Ludendorff, North Yankton is where the prologue of Grand Theft Auto V takes place. You’re there to steal some cash and then things go sideways, setting in motion the game’s main events nine years later. The town is sort of an after thought, in other words, with lots of low-res textures and missing stuff. That’s kind of what makes it great though.
Unlike the rest of the game, the action in North Yankton is extremely linear. There’s no veering off the beaten path unless you want to incur a “mission failed” screen. Rockstar has taken the player there to set the scene and lay out some backstory, not to watch them then go off to the far side of town and break some shit. As the latest Boundary Break video shows, this meant the studio didnt’t have a reason to full flesh out the snowy, back-country town.
Not only is some stuff missing, but most of the buildings are extremely limited—just a few flat textures turned into boxes. One housing complex even has the side of another building, windows and all, for a roof. It all comes together to give the feel of a Hollywood studio lot where flashy films are made out of cheap props and sets that fall short when given proper scrutiny.
For a game like GTA V, however, that gives North Yankton a certain sort of special charm. Los Santos is a sprawling metropolis full of lights, people, and any number of details you probably wouldn’t even notice unless you’d played it for hundreds of hours (something many people clearly have done since the game remains an annual best-seller). North Yankton, on the other hand, looks like and HD mod for the original Max Payne.
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I mean, look at this poor Christmas tree ripped straight out of a 1983 Polaroid. It’s almost viscerally anti-GTA in its cheapness and I love it because of that. As YouTuber Shesez points out in his video detailing the environment with a god-mode camera, the tree is meant to look 3D but isn’t. Rockstar bent the image of it so it tracks with your eyes as you move by the window, but blow through the wall as he does and it turns out to just be a flat texture in an empty room. No presents wrapped for the holiday. No warm milk and cookies. No family arguing over what to watch on the TV. Just a dark room with a blurry image of frosted Christmas lights.
In a way the incompleteness of town helps contrast it with the cities the GTA series is famous for. If the way to capture the look and feel of a city is in how you layer hundreds of anonymous faces, cars, side-conversations, and generic facades on top of one another, then the way to capture the soul of a snowy, deserted small town is in crudely clobbering together a main street complete with its own vestigial movie theater and way too many bars for the size of the local population.
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Usually we think of games in terms of what they have—a day and night cycle? online multiplayer? dialogue trees?—and that’s certainly the case with a series that’s come to define what it means to be a sandbox game. What I appreciate about North Yankton, especially the one explore in the latest Boundary Break, is how empty, quiet and desolate it is. Sometimes what a game lacks, or at least appears to, can be as important in crafting a narrative mood as anything else.
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There’s other stuff in North Yankton that’s a little more exotic, including an alien model encased in an icy river. Shesez also explores Los Santos as well and explains some of the magic behind how Rockstar used ingenuous shortcuts to do all the heavy lifting required to render a city as life-liked and believable as GTA V’s caricature of Los Angels. You should really watch the whole thing.
Type
North Yankton
Appearance(s)
North Yankton is a fictional state featured in Grand Theft Auto V and is seen in the missions 'Prologue' and 'Bury the Hatchet.'
Description
The state is located in the Midwest.
Chronologically, it is the first location accessible to the player in the HD Universe, with the Prologue being set in 2004, four years before the story of Grand Theft Auto IV. However, only a small section of North Yankton is accessible, specifically the region around the town of Ludendorff, as deviating from the game's pre-determined route will result in mission failure. This is because the rest of the map doesn't physically exist and several areas are not rendered, being replaced by background textures.
The main road in Ludendorff is Cavalry Boulevard, which has a railway line running across it, but if the player deviates from the road, the roads and rails will also begin to lose textures. Trees are also missing textures, except the closest ones, and some are placed over the roads. Missing terrains are at least the same, with fake fences rounding large portions of the map.
All objects, such stop signs, trashcans and fences are unbreakable compared to their Los Santos counterparts. This is due to the fact that North Yankton doesn't allow the player to explore. In addition, the warning lights on the railroad crossings always flash.
I often use the electric piano in the background to add some softness to the vibe (and because the electric pianos in the Tyros are great!).I have tried lowering the volume, the problem with that is that the track dissapears completely so I've figured out it is something else. I've even had thoughts that it's a converter issue, but since I don't think the dynamic range in the Tyros is better than 109 dB it doesn't make sense (as long as the crystal reference clock in the converter board is rather jitter-free and the analog circuitry good enough for that 109 dB to be true)Either a phase/cancellation thing, or the stereo image is too wide or the lower mids are too much boosted which in combination with the wide stereo image creates such a very isolated kind of plastic boxy sound. My best guess is that my converter is rather dark sounding by nature, so when I then record a very soft stereo elecitric piano by having the mixer in the Tyros reset I end up with big mono with too much bass and lower mid range frequencies. How to mix piano.
North Yankton is so far the only location in the Grand Theft Auto series that is completely landlocked.
Known Towns
Events of Grand Theft Auto V
Bank robbery
In 2004, nine years before the main events of GTA V, Michael Townley, Trevor Philips, and Brad Snider robbed a bank in Ludendorff. The North Yankton State Patrol swarmed the scene and chased the three men as they tried to escape to their getaway helicopter. The SUV they were riding in was hit by a train and was disabled, so the trio escaped on foot to their destination. A sniper, Dave Norton, hid around a corner and, attempted to kill Trevor and Brad. However, he only managed to kill Brad but was unable to kill Trevor in time. He also shot Michael (in reality, Dave simply feigned a shot on Michael). Trevor is forced to fend off the approaching police by himself before fleeing. A funeral for Michael is then shown at a cemetery, while Michael watches on from a distance and flicks away his cigarette.
Sometime between 2004 and 2013, Michael and his family, who had assumed new identities, and Trevor had all moved to San Andreas state.
Cemetery shootout
North Yankton is visited again in 2013 during the mission Bury the Hatchet by Trevor, who was determined to find out who was really buried in Michael's grave after the bank robbery, despite Michael's attempts to talk him out of it. Michael followed him in an attempt to stop him. Trevor arrives at the cemetery and exhumes the grave, and his suspicions are confirmed when he opens the coffin and finds Brad Snider's body inside. Following this, the two were attacked by Triads who were hunting for Trevor; Trevor escaped from the cemetery, leaving Michael to fight the Triads alone. Michael fights his way through the Triads, but he is captured when he reaches his Asea, due to it being immobilized by Trevor.
Law Enforcement
The police seen in Ludendorff are State Police, evidenced by text on the cars. As of 2004, the state police drive white Police Roadcruisers with two stripes down the side and 'STATE PATROL' next to the front door, similar to that of a North Dakota state police car, with the police emblem engraved on the front doors. They also use Police Ranchers with the same livery. Due to the snowy weather, the cars are fitted with snow chains on the tires to allow for better traction on the road. The cars also have a snow-covered texture. State troopers wear black coats over white shirts with black ties, and light brown pants and can sometimes be seen wearing winter hats.
Snowy Vehicles
Numerous snowy vehicles can be seen driving around North Yankton at the times it is visited. These vehicles are only ever seen during the two missions they appear in (where more variations are seen in the second of the two missions), and are scripted only to appear during the mission. As such, the vehicles will not be seen driving around if the map is reached outside of the missions.
If the player was to gain a wanted level while in North Yankton reached with the use of glitches or mods, police vehicles will spawn on and follow the roads as normal, as the roads feature their own paths for the missions. This is because LSPD spawned in a wanted level are not restricted to Los Santos, and are simply spawned on any roads belonging to Los Santos, which is also why normal cars do not appear in North Yankton off-mission. This means North Yankton's road paths are linked to Los Santos's.
Influence
North Yankton may be based upon the state of North Dakota. Very little is known about the state, however, the small town of Ludendorff is located in the state, a city based on Fargo, North Dakota and Bismarck, North Dakota. The state's name is derived from the Yankton Tribe of the Sioux Native Americans. This is similar to how North Dakota is named after the Dakota Tribe of American Indians. The state itself may be named after Yankton, South Dakota, which was the capital of the Dakota Territory until it was split into the present day North and South Dakota. There is a South Yankton in Nebraska, right across the Missouri River from Yankton, S.D.
Gallery
Ludendorff, the town located in State of North Yankton.
North Yankton unlocked in GTA Online (pre-patch).
North Yankon in GTA Online (pre-patch).
North Yankton license plate.
North Yankton postcard in Michael's mansion.
Map of North Yankton on last generation consoles.
Map of North Yankton on current generation consoles and PC.
Some unique variants found in North Yankton: Stockade, Asea, Rancher XL, Police Rancher (Rancher XL), Police Roadcruiser (Esperanto) and Emperor.
Bank of North Yankton at noon.
The church in North Yankton. The cemetery is located behind it.
The Ludendorff Cemetery.
The farm house in North Yankton.
North Yankton during daytime.
Sunset in North Yankton.
North Yankton at night.
Another picture of sunset in North Yankton.
Trivia
North Yankton is unique to the series in the sense that it is the first ever location featured that is not a new rendition of a place from a previous universe.
It also stands with Anywhere City from Grand Theft Auto 2 as the only two playable locations in the series without a known counterpart in another universe. It should be noted that London has not returned either, but it does exist in the 3D and HD Universes, as it has been mentioned in future titles.
North Yankton's license plates have a red stripe on the top with 'YANKTON' written in white text, based on 2001-2006 South Dakota license plates.
There was a glitch to get into North Yankton in GTA Online. This glitch is very similar to the glitch on getting to Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It was patched in update 1.10, removing the ability to explore North Yankton online. When the glitch was still capable of being exploited in GTA Online, a portion of the map was located near the Port of Los Santos.
A postcard for North Yankton can be seen on the official Grand Theft Auto V website in the Los Santos and Blaine County travelogue, as well as inside Michael's mansion.
There is an easter egg in North Yankton. Under the train bridge, there is an alien frozen inside the river. This exists in both Prologue and Bury the Hatchet.
On May 22nd, 2015, Ned Luke (Michael De Santa’s voice actor) made a Facebook post that says 'Maybe it's time for a visit..Maybe..', and featured North Yankton amongst a number of cities both from the real world and from the GTA Series as a possible place for the protagonists to visit, though most likely for the enhanced version only.
The map of North Yankton is actually placed east of San Andreas in-game when playing Prologue or Bury the Hatchet. In the PC version, after the crew escapes in the Rancher XL in Prologue, the player can use trainers to play as Brad (they cannot use Michael or Trevor as they will fail for abandoning the route), then spawn a plane and fly to San Andreas.
Navigation
Grand Theft Auto V
Locations
State of San Andreas(Los Santos County and Blaine County) | Los Santos | State of North Yankton(Ludendorff)
Characters
Michael De Santa | Trevor Philips | Franklin Clinton | Lamar Davis | Amanda De Santa | Jimmy De Santa | Chop | Simeon Yetarian | Ron Jakowski | Wade Hebert | Tracey De Santa
Content
Vehicles | Weapons | Businesses | Multiplayer | Characters | Clothing | Radio Stations | Internet | TV Shows
Information
100% Completion | Achievements and Trophies | Cheats | Trailers | Screenshots | Artworks | Grand Theft Auto Online
North Yankton Creature
Game(s)
Location(s)
Status
Maps
The North Yanton Creature is an unlikely myth in Grand Theft Auto V.
Description
Due to the fact that North Yankton is meant to be inaccessible in single-player, but can be accessed through a very difficult glitch, many myth hunters are limited to search in that area. But because of its spooky atmosphere (especially in Bury the Hatchet), there could very possibly be a creature located there. Also, there is already a proven Easter egg in the area, the alien trapped in ice, so another myth wouldn't be a far stretch.
This creature could be located in one of the two areas in North Yankton: Along the highway, under the bridge, or other accessible areas, or inaccessible areas that require a glitch to see.
This myth is highly unlikely, as there are almost no credible sources about the creature, no consistent depictions, and with the area being mostly non-solid and unfinished, along with being extremely hard to get to, this myth will most likely never be proven.
Gallery
Another interpretation of the creature.
The vast, inaccessible plains of North Yankton.
See Also
Navigation
Myths and Legends in Grand Theft Auto V • v • d • e
Locations
Abandoned Mine Shaft • Abandoned Sawmill • The Abyss • Alamo Sea • Alien Enthusiasts House • Atlantis • Beam Me Up • Bishop's WTF?! • Blaine County Motel • Cape Catfish • Chiliad Mountain State Wilderness • Coastal Cave • Creepy House • El Gordo Lighthouse • Epsilon Program Headquarters • Fort Zancudo • Grave on the Mountain • Grove Street • Hill Valley Church • Humane Labs and Research • Land Act Reservoir • Lago Zancudo Swamp • Los Santos Elementary • Ludendorff Cemetery • Ludendorff Farmhouse • Maintenance Tunnels • Merryweather Plane • Missing Abandoned Shack • Mount Chiliad • Mount Chiliad Tunnel • Mount Gordo • Mount Gordo Campsite • Mount Josiah • North Yankton • O'Neil Ranch • Paleto Forest • Penris Building • Raton Canyon • San Chianski Mountain Range • Senora Desert Structure • Shipwrecks • The Lost MC Clubhouse • Tongva Hills Cave • Tongva Triangle • Underwater Hatch • Vinewood Cemetery (GTA V)
Creatures and People
Aggressive Driver • Al Capone • Aliens • Altruist Cult • Animals • Atmospheric Anomalies • Bear • Bigfoot • Brad Snider's Ghost • The Cake • Charles Manson • Children • Chupacabra • Cris Formage • CJ's Ghost • Clowns • Deadly Drivers • Devin Weston's Ghost • Dogs • Eye-Fish • Federal Investigation Bureau (at Satellite Dishes) (at Chianski Passage) • Frank Mathers • Ghost Dog • Goatman • Hellhounds • Jason Voorhees • Jill Von Crastenburg • Johnny Klebitz's Ghost • Jolene Cranley-Evans's Ghost • Kraken • Lizardman • Loch Ness Monster • Michael De Santa's Ghost • Michael Myers (GTA V) • Monkeys • Mothman • Moto-Man • Native Americans • Nemesis • North Yankton Creature • Omega • Palomino Highlands Cryptid • Panic in the Woods • Phantoms • Pirates • Possessed Docktug • Pyramid Head • Ratman • Ron Jakowski • Sharks • Slenderman • Strange Mechanic • Swamp Monster • The Drifter • The Infinity Killer • The Jackal • Tongva Hills Creature • Trevor Phillips's Ghost • UFOs • Vinewood Cemetery Ghosts • Werewolf • Wolf Girl • Yeti • Zombies
Vehicles
Airplane Wrecks • Car Wrecks • Exploding Vehicles • Ghost Cars • Ghost Train • Jetpack • Red Truck • Silverpilen • Space Docker • Submarine • Suicidal Airplanes • Suicidal Car • Sunken Submersible • Sunken UFO Wreckage • UFO at Beam Me Up • UFO at Fort Zancudo • UFO at Mount Chiliad
Cryptic Myths
All Seeing Eye • Bermuda Triangle • Infinity Murders • The Last One • Mount Chiliad Mystery • Technological Singularity • The Quantum Man • Serial Killer Nursery Rhyme
Other Myths
Alien Egg • Asteroid • Black Cellphones • Blaine Country Radio Community Hour • Dark Net • Cultstoppers.com • Epsilon Program • Green Glow • Invisible Barriers • Military Chatter • OG Loc's OriGinal • Phantom Files • Police Brutality • Red Arrows • Shortwave Radio Number Station • Spaceship Parts • Storm Drains • The Day That Never Comes • Whale Skeleton
This glitch was disabled by a patch in late December 2013. This page remains for archival purposes.
A glitch in GTA 5 and GTA Online allowed players to explore a snowy city in the sky. The town of Ludendorff, North Yankton, (featured in the GTA 5Prologue) became accessible to players who followed the steps below.
Video: GTA - Exploring North Yankton
The town contained a number of strange effects and glitches, as well as a few oddities tucked away in corners. Cara instal windows 10.
How to Get There[edit]
To activate the glitch and force the city to spawn, players carefully and precisely followed these directions. You needed the help of a friend to do this properly.
1. One player hosts a Invitation-Only GTA Online session.
2. A second player selects the PrologueMission from GTA 5's single player replay. After passing through the garage door and outside the bank, the player heads left past the parked vans and stands midway between the snow pile and the parked car. He then pauses the game.
Video: GTA - How to Find the Snowy City in the Sky
3. The player hosting the Online session now sends an online invitation to the second player.
If executed correctly, a floating series of textures will appear over southeast Los Santos above the loading docks. The town of Ludendorff is positioned atop these textures.
North Yankton Gta V
Only a player entering the game through the Prologue will be able to see the textures. The player hosting the session will not be able to see the town, though he can interact with other players, who appear to be floating in midair.
Note: If the player hosting the session leaves and enters the prologuemission to attempt the glitch, they can be reinvited to the multiplayer session and both players will be able to run around the town.
Things to See[edit]
Several landmarks from missions in North Yankton are visible in town, including the railroad crossing, the church, and the giant beaver.
A number of interesting tidbits can be found scattered around the town.
At one end of Main Street, a huge low-resolution texture simulates a continuing city-scape viewed from a distance. Walking through the texture and turning around renders it invisible, including all lighting effects emanating from it. Passing through the invisible space restores it.
During daylight hours, a chair in the farmhouse porch is occupied by a person. It is empty at night.
Graffiti on the Giant Beaver reads 'Your Mom's Beaver is Bigger Than This'
Buildings have a day-night cycle of lights
Sound effects are built into the town such as a humming noise near the radio tower and wind chimes clanking on the farmhouse.
Michael Townley's grave appears to take place before the casket was placed inside, as it is an empty plot surrounded by a green mat. The tombstone is in place.
The garage door which you use to exit the bank is closed, but you can walk straight through the texture
The Alien remains frozen beneath the railroad bridge
Players standing on roadways in Ludendorff can summon Vehicles with their Cell Phone via the Mechanic.