How to find and solve the Red Dead Redemption 2 Strange Statues Puzzle

One of the oddest things you can discover, and solve, in Red Dead Redemption 2 starts with a mural that you'll find on Window Rock, which lies to the east of Grizzlies West, just south of the train lines that run across the border between Ambarino and and New Hanover, directly north of Valentine. It's here, inside the window of Window Rock, if you will, that you'll find a mural that will start your quest to solve the Red Dead Redemption 2 Strange Statues Puzzle. 

It's a bit of a odd one really, as it's unclear how to solve it unless you're some kind of amazingly talented mind reader and can get into the heads of Rockstar itself to figure it all out. And it's all to do with fingers and feathers. Yes, really. 

Once you've found the mural, I would suggest that you take a screenshot of that bad boy, because you're going to need it later on, and although Arthur scribbles it in his journal, it's not exactly a carbon copy of what's there on the stone.

The next stage in the Red Dead Redemption 2 Strange Statues puzzle is actually figuring out where exactly the thing needs to be solved. It's not that far from the mural itself, but there's no indication of where to find it from the mural, or from any information the game provides you. 

Instead, you kind of have to figure it all out for yourself - or let me help you. To find the puzzle's location, you'll need to head here:

It's easiest to get there by heading back to the train tracks, following them east, and then rejoining the path on the left after the cliffs recede. You'll want to stop when you see this rock formation:

Once you're there, you need to sneak through a crevice in the granite to enter the secret cave within, which lies just behind the large tree poking out from the centre of the rock formation. 

Inside the cave itself you'll find seven male statues positioned around a central sculpture of a woman with eagle wings, which you should inspect. Arthur will make another drawing in his journal and highlight the fact that these are the Strange Statues the mural spoke of.

Now, here's where things start to get very silly indeed, because in order to reveal the four gold bars that lie within that eagle-winged sculpture, you have to press a button on certain statues that correspond to the answer to the riddle that the game never actually tells you. The only clues you have are the statues themselves, and the mural. 

Look closely at the statues and you'll find that they all have a different number of fingers, including the one who's lost an arm that can be found over in the corner of the cave. Count them all very carefully, and make an actual physical note of how many digits each one has. You should end up with something like this:

Now, this corresponds to the feathers on the eagle tail by the side of each statue on the actual mural, but you don't actually need to know that at all. What you do need to know is which numbers to press, and that's where things get weird. You have to only press the statues with where the total number of fingers is a prime number, but it doesn't actually tell you that at any point in the puzzle. It doesn't matter which order you do it in, but just make sure to press numbers: 2, 5, 3, 7. 

After that, a small panel will audibly pop open on the eagle statue to reveal four gold bars within. Kaching! 

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Sam Loveridge
Global Editor-in-Chief, GamesRadar+

Sam Loveridge is the Global Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar, and joined the team in August 2017. Sam came to GamesRadar after working at TrustedReviews, Digital Spy, and Fandom, following the completion of an MA in Journalism. In her time, she's also had appearances on The Guardian, BBC, and more. Her experience has seen her cover console and PC games, along with gaming hardware, for a decade, and for GamesRadar, she's in charge of the site's overall direction, managing the team, and making sure it's the best it can be. Her gaming passions lie with weird simulation games, big open-world RPGs, and beautifully crafted indies. She plays across all platforms, and specializes in titles like Pokemon, Assassin's Creed, The Sims, and more. Basically, she loves all games that aren't sports or fighting titles! In her spare time, Sam likes to live like Stardew Valley by cooking and baking, growing vegetables, and enjoying life in the countryside.