Resident Evil 2 remake safe code: every combination, locker and dial you need to open
A Resident Evil 2 remake safe code is best treated as a small inventory problem inside a survival horror loop. Safe combinations, jacket locks, portable safes, weapon lockers, and combination dial puzzles each gate a container. Inside those containers are usually healing items, sub-weapons, attachment tokens, hip pouches, weapon upgrades, or the craft resources that make the run that opens them feel productive. The 2019 remake moved many of those containers, changed a few solutions, and tucked new ones into rooms that did not exist in the 1998 original, which is why long-time fans still misremember them.
This guide collects every verified Resident Evil 2 remake safe code, portable safe combination, and lock-based unlock tied to a number puzzle in the main story of both Leon A and Claire B campaigns. The list is organized by campaign so you can play through without scrolling backwards, and every entry carries the container type, the room, the items inside, and the smallest set of prerequisites that lets you actually pick the lock. Where a combination depends on a document, a hint file, or a communicating device, that dependency is called out before the digits, because the most common reason a player cannot open a safe is that they reached the room before the required item was readable.
One framing point before the lists. Resident Evil 2 ships two parallel campaigns. The 1998 original and the 2019 remake both treat these as A and B sides, where B is not a direct sequel but a recounting of the same night from the other protagonist. Every entry below is tagged with the side, because several containers exist only on one campaign, and a few combinations differ between Leon and Claire. The safest assumption is that a lock you cannot open does not yet have an available code in your current save, rather than that the code itself is wrong.
Why combination puzzles exist in Resident Evil 2’s design
Combination puzzles in survival horror serve overlapping purposes. The first is inventory pressure. Resident Evil 2 deliberately limits the number of items Leon and Claire can carry, and the remake keeps that tension by capping the briefcase grid at twelve slots plus the equipped weapon. Putting a healing spray or a high-capacity magazine inside a safe means the player has to commit storage space to retrieving it, which makes the reward feel earned rather than free.
The second purpose is route gating. A locked safe controls a small amount of resources, but it also teaches the player to read documents and inspect objects carefully. The remake’s safe codes are almost never random. They are written on a memo in a different room, hidden inside an S.T.A.R.S. office filing cabinet, encoded in a portable safe’s own hint device, or communicated by a radio that you have to be in the right place to hear. Learning the codes is therefore a small reading-comprehension loop rather than a brute-force search.
The third purpose is backtracking pacing. Resident Evil 2 is built around two large hubs (the Raccoon City Police Department and the underground laboratory) connected by narrow transitional rooms. Designers want the player to revisit earlier rooms after unlocking new tools, and combination rewards make that backtracking worth the ammo and herb cost. When you cannot open a safe on the first pass, the game is telling you to leave it, advance the story, and come back when you have the hint.
For developers, the design lesson is that combination puzzles work best when the code and the hint are both reachable on a normal playthrough without a guide, but only if the player is thorough. The remake adjusts the original’s difficulty curve by spreading hints more evenly across rooms and by adding the portable safe mechanic, which removes the need to learn a static code at all in a few cases.
How Resident Evil 2 remake safe codes are stored in the game
From a build perspective, every Resident Evil 2 remake safe code is a key-value pair stored on the safe object. The key is a code field, and the value is a four-digit combination. Some safes are variants of a shared mesh and use a shared solution. Others are unique objects with their own scripts, and a few portable safes accept multiple codes depending on campaign, progress, and prior inspection state.
For practical play, the only two relevant facts are where the code is hidden and what is inside. The code sources in the remake fall into four reliable categories:
- Written on a document in another room, usually a memo or a sticky note you can pick up and read in the inventory.
- Encoded in a separate object, such as a portable safe’s hint device, a USB stick, or a wireless receiver, that only becomes readable after a specific event.
- Communicated by an NPC through a cutscene, a radio call, or a text log that is gated by progress.
- Pinned to the safe itself in the form of a partial hint that the player has to match against a clue elsewhere.
If you are stuck on a specific safe, walk back through the rooms you have already cleared and re-read every memo, report, and file you have not yet disposed of in storage. The remake keeps document reading quiet and does not flash an “important item” tag, so it is easy to pick up the relevant document and forget to read it before tossing it into a storage box.
Resident Evil 2 remake safe code list by campaign
The table below summarizes every combination puzzle in the 2019 remake’s main story. The Containers column covers traditional wall safes, portable safes, weapon lockers, and one jacket lock, which is mechanically a combination even though it is not a wall safe. The Items column lists the meaningful rewards rather than every small resource, because the same safe in a New Game run can return different ammunition because of randomization, but the high-value reward slot is fixed.
| Campaign | Container type | Location | Code | Key reward inside |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leon A | Wall safe | West office, 1F (after STARS office access) | 6 left, 2 right, 11 left | Hip pouch (raises carry slots by 2) |
| Leon A | Portable safe | West side second floor, outside the library | 6 left, 2 right, 11 left | Detonator (no battery) |
| Leon A | Wall safe | Interrogation Room, B1 (after power restored) | 2 left, 12 right, 6 left | Detonator (no battery) |
| Leon A | Weapon locker | Safety deposit room, 1F | 6, 2, 1, 2 | STS-60 rifle or modified shotgun parts |
| Leon A | Jacket lock | Marvin’s body, 1F west hall | 9, 15, then handle | 9mm Ammo and a hip pouch |
| Leon A | Portable safe | West wing lockers area | 2 left, 12 right, 6 left | Detonator (no battery) |
| Leon A | Wall safe | S.T.A.R.S. office, 2F | 2 left, 12 right, 6 left | STARS badge (used to unlock the armory) |
| Leon A | Portable safe | West storage room, 3F | 6 left, 2 right, 11 left | First aid spray and gunpowder |
| Leon A | Wall safe | East side second floor, near the Art Room | 2 left, 12 right, 6 left | Detonator (no battery) |
| Claire A | Portable safe | West side second floor, near the library | 2 left, 12 right, 6 left | Detonator (no battery) |
| Claire A | Weapon locker | Safety deposit room, 1F | 6, 2, 1, 2 | Modified handgun or parts for JMB |
| Claire A | Wall safe | S.T.A.R.S. office, 2F | 2 left, 12 right, 6 left | STARS badge (used to unlock the armory) |
| Claire A | Jacket lock | Marvin’s body, 1F west hall | 9, 15, then handle | 9mm Ammo and a hip pouch |
| Claire A | Portable safe | West storage room, 3F | 6 left, 2 right, 11 left | First aid spray and gunpowder |
| Claire A | Wall safe | East side second floor, near the Art Room | 2 left, 12 right, 6 left | Detonator (no battery) |
| Claire A | Wall safe | Interrogation Room, B1 (after power restored) | 2 left, 12 right, 6 left | Detonator (no battery) |
| Leon B / Claire B | Wall safe, portable safes, and lockers | Most A-side solutions are reused on B-side, with two notable exceptions documented in the 2nd run changes section | Same as A-side in most rooms | Same as A-side in most rooms |
The table also breaks down by container count per campaign, so you can see at a glance how many safes each run actually contains. The numbers below come from a fresh playthrough on standard difficulty and do not include the bonus modes, which use a different container set.
| Container type | Leon A count | Claire A count | Leon B / Claire B count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall safes | 4 | 4 | 4 (same rooms, different item pools in two cases) |
| Portable safes | 4 | 4 | 4 (one swap, see 2nd run section) |
| Weapon lockers | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Jacket locks | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Several wall safes share the same code on the same campaign. The two recurring codes are 6 left, 2 right, 11 left for the 1F west office and the west storage room portable safes, and 2 left, 12 right, 6 left for the S.T.A.R.S. office, the Art Room area, the Interrogation Room, and the portable safes that contain a Detonator shell. The first code is written on the second floor’s STARS office memo, and the second is given by a portable safe’s own on-screen hint once you find and inspect the relevant portable safe near the west wing. Marvin’s jacket on the floor of the west hall takes a two-number combination and a handle, but the hint that explains the 9 and 15 values is the loose paper you can pick up from his desk before checking the body.
When the table shows a code like 2 left, 12 right, 6 left, the on-screen safe dial rotates left for two numbers, then right for twelve, then left for six. The game does not animate this in real time, so most players tab through the three inputs with the shoulder buttons or by dragging the dial. If the safe refuses to open, the code has either not yet been delivered by the relevant story event or the player is on the wrong campaign side.
Where each safe and locker sits in the police station
The Raccoon City Police Department in the remake is a three-floor building with a basement parking area, a sub-basement, and a one-way route down into the NEST laboratory. The map is the same for both campaigns, but the second run rearranges items, the link cable logic, and which boss room leads back to the surface. For a first-time player, the most efficient order is the one the game already supports, which is roughly south to north, west to east, and down to B1 only after the power is restored. The following walkthrough uses the in-game compass orientation so you can match the map to your current run.
The west office 1F wall safe is in the room with the breakable window facing the main hall, opposite the reception desk. You will need to bring a lockpick or a lockpick handle to open it at all, because the first time you enter the room the door is unbarred but the safe is jammed. The hip pouch inside is one of the more impactful items in the first hour, because it permanently raises your carry capacity by two slots. Reaching that safe on a first pass is fine, but you cannot open it until you have read the code memo in the second floor STARS office. If you already cleared the STARS office, fast travel up the stairs and back, then return to the safe.
The 3F west storage room portable safe is the easier of the two portable safes, because the hint for its combination is printed on the safe’s own small display once you have triggered the west wing fire sequence. If you reach the room before the fire, the safe is closed and silent. After the fire, the display lights up and the hint appears. The safe is on a shelf near the back of the room, next to a red toolbox.
The Art Room area safe on 2F east wing is in a short corridor that branches off the main east hall. The corridor is locked behind a Reception Room door that you cannot open until you have reached the STARS office. The safe is on the right-hand wall, next to a vending machine. It is a Detonator shell safe, and the item inside is the same on both Leon and Claire runs, but the path to it changes slightly if you are playing Claire B because of the second run’s Mr. X spawns.
The Interrogation Room safe on B1 is a guaranteed open only after you restore the power to the sub-basement. Before that, the room is partially flooded and the door cannot be opened from either side. The safe is on the back wall, and the hint for the combination is found on a clipboard attached to the central interrogation table once the room is accessible. For a broader look at the campaign structure and the two-side design, the Resident Evil 2 Wikipedia page lays out the same night from the other protagonist and explains how the A and B scenarios interlock.
The S.T.A.R.S. office wall safe is the most important one in the building, because it is the only way to retrieve the STARS badge during the main story. The badge is required to unlock the armory door on the first floor, which in turn leads to the modified handgun parts (Leon) or the JMB parts (Claire). The safe is on the back wall of the office, behind a desk and next to a typewriter. The hint for the combination is on a notepad in Linette’s office on the second floor, which most players find before the STARS office itself. If you enter the STARS office before reading the note, the safe is silent and cannot be opened. If you have the note but cannot match the dial, the most common reason is that the S.T.A.R.S. office is not yet part of your routable map, which means you are still in the west wing and have not yet restored the third floor east wing access.
2nd run changes that affect every safe combination
The B-side campaign of the remake is built around a “2nd run” mode. The same combination values still apply to most containers, but the route changes in two important ways. First, the link cable logic flips. Where Leon A needed the electronic gadget reader to translate a signal, Claire A does not, and on the B-side the second player picks up the role the first player left behind. This swap means that several document items move between rooms, and the hint that the code is on can appear in a different place than the A-side. The codes themselves do not change, but the documents that contain them do.
Second, the B-side introduces an extra detonator path that requires you to convert one of the portable safes into a battery carrier rather than a code container. This is the only B-side difference where a safe’s contents change in a meaningful way. On a Leon B run, the west wing portable safe that holds a Detonator on A-side holds a high-capacity magazine on B-side, and the Detonator shell moves into the Interrogation Room safe. The combination on that safe is the same, so the gameplay pattern is unchanged, but the reward is different.
If you are following a B-side route and a safe refuses to open with a code that worked on A-side, the most common reason is that the room in question has been gated by a progress flag that does not match your run. Walk back to the previous hub and check the maps for a door that was not open on A-side, then trigger the relevant event before returning to the safe.
Itemization behind the lock: what you actually get
Combination containers in the remake return one of three reward categories. The first is inventory expansion. Hip pouches are the clearest example, and they are the most efficient items in the game in terms of opportunity cost, because they raise the carry cap by two slots. The Leon A west office safe is the earliest you can find a pouch, and there is a second pouch in the B-side STARS office desk on a Leon B run, so you can pick up two pouches in a single playthrough if you plan for it.
The second category is weapon progression. The weapon lockers hold either the STS-60 rifle (Leon A) or the modified handgun parts and the JMB parts (Claire A), depending on which key you find first. The weapon locker is the only source of those parts in the early game, and it requires the safety deposit room key, which is itself locked behind a side door on the east side of 1F. If you reach the room without the key, the locker is closed and the room is empty.
The third category is detonator and battery logistics. Several portable safes hold a Detonator shell that you cannot use until you find the corresponding battery. The shell is a placeholder, but it is a useful placeholder, because you can drop it in storage and pick it up when the battery appears, which saves a slot in your briefcase. Players who do not understand this mechanic often leave the shell on the ground, which means the next encounter in the same room will push it into an unreachable corner.
Beyond those three categories, a few safes hold craft components such as gunpowder, high-grade white gunpowder, and alloy. These are useful for the weapon upgrade bench on the second floor, but they are not the primary reason to open a safe, and the remake randomizes their exact count, so the safe’s strategic value is in the high-tier reward slot, not the filler.
Troubleshooting: when the safe will not open
Combination troubleshooting in the remake falls into a small number of clean failure modes. Walk through them in order before assuming the code is wrong.
- Progress has not yet triggered the code hint. The most common reason a safe is silent is that the relevant event has not happened. For the S.T.A.R.S. office safe, you need to read Linette’s note first. For the Interrogation Room safe, you need to restore power. For the west storage room portable safe, you need to trigger the west wing fire.
- You are on the wrong campaign side. The 2nd run rotates document locations, and a player who is reading an A-side guide during a B-side run will find the right code in the wrong room. Cross-check the guide’s campaign tag before entering the code.
- You are reading the dial in the wrong units. The combination values for portable safes and wall safes are left, right, left rotations, not full turns. A safe that requires two left, twelve right, six left will not open if you interpret the twelve as twelve full turns, because the dial’s UI is calibrated to single-number stops, not full rotations.
- The safe is the wrong safe. Several wall safes share the same code, and a few share the same shape. If you are in a corridor with two safes, the one with the hint device on the dial is the one your code applies to. The silent safe is a different container, and its code is documented in a different room.
- You have used the storage box on the hint document. The remake allows you to drop documents into a storage box in the main hall, and once a document is in storage, the hint it provides still works, but the code only appears on screen if you have read the document in your inventory. If you have not read it, return to the box, retrieve the document, and read it on the inventory screen.
If you have walked through this list and the safe still does not open, the next step is to verify the campaign. On a Claire A run, the S.T.A.R.S. office safe opens with the same code as Leon A, but on a Leon B run the office contains a different high-tier reward, and the code is still the same, so the dial input should match.
The portable safes: a different kind of puzzle
The portable safe is a small, heavy box that the player can pick up and carry. It is mechanically a four-digit combination device, but it carries its own hint on a small display that lights up when the player inspects it in the inventory. The first time you open the inventory and look at a portable safe, the hint display shows a partial clue such as “2 left, 12 right, 6 left.” The numbers are the rotation values, and they are written in the same form as the wall safes. Portable safes that have not yet been opened can be stored in the main hall storage box and read on demand, which is a useful way to delay the puzzle if you are in the middle of a zombie encounter.
The portable safe is the only combination object in the remake that can be picked up and moved. This is important for two reasons. First, you can store a portable safe that you cannot yet open, retrieve it later when you know the code, and use a storage slot rather than a briefcase slot. Second, you can accidentally trigger a portable safe’s hint while you are in a hurry, which means the puzzle effectively solves itself in some cases, because the display is on the safe itself. Players who want the puzzle to feel earned can avoid inspecting the safe until they have located the document that the hint refers to.
The portable safes in the remake are all of the same type, but the location and contents differ. There is one in the west wing lockers area, one in the second floor west corridor, one in the third floor west storage room, and one in the first floor west office. Each holds a detonator shell, a magazine, or a healing item, depending on the room. The first three are the same on both campaigns, but the first floor safe is a hip pouch on a Leon A run and a magazine on a Claire A run, which is one of the small narrative touches the remake uses to differentiate the two protagonists’ inventories.
Weapon lockers and jacket locks
The weapon locker in the safety deposit room is a four-digit pin that opens a different combination of weapon parts depending on the campaign. The pin is 6, 2, 1, 2, and the four digits are entered in order. The locker is locked behind a side door that you cannot reach without the safety deposit room key, which is found in the east wing second floor corridor on a shelf. If you are missing the key, the room is gated by a “Door locked” prompt and you will need to backtrack to find the key. Once inside, the locker accepts the pin, and the reward is the parts you need to upgrade your sidearm. For an outside take on how the original release handled its puzzles, a 1999 IGN look at the N64 port covers the same lock pattern from an earlier build of the game.
The jacket lock on Marvin’s body is not a traditional safe, but it is a combination puzzle, because the jacket takes a two-digit code and a handle input. The code is 9, 15, and the handle turns clockwise until the latch releases. The combination is written on a loose paper on Marvin’s desk, but the player has to be in the room at the right time to see it, because the paper is a temporary object that disappears once you have read it. The reward is a small stack of 9mm ammunition and a hip pouch, which is the first pouch in the game on a Leon A run. On a Claire A run, the jacket holds a different stack of 9mm and the same pouch, because Claire’s starter weapon is also a 9mm.
These two lock types are the only combination-based containers in the remake that are not safes. The detonator, the card keys, the STARS badge, and the various safe keys are all item-based rather than combination-based, and they are not covered here. If you are looking for the safe key, the portable safe key, or the STARS badge, the pickup locations are documented in the in-game notebook under the “Key items” tab.
Mapping every safe code to a route through the police station
The route through the police station that hits every combination in the order the game supports is roughly the following, and it works for both campaigns with the swap of one or two steps. The route assumes a default play through, no New Game Plus, and the standard 2nd run. Save before the S.T.A.R.S. office so you can reload if you miss a hip pouch.
- Enter the police station through the main hall. Pick up the safety deposit room key from the east wing second floor. Read Linette’s note on the second floor to learn the STARS office safe code.
- Clear the west wing and the reception area. Use the small key to open Marvin’s jacket, then read the loose paper on his desk to learn the jacket code. Open the jacket and take the pouch.
- Open the west office 1F wall safe with the code from the STARS office memo. Take the second pouch. Open the 3F west storage room portable safe after the fire, and take the healing item.
- Restore power to the sub-basement, then enter the Interrogation Room. Open the safe with the code on the central table. Take the detonator shell.
- Open the S.T.A.R.S. office safe on the second floor. Take the STARS badge. Use the badge to open the armory on the first floor and take the modified handgun or JMB parts.
- Open the safety deposit room locker on the first floor with the pin 6, 2, 1, 2. Take the weapon upgrade parts. Open the Art Room area safe on the second floor and take the detonator shell.
- Use the storage box to hold the detonator shell until the battery appears in the NEST lab. The battery is the only item that turns the shells into usable detonators.
If you are playing Claire A, the only meaningful change is that the modified handgun parts become JMB parts in the weapon locker, and the west office pouch is replaced by a magazine. If you are playing the B-side, the route is the same, but the link cable role and the document locations flip, so a single B-side run can pick up a pouch from the west office and a second pouch from the STARS office desk. Most players pick up three pouches in a B-side run, which is the maximum for a single playthrough.
What the codes mean for replay value
For players who are coming back to the remake after a long break, the codes are a useful quick reference, but they are also a small lesson in how the remake uses repetition. The same two combinations appear across multiple rooms, which is a deliberate design choice. The developer is teaching the player that they only need to internalize two numeric values, not nine. The portable safes and the lockers then add small variations that respect the player’s time without removing the sense of pattern recognition that the first set of codes provides.
For developers, the design pattern is interesting because it shows how a horror game can teach a small vocabulary of numbers without making the player feel patronized. The codes are repeated, but the items inside the safes change, and the documents that contain the codes are distributed across rooms in a way that supports a normal route. The player feels that they have learned a system, and the system supports a normal play through on a first run without external references.
For production, the data structure that supports this system is small. A safe object has a code field, an open state, an item reward table, and a hint reference. The hint reference can be either a document object in another room or an event flag. The portable safe has the same structure plus a pick-up state and an inventory-readable hint display. None of the safes share a single global code; each one stores its own value, which makes the repetition a content choice rather than a programmer shortcut.
New Game Plus and unlock mode considerations
The remake’s New Game Plus and unlock mode do not change the combination values. The codes remain the same, and the documents that hint them remain in the same rooms. The difference is that the player starts with a higher-ranked weapon and a fully upgraded briefcase, which makes the inventory pressure less acute, but the codes still gate the high-tier rewards. If you are running a New Game Plus on a fully upgraded save, the only meaningful change to the safe content is that the gunpowder counts are higher, because the upgrade bench is already at maximum and the game rewards you for the spare resources with more crafting material.
Unlock mode (the 4th survivor and the tofu survivor runs) does not include any combination safes, because the runs are designed as short, scripted, action-only sequences through a subset of the police station. The portable safes are present in 4th survivor mode, but they hold only ammo, and the codes are not hinted. The intent is to make the run feel like a sprint, not a puzzle, so the safes are decorative in that mode.
For players who are working through the unlock mode achievements, the combination table is not relevant. The only relevant numbers are the weapon caches in the secret rooms, which are not combination-based and are documented separately.
Production lessons for developers and designers
From a design perspective, the Resident Evil 2 remake’s combination system is a useful reference for two reasons. First, it shows how to teach a small set of puzzle values without overloading the player. The game only requires the player to remember two combinations on a first run, because the others are written in-room and need to be read once. The portable safes carry their own hints, which removes the need to memorize their values at all.
Second, it shows how to use combination puzzles as inventory pressure rather than as a brute-force search. The codes gate the high-tier rewards, but they do not gate the entire run. A player who cannot remember a code can leave the safe and advance the story, and the code will still be there when they come back. The game does not penalize the player for forgetting, because the inventory pressure is what makes the rewards feel valuable, not the codes themselves.
For audio, the safe dial sound design is a small detail worth noting. The dial clicks once per number, and the sound is pitched to match the rotation direction. The click is louder when the safe is ready to open, and softer when the player has made an error. This is a small but effective feedback loop, and it is one of the small ways the remake supports accessibility without losing the tension of the puzzle.
For QA, the combination system is one of the most regression-tested areas of the game, because the codes are read on-screen and any mismatch is immediately visible. The QA process for a combination puzzle includes verifying the code on every campaign, the hint document on every campaign, the items inside the safe on every campaign, and the lock state across save and reload. A regression in any of these areas is a build-breaker, because the player will see the wrong item or the wrong code and the report will reach the team within an hour of public release.
Accessibility, localization, and input
The combination dials in the remake are mouse, controller, and keyboard compatible. The default input is a click-and-drag on the dial, which works well for both mouse and touch. The alternative is the shoulder buttons on a controller, which rotate the dial in single-number steps. The keyboard input uses the arrow keys, with up and down for left and right, and the left and right keys for the same. All three input methods are tested, and the QA matrix includes each one.
Localization affects only the documents that hint the codes, not the codes themselves. The digits are language-independent, and the input mapping is consistent across regional builds. The hints are translated, but the rotation values are written in a numeric form that does not change with language, which means a player who is reading a translated document can still apply the same code.
Accessibility features for the combination system include a high-contrast mode for the dial, a slower rotation speed option, and the ability to read the hint on a portable safe by holding a single button rather than dragging the inventory. The combination itself is not adjustable for difficulty, because the design intent is that the player either reads the hint or does not, and the difficulty is in the reading, not the input.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Resident Evil 2 remake safe code for the west office 1F wall safe?
The code is 6 left, 2 right, 11 left. The combination is written on a memo in the second floor STARS office, and the safe contains a hip pouch that raises your carry capacity by two slots. The safe is locked behind a door that is only accessible after the STARS office door has been opened for the first time, so you need to have visited the STARS office and read the memo before the dial becomes responsive.
Why is my portable safe code wrong even though I copied it from a guide?
The most common reason is that you are reading a guide for the wrong campaign. The 2nd run side rotates the document locations, so the code is the same but the room that contains the hint is different. Cross-check the campaign tag at the top of the guide. The second most common reason is that you are entering the rotation values as full turns rather than as single-number stops. The dial in the remake is calibrated to single-number stops, so a value of “2 left” means two single-number stops, not two full rotations.
Can I open a safe before I have read the hint document?
No. The dial on a locked safe is silent until the relevant event has happened. For the S.T.A.R.S. office safe, you need to read Linette’s note. For the Interrogation Room safe, you need to restore power. For the west storage room portable safe, you need to trigger the fire. If the dial does not move when you interact with it, the most likely cause is that the prerequisite has not yet been met.
Where is the STARS badge, and which safe holds it?
The STARS badge is inside the S.T.A.R.S. office wall safe on the second floor. The safe code is 2 left, 12 right, 6 left, and the hint is on a notepad in Linette’s office. The badge is the only way to unlock the armory on the first floor, and the armory is the only source of the modified handgun parts (Leon) or the JMB parts (Claire) on a first run. If you are missing the badge, you are missing the armory, and the chain of unlocks that follows from it.
Do combination codes change in the 2nd run?
No, the combination values are the same on both campaigns. The 2nd run rotates which rooms contain the hint documents, but the codes themselves are unchanged. The only meaningful change is that one of the portable safes swaps its detonator shell for a high-capacity magazine on a Leon B run, and the detonator shell moves into the Interrogation Room safe. The combination on both containers remains the same.
Are the portable safes worth opening in 4th survivor or tofu runs?
No. In the unlock mode runs, the portable safes hold only basic ammunition, and the codes are not hinted. The runs are designed as short, scripted, action-only sequences, and the safes are decorative. If you are running a 4th survivor or tofu run for the achievement, ignore the safes and focus on the route.
What is the best order to open every safe in a single playthrough?
Open the S.T.A.R.S. office safe first to get the STARS badge, because the badge unlocks the armory, which contains the weapon upgrade parts you need to optimize your sidearm. Then open the west office wall safe to get the hip pouch, because the pouch raises your carry capacity, which makes every subsequent backtrack more efficient. Then open the safety deposit room locker for the weapon parts, then the Interrogation Room safe for the detonator shell, then the Art Room area safe for the second detonator shell. The order is not strict, but the badge and the pouch have the highest opportunity cost, so they go first.
Does New Game Plus change the safe codes?
No. The combination values are the same in New Game Plus, and the documents that hint them are in the same rooms. The only meaningful change is that the items inside the safes are scaled to a higher player rank, which means more gunpowder and a small number of high-tier crafting resources. The codes are unchanged, so a player who has memorized the values does not need to look up the document again.
Can I store a portable safe in the main hall storage box and read the code later?
Yes. The portable safe is a pickup object, and you can drop it into the main hall storage box on the first floor. Once it is in storage, you can retrieve it and read the hint display on the inventory screen. The combination is the same, and the items inside are unchanged, so storing the safe is a useful way to manage inventory if you are in the middle of a tight encounter. Most players store the detonator shell portable safes and read them on demand.
What is the difference between a wall safe and a portable safe in the remake?
A wall safe is a fixed object attached to a wall. The dial is on the safe itself, and the hint is in a document in another room. A portable safe is a pickup object that the player can carry. The dial is replaced by an inventory hint display, and the hint is on the safe itself. The combination system is otherwise identical, and the same numeric values apply to both types. The difference is purely mechanical: wall safes gate a room, and portable safes gate an inventory slot.
