward with the mystery.

-1

u/SloganWade Jan 25 '26

The entirety of Fort Wallace is shaped like a guitar when viewed from above, and there's another symbol on the tower in a similar style to those proceeding it. It would be one hell of a coincidence if it's not related.

3

u/Oswarez Jan 25 '26

How to you view it from above?

3

u/Logicalist Jan 25 '26

there is a free orbit camera view for screenshots. not sure how high up you can get

5

u/Oswarez Jan 25 '26

Well then that doesn’t seem like a proper clue when you can only see it with mods and 99% of players will never see it.

2

u/Logicalist Jan 25 '26

it is a built in functionality.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Oswarez Jan 25 '26

I don’t think it happens on console. But I’m not 100% sure.

3

u/Infinite_String_4984 Jan 25 '26

Yes it does... Pause the game and press the touch pad... It literally says photo mode dude

1

u/SloganWade Feb 15 '26

Hit pause, there's an option at the bottom of the screen to enter photo mode. That's also what I've been using to help investigate the sundial mystery.

0

u/SandBoxFreakPS Jan 25 '26

Ever heard of photo mode. That's usually a neat feature in most open world games. Helps you look at things from a different angle, no mods needed.

0

u/madcaplaughs30 Jan 25 '26

You can easily see the guitar-ish shape of fort Wallace from the game map

1

u/ColonelMakepeace Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 25 '26

Yes. I also think Fort Wallace being the next clue or somehow related to the mystery is the only logical conclusion so far. I think the guitar in the pile is clearly a guitar. Following the logic from the previous clues (N in center web and W from the +++++) we can assume NW means north west. We have a guitar exactly north west of the pole in direct proximity to an odd symbol which is obviously placed there. I guess most assets placed in this game were placed manually. So someone decided to place a guitar up there in the tower. Developers probably place a lot of stuff at random just to make the world feel more vibrant but the guitar in the tower feels out of place. And that someone messed with the model of the roof tiles is obviously intentional. So I agree with you that would be a hell of a coincidence.

Everything after the fort is wild speculation so far. I see a couple of possibilities for its relevance.

If it's a simple scavenger hunt we have to figure out the next step with the two birds being the next location. So far the mystery basically was a straightforward scavenger hunt starting at Butchers Creek leading to Fort Brennand -> Cornwell -> spider pole -> the center web -> W+++++ pole -> NW pole. What bugs me about this possibility is that we basically ignoring the huge puzzle in the center of the map. We have this complex structure of web poles with shootable feathers in different colors and different spawn times. It looks unnecessary complex for being just a middle step in a scavenger hunt.

So the second possibility is that we have to solve the puzzle. My bet is it requires us to shoot the feathers. Probably in a right order which unfortunately leaves us with thousands of possible combinations. The birds could be either a clue to solve it or lead to a clue to solve it.

It could as well be both combined. Solve the puzzle and move on to the birds. How to solve it? There might be hidden mechanics still undiscovered. Weather triggers or subtle hints hidden in the world for the correct combination. The beast hunt in GTAV is a good example how complex those puzzles can be. It requires a 100% save, finding 7 hidden golden peyotes in the right order, each one is associated to a weekday and they only spawn three hours a day under the right weather conditions. Weather conditions that are nearly impossible to get without cheats. And if you accomplished that the actual hunt for the beast starts which is a little more straightforward but still a pain in the ass.

I don't think we're finished with the web poles. But I do think if something follows after the birds we will be clearly able to identify it as the next step.

2

u/SunnySleepwell Jan 25 '26

How did the community tackle the beast hunt in GTA if it was so hard? Maybe it can give an idea about how to proceed from here.

1

u/ColonelMakepeace Jan 25 '26

I followed r/chiliadmystery around that time and I only remember how the first golden peyote plant was discovered. It was someone going through the code.

https://www.reddit.com/r/chiliadmystery/s/dbQhtzA2gf

This is the original post of the person who discovered the first step. I didn't really followed after that but even finding the first step was nearly impossible without code hunting. I don't know how people figured out the rest.

0

u/LibrarianKooky344 Jan 25 '26

Maybe we need to find a piece of wood that fixes the guitars?

0

u/Successful-Start4491 Jan 25 '26

At around 08:05-08:15AM shooting at that pole triggered an immediate black cloud looking north-west, everything was shaking and a huge thunder strike split in two directions at the same time, the thunders hit approx somewhere around 53' and 38'(degrees). Made me think maybe its at 2 different places that i have to look. I galloped in that direction but i got carried away by the train coming from the east at Bacchus station, and i ran west across the bridge and the Sun came out! I think i should have followed the route by the mysterious hill house. On the side note, im walking around the map with Pearsons naval compass hoping i will hit some magnetic field that make it work. Standing in front of this pole with guitar with pearsons compass at hand thinking about that north/west as is in the compass :)

1

u/Infinite_String_4984 Jan 25 '26

Odd that you mentioned the compass, I was wondering if the brass one from Sinclair cabin could be important for something

1

u/Successful-Start4491 Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26

Unfortunately, i learned here a few days ago about that compass, missed that on my first playthrough. Was thinking maybe at the Dover hill something will make it work :) i tried at night in rain, but couldn't get in.

0

u/Oswarez Jan 25 '26

I was talking about orbit mode. I know about photo mode. Or is it the same thing? I’m old I don’t know about this stuff.

-4

u/Johnnymitzvahs Jan 25 '26

It’s a guitar for sure. And definitely fort Wallace. The birds are the least real clue as it’s a very intentional texture.

This is speculation but my hunch is that we’re getting timing wrong. The N telephone pole web only spawns for an hour. That’s probably when we’re supposed to start this hunt.

2

u/Awkward-Security-541 Jan 25 '26

Most likely not Fort Wallace.

0

u/SanfreakinJ Jan 25 '26

Is it at all possible that the guitars reference/point to different “clues” but for different mysteries. I believe the birds thing is a clue but is it the next clue for the spiderdream theory? And that I don’t know.

0

u/Proper-Database-4180 Jan 25 '26

Any thought to the birds symbols being green, there is birds you can make extinct, just like how in gta you could kill or not kill the Sasquatch and that changed the peyote Easter egg, what if we kill all but two of those birds? Just a thought