Was... was this just for me??
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00:00As millions are finding out while diving into the likes of Elden Ring, it's the mysteries and
00:04random payoffs that can make gaming so much fun. Almost like a return to the days before the
00:09internet, before you could google every last part of a given title's secrets, open world titles or
00:13games with huge open components to them in general, can hide all sorts of dynamic encounters only a
00:19handful of players will ever see. I'm Scott from WhatCulture.com and these are the 10 rarest events
00:24in open world video games. 10. The Painted Cow
00:27The Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim. Skyrim is home to an abundance of strange and out of left field
00:32encounters. It could take up 10 whole spots by itself thanks to the sheer amount of content on
00:37offer. Let'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. You'll
00:47know that you're about to witness the encounter when you see a farmer leading a Painted Cow towards
00:51a giant's camp. When spoken to, the farmer will say he's offering the cow to the giants in order
00:56to protect the rest of his livestock. This encounter also has multiple endings, unlike other NPC
01:01encounters in the game. Most have a fixed narrative that won't change, but here there are two endings,
01:06and in one we see the giants reject the cow and kill the farmer, the cow actually escaping. The
01:10other has the giants accept the cow and allow the farmer to leave peacefully. The cow doesn't get
01:15eaten and instead goes on to live with the giants in perfect happiness, until you stop monitoring
01:20what's going on anyway. Number 9, The Bad Bad Ending, Dying Light 2. Obvious spoilers for
01:25Dying Light 2. The sequel to Techland's open world masterpiece brings back the fun and thrill
01:30of parkouring across a luscious cityscape, along with the joy of slicing and dicing your way through
01:35those zombie hordes. It also has multiple branching story paths, and several endings to try and obtain.
01:40One of the more elusive endings requires you make a lot of wrong choices during specific events across
01:45your playthrough. This awful ending shows the city of Velador devastated by the launch of some missiles
01:50that you failed to stop. Luan is dead, Hakon is dead, and Mia is also dead. Topping it all off,
01:56if you side with Juan till the end, he decides to hide away from civilization, hoarding all the food
02:00and supplies he can get his hands on, leaving any survivors to starve and waste away. What does your
02:05main character Aiden do? Well, nothing. He just leaves the city and goes back to being a pilgrim.
02:10If for some reason you want this horrific ending, just follow these simple steps at key
02:15moments in the game. Firstly, kill Hakon in the church when the opportunity arises. Next,
02:19give the VNC tower to the peacekeepers, but give it to Juan instead of Jack Matt. Don't romance Luan
02:25at any point in the game, and lastly, save Luan during X-13. Congratulations, you now get the most
02:30depressing ending in a video game since Mass Effect 2's complete suicide mission failure.
02:35Number 8. The Normandy Drops By. No Man's Sky. No Man's Sky is a video game that has certainly come a long
02:40way from its original release in 2016. Receiving a lot of criticism for being a half-baked title,
02:46Hello Games continuously updated and turned No Man's Sky into a game worthy of owning,
02:50with reviewers and critics praising it profusely from 2020 onwards. Between the dates of 18th to
02:55the 31st of May 2021, and then the dates of the 8th to the 21st of December 2021, a special themed
03:01expedition took place. Players could attempt to get a hold of Mass Effect's SR-1 Normandy as one of
03:07their frigates. Players had to play the expedition between those dates to have even a chance of
03:11finding and owning this iconic ship. Expeditions as a mission type offer the chance to win cosmetic
03:16rewards, as you reach certain challenge milestones. Changing every week, one of the cosmetic rewards
03:21was the Normandy itself. Though to maintain exclusivity, anyone who didn't grab the ship
03:25on those specified dates can no longer acquire it at all. Number 7. The Reaper. Persona 5.
03:31The Persona series as a whole has lots of fun and sneakily hidden secrets. Most come in the form of
03:35special bosses that will take some finessing to find. The Reaper is one of those rare encounters,
03:40a powerful and intimidating foe that most players will have missed on their first run through.
03:44So strong that even high-level players who have gotten good gear can be wiped out in mere seconds,
03:49caution is a must if you wish to do battle. Even Morgana and the rest of the gang will comment on
03:53how powerful the aura of the Reaper is when it finally rears its head. To get the Reaper to appear,
03:58players need to meander around in mementos for quite some time, never leaving the floor that they're on.
04:03After a good chunk of time has passed, you'll eventually start to hear some chains rattling.
04:07This is a good sign or a bad one, depending on how you want to view it. If the player continues to
04:12wait around, the Reaper will eventually turn up and immediately make a beeline straight towards
04:16them. Hopefully you're ready, because this is a supremely hard and well-hidden fight for a reason.
04:21Number 6. Dark Energy Dissertation. Mass Effect 3. One of many instances in Mass Effect 3 that
04:26relied on specific things happening in both previous games, during Mission Citadel Medigel
04:30Sabotage, you must have spoken to and completed all of Conrad Werner's tasks. Doing so will make
04:35Werner a potential war asset during this mission, and he'll give you access to his Dark Energy
04:40Dissertation, worth a whopping one-hole point towards your Galactic Readiness endgame stat.
04:45You can also snag some more points for the Galactic Readiness meter if you've been super diligent with
04:49your time to this point. You'll need to have finished the following quests.
04:53Feroz Data Recovery, a fetch quest that must be completed not long after you destroy the Thorian.
04:57UNC Asari Writings, an incredibly tedious collectible quest where you need to find 14 writings spread
05:03throughout the galaxy, and buy the Elkos Combined Armoury License from a vendor. Until this point,
05:08most of these had felt pretty pointless, but beating all three nets you an incredible boost
05:12to the dissertation in the form of four more points. Yes, if you hadn't guessed, these amounts
05:17are arguably not worth all that effort, but the triggering of them is certainly rare because of it.
05:22Number 5. The Ghost Ship. The Witcher 3.
05:24The Witcher 3 is a sprawling open-world game with so much to discover, from references to Doctor
05:29Who's Weeping Angels to character Berna Bran being found chained to a rock if Geralt gets her
05:34sentenced to death during the story. Even rarer though is the strange instance of a ghost ship
05:38that appears at a specific location at a specific time of day. To peek a glimpse at this eerie sight,
05:43players will need to be roaming the seas around Skellig and Hindustphal on the Skellige map at around
05:481am. If done correctly, you'll be greeted by the sight of a ghostly blue, transparent ship.
05:53However, you have to be quick, as this encounter doesn't last very long, the ship disappearing
05:57below the surface once more. This ghost ship can't be interacted with, so just enjoy the
06:02sight for what it is. A scary random encounter on the seas of a mysteriously dark fantasy world.
06:07Number 4. Killbin. Final Fantasy VII.
06:10The gargantuan Final Fantasy games are filled with hidden secrets and bosses, especially strewn
06:14across their wider open world maps. Some secrets players may never discover unless they have a guide
06:19to hand, or are adamant about searching every nook and cranny. Killbin is one of those rare
06:23encounters, with the odds of stumbling into battle with them supremely small. The zone that Killbin
06:28spawns in is called the Rocky Path, located within the whirlwind maze. Rocky Path is an area most players
06:34will quickly breeze through due to how small it is overall, meaning this creature is barely ever
06:38talked about. Killbin then is a bizarre looking enemy that takes the form of a die. It will fight the
06:43player by rolling itself and then attacking according to whatever number it lands on. Each
06:47number correlates 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, Killbins are
06:58complete pushovers, posing very little threat despite their rarity. Number 3. A literal vampire.
07:03Red Dead Redemption 2. From 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. One rare encounter
07:13comes in the form of a vampire, also known as the Saint Denis vampire. To find him, you must undergo
07:18the task of finding five pieces of mysterious writing that line the walls of Saint Denis. These
07:23can be found in any order, after which Arthur or John will jot down a location in their journal,
07:28in the guise of a pentagram. The location itself is in an alley, just south of the cathedral,
07:32with players needing to go there between 12 and 1am. Once in the right spot, you'll be met with a
07:37grisly sight, the vampire drinking the blood of his newest victim. This particular creature of the night
07:42is surprised that somebody managed to find him, and will be hostile from the get-go,
07:46threatening you to leave or you'll be his next victim. If you stay and fight, well,
07:49good luck, as it's a one-hit kill should you get hit by any attack. Succeed though,
07:54and you'll be awarded the incredibly rare ornate dagger, as well as some stringy meat and two bat
07:59wings. Tasty. Number 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 fans of
08:08Elder Scrolls overall. However, he's still one of the hardest encounters to stumble across,
08:13mainly 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,
08:20and appears as an easter egg for completionists. Maik has appeared in every Elder Scrolls game since
08:25Morrowind, where this devilish feline made one hell of an impact. Thankfully, Maik is harmless,
08:30and does nothing more than make ludicrous comments about people and certain situations.
08:34Ranging from combat tips about trying to fight with two swords,
08:37in jokes about how Winterhold was once referenced as a city before Skyrim, and much more.
08:41At number 1. Morden Solus lives? Mass Effect 3.
08:45Finishing this off, let's head back to Mass Effect 3 with one of the rarest encounters in the
08:49game. Morden Solus surviving the events on T'Chanka. Getting this to happen requires very
08:53specific actions to be taken at key points across the trilogy, as well as having a high enough
08:58Renegade skill to pull off the necessary dialogue options. So, where to start? Well, firstly,
09:02you're going to need to go back to Mass Effect 1 and have Rex killed on Vermeer. Second, during
09:07Morden's loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, you'll need to destroy all of Malon's data. Third,
09:11you must tell no one about the STG sabotage to the Shroud Tower. Lastly, the only way to stop
09:16Morden dispensing the cure in the moment is to use the Renegade option, which takes quite a few points
09:21to get in the first place. If you're successful in all of these areas, you'll manage to convince
09:25Morden that it's for the greater good to not dispense the cure. Morden will then insist he needs to go into
09:30hiding, pretending that he died while curing the Genophage. Morden will become a war asset for
09:35you to use in the endgame, avoiding death but never being seen again. And those are our picks
09:39for the rarest events in open world games. Let me know your favourites down in the comments below,
09:43and please subscribe to the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast. For now, I've been Scott from WhatCulture.com,
09:48and I'll catch you soon.