Was... was this just for me??
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00:00As millions are finding out while diving into the likes of Elden Ring,
00:03it's the mysteries and random payoffs that can make gaming so much fun.
00:06Almost like a return to the days before the internet, before you could google every last
00:10part of a given title's secrets, open-world titles, or games with huge open components
00:15to them in general, can hide all sorts of dynamic encounters only a handful of players will ever see.
00:20I'm Scott from RockCulture.com, and these are the 10 rarest events in open-world video games.
00:25Number 10, The Painted Cow The Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim
00:29Skyrim is home to an abundance of strange and out-of-left-field encounters. It could
00:33take up 10 whole spots by itself thanks to the sheer amount of content on offer.
00:38Let's take a closer look at two across this list though, starting with The Painted Cow.
00:42This event has no known way to get triggered, so you'll need some blind luck on your side.
00:46You'll know that you're about to witness the encounter when you see a farmer leading a painted
00:50cow towards a giant's camp. When spoken to, the farmer will say he's offering the cow to
00:55the giants in order to protect the rest of his livestock. This encounter also has multiple endings,
01:00unlike other NPC encounters in the game. Most have a fixed narrative that won't change,
01:04but here there are two endings, and in one we see the giants reject the cow and kill the farmer,
01:09the cow escaping. The other has the giants accept the cow and allow the farmer to leave peacefully.
01:14The cow doesn't get eaten and instead goes on to live with the giants in perfect happiness,
01:19until you stop monitoring what's going on anyway.
01:219. The Bad Bad Ending Dying Light 2
01:24Obvious spoilers for Dying Light 2. The sequel to Techland's open world masterpiece brings back
01:29the fun and thrill of parkouring across a luscious cityscape, along with the joy of slicing and dicing
01:34your way through those zombie hordes. It also has multiple branching story paths, and several
01:39endings to try and obtain. One of the more elusive endings requires you make a lot of wrong choices
01:43during specific events across your playthrough. This awful ending shows the city of Velador
01:48devastated by the launch of some missiles that you fail to stop. Luan is dead, Hakon is dead,
01:53and Mia is also dead. Topping it all off, if you side with Juan till the end, he decides to hide
01:58away from civilisation, hoarding all the food and supplies he can get his hands on, leaving any
02:03survivors to starve and waste away. What does your main character Aiden do? Nothing, he just leaves
02:08the city and goes back to being a pilgrim. If for some reason you want this horrific ending,
02:13just follow these simple steps at key moments in the game. Firstly, kill Hakon in the church when
02:18the opportunity arises. Next, give the VNC tower to the Peacekeepers, but give it to Juan instead
02:23of Jack Matt. Don't romance Luan at any point in the game, and lastly, save Luan during X-13.
02:28Congratulations, you now get the most depressing ending in a video game since Mass Effect 2's
02:33complete suicide mission failure. No Man's Sky is a video game that has
02:40certainly come a long way from its original release in 2016. Receiving a lot of criticism
02:44for being a half-baked title, Hello Games continuously updated and turned No Man's Sky
02:48into a game worthy of owning, with reviewers and critics praising it profusely from 2020 onwards.
02:53Between the dates of 18th to 31st May 2021 and then the dates of 8th to 21st December 2021,
03:00a special themed expedition took place. Players could attempt to get a hold of Mass Effect's
03:05SR-1 Normandy as one of their frigates. Players had to play the expedition between those dates
03:10to have even a chance of finding and owning this iconic ship. Expeditions as a mission type offer
03:15the chance to win cosmetic rewards as you reach certain challenge milestones. Changing every week,
03:20one of the cosmetic rewards was the Normandy itself, though to maintain exclusivity,
03:24anyone who didn't grab the ship on those specified dates can no longer acquire it at all.
03:30The Persona series as a whole has lots of fun and sneakily hidden secrets,
03:34most come in the form of special bosses that will take some finessing to find.
03:38The Reaper is one of those rare encounters, a powerful and intimidating foe that most players
03:42will have missed on their first run through. So strong that even high level players who have
03:46gotten good gear can be wiped out in mere seconds, caution is a must if you wish to do battle. Even
03:51Morgana and the rest of the gang will comment on how powerful the aura of the Reaper is when it
03:55finally rears its head. To get the Reaper to appear, players need to meander around in mementos
04:00for quite some time, never leaving the floor that they're on. After a good chunk of time has passed,
04:04you'll eventually start to hear some chains rattling. This is a good sign or a bad one,
04:09depending on how you want to view it. If the player continues to wait around,
04:12the Reaper will eventually turn up and immediately make a beeline straight towards them. Hopefully
04:16you're ready, because this is a supremely hard and well-hidden fight for a reason.
04:23One of many instances in Mass Effect 3 that relied on specific things happening in both
04:28previous games, during Mission Citadel Medijel Sabotage, you must have spoken to and completed
04:33all of Conrad Werner's tasks. Doing so will make Werner a potential war asset during this mission,
04:38and he'll give you access to his Dark Energy Dissertation. Worth a whopping one whole point
04:42towards your Galactic Readiness endgame stat. You can also snag some more points for the Galactic
04:47Readiness Meter if you've been super diligent with your time to this point. You'll need to
04:51have finished the following quests. Feroz Data Recovery, a fetch quest that must be completed
04:55not long after you destroy the Thorian. UNC Asari Writings, an incredibly tedious collectible quest
05:01where you need to find 14 writings spread throughout the galaxy and buy the Elkos Combined
05:06Armoury Licence from a vendor. Until this point, most of these had felt pretty pointless, but
05:10beating all three nets you an incredible boost to the dissertation in the form of four more points.
05:15Yes, if you hadn't guessed, these amounts are arguably not worth all that effort,
05:19but the triggering of them is certainly rare because of it.
05:24The Witcher 3 is a sprawling open-world game with so much to discover. From references to
05:29Doctor Who's Weeping Angels to character Berna Bran being found chained to a rock if Geralt gets
05:33her sentenced to death during the story. Even rarer though is the strange instance of a ghost
05:38ship that appears at a specific location at a specific time of day. To peek a glimpse at this
05:43eerie sight, players will need to be roaming the seas around Skellig and Hindisfjall on the Skellige
05:47map at around 1am. If done correctly, you'll be greeted by the sight of a ghostly blue,
05:52transparent ship. However, you have to be quick as this encounter doesn't last very long,
05:56the ship disappearing below the surface once more. This ghost ship can't be interacted with,
06:01so just enjoy the sight for what it is, a scary random encounter on the seas of
06:05a mysteriously dark fantasy world. The gargantuan Final Fantasy games are
06:12filled with hidden secrets and bosses, especially strewn across their wider open-world maps. Some
06:16secrets players may never discover unless they have a guide to hand, or are adamant about searching
06:21every nook and cranny. Kilburn is one of those rare encounters, with the odds of stumbling into
06:25battle with them supremely small. The zone that Kilburn spawns in is called the Rocky Path,
06:30located within the Whirlwind Maze. Rocky Path is an area most players will quickly breeze through
06:35due to how small it is overall, meaning this creature is barely ever talked about.
06:39Kilburn then is a bizarre looking enemy that takes the form of a die. It will fight the player by
06:44rolling itself and then attacking according to whatever number it lands on. Each number
06:47correlates to a spell, such as casting fire or ice, slowing party members down or just healing
06:52itself. All this said, fear not, as despite being rare and looking quite intimidating,
06:57Kilburns are complete pushovers, posing very little threat despite their rarity.
07:02A Literal Vampire Red Dead Redemption 2
07:04From the studio that bought you the heart inside GTA 4's Statue of Happiness,
07:08it's no surprise Red Dead Redemption 2 is also filled to the brim with random secrets.
07:12One rare encounter comes in the form of a vampire, also known as the Saint Denis Vampire. To find him,
07:18you must undergo the task of finding five pieces of mysterious writing that line the
07:22walls of Saint Denis. These can be found in any order, after which Arthur or John will
07:26jot down a location in their journal, in the guise of a pentagram. The location itself is in an alley,
07:31just south of the cathedral, with players needing to go there between 12 and 1am.
07:35Once in the right spot, you'll be met with a grisly sight, the vampire drinking the blood
07:39of his newest victim. This particular creature of the night is surprised that somebody managed
07:43to find him, and will be hostile from the get-go, threatening you to leave or you'll be his next
07:48victim. If you stay and fight, well, good luck, as it's a one-hit kill should you get hit by any
07:52attack. Succeed, though, and you'll be awarded the incredibly rare ornate dagger, as well as
07:57some stringy meat and two bat wings. Tasty.
08:00Number 2, Maik the Liar The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
08:03A character most Skyrim players will have missed, Maik the Liar has quite the reputation amongst
08:08fans of Elder Scrolls overall. However, he's still one of the hardest encounters to stumble across,
08:12mainly as there's no correlation on how to get him to pop up, similar to the Painted Cow.
08:17This mischievous Khajiit wanders around spreading hilarious misinformation and appears as an
08:21easter egg for completionists. Maik has appeared in every Elder Scrolls game since Morrowind,
08:25where this devilish feline made one hell of an impact. Thankfully, Maik is harmless and does
08:30nothing more than make ludicrous comments about people and certain situations, ranging from combat
08:35tips about trying to fight with two swords, in-jokes about how Winterhold was once referenced
08:39as a city before Skyrim, and much more.
08:41And at number 1, Morden's Soulless Lives?
08:45Finishing this off, let's head back to Mass Effect 3 with one of the rarest encounters
08:49in the game, Morden's Soulless surviving the events on Tachanka. Getting this to happen
08:53requires very specific actions to be taken at key points across the trilogy, as well as having
08:57a high enough Renegade skill to pull off the necessary dialogue options. So, where to start?
09:02Well, firstly, you're going to need to go back to Mass Effect 1 and have Rex killed on Vermeier.
09:06Second, during Morden's loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, you'll need to destroy all of
09:10Malon's data. Third, you must tell no one about the STG sabotage to the Shroud Tower.
09:15Lastly, the only way to stop Morden dispensing the cure in the moment is to use the Renegade
09:19option, which takes quite a few points to get in the first place. If you're successful in
09:23all of these areas, you'll manage to convince Morden that it's for the greater good to not
09:27dispense the cure. Morden will then insist he needs to go into hiding, pretending that he died
09:31while curing the genophage. Morden will become a war asset for you to use in the endgame,
09:36avoiding death but never being seen again.
09:38And those are our picks for the rarest events in open world games. Let me know your favourites
09:42down in the comments below and please subscribe to the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast. For now,
09:46I've been Scott from WhatCulture.com and I'll catch you soon.