After years of hunting, digging through the code and searching every inch of the game, GTA V fans have finally found life from beyond the stars. And because this is GTA, of course the discovery is tied to digital theft and murder.
A few weeks back, the Gunrunning Update added some new weapons, vehicles and massive underground bunkers to GTA Online. Buried deep in the new update were a series of files and code that seemed to hint at an alien UFO crashing just outside the Zancudo military base. Players were excited at the prospect of figuring out a long-standing mystery involving an alien egg, which was tied to the suspected event.
Members of Team Guru, a GTA V modding and mystery hunting group, spent weeks digging and searching for a way to activate these bits of alien coding. After many sleepless nights, they used a tool created by Guru member Polivilas to switch in-game variables until they were able to activate an alien supply mission by force:
Update 7/5 12:38PM: After another week of working at it, Team Guru have figured out how to legitimately trigger the alien supply mission for those of you who want to experience this first-hand. Players need to do 600 Gunrunning supply missions before they have a chance to play the new alien encounter. Once that requirement is met, players need to start a supply run between the in-game hours of 21:00 - 23:00. If done correctly, players will be given the alien mission—but make note, it can only be done once.
Some crafty players have even recreated the online alien mission in GTA V’s singleplayer using modding tool Menyoo, as you can see in this video by Abstract Mode:
Original story follows:
Until GTA Online updates and this mission activates properly, we have no idea if this is the final version of the event, or if it will ever be put into the game officially. But this is conclusive evidence that Rockstar was indeed doing something recently with the idea of aliens crashing in GTA Online.
The actual mission is a bit underwhelming. Players are told to head to a location and steal some supplies—that’s where the alien egg comes in. When they arrive, they find a large UFO crashed in the swamp and dead scientists and soldiers. Once players have the alien egg, a small group of extraterrestrials spawns in and the player has to kill them. As missions go, it’s not incredibly exciting or different. But after years of searching it’s cool to finally see the theorizing and hard work materialize into something concrete.
While some players are happy that aliens were found, others are disappointed. Many mystery hunters wanted a big single-player easter egg or reward that could justify years of searching. Some are actually hopeful this new alien mission is just the start of something bigger, perhaps eventually involving the long sought-after jetpack.
For now, at least the citizens of Los Santos know they aren’t alone in the universe. And that these alien beings aren’t bulletproof.
Correction 7/2 11:49 AM: This article originally referred to Team Guru as “hackers,” when in fact they are data miners.
Zach Zwiezen is a a writer living in Kansas City, Missouri. He has written for Gamecritics, Killscreen and Entertainment Fuse.