In West Hunt Update V0.99: Treasure Hunt! the Devs added an Easter egg to the game, and an achievement to go with it. Although the announcement stated that the event would last from 3/2/23 to 4/30/23, the secret itself is still completeable in game, and there is no reason to believe it will ever be removed. In hunting for this achievement, I scoured the web trying to find any details on the achievement to ensure I was doing it right, but there was nothing. In my search, I was able to talk with Tux, an absolute legend in the game. He's a really cool dude, and was kind enough to help fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge. This guide will explain my findings and provide a step-by-step walk-through of the secret, so if you want to discover it for yourself, turn back now.

Finally, a disclaimer of sorts. It appears that the secret area can only be entered once. I'll explain why later, but Just make sure that if you enter it you get the one collectible inside. I haven't tested it, but there is a chance the secret, and thus the achievement could be permanently locked if you leave without it.

It all starts at the boarded up mine shaft on the "Town" map. Although you can skip this part completely, The riddle does provide some level of direction and context, despite not really telling you where to get started.

Here you can find a riddle written on the rocks behind a prospector.

It reads:

In a place beyond the reach of light,
A secret tunnel hides from sight.
But to enter, you must first behold,
The key that's cast in shining gold.

This key, a treasure to behold,
Can open gates to the untold world.
But to obtain it, you must be bold,
And pay a price that's worth gold.

Many have sought it, but few have found,
The key that lies beneath the ground.
But if you have the means to pay,
The key may be yours, on this very day.

So gather your riches, and seek the way,
To the forge where the key may lay.
For with it, you'll unlock a world unknown,
And find treasures that have never been shown.

In short, the riddle says that you need a key to enter the mine, the key will cost gold, and you'll have to go to the forge to get it.

The first real step is to find the gold. This is the hardest and least documented part though, and quite likely where you got stuck if you're reading this guide. So here's what I know.

The gold spawns on the same map as the riddle; the "Town" map. It is a basic collectible with a random chance of spawning, just like the cans, cow skulls, and alcohol. Unfortunately, it has a pretty low spawn chance. On top of that, it seems to only have a couple of spawns, which are not in the most obvious of spots. I know of two confirmed spawns.

The Gold bar spawns on the second floor balcony, right in front of the double doors. The picture doesn't show it, as the bar wasn't spawned in the match I tok the picture, but rest assured, you can see the bar from down on the street. It looks like this when spawned. Pretty obvious.
This location was confirmed to me by my friend who had his bar spawn here, but I was originally informed of its potential by tux, who was the only person I'd come across that ever mentioned it, and the only reason we checked there. It should spawn directly outside of the doors on the second floor.

This is an unconfirmed location, and I honestly think it's a myth. I came across a couple people in a thread discussing the bars spawn being at the train somewhere, but they never gave any specific location. My guess is that it was a theorized spawn based off of this picture released by the devs when they made the announcement post for the secret in March of 2023.
I never found a way to get as close to the train as in the picture though, never found a bar around the platform, and I haven't talked with anyone who has found a bar around the train. There's a chance it has a spawn here, but I wouldn't count on it. (please send me a picture if you do find one here though.)

Note: I also believe that the may stop spawning all together once you have one. Not positive though.

As mentioned previously, the gold has a lower spawn rate. Most people I talked with seemed to get it in less than half an hour of hard focusing on it, however it did take me a little longer (40ish minutes I believe). Because of this, your goal is to simply look at the gold spawns, then reset if nothing is there. It works in customs or against bots, but I used bots.

I would recommend starting up a 1v1 bot match as the outlaw and taking the sprint ability. Wherever you spawn, just beeline it down the road top around the train platform. You can look up at both the Saloon and Hotel spawns from the road, as they're directly across form each other. If there's nothing on the balconies in front of the doors, simply run to the sheriff so he can shoot you, and restart the match afterwards. I recommend completely ignoring the train spawn, as it is unconfirmed and not specific, meaning it'd likely just waste your time to look for it. Luckily you only need one gold bar, so once you get that lucky spawn, grab it and end the match. (You don't have to win to keep it.)

Now that you have your gold bar, you just need to head to the main menu. Navigate to the forge tab, and scroll down. Here you can find a craftable key, which costs the gold bar you just found. Make it.
Note: This is where yous see you can't enter the secret area more than once. Once you make a key, it does not let you make another one, and entering the area consumes the key.

Now that you have the key, you can enter the mine. Get into a match on "Town" and head back to the mine.
If you walk up to the buffers at end of the tracks, you should be prompted to use your key. I won't spoil what's inside for you, but this should open up the mine for you to enter. Towards the back of the mine, there should be an idol type object that you can pick up. Once you do, you should unlock something in West Hunt, as well as the hidden achievement.

Fun fact, if you do this while in a lobby with actual people, you can stand on the border of the mine and will be completely immune to the sheriff. Since the mine only opens up for your instance, the invisible barrier is still in affect for the other players, which applies to their weapons as well. Since the barrier actually extends slightly outside of the mine, you can stand in a spot which is visible to the other players, but is not accessible to them. I've found that this barrier extends out to the wood post with a pulley on it. Although this won't help you win, because you can't do tasks in here, I'm sure you can do some entertaining things to your friends with it. As it seems to be a one time use, I wasn't able to myself, but I thought it'd be funny to give my friends max bullets, give me max time, and just sit out of reach watching in their confusion as they try to find me.

I was certainly surprised to see how little had been documented on this secret, as before I began researching it, I had thought West Hunt was a semi-popular game. The more I dug though, the more I realized there was simply nothing. I don't know how many people are left out there who care about the secret and haven't unlocked it, but I hope this guide is able to help a few people. If anyone discovers anything new, I'd love to hear it so that i can add it to the guide.

Happy Hunting!