Bug Gives GTA Online Its Own Bermuda Triangle

GTA Online is generally known for being a very polished title, with the developers rarely allowing bugs to get through. While the occasional outfit glitch pop ups to entertain players and every now and then something goes awry with a new car added as DLC, things are usually solved quickly and the problem isn't major anyway.

The Bermuda Triangle

Recently, however, fans discovered a strange bug that bears an uncanny similarity to the myths surrounding the real world Bermuda Triangle. To those unfamiliar with it, the Bermuda Triangle is a roughly triangular area of water in the North Atlantic, with three points connecting the coast of southern Florida, Puerto Rico and the island Bermuda.

This area is famous, or infamous, for many mysterious disappearances of aircraft and ships, with countless conspiracy theories suggesting the involvement of either Aliens, magic, eldritch abominations, dimensional portals or Atlantis (nevermind that it was supposedly located in the Mediterranean).

Of course, the Bermuda Triangle also happens to cover one of the world's most busy shipping lanes, and countless aircraft, both commercial and private, cross the area alongside cargo and cruise ships. So the whole mystery thing is hogwash. But people love their legends and conspiracies, so the Bermuda Triangle retained its mystique.

The "Bug"

The recently discovered bug in GTA Online has some eerie similarities, as it pertains to a seemingly misplaced teleport trigger affecting a roughly triangular area of water on the map. In an area the three points of which are the Paleto bunker, the Series A Yacht location, and the northern end of Paleto Bay.

Basically, what happens is that if any player enters the area, be it by water or flying relatively low (the precise altitude to trigger the bug has not been determined), they will be teleported to the beach without their vehicle. Several players have tested the bug and it triggers all the time with no exceptions.

The issue is, that when doing any kind of supply or delivery mission — with one of the Bikers missions taking you right through the area — upon being teleported you lose your vehicle as usual, but as a side effect you'll also lose all of your product.

What Causes It?

Upon learning about the bug, the community immediately began rigorous testing to see if they can figure out what causes the bug and if there is any way to prevent it from happening. Players tested invite only lobbies, public lobbies, solo public lobbies and closed crew sessions, all from fresh boots of the game, and in all cases, the bug triggered.

The nature of this bug makes it so odd and difficult to see how it could happen randomly. A rather specific stretch of map is affected, but the area of effect has a height restriction. Basically, there is a large triangular 'box' that, if touched by players, will teleport them to the beach. Most teleportation triggers in GTA Online are related to instancing or hidden interiors, so it's even more strange.

What Does It All Mean?

We'd even dare to hazard a guess that this bug was an intentional prank snuck into the code by one of the developers. It seems too specific to be random. The height parameter could only possibly come from another case of altitude regulation, like a mission where the players are not allowed to go above or below a certain height. However, if there are such missions (none come to mind at present), touching the boundary would theoretically result in failure or death instead of teleportation.

While the two concrete anchors of the triangle, the location of the Yacht and the bunker, make it seem like it would fit the bill of a random bug, the third anchor is just randomly dropped in north Paleto to complete a triangle. The reference to the Bermuda Triangle also makes this smell like an intentional prank.

Whatever the case, players will likely soon report this issue to Rockstar Support who'll fix the issue promptly, especially if Bikers product is going to waste. Nonetheless, this is one of the stranger things to happen in GTA Online.