The most famous secret in GTA IV sits behind a door marked « No Hidden Content This Way ». Fly a helicopter onto the Statue of Happiness, climb a ladder, and you find a giant beating heart chained inside her chest. Rockstar wrote the sign, then put the heart behind it. Below are 23 secrets with the exact place to stand for each one.
The Joke Rockstar Keeps Telling
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The Heart of Liberty City
Inside the Statue of Happiness, reachable only by helicopter
A giant beating heart sits in the statue's midsection. The door that leads to it carries a sign reading « No Hidden Content This Way ». You can shoot the heart. Nothing happens.
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The same joke, three games running
GTA III, San Andreas, GTA IV
GTA III has its Hidden Sign, San Andreas has « There are no easter eggs up here. Go away. » on the Gant Bridge, and GTA IV puts « No Hidden Content This Way » on the one door that does hide content.
Developers Talking to You
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The dinosaur plaque
The Libertonian museum
The label under the Tyrannosaurus describes it as « this big bastard » that took days to build by the sole hand of a prop artist, and calls it a « 21000 poly maniac ». A modeller's complaint, framed and hung in a museum.
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The photocopier error
Any TW@ internet cafe, and vehicle dealerships
The copier screen reads « ERROR Unleash ninja guru lol ». It is too small to read with the naked eye: you need a sniper scope to see it at all.
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Packie's brain-box
Inside Patrick McReary's head
Move the camera inside his skull and you find a small cube textured with the balaclava he wears in Three Leaf Clover.
Signs Worth Reading
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The Burger Shot disclaimer
Under the menu, any Burger Shot
« This Burger may kill you! We can't be held responsible. »
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Veggie Wings
The Cluckin' Bell menu
The vegetarian option carries a disclaimer stating that it « may contain meat ».
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The Cluckin' Bell till
Behind the counter
The buttons read Holy Shit, Veg Crap, Medium, Extra Medium, Medium XL, Ask CJ, Launch Missiles and Space Lazer.
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Outlook Park rules
The park entrance, Bohan
No eating, no drinking, no dogs, no children, no ball games, no hotdogs, no running.
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The Maverick's warning label
Inside the cockpit, first-person view
It explains that the helicopter might crash and that the manufacturer does not particularly care, and refers you to the flight manual.
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The Eugenics warning
North-west corner of the Eugenics warehouse, Port Tudor
A sign advising women to wear protection, because it is unlikely but not impossible that they will be impregnated by visiting.
Real Places, Rewritten
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Grant's Tomb
Middle Park West
The real epitaph reads « Let Us Have Peace ». Liberty City's reads « We Love To Fight ».
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The Statue of Happiness' face
Happiness Island
Modelled on Hillary Clinton, holding a cup of coffee. Clinton had campaigned against Rockstar over the Hot Coffee modification three years earlier.
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The AC/DC tomb
Graveyard behind Meadows Park Church
A cenotaph reading « for those about to build...... we salute you », dated 1869-1869.
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The traffic cone statue
Civilization Committee Complex, Hatton Gardens
A dignified bronze wearing a traffic cone, the way every statue in Glasgow does. Rockstar North is based two hundred miles away in Edinburgh.
Names and Small Print
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Gerald's prison chart
Behind Gerald McReary in his cutscenes
The names on the board are all puns, among them Isaac Hunt, Seymour Fani and Richard Head.
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The blood trails at Faustin's
Behind Mikhail Faustin's house
Two blood trails across the yard, never explained by anyone.
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Police brutality, twice
East Holland police station, and the north beach of Bohan
Two staged scenes of officers standing over someone on the ground, neither of them part of a mission.
The Old Games Are Still Here
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The dead protagonists graffiti
Apartment block staircases across Liberty City
Tags naming Claude, Tommy, Carl, Toni and Vic as though they were gone. Rockstar called it a joke for fans of the series when asked, and declined to say whether the old timeline had actually been retired.
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An email from The Truth
Niko's inbox, from Chiliad8888
It calls the reader Pilgrim, rails against the government, signs off with « Feel the Truth, Live the Freedom » and links to a site that mentions peyote and maps the stunt jumps. Chiliad was the mountain in San Andreas, and The Truth lived on it.
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Claude's clothes
Playboy X's wardrobe, after he dies
An outfit matching what Claude wore through the whole of GTA III.
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Babies Overnight
In-game radio advertising
A service that delivers babies, whose tagline and backing music copy the Petsovernight.com advert from GTA III.
An Easter Egg That Is Also a Cheat
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The Mr. Tasty horn
Driving the Mr. Tasty ice cream van
The horn cycles through songs, one of which is the GTA IV theme. Text ZiT while it plays and it replies identifying the track, which hands you full health, armour and ammunition. It also blocks some achievements, so use a save you do not care about.
Rockstar Has Been Telling This Joke Since 2001
The sign on the Statue of Happiness is not a one-off. GTA III hid a sign in a place players had to work to reach. San Andreas put one at the top of the Gant Bridge reading « There are no easter eggs up here. Go away. », exactly where myth hunters were climbing. GTA IV finishes the sequence by using the sign to guard the one thing it denies.
Read together, the three signs say something about how Rockstar felt about the search. San Andreas spent years being credited with creatures that were never in it. The studio's response was not to explain, it was to leave notes in the places people were looking.
The One That Pays You
Most easter eggs are jokes. One of them is a working cheat. Drive the Mr. Tasty ice cream van, press the horn until the GTA IV theme starts playing, then text ZiT to identify the track. ZiT answers, and the game quietly grants full health, armour and ammunition. It registers as a cheat, so it will block achievements on that save: keep it for a file you are not trying to complete.
Where the Developers Left Themselves
Three of the entries above are not jokes about the world, they are the people who built it talking through it. The dinosaur plaque in the Libertonian is a prop artist complaining about how long the model took. The photocopier error message in every TW@ cafe is too small to read without a sniper scope. And there is a cube inside Patrick McReary's skull textured with the balaclava he wears in Three Leaf Clover, visible only if you push the camera through his head.
More GTA IV on GTAside
Going looking for these is easier with the right equipment: the 32 cheat codes will dial you an Annihilator to reach the Statue of Happiness, the fastest cars get you across Liberty City, and the weapons page covers all twenty-nine guns. Elsewhere: the two endings and the game page. For the other games, the easter eggs of GTA III, San Andreas and GTA V.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the Heart of Liberty City in GTA 4?
Inside the Statue of Happiness. The only way in is by helicopter, landing on the upper level of the pedestal, then climbing a ladder to the statue's midsection. A giant heart beats there, held up by chains. You can shoot it and nothing happens.
What does the sign on the Statue of Happiness say?
« No Hidden Content This Way », on the southern door. It is the door that leads to the Heart of Liberty City, so the sign is a lie and that is the joke. Rockstar has run the same gag since GTA III, and put « There are no easter eggs up here. Go away. » on the Gant Bridge in San Andreas.
Are the old GTA protagonists dead in GTA 4?
The graffiti in the apartment stairwells names Claude, Tommy, Carl, Toni and Vic as though they were. Rockstar described it as a joke for fans rather than a statement, and specifically declined to say whether the older timeline had been retired. Only Victor Vance has ever died on screen.
Is The Truth from San Andreas in GTA 4?
Not in person, but an email reaches Niko from an address called Chiliad8888 that reads exactly like him: it calls the recipient Pilgrim, distrusts the government, mentions peyote and signs off with « Feel the Truth, Live the Freedom ». Chiliad was the mountain he lived on.
What is the Mr. Tasty easter egg in GTA 4?
Drive the Mr. Tasty ice cream van and press the horn until the GTA IV theme plays, then text ZiT to identify the song. ZiT replies and the game hands you full health, armour and ammunition. It counts as a cheat, so it will block some achievements on that save file.
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