Riddles and puzzles in Atomic Heart: how to open locks

In Atomic Heart, puzzles are quite common, and Polygons almost entirely consist of them. In addition, you have to solve small riddles even when picking locks. In this guide, we will not consider each puzzle separately, but only consider in detail the solution to all types of puzzles so that you can independently solve this or that riddle.

Lockpicking in Atomic Heart

All locks in this shooter can be divided into two main types: regular keyholes and piston mechanisms. When interacting with any of these objects, the game is not paused, so if there are enemies nearby, they will definitely attack you. So we recommend that you take on hacking only after the destruction of all nearby opponents.

As you progress through the story, the piston locks will become more and more difficult, but by then you should already be able to pick them pretty quickly. You will also begin to come across dual devices that involve solving two puzzles at once (to switch between them, use the "A" and "D" keys).

How to open a keyhole

The principle of hacking is quite simple - you need to twist the mouse, changing the slope of HRAZ's tentacles, and regularly press the left mouse button to see how much you can turn the lock. If you notice that the well began to turn more and more, then you have chosen the right direction.

You will be able to open the lock when it is fully turned to the right. Note that there are no master keys and other similar consumables in the game, so you can change the positions of the “antennae” as much as you like and watch how much the well turns. So sooner or later, but you will find the right slope.

How to open a rabbit lock

To do this, you need to choose the right moments for snapping your fingers in order to close all the fuse pins, and the bulbs start to glow green. You should click when the indicator coincides with the active pin.

In the beginning, clicking at the right time will be easy. Difficulties begin to arise when the bulk of the lamps are already glowing green, and the pins associated with them are in the correct position, because a wrong click in this case will push the bolt out and you will have to push it back in.

We add that after the successful closing of the fuse, the indicator light changes its direction of movement, which will certainly confuse you at first. In this case, we advise you to pay attention not to the image, but to the sound effects.

At the same time, this feature allows you to develop a universal solution for such locks, which looks like this: two clicks, skip, click, two skips and click. Don't worry too much about the time, because even if it runs out, the lock will not be permanently locked - you can try to open it any number of times.

How to open a lock with dots

The most difficult type of castle in the game, especially towards the end of the story, when the puzzles become much more difficult. At the same time, the principle of its operation is quite simple - you need to place multi-colored circles on the screen in such a way that they coincide with the corresponding indicators on the outer circle. In this case, the fuse pins will move inward.

This can be done using two available actions: moving points relative to each other and rotating the screen. By turning the dial, you can shift all the colored circles to the right or left by two positions at once. The pictures below clearly show how this happens.

Changing the location of points in relation to each other is carried out only in the lower part of the screen. When changing, the first two cells will move to the right, and the third will move from the right edge to the left. The screenshot below shows this process.

In the first half of the game you will only need to match the indicators with two dots, which is relatively easy, but later on you will have to deal with three dots at once, and the lights can be quite far apart, making it difficult to select the correct positions. We advise you to first compare two points, and then try to “connect” the third.

Important: If the puzzle seems difficult to you or you are completely confused, then just exit the hacking menu, and then interact with the lock again - the puzzle will change. It is possible that the new puzzle will be much simpler than the previous one.

How to open a pattern lock

Sometimes you will see piston mechanisms with many LED lights. To unlock them, you will need to light certain lamps. It is almost impossible to choose a combination, so you have to look for a clue. Usually the correct codes are written on pieces of paper or boards located nearby.

IN separate guide we indicated the location of all doors locked with a graphical lock, and showed the passwords that open them. Note that these doors often hide secret rooms with chests containing blueprints. weapons, cassettes or improvements.

How to open a cookie lock

To break such a lock, you will need a special item - a disk key. If it is available, Nechaev will automatically insert it into the well and remove the lock. Such doors will be extremely rare, and most of them are associated with story missions, so the game will show the location of the key.

The only exception is the lock hanging on the door leading to Polygon 11. You will have to find this cookie key yourself in the fenced checkpoint. We have described in detail how to get to it in separate guide.

How to open the moon castle

For the first time you will come across such a castle as part of the story mission "In hot pursuit". To open it, you will need to find three flasks with a circle, a square and a triangle hidden nearby. The game will indicate their location with markers, so there is nothing complicated here.

However, when exploring VDNKh, you will stumble upon a second moon castle, and the game will no longer show you the location of the flasks. Instead, we did it by publishing relevant guidance.

All puzzles in Atomic Heart

How to solve riddles with discs and rays

If you see red circles on the wall, then approach them and interact with them to make the rays appear. Next, you will need to match the colors of the laser beams with the colors of the indicator lamps (located at the end of the structure; this is where all the lasers are focused).

For example, in our case, the top two beams should be red, and the bottom one should be turquoise. To do this, start spinning the discs, swapping the beams. Some circles, by the way, have special relays that allow you to split the laser and get the right colors in two places.

In most of these puzzles, it is enough to rotate 2-3 circles to get the desired result. Therefore, if you are spinning discs for the 20th time, then most likely you are doing something wrong. Try to return to the original state and try again.

How to solve puzzles with magnetic coils and platforms

Here, too, everything is quite simple - you just need to shoot Shock at electromagnetic coils to change their polarity and raise / lower red or blue platforms. True, it is often not always clear which sites need to be moved in order to get to the desired location.

Most of these puzzles are found in Polygons, about which we have separate guide.

How to Solve Puzzles with the Shuttlecock and Cameras

Sometimes, in order to unlock certain doors and gates, you will need to penetrate the security system and open the necessary objects using cameras. To do this, you must first find the Shuttlecock device (it looks like a white capsule), and then select a video camera that looks at the desired passage. Again, most of these puzzles are related to Polygons.

How to solve the mirror puzzle

You will encounter her as part of the mission "Shaded Mirror". You will need to pull out two mirror devices in order to focus the sunbeam at a certain point, however one of the mirrors will not come out, which is why you will need to go downstairs and fix it. On the lower level you will find puzzles with reels, disks and platforms. We talked in detail about how to solve them in a separate guide.

How to solve the cistern riddle

You will have to solve it as part of the task. "What goes around comes around", which takes place in the Pesticide Shop. It will be necessary to move the tractor with the yellow tank on rails using a special control panel. The main difficulty lies in the many bugs. In a separate article, we talked about how to deliver the "can" to the right gate and fix most of the errors.

At the moment, these are all the main puzzles and riddles that can be found in Atomic Heart. If you have information about other puzzles, you can tell about it in the comments to the article.