- 8 months ago
Most video games have secret areas, but only a select few feature incredibly well hidden ones like these.
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00:00Secrets often make video games a lot more interesting. When you're rewarded for paying
00:05attention and exploring, it turns a good game into a great one. But we have no idea how anyone
00:12found any of the secret areas on this list. Some of these secrets are so obscure, you'd need a
00:17guide just to find them. We got a bunch of cool stuff to talk about. Here are 20 of the most hidden
00:22areas in video games that honestly, we were surprised anyone even found. Starting off at
00:27number 20, Animal Well. It's like the king of secrets of games in 2024. This seemingly simple,
00:34puzzle-solving Metroidvania quickly devolves into a way different type of game after beating the final
00:40boss. After unlocking the full Animal Well area to explore, the entire community online went insane
00:46as they explored every last mystery of the game and solving all these various ARGs and ripping apart
00:53the code to just find answers to questions nobody even knew they were asking. There's almost too
00:58much to explain in Animal Well here, but we'll try and break down finding the Big Bunny Island secret
01:04area. After defeating the Manticore, the normal final boss of the game, you'll need to find all 64
01:10secret eggs in the various areas, which basically means you'll need to collect all the extra hidden
01:16tools. You'll get a UV lantern for spotting hidden messages, this remote control for activating switches
01:23you didn't even know existed when you were playing through, and more weird items that blow up the
01:28regular game basically. After finding all the eggs, you'll need to take the 65th egg to an incubator.
01:34Following this path, you'll encounter the Manticore boss again and actually take control of it.
01:40Riding the final boss into a mysterious island full of bunnies is a wild trip, but the real
01:45mystery actually starts here. Now you'll need to find even more secret bunnies in the environment.
01:51These are so cryptic that developers intentionally included fake leads and dummy bunnies to trick
01:56data miners and mess with people and waste their time a little bit. These are also the hardest to
02:02solve mysteries in the game. Each bunny is really difficult to unlock and so difficult that we're
02:06surprised anyone even solved them at all. Many of the bunnies involve looking for hidden codes in the
02:12environment, suggesting flute songs to play or just secret button inputs. They're all weird, and
02:19finding enough bunnies solves the BDTP mystery. Let's back up. In the office area, there's a chalkboard
02:25with a strange code and figures of bunnies. By watching the secret bunnies on Bunny Island, you'll see the
02:31way their ears point. Now each configuration of bunny ears points in a different direction, and if you follow
02:39those directions while riding the manticore, you'll reach a really secret spot, and that spot is a
02:45giant honking bunny island. Is this bunny like a god? I don't know. Because you're supposed to jump
02:52into the bunny's mouth, travel through its intestines, hop out of the butt, and grow wings. Yes, this isn't
02:59even the end, man. There's this other, even more secret island to find if you solve yet another complicated,
03:05impossible to solve ARG. Elden Ring and Dark Souls aren't the only games with secret, obscure, weird
03:11areas on this list. So speaking of that, at number 19, Dark Souls and FromSoft are really the undisputed
03:19champions of secret areas in games. They're the modern masters of spooky, cryptic, and hidden levels,
03:26and while we're going to include more games here, Dark Souls and their spin-offs are going to be in the
03:32majority. We're starting with one of the most infamous secret areas in video games here. Even
03:37if you've never played Dark Souls, you've probably heard about Ash Lake. Now, found at the bottom of
03:42Blighttown, which is, yes, just as awful as it sounds for various reasons, players would find a giant
03:49weird tree in this knee-deep sewage. Exploring the tree, you'll find an illusory wall and a treasure
03:55chest. Awesome. So that's the whole secret, right? Nope, wrong. There's another illusory wall behind the
04:00first one, making this one of the most devious secrets in video games. Growing through both
04:06actually leads to the Great Hollow area, which is a giant hollow tree you'll have to carefully drop
04:11down while avoiding basilisks, these evil annoying lizard guys that'll curse you and just, you're
04:17gonna have a really bad time. There's no cure for the curse that they give you early in the game.
04:21Anyway, at the bottom of the Great Hollow, you'll enter the mysterious Cyclopean Ash Lake area.
04:30This is a strange, vast expanse with huge stalks in the distance and this deadly black hydra guarding
04:52the beach. This area only has one purpose, really. It's where you can join the path of the Dragon
04:58Covenant and partially transform into a dragon. It's fun, but not always all that useful. Maybe
05:04the mystery is just what makes this place so special, more so than the reward. It's aggressively
05:09optional, but we had to check it out anyway. Now, next over at number 18, sticking with this,
05:15Ash Lake is the most mysterious and hidden location in Dark Souls, but the painted world of Ariamis is
05:21the creepiest. Found in a cathedral of Anor Londo in the original Dark Souls, there is a deeply
05:27conspicuous giant painting that's really just begging to be explored further, but the only way
05:32to enter it is by getting a weird item in the starting area of the game, the undead asylum, which
05:38most of us had no idea was even possible to return to if you're a beginner. To get back there,
05:43you need to reach the upper levels of the Fireling Shrine and then jump to the crow's nest and then
05:49actually wait for a giant bird to fly you back. That's a big secret all on its own, just discovering
05:55that. I don't know how someone did that. Going back to the cell where you first started, you'll
06:00find the peculiar doll. Using it in the giant painting, you'll enter this mini world inside the
06:06painting with a really spooky castle in it. There are skeletons twisted into wheels, melted dudes on the
06:12ramparts, and a very goopy undead dragon. The final boss of the area is an invisible woman that can
06:18only be located by watching footprints in the snow. It's impressively creepy. It's baffling,
06:25like for a location, and it's well worth exploring. It isn't the most difficult location in Dark Souls.
06:31Somehow, a lot of people were able to find this back in the day, but it's so cursed, it had to go on our list.
06:42Now, next over at number 17, probably the strangest secret area in Black Myth Wukong here is Mad
06:55Tiger's Cave. To find it, you'll need to bang a tiny hand drum in three locations. While there are hints
07:02to all three of these locations, the mystery is just cryptic enough that players are probably going to
07:07struggle here, especially because exploration is generally so simple in this game. Finding each of
07:12these usually involves completing a small side quest, but following the trail of a small ghost child
07:18is the whole other level of spooky here, and it all leads to a gibbering insane tiger man in a cave
07:24that's very reminiscent of Dark Souls.
07:45You'll know you're fighting a Dark Souls boss when your opponent is babbling incoherently. It's like
07:50their thing. So combine those factors and the spooky path to reaching this cave, and you got a weird
07:56mystery we're very surprised that we managed to solve on our first playthrough.
08:01Now over at number 16, while Star Wars Jedi Survivor is definitely inspired by a lot of games,
08:06it doesn't always have a lot of secret areas. There are optional dungeons to explore and cool stuff,
08:12but you don't need to solve spooky riddles or do weird things to access them, except for this one,
08:16the Fung Ki Caverns. This weird mini dungeon is located on the main planet of Kobo, and the only
08:23way to reach it is by exploring an abandoned shack outside the settlement. This shack has a prisoner
08:29locked away in the basement, and if you don't free them, you won't be able to access the deep darkness
08:33of these caverns. There's an easy to miss crack in the wall that actually leads to the underground.
08:39The cave itself is pretty much a gauntlet of difficult boss fights. There are three challenging
08:45lightsaber wielding humanoids and a full rancor waiting in the levels below.
09:03It's all worth exploring because you'll earn a map upgrade that shows all unlooted chest locations on
09:09every planet. I'd say that's a worthy reward. Now over at number 15, this secret Skyrim island is
09:16another location we had no idea existed for a very long time, and we've done everything there is to
09:22do in Skyrim, or at least we thought. Everything except for exploring giant Nirnroot island. This
09:27secret easter egg island is actually a reference to a similar location in Oblivion, another location that
09:33we didn't really know existed. Found northeast of the frozen coast of Solstheim, you need to brave the
09:40cold waters to reach this weird island where the rare Nirnroots are as tall as you.
09:52The island is unmarked but pretty noticeable on the DLC map. Scrolling to the northeast corner of the
09:58shore, you'll see an island that looks far away but just close enough to reach. The island is home
10:03to a bunch of Spriggan, a dead explorer, and six giant sized Nirnroot. These valuable plants are
10:10needed to craft some of the best potions in the game, so finding a source of Nirnroot that gives
10:15multiples for each collection node is just great. Totally awesome. Next at number 14, if Ash Lake was
10:22an infamous secret area in the original Dark Souls, Archdragon Peak might be even worse from Dark Souls 3.
10:30It's one of the most infamous secrets in the game, and it's located in a spooky section of Irithal
10:35Dungeon, an underground catacomb that's filled with all these monsters and traps. One path leads to a
10:40weird ledge with mummified corpses facing a mountain in the far distance. If you mimic the poses of the
10:46dead bodies by using an emote, you'll teleport to the strange new area. Now the Archdragon Peak is
10:53guarded by a massive wyvern, and unlike other bosses, you don't really need to fight this one. Instead,
10:59it's all about dodging attacks and diving on the dragon's skull, delivering a finishing blow and just
11:04killing it instantly. The real challenge is actually what comes after. The Nameless King is an enormous
11:10man that rides a dragon into battle, and he's easily one of the most difficult bosses in the whole Souls
11:17series. Nameless King is an infamous boss fight, and fighting him is basically your reward for
11:43figuring out one of the most cryptic secrets in the series. At least, it was one of the most cryptic.
11:49Elden Ring definitely blows every other game out of the water when it comes to secrets, but
11:53we'll talk about that later. Next at number 13, Symphony of the Night made secret hunting
12:00part of the gameplay. If you wanted to progress to the true ending, you had to solve some secrets,
12:05man. But there are some secrets that we couldn't find no matter how much we searched Dracula's demon
12:12castle. One of the weirdest secret rooms is actually right at the start, and there's absolutely no
12:16indication how to actually solve this one. In an early part of the entrance hall, yes,
12:21the first area of the game, Alucard will encounter a watery room where mermens spawn. There's a big
12:27rock in the center. You can actually break open to discover a hidden treasure, but there's more to find
12:33here. Later in the game, after gaining the power to transform into a bat and a wolf, you'll be able to
12:38unlock one of the most hidden rooms in the game here. Next over at number 12, we're really talking
12:44about secrets here with this one. The Mother's Lull area of Lords of the Fallen isn't just rare,
12:50going there is like cutting off your own arm. This spooky area is only accessible if you follow
12:56the worst ending path, choosing to sacrifice your own important allies to create stepping stones to a
13:03giant, unknowable being. To reach this area, players would need to explore a hidden dungeon
13:08called the Revelation Depths, which is totally optional and surprisingly difficult if you choose
13:14to lower the water levels and actually explore the giant underground cavern. Defeating the boss here,
13:20you'll then be able to buy a special item called an Umbral Scouring Clump from a character that only
13:26appears when you use your umbral lamp in this main hub. This clump costs so much, you might not find
13:33enough to purchase it in a single playthrough, and using it at the altar at the bottom of the Revelation
13:39Depths reveals the hidden god at the heart of the story. This creature demands much more from you too.
13:45It wants you to sacrifice your blacksmith and the character that actually levels you up. So if you
13:51aren't careful, you can easily lock yourself into a pretty impossible situation. And the unique final
13:57boss the area leads to is also ridiculously difficult as it spawns copies of itself multiple times during
14:04the fight. But it's all worth it because you get to sacrifice the world to like a big monster mouth.
14:09It's weird. Now down to number 11, Control. Definitely has some of the weirdest secrets in video games,
14:15but one area most of us never found is only located in the AWE expansion. Found in the
14:21random corner of the FBC facility, there's a breakable wall with no indication that it's
14:26actually breakable there. You just need to shoot every dark corner and hope something actually breaks.
14:32This, when you do, leads into a twisted platforming area that seemingly leads to another dead end.
14:39But we've seen enough secrets to know there's more to find here. By blasting this second weird wall,
14:45you'll find a chamber with a weird clock. The clock is part of yet another ARG that's actually totally
14:51outside the game. Don't ask how anyone actually solved this one, but the goal was to input a code by
14:57stopping the clock on certain numbers. Get the code right and the floor opens up, leading into a big
15:04battle in a really spooky room. It all leads to earning one of the best items in the game,
15:09this unique mod that heals you whenever you evade. And that's just insanely good and well worth
15:15collecting if you ever even got around to solving this weird room. Next over at number 10, one of
15:21the hardest to find rooms in Bloodborne also has one of the strangest interactions in the entire series.
15:26And how anyone actually figured this out, we have no idea. In the final dungeon of the game,
15:32The Nightmare of Mensis, there's a giant tower with this killer gaze. You'll have to sprint to avoid the
15:39glowing red light, and you can find what's projecting that strange light much later in the castle. On the
15:46upper levels, you'll find the rotten brain covered in eyes suspended in the tower. It's awesome. The
15:51right switch drops the brain right into the abyss.
15:54But it isn't quite dead yet. If you explore further in the castle, there's a lift that takes your hunter
16:13into the inky blackness down below. And in this complete darkness, you can find the flattened
16:19remains of the brain of Mensis. And it doesn't seem to do anything. By using the make contact
16:25command for a very long time, you'll actually earn a unique rune that increases blood echoes when
16:31killing enemies. This is a very weird hidden area and a puzzle that we're surprised anyone saw. Who
16:37would think to do that? Now, over at number nine, one of the biggest, best dungeons in the entire
16:45Souls series is hidden behind a cryptic puzzle. Nobody should be shocked, but the most infamous
16:50battle in Elden Ring is locked in a secret area that nobody should have found on their own, which
16:56involves finding two parts of this secret medallion. One of the pieces is dropped by an enemy disguised
17:01as a pot in a totally random corner of the map. Unless you're extremely lucky or looking up a guide,
17:07you're never going to find that. And even if you do find both pieces of the medallion, you'd never really
17:12guess to use it at a lift you've already used before. A new interaction appears at the grand lift
17:18of Rold that takes you down to the secret consecrated snowfield.
17:24This snowy area is yet another puzzle. In a weird town full of invisible assassins,
17:44you'll need to light candles and unlock yet another portal to actually reach the Hallig Tree proper.
17:51And Michaela's Hallig Tree is one of the most important locations in the game, but it's totally
17:56optional. But it's also like incredibly detailed and special experience. Starting from the branches
18:01of the enormous tree, players have to slowly work their way down the settlement built into the tree
18:07trunk and then to the base where this big fortress is. The bottom of the tree, of course, is dripping with
18:13deadly scarlet rot. Now, at this point, you've probably heard of the infamously tough boss at the bottom of
18:19this area. Well, she's actually completely optional.
18:40She's also so famous, everyone is going to learn about this secret location, making it just slightly
18:45less secret than the next spot on our list. The Three Fingers' secret room is one of the most
18:49obscure hidden locations in base Elden Ring, and that's saying a lot. This bizarre secret is the
18:56path to the game's darkest ending, and it's one location we somehow found ourselves on our own.
19:02Down in the maze-like underground of Lindell, the central city of Elden Ring, there's this dungeon with a
19:08church-like altar. Behind the altar, there's an illusory wall that leads to one of the creepiest
19:14locations in the series. The subterranean Shunning Grounds is a dungeon devoid of enemies. You'll find
19:20cowering corpse-like weird husks and thousands of bodies just frozen in panic. The scene is absolutely
19:27surreal here as you walk around too many bodies to count here. Finding the area is tricky, but the real
19:33challenge comes when you find a giant hole, and in customary Dark Souls fashion, you have to figure
19:38out how to fall down and survive it. So with some careful jumps, it's possible to just barely survive
19:54the fall. Then you're faced with a weird door that doesn't open, and this is the area nobody could
20:06figure out on their own. There isn't a key to this door. You don't need to complete a hidden quest or
20:11defeat a boss. To open this door, you have to strip down, get naked, and interact. Finally, you'll be
20:17able to enter the Three Fingers room, and the creature is exactly as described. We don't know what we were
20:22expecting, but this still took us by surprise, and all you had to do was just get naked. Not you, your character.
20:52So next over at number seven, Hollow Knight is a game with almost too much to explore. There are
21:02so many secret rooms, we can't cover them all. So we're going to talk about one of our favorites,
21:06and probably the best possible version of this type of room. The Shrine of Believers is a fancy
21:12Kickstarter backer appreciation room. You'd find these rooms in every big Kickstarter success game.
21:18You know, games like Shovel Knight and Bloodstained have backer rooms where names are just listed.
21:23The Shrine of Believers is different because it's completely hidden. The area is found in the
21:29Resting Grounds, where a normal Kickstarter backer credits is found. If players explore deeper,
21:34you'll find a secret room behind a waterfall. That's classic. And if you use the Dream Nail item on the
21:40largest statue head, you'd teleport to this very rare room we're talking about.
21:52Here, you'll find messages left by the Kickstarter backers. By smashing the tablets, you'll get
21:57different messages. It's nice to see backers get their shoutouts, and it's especially nice
22:02that it's all just totally hidden. It's just really cool.
22:18Now at number six, one of the creepiest locations in Lunacid is named after the player. This is an
22:24indie game in the style of FromSoft's older series, King's Field, only much weirder. By following a very
22:31hidden path through the game and obtaining all the spells, you'll be able to access an infinite
22:36ending void made just for you, the player. Whatever your in-game player name is, this dimension is
22:42going to be named after you. The infinite white void is populated by imperfect clones of you. Clones
22:48you can't harm in a world you can't really interact with. Reaching this area is basically a game over
22:54because there's nothing you can do to escape and nothing you can actually do here. It's definitely one
22:58of the stranger areas in any video game. It's definitely feeling kind of cursed.
23:11Now over at number five, we had to call out the secret cow level in Diablo 2, one of the most
23:16infamous secret levels of all time. After beating the original game, players solved the mystery pretty
23:22quickly. We don't know who thought to combine Wurt's leg and a town portal scroll in the Horatic Cube,
23:28but it worked. Wurt's leg is a totally useless item you'd get pretty early in the game, so the fact
23:34anyone even remembered it after beating the whole game is impressive on its own.
23:42Combining those items creates this red portal in the starting settlement, and then you'd be free to start
23:47hacking and slashing a bunch of hellbovines. The level itself is ridiculous. There are so many
24:01janky cows walking on two legs, and there's even a boss to beat, the Cow King. This level is just the
24:07right level of absurdity, and for our money, it pretty much beats the secret level in Diablo 3.
24:12All the lore, all the story stuff, the culture behind the secret cow level in Diablo 2 is also
24:17really cool. We've honestly talked that to death in other videos, but yeah, even just discovering
24:22the level, it's crazy that somebody did.
24:31Now over at number four, here's a level only a pianist could find on their own. In the grand
24:35tradition of old first-person shooter games like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D, there are secret level exits in
24:42Ion Fury, but none of those old games had a secret with a puzzle quite like this one. Instead of
24:47nudging walls to find secret doors or shooting switches and stuff, you have to interact with a
24:52piano that's modeled with all the keys. This secret level is found in the level executive disorder, so
24:59early in the level, you'll find a piano that, like I said, you can interact with. You can actually play
25:04the keys and make music if you want to.
25:14So some players paid close attention and spotted the code DCADCF, which you can replicate with,
25:22obviously, piano keys. Play the code in the piano to unlock the purple key card, which then can be used
25:29near the end of the level to access Grand Slam. Now Grand Slam is a cute little recreation of a
25:34basement field filled with boss-level monsters. It's a fun combat level that only a true old-school
25:40secret hunter will find without a guide.
25:55Now at number three, one of the most evil methods for finding a secret level comes from a pretty
26:14unlikely source here. Dark Souls 2 featured multiple expansions that were all actually pretty reasonable
26:20to double-toe unlock, but the updated version of the game changed everything. In Scholar of the First
26:26Sin, all the items required to access DLC levels were hidden throughout the game world, and no item
26:32is more hidden than the Dragon Talon. To enter Shulva, Sanctum City, and Dark Souls 2, players would have to
26:39drop into the giant, seemingly bottomless well in the main town of Majula. So far, so normal for a Dark
26:45Souls game, at the bottom of the well is like a mess of difficult to traverse hanging wooden structures
26:52that eventually lead to the blackness of the Black Gulch here. This poisonous cave is short,
26:58but really aggravating and annoying. It's deadly toxic traps everywhere, weird monsters, you name it.
27:15And to make everything worse, there's a hidden checkpoint down here that's actually pretty easy
27:24to miss, even after playing the game multiple times. To get the Dragon Talon, you'll have to make
27:30a blind drop from the edge of the Black Gulch. There's a hidden cave down there, where it's almost
27:36impossible to see, that's guarded by two giants. Fighting giants in a small space with almost no
27:50light is bad enough, but finding this spot at all is the real challenge.
27:55This is one of the most cruel secrets in any Dark Souls game, and it didn't have to be this way.
28:08The original game made reaching this area totally easy in comparison. Scholar of the First Sin
28:14Remixed the game to make it harder, and boy, did they succeed. Jeez, man.
28:29Now down at number two, the more recent Elden Ring Shadow of the Urge tree is so big,
28:48it might as well be its own game. And somehow, against all odds, it also has some of the biggest
28:53secrets. We're gonna cheat and include two areas in a single number here, because they're both
28:58connected. There are three hidden altars in the Land of Shadow, and each one is so well hidden,
29:04we're a little shocked anyone actually managed to find them. Now the first here is in the ruins here,
29:08a weird little fortress in a totally separate hidden area through an illusory door. The ruins
29:14are blocked by one of those giant fire golems, and the only way to get inside is to throw a firepot
29:21into the unlit head of a golem, bringing him back to life. There's another bizarre secret we figured out,
29:27and the castle ruins themselves hold an altar for a special transforming sword.
29:37The part we couldn't find on our own was in the ancient ruins of Ra. Illusory walls are one of the
29:42things, but invisible bridges are somehow a lot more evil. You have to risk your life to test an
29:48invisible bridge. There's no other trick to it, and there's one leading to a huge tower in the distance
29:53that's normally unreachable. Who would even think to try walking on the giant broken bridge sections?
29:59If there's a clue somewhere for this, then that's our bad. I mean, maybe we missed it, I don't know.
30:03At least it leads to one of the weirdest secrets in the expansion. These altars transform a stone sword
30:09into a special weapon with either light or darkness powers.
30:12And there's a third altar that's just as difficult to find as these two. And like we said before,
30:21we're surprised anyone even found them at all.
30:34Now, down at number one, the shaman village in Shadow of the Erd Tree is more than a double secret.
30:39One area in this hidden level is more like a triple secret. Like the Arch Dragon Peak we
30:44mentioned in Dark Souls 3, you'll need to use an emote gesture to unlock a door that's already in a
30:50totally optional area. By taking an elevator down from the specimen storehouse, players could reach
30:57a small chapel at the base of the castle. There's a developer note here with a little clue. Use the
31:02O Mother emote on the statue to open the hidden door and reach an entire region of the map. Now,
31:09getting O Mother to be able to use it isn't easy either. You'll have to explore north of the
31:14disgusting Bonnie Village, this creepy place filled with naked butchers, which should sound pretty
31:19standard for a Dark Souls game by now, and then collect it beneath a beheaded statue. But the
31:24secrets don't stop just because you've unlocked a door. On the other side, you'll encounter the
31:29Finger Ruins, which are exactly what they sound like, and the idyllic Shaman Village. This strange
31:36shaman village is bathed in a golden light, yet is totally abandoned. The former homes are rotting,
31:42and the area is just completely devoid of any enemies, and it hides yet another secret. Probably
31:47the hardest to find area in the game. By carefully dropping off the cliffs near the top of the village,
31:53you can actually reach the top of a tower. The tower leads to a small room with a puppet body at the
31:58top. This weird hidden room is the key to finding one of the best spirit summons in the game,
32:04and finding everything required to reach this extremely secret room really is its own little miracle.
32:34Now, there are lots of secrets in video games, but these are some of the biggest that we've
32:40experienced ourselves here on the Gameranx team. Let us know about more rare, unbelievably hidden
32:46areas in games that we maybe missed, or a lot of the community missed, because we're always searching
32:51for more. If you like this video, and you like talking games with us every single day, clicking the
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32:59videos every single day. But, as always, thanks for watching, and we'll see you guys next time.