What the hell is going on with Grand Theft Auto V’s “Mount Chiliad”? I talk about the history and possible solutions behind this gaming mystery that has captivated players for over a decade.
A new regular feature on GameKatsu, we’ll take a look at some of the gaming community’s biggest mysteries. This week, we’re heading to San Andreas to figure out what the hell is going on with Grand Theft Auto V’s “Mount Chiliad,” a gaming mystery that has captivated players for over a decade.
The Clues Hidden in the Mural atop Mount Chiliad
Rockstar is no stranger to creating bizarre easter eggs and mysteries in its massive games. From Bigfoot sightings in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to the mysterious ghost rumored to appear in both Red Dead Redemption games, Rockstar loves watching players get caught up in bizarre theories and rabbit holes. But perhaps no mystery has lasted longer than the story of Mount Chiliad, the tallest mountain in Grand Theft Auto V’s version of San Andreas, atop which sits a mysterious mural. Considering the series’ long history with conspiracy theories, players felt this mural had to mean something. The mural depicts three things that players found particularly intriguing.
The first is the UFO in the lower-left corner. Players who complete GTAV to 100% completion will discover four UFOs now populating the game world. One crashed at the bottom of the ocean, while another sits near Sandy Shores. Two are even more interesting, though. One floats above the military base and activates an EMP if the player approaches it in a flying craft. The final, and most interesting, UFO appears hovering above Mount Chiliad itself, but only at 3 a.m. after a thunderstorm. That last one could be an allusion to the mural itself.
The egg in the bottom middle of the mural remains a true mystery and has sparked endless debate among fans. Some believe the egg alludes to the Epsilon cult, an in-game religion that provides some of the game’s wackier quests. The cult’s leader believes the world was born from a giant egg. Another theory suggests that the egg, along with the other symbols on the mural, represents the three playable characters: a UFO representing Michael as the observer and outsider of the group, a jetpack representing Trevor’s recklessness, and an egg symbolizing Franklin’s youth and relative innocence. Finally, there’s the most boring but plausible theory: the egg and the entire mural were related to a cut DLC (more on that in a moment). That theory has some credence, as players have discovered art for an unused alien egg within the game files.
The final image depicted on the mural is a jetpack, one of the most sought-after items in the Grand Theft Auto universe. While jetpacks were available in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, they were mysteriously absent from Grand Theft Auto V and weren’t added until years later in Grand Theft Auto Online. Could this mural have been a roadmap for players unlocking this long-desired item?
Rockstar Games are Filled with Mysteries like Mount Chiliad
A game as massive as Grand Theft Auto V is bound to contain secrets, some of which the developers themselves may have forgotten over the years. There’s also no shortage of bizarre rumors, such as “The Day That Never Comes,” a rumored event where the game’s day-night cycle breaks and the world remains perpetually dark for three days straight. During this time, NPCs supposedly stop in place and stare at the night sky, while birds and planes spin in place in the air. The event is rumored to occur only during specific times and dates in the real world and has never been proven or disproven (though if it does exist, it’s likely a bug rather than an intentional feature). That hasn’t stopped players from agonizing over every possible detail that could trigger it.
In fact, entire communities on Discord and Reddit have sprung up dedicated to solving the unsolved mysteries within both Grand Theft Auto and Rockstar’s other magnum opus, Red Dead Redemption.
Secrets in games are actually quite hard to contain these days, as amateur hackers can often crack game data within days of a release, viewing everything from game-state triggers to hidden assets buried within the files. But Rockstar’s games present a much greater challenge due to the sheer complexity of the code and libraries involved. Still, intrepid data miners have solved many of the game’s mysteries over the years. When it comes to Mount Chiliad, these cyber sleuths have at least provided compelling evidence supporting one theory. Could all of this have been connected to an unannounced DLC that was canceled during development?
The Connection Between GTA Online and Mount Chiliad
When GTAV launched, it became one of the biggest entertainment events in history. The beloved franchise returned with an impossibly large game so detailed that you could watch Michael’s flip-flops literally flip and flop as he walked around town. The game was a guaranteed hit, much like the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI is today. But there was one major unknown, one experiment Rockstar wasn’t entirely sure would succeed.
Grand Theft Auto Online.
Launching a few months after the single-player campaign, GTA Online was an experimental multiplayer mode that allowed players to connect with each other in the game’s massive open world. Initially, even Rockstar wasn’t sure how to approach designing content for it. It wasn’t really an MMO, which was the dominant trend at the time. Instead, it was more of a shared social space where players could jump into whatever activities interested them. It was unwieldy, but over time Rockstar figured out what GTA Online could become. It evolved into a live-service game built around social status. The game became about acquiring new clothes, new cars, and the biggest, nicest apartments in San Andreas.
More importantly, GTA Online printed money. When people think of live-service games generating enormous revenue, they usually think of Fortnite, Genshin Impact, or the popular Chinese mobile game Honor of Kings. Grand Theft Auto puts them all to shame. GTA Online doesn’t make millions per year—it makes billions.
This success resulted in a dramatic shift in Rockstar’s post-launch priorities. While previous games from the studio, such as Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire, and Grand Theft Auto IV, received substantial single-player expansions, Rockstar realized that approach was far less profitable. Why create a single-player mission that players experience once when you could create a repeatable mission for GTA Online that players run dozens of times, all while purchasing Shark Cards with real money?
The Most Likely Solution to the Mount Chiliad Mystery
The official developer explanation for the Mount Chiliad mystery is disappointing. According to Rockstar, the developers claim players solved the mystery when they achieved 100% completion and discovered the UFOs.
Unofficially, many former developers have spoken about an unannounced single-player DLC involving both aliens and the Epsilon cult. When GTA Online became a massive success, Rockstar struggled to transition into a live-service studio and began looking for assets that could quickly be repurposed into multiplayer content. Features like the jetpack eventually made their way into the game, but only through the online mode.
As GTA Online continued to evolve, releasing single-player DLC simply stopped making financial sense. The team’s efforts were better spent supporting the studio’s new money-maker.
It’s a disappointing but logical conclusion to one of gaming’s biggest mysteries. We may never know what the planned DLC looked like, and even today, despite the mountain of evidence supporting the canceled DLC theory, some players still insist there’s more to it. And I truly hope they’re right. I really do hope Rockstar is the type of developer willing to play a decades-long game of cat and mouse with its fans.
But unfortunately, this appears to be one mystery that will simply fade away as time passes and its bigger, better sequel takes center stage later this year. Still, I’m holding out hope that Rockstar doesn’t let that happen. Games aren’t set in stone anymore, and several popular titles have received late-life updates that help set up the next chapter. Here’s hoping Rockstar remembers what makes its games so fascinating and mesmerizing and gives gamers the answers they’ve been looking for.
