The mystery surrounding Red Dead Redemption 2’s final secret has taken another turn after a former dev chimed in on the community’s landmark discovery.
In late 2025, Red Dead Redemption 2 players stumbled across a major new secret, which has since been dubbed the ‘Spider Dream Mystery.’
The mystery kicked off after players spotted a carved spider on a telephone pole near Cornwall Kerosene & Tar. At the top sat a web with a feather, but it only appeared during a tiny time window. The spider carving pointed toward seven more webs that followed the same rule.
Those webs only show up late at night, typically between 2–3 AM or 3–4 AM, and disappear outside those hours. At the center of the spider is a larger web that appears earlier, between 1–2 AM. This one has no feathers and instead lines up with a nearby telephone pole to form the shape of an “N.”
From there, players traveled straight north from the central webs to another telephone pole that can be shot. After breaking away some of the wood, an inscription is revealed reading “W” followed by five telephone poles.
Moving five poles west leads to another shootable pole. Hitting it uncovers a second inscription that reads “NW,” alongside a symbol many believe is a guitar. That clue sent players to Fort Wallace, where a guitar led them up a tower marked with two birds, eventually pointing toward a literal question mark carved into a mountain.
For now, the trail has gone cold. Players are still digging for answers, and with fears growing that the mystery was cut content, a former developer has responded to the community’s discoveries.
RDR2 dev didn’t think players would ever find the ‘Spider Dream Mystery’
Replying to the news of the community’s search, Adam Butterworth, a former Rockstar dev who worked on Red Dead Redemption 2 as quality assurance, explained that he was surprised by the findings.
“Absolutely wild people have found this,” he said. “I remember hearing about this and thinking it would never be discovered.”
His wording suggests that there is more to the mystery than what’s been found so far, but it also indicates it could be a struggle to decipher where to go from here.
It’s not clear yet exactly what the reward for this mystery will be, assuming it’s even solvable to begin with.
Some players have taken Butterworth’s comments as a possible hint. “Maybe ‘heard about this’ secretly means worked on this?” one user proposed.
Others have suggested that the “NW” is meant to be a reference to audio programmer Nickolas Warseck, and it’s all a literal Easter egg with no big payoff.
As many have noted, any real “reward” would have already been found by dataminers, so even if there is something at the end, it would be incredibly small and not a new weapon or item.
Avowed Is the Latest Xbox Game Studios Title Headed to PlayStation