_QR CODES

1. ((+_+)) QR CODE COLLECTING

Location / Chicago // All Districts

While roaming the Chicago districts, you may spot a strange jumble of white and black squares posted on walls, pillars, or overpasses. These are QR Codes left by the infamous hacker “Giggles,” and each has a message if you take a photo of it (IRL). Though it may not initially look like it, each QR Code has been placed in two or three sections, so usually you’re only looking at part of the whole QR Code square. To read the QR Code properly, you need to line up the image in the view of a particular camera, as shown below. There are 16 to find, and each comes with its own Audio Log, courtesy of Giggles.

Pawnee / QR Codes

QR Code 01

Location / Pawnee // Southern Construction Bridge

Message: ~~(8:> will U be my BFF? 4 realz!

Check the partial QR Code on the tunnel entrance just west of the south end of the construction bridge site, on the main road to Pawnee. Head up the partly constructed bridge until you spot the camera on the left (west) side of the construction area, which offers a view toward a Papavero billboard. This billboard has the other part of the QR Code, which you can now read and claim another Audio Log from.

Parker Square / QR Codes

QR Code 02

Location / Parker Square // Between Husker Station and Phoebus Theater

Message: DedSec can suck my 8=====>

Look for the QR Code half hidden across the main street, near the white and blue street flags and American flag. Hack the camera on the northeast corner of the theater, above the alley, and look across the street. Line up the code at the top of the gray concrete add-on structure to the northeast. The roof section of this building has the other part of the code, which is downloaded along with the Audio Log.

QR Code 03

Location / Parker Square // Loan Shop Alley

Message: Hey DedSec!

Find the north-south alley one block west of the Pharmacy Shop, just south of the middle of Parker Square. The alley has a loan store and mechanics shop; look for the camera on the stone building on the alley’s left (west), in the corner above the mechanics. This allows you to view the QR Code on the brick building at the alley’s north end. The second part of the code is on the roof access area. Scan it!

The Wards / QR Codes

QR Code 04

Location / The Wards // Northeast River Locks

Message: Don’t QQ if you can’t find me.

Head to the rarely traversed river locks system at the northeast tip of the Wards, south of the river from Parker Square. Locate the giant river lock gates. While standing on the concrete jetty, check the nearby camera while facing southeast, which offers a view of some container stacks and the QR Code painted across the concrete dam walls. Scan this code and add it and the Audio Log to your collection.

QR Code 05

Location / The Wards // Main Street in Southwest Wards

Message: *\0/* U found one! *\0/*

Head to the main street where the gun shop is located. To the north is some rubble and on the road’s south side is a group of brick apartment buildings. Face east, so the buildings are on your right, and find a “bulb” camera atop one of the wall corners of the apartment. This affords a view of the top of a concrete building, and a brick apartment farther along, joining the QR Code together.

Brandon Docks / QR Codes

QR Code 06

Location / Brandon Docks // Racine Boat Yard Docks (West)

Message: U R getting WARMER

Locate the Parkfield L-train station on the north island and look for the mooring docks to its west. Face north down a side road to see the Willis Tower in the distance and a corrugated metal warehouse. A second similar structure bearing the Racine insignia is on the opposite side of the street. Hack the camera on the east side so the code lines up (the left part is on a building west of here).

QR Code 07

Location / Brandon Docks // South Central Bridge (Tidis Factory)

Message: (^._.^) U can findz QR codes!

Find the river that runs south to the pool with the small island in south-central Brandon Docks. Locate the bridge spanning this river (it’s a couple of blocks north of a ctOS tower). Stand on the east side of the bridge facing west, and hack the camera on the corner wall of the blue office building. Over the river to the west is a Tidis factory with cylindrical walls; line up the camera with the QR Code on these exterior walls.

QR Code 08

Location / Brandon Docks // Rhodes Train Station and Double Chimney Factory

Message: Mark IV style muthaf*cker!

Hop off the L-train at Rhodes Station in the middle of Brandon Docks, just a few blocks west of a ctOS tower and right near a Cash Run. Stand under the elevated tracks, facing west. Hack the camera on the brick building to the north. Line up the QR Code on the base of the two chimneys and factory area west of you. Pan the camera across the yard with the giant concrete pipes in it.

QR Code 09

Location / Brandon Docks // PumpGo Gas at Eastern Docks

Message: DedSec? More like DedSUC!

Head to the eastern side of Brandon Docks, close to the bridge that leads you into the docks peninsula, but don’t drive onto the bridge. Instead, get out by the gas station and locate the “bulb” camera on the corner of the gas station overhang (southeast corner). You can focus on the QR Code to the southwest, left of the two giant blue cranes, and zoom in on the code attached to two large warehouses.

The Loop / QR Codes

QR Code 10

Location / The Loop // Elevated Tracks East of Western Station

Message: Itz all 4 d GIGGLES

Head to Western L-Train station in the middle of the Island, in the western part of the Loop. Run or drive onto the elevated tracks, following them as they curve to the left (north). Watch for trains in either direction as you reach the brown metal platform near a brick and stone building to your right. Head onto it for safety, then hack the camera directly above you, revealing the code on multiple building roofs.

QR Code 11

Location / The Loop // Under the Freeway, West of Shanty Town

Message: BadBoy17? Bad, BOY, 17? Really?

Head to the very southeastern edge of the Island, under the freeway by the water, and look southeast toward Tobias’s Shop and the homeless shanty town (just north of the entrance to the Bunker). There’s a camera attached to the massive freeway pillar. Hack it and zoom in on the QR Code, which is otherwise impossible to read if you’re in the shanty town. Remember, you need to be on the river’s east side!

QR Code 12

Location / The Loop // Ambrose Theater alleyways

Message: G1gg1L3s… 1L… IL… Get It?

In the northern part of the Loop, in the same block as the Ambrose Theater and just east of a ctOS tower, there’s an entrance to the traffic tunnels. Head in from the east road so you’re looking northwest, and select the camera attached to the gray brick building above the yellow and black hash plate. Face the camera west, and you can see the QR Code line up from multiple rooftops, with the ctOS tower antenna in the distance.

QR Code 13

Location / The Loop // Hollenkamp Train Station

Message: Can U find D rest?

Disembark at Hollenkamp L-Train station in the southern part of the Loop, close to the rail bridge into Brandon Docks and southeast of the ctOS tower. Spot the camera in the middle of the brick wall of the huge apartment building just east of you. You’re afforded a great view of Chicago and a perfect view of the QR Code on the apartment building northwest of you.

Mad Mile / QR Codes

QR Code 14

Location / Mad Mile // Wall of Brick Apartments, Near Taylor Station

Message: o_0 0.0 0.o 0_o

Travel to Taylor L-Train station in the northwest part of Mad Mile, and head northeast, to a parking lot at the base of a huge office building northwest of the curved freeway. You’re focusing your attention to the southeast, at the large brick apartment building near the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre City Hotspot. Head around the low garage structures and look up at the attached camera. Cycle through to the second camera on the office wall. This looks across the freeway to the QR Code daubed on the brick edifice.

QR Code 15

Location / Mad Mile // Plaza North of Ryborn Station

Message: U must werk out. >_<

Locate the four-way L-train tracks intersection just north of Ryborn Station, in the western part of Mad Mile. Stand just south of the gun shop and face east so you can see parts of the QR Code on the rooftops ahead of you. Find the camera attached to the office building on your right, above the ATM. Swing the camera around to a second, upper camera on an adjacent building, which offers the correct view of the code.

QR Code 16

Location / Mad Mile // View from the Chicago Water Tower

Message: How U finding these?

Head to the central part of Mad Mile, just north of the southern route of the L-train, and locate the famous water tower (it looks like a stone fort). Face west, and find the two cameras atop the building east of the water tower. The second one allows a great view along the L-train tracks. You can just spot the QR Code on two separate business and apartment structures west and slightly south of you, overlooking the L-train tracks.

2. (@_@) DOING IT FOR THE S#17S AND G1GG1L3S

Location / Mad Mile // Hacker’s Apartment

Investigation

Data Hack

Difficulty:

Now that you’ve scanned all of the QR Codes, wait for a phone call from DedSec, who asks if you have time for a freelance job. They want to teach the infamous hacker “Giggles” a lesson, and you’re just the guy to upload a virus to his mainframe. Head into Mad Mile and locate the switch box outside his apartment. Begin a monstrously complicated hotspot hack:

Solution: Hotspot

Finally, you reach Giggles’s apartment. Access his mainframe, hack it, and upload the virus, which “pwns” him like a “n00b.” Detach yourself from the apartment, and jog away, listening to the congratulatory message from DedSec as this mission concludes.