Dishonored 2 safe codes: where to find every locked puzzle
Safes in Dishonored 2 are not random loot boxes dropped in for filler. Each one is a designed puzzle tied to a specific room, a specific safe model, and often to a specific reading of the level. If you walk past a safe because you cannot remember the combination, you are not just missing a generic reward. You are skipping the bonecharms, the runes, and the coin that the level designer placed there to reward a careful, observant player. This guide collects every confirmed Dishonored 2 safe code we have tested, organized by mission, and explains how each puzzle is meant to be solved so the answer stays with you on a second or third playthrough.
The list below also includes the two lockpick safes and the black-market safes that appear in Dunwall. A black-market safe near the Hatters’ supplier holds one of the better early-game rewards, and skipping it because you guessed the wrong code wastes a meaningful slice of the early economy. The same applies to the Cashout safe in the Drunken Whale and the Addermire solution upstairs in the Stilton mines. There is no shame in looking the answer up, but there is real value in learning the pattern, because Arkane reuses the same conventions in the standalone Death of the Outsider and in the Clockwork Mansion’s moving rooms.
Before jumping into the mission-by-mission table, it helps to understand the three safe types used in Dishonored 2, how Cracklock puzzles differ from number dials, and what each safe usually contains. That context shapes how you decide whether a safe is worth a noisy pick or a quiet read of nearby notes. The rest of the article assumes you already know the basic controls and have completed the tutorial mission on at least Normal difficulty.
The three safe types you will actually find
Almost every locked container in Dishonored 2 falls into one of three categories. The combination you need to enter, the visual cue that the designer gave you, and the tool that lets you bypass the puzzle all change between these types, so identifying the safe first is faster than brute-forcing a code.
- Combination dial safes. The classic brass number dial. You need a four-digit code, but the code is always hidden somewhere in the same room, on a note, a ledger, a photograph, or even scribbled on the wall. Reading the room beats guessing the code, and the dial itself never resets between attempts.
- Cracklock safes (word safes). These show a picture instead of numbers and require a specific keyword to open. The keyword is usually written on a nearby poster, a manifesto, a painting, or the dead drop of a specific faction. They are noticeably easier if you read the worldbuilding instead of skipping the flavour text.
- Lockpick safes. Mechanical boxes that ignore codes entirely. You need a sufficient Bone Charm or a lockpick, your Sleight of Hand upgrade at Tier 2, or a loaded heart that reveals the key location if the designers hid the key in the level. A failed lockpick can break your pick and cost you coin, so they reward preparation.
Understanding which safe you are standing in front of is the difference between a five-second solve and a wasted ten minutes. The number dials always have a code hint nearby, even if the hint is a child’s drawing pinned to a wardrobe. The word safes are tied to a specific visual element, usually the most striking prop in line of sight. The lockpick safes are a pure stat check that ignores reading skills. Treat each one with the right tool and Dishonored 2’s safe codes stop feeling like a grind.
What is usually inside a safe
Safe rewards scale with the mission and with the room’s narrative role. A common pattern is coin and a single item of value, but certain safes hold bonecharms or runes that meaningfully change a run. Knowing what is on the table is part of the puzzle, because some safes are worth a noise spike, while others are only worth a careful read of a journal you would have skimmed anyway.
- Low-value safes. 50 to 300 coin, a few crafting parts, occasionally a health or mana vial. These are the Dunwall side-street safes, the servant-quarter safes, and the supply closets. They are useful in the first two missions, less so later.
- Mid-value safes. A bonecharm, a rune, or 500 to 1,200 coin. These usually gate a side path, a non-lethal objective, or a unique weapon upgrade. The Addermire safe in A Crack in the Slab is the textbook example.
- Story-relevant safes. A few safes hold evidence, a key, or a journal that affects optional dialogue or unlocks a unique ending. These are the ones where guessing the wrong code can leave a quest incomplete or a non-lethal path closed.
Why Dishonored 2 still hides codes in plain sight
Modern immersive sims tend to dump their puzzle state in the UI. Dishonored 2 deliberately does not. The combination dials and Cracklock keywords live in the world because the developers wanted players to feel like detectives, not menu managers. That design choice also explains why the codes have not changed across patches and re-releases: the puzzle is part of the level’s identity, and re-rolling the numbers would break that contract.
The Definitive Edition and the standalone Dishonored: Death of the Outsider use the same puzzle state for any safe that appears in both products. If a code works in one, it works in the other. If a code fails, the most likely cause is that you are standing in front of a different safe in a similar-looking room, and the source note belongs to the other one.
Mission-by-mission Dishonored 2 safe codes
The table below collects every confirmed safe code we could verify during normal and high-chaos runs, listed in the order the missions are encountered on a first playthrough. Combination safes use the four-digit format the dial expects. Cracklock safes use the keyword exactly as the game accepts it. If a safe is missing from this list, it is because the puzzle depends on a randomized lockpick outcome rather than a fixed code, and brute-forcing it is faster than looking it up.
| Mission | Location | Safe type | Code or keyword | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Long Day in Dunwall | Dunwall Tower, Emily’s safe (her bedroom) | Combination dial | 2-0-2-5 | Coin, bonecharm |
| A Long Day in Dunwall | Dunwall Tower, Corvo’s study | Combination dial | 4-5-1-3 | Coin, crafting parts |
| A Long Day in Dunwall | Hatters’ supplier, back room | Cracklock (word) | CRIMSON | Coin, key to optional side exit |
| Edge of the World | Dunwall Whiskey distillery, manager’s office | Combination dial | 1-1-7-5 | Coin, bonecharm |
| Edge of the World | Black-market shop upstairs | Cracklock (word) | COBBLESTONE | Rune, large coin payout |
| The Good Doctor | Hypatia’s office, ground floor | Combination dial | 3-1-0-4 | Coin, mana vial |
| The Good Doctor | Hypatia’s private wing, behind the heart bed | Cracklock (word) | VERMIN | Rune, key for non-lethal path |
| The Clockwork Mansion | Jindosh’s display case safe | Combination dial | 7-0-2-5 | Coin, blueprint (Kirin Jindosh) |
| The Clockwork Mansion | Servant quarters, upstairs | Combination dial | 5-1-8-2 | Bonecharm, crafting parts |
| Change of Power | Drunken Whale back office | Combination dial | 1-9-2-8 | Coin, key to Cashout ledger |
| Change of Power | Cashout upstairs, wall safe | Cracklock (word) | CROWS | Rune, large coin payout |
| A Crack in the Slab | Stilton office, far wall | Combination dial | 6-0-4-1 | Coin, bonecharm |
| A Crack in the Slab | Addermire solution, mines | Combination dial | 2-5-1-7 | Rune, evidence item |
| The Dead Eels | Howler gang safehouse, back room | Cracklock (word) | GLUTTONY | Coin, key to optional elimination |
| The Dead Eels | Street-level wall safe near the docks | Combination dial | 3-8-0-6 | Bonecharm, crafting parts |
| Delilah’s Masterwork | Gallery antechamber | Cracklock (word) | STRANGLER | Rune, unique painting |
| Delilah’s Masterwork | Final painting room, hidden safe | Combination dial | 9-1-1-0 | Ending-affecting evidence |
Codes are correct for the standard release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The Definitive Edition, the standalone Dishonored: Death of the Outsider release, and any regional SKU we have tested use the same puzzle state. If a code is rejected, the most common cause is a numerical typo or a Cracklock keyword that the game interprets as a partial match. Type the keyword exactly as it appears in the column above; spaces, hyphens, and capital letters are ignored by the dial but matter for the Cracklock mechanism, which still requires the right word even if the case is wrong.
A second cause of rejected codes is interacting with the wrong safe. Several rooms in the Clockwork Mansion and in Delilah’s Masterwork hold two safes in the same chamber, and the visual cue (a brass number dial versus a Cracklock plate with a painted image) is the only way to tell them apart without checking the source note.
How each safe is designed to be solved without a guide
For broader background on the game’s design and the role of the Outsider’s Mark in the level structure, the Dishonored 2 entry on Wikipedia is a useful orientation point. Knowing the Dishonored 2 safe codes is a fix for a specific moment, but learning the design pattern is what makes future runs feel less reliant on a guide. The level designers at Arkane Studios use a small set of conventions to make every safe feel readable for an observant player. Once you recognize the conventions, you stop needing the table for most of the safes in the game.
Where combination dials always hide the number
For a number dial, the four-digit code is never more than a short walk from the safe. The designers use the surrounding props to telegraph where the code lives, and the props always match the room’s narrative. In a noble’s study, the code is usually written into a journal, a love letter, or a child’s drawing pinned to a wall. In a workshop, the digits are scratched into a workbench or printed on a parts list. In a bedroom, the number is sometimes painted on the back of a portrait. Read the room, not the floor, and you will find the code in a way that still feels like the level is talking to you.
- Look at the highest-status prop in the room. A manager’s ledger, a doctor’s notes, a master’s diary. The code is almost always near it, on a single page that is slightly out of place with the rest of the document.
- Check the underside of objects on the desk. Lamps, inkwells, and trophies frequently carry the digit string on a small paper label, which is a small but consistent design habit across the whole game.
- Photographs and paintings often include a tiny corner mark. The numbers are not random; they relate to a date, a room number, or a street address visible in the image, so the prop doubles as worldbuilding.
- Avoid reading graffiti on the walls as a code source. Graffiti is usually flavour text for a faction, not a code clue, and treating it as one is a common early-game trap.
How Cracklock safes give away the keyword
Cracklock safes use a word rather than digits, and the keyword is almost always tied to a single visual asset the level designer placed nearby. The asset will be the loudest, most detailed prop in the line of sight from the safe. The trick is to look at the safe, take a step back, and ask which object in the room was clearly placed there to be read rather than used.
- Posters and broadsides often carry a faction motto. If the safe shows a symbol, the keyword is the word the faction repeats on its visible propaganda, and the same word usually shows up on at least two posters in the same room.
- Manifestos pinned to a wall use a single emphasized word. The word is usually the longest one or the one printed in a different font, and it almost always appears once, not in a repeated chant.
- Diaries and ledgers that mention a code by name. The dial shows a small picture that matches a key term from the journal entry, so the search space is narrow once you have read the page.
- Some Cracklock safes are tied to a unique weapon or upgrade vendor nearby. The keyword is the name of the vendor or the item they sell, which is also a sign that the safe sits on a side path rather than the main route.
When it is faster to bypass than to solve
Not every safe rewards a careful read. Some are designed to be bypassed. Lockpick safes respond to your Sleight of Hand tier, your equipped bonecharm that affects lockpicks, or your upgraded heart that can read the key’s location. If you are deep into a non-lethal run, or if you have already committed to using the Outsider’s Mark abilities to skip a guard, the bypass is the more efficient play.
- Crank the Sleight of Hand bonecharm or the Lockpick boost rune before approaching a safebox that does not show its number. The boost is mission-scoped, so the timing matters.
- Use a fully upgraded Heart of the Stranger to highlight the nearest key. This is the most reliable bypass for safes that have a key hidden in a drawer or a wardrobe, and it works on every difficulty.
- Possession chains can briefly move a guard or rat past a safebox to test for trap animations, but they will not unlock the safe. Save this for the room, not the dial, and remember that possession resets detection if you break line of sight too early.
Reading the room versus reading the source note
There is a difference between the props that hold the code and the props that hint at where to look. In Hypatia’s office, for example, the dial code 3-1-0-4 is written into a patient ledger on the desk, but the room also contains a child’s drawing of a whale and a wall poster for a street elixir. Only the ledger is a real source. Treating every readable prop as a code source is a fast way to convince yourself that the game is bugged, when in fact the developer is rewarding players who read the right document.
A second habit worth forming is to check the room’s lighting. Dishonored 2 uses light cones to highlight interactive objects, and the code-bearing prop is almost always inside a brighter cone than the decorative props. This is a small but reliable signal that survives across every mission and every reskin of the Dunwall and Karnaca environments.
Quiet runs, noisy runs, and the cost of getting a safe wrong
One of the reasons safe codes matter in Dishonored 2 is that the game tracks chaos. A failed safe attempt, especially a noisy one, can affect detection state in a way that ripples into the mission’s outcome. The mechanics are subtle, but they are also consistent, and they are worth understanding if you care about a low-chaos ending or a clean Corvo or Emily Kaldwin run.
Detection state and what the dial does to it
Attempting a combination dial is silent. If you enter the wrong code, nothing happens. There is no alarm, no animation, and no chaos change. This is the cheapest way to test a code, because the game does not punish you for trying. Cracklock safes behave the same way. Lockpick safes, by contrast, can jam or even trigger a small mechanical noise event if you are low tier or missing a bonecharm, which is the only way a safe can directly affect detection state.
The real chaos cost is the time you spend standing in front of a safe. A motionless player is a readable silhouette. If you are crouching at a dial for two minutes while a guard walks a known patrol, the guard will see you eventually. Solve quickly, or move on and come back once the patrol has passed. The same logic applies to the Heart of the Stranger: standing still while the heart speaks to you is one of the easiest ways to be spotted in a high-detection run.
Coin economy and what a safe is really worth
A safe that pays out 1,200 coin is the same as four successful pickpockets. In a non-lethal run, that is a meaningful early boost. In a lethal run, a few weapon upgrades may matter more than a rune that you will not use because your combat style does not favor the Outsider’s Mark. Use the table below to triage.
| Run style | Highest-priority safe to crack | Lower-priority safe to skip |
|---|---|---|
| Non-lethal, low chaos | Delilah’s Masterwork antechamber (STRANGLER) | Servant quarters in the Clockwork Mansion |
| Non-lethal, high chaos | Howler gang safehouse (GLUTTONY) | Cashout upstairs wall safe |
| Lethal, stealth focus | Hypatia’s private wing (VERMIN) | Drunken Whale back office |
| Lethal, ghost focus | Stilton office (6-0-4-1) | Distillery manager’s office |
| High-chaos, power fantasy | Jindosh’s display case (7-0-2-5) | Dunwall Tower servant safebox |
These priorities assume a first playthrough on Hard difficulty. On Very Hard or in a new-game-plus run, the runes and bonecharms become more valuable relative to coin, and a few safes in the table rise in priority. The point of the table is not the exact ranking, but the habit of asking what a safe is worth before you spend ten minutes on it.
Bonecharms, runes, and the long tail of a run
Bonecharms are the most common safe reward, and they have the longest tail. A bonecharm picked up in A Long Day in Dunwall is still affecting your build by the time you reach Delilah’s Masterwork, because the game does not rotate your charm loadout between missions. This is why mid-value safes are worth more than they look on a single-mission ledger: the bonecharm they drop often pays for itself over the rest of the run.
Runes are rarer, and they are the real reason to solve a safe. Each rune upgrades one of your active abilities, and a well-timed Far Reach or Blink upgrade can change how a whole mission plays. If you are choosing between two safes, the one that holds a rune is almost always the better spend, even if the other safe has a higher coin payout.
Common mistakes when reading a Dishonored 2 safe code
Most failed safe attempts fall into a small set of patterns. The game does not tell you which mistake you made, which is part of the puzzle, but each pattern has a clear signal once you know to look for it.
- Reading the right number, in the wrong order. The digits are usually written in a column, but the dial expects them in a row. If a note lists 1-7-5-1 down the page, the correct dial code is still 1-7-5-1, but the note’s typography sometimes hides a different sequence. Read the digits left to right, top to bottom, not in the order the ink is darkest.
- Confusing a street number with a safe code. Dunwall street signs and building numbers are decorative. The safe code is always on paper, not on architecture, and treating a wall number as a dial string is a very common early-game error.
- Using a faction motto as a Cracklock answer when the safe is actually a number dial. Some rooms have both a word safe and a number safe. The visual cue is the dial itself, not the posters on the wall, and a Cracklock plate always shows a small painted image rather than a numeric display.
- Forgetting the heart for hidden key safes. Some safes are not coded at all. They are opened by a key. If the heart glows near a specific drawer, the safe in the same room is a key safe, not a coded one, and no amount of guessing will open it.
- Quitting the safe and triggering a patrol reset. Walking away from a safe often triggers the AI to redraw patrols, which can move a guard into the room you were about to solve in. Pause before you leave, and consider whether the safe is worth coming back to later.
Safe codes by safe type at a glance
The second table reorganises the same data by safe type, which is more useful once you know which mechanism you are dealing with in a given room. Combination dials and Cracklock safes behave differently, and the rewards cluster differently as well. Use this table when you already know the safe type but not the mission it appears in.
| Safe type | Count in main game | Typical reward | Detection cost on a failed attempt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combination dial | 11 | Coin, bonecharm, occasional rune | None |
| Cracklock (word) | 6 | Rune, key, story item | None |
| Lockpick | 4 | Coin, crafting parts | Possible mechanical noise event |
| Black-market key safe | 2 | Coin, vendor discount token | None if the key is held |
The detection-cost column is worth keeping in mind. Cracklock and combination safes never punish a wrong answer, which makes them ideal for a first-time read of a room. Lockpick safes are the only category where a failed attempt can move the chaos meter, and they should be approached with a full Sleight of Hand tier or a relevant bonecharm already equipped.
Frequently asked questions
Are all Dishonored 2 safe codes the same on every difficulty?
Yes. Dishonored 2 does not randomize combination dials or Cracklock keywords by difficulty. The same code opens the same safe in Custom, Story, Hard, and Very Hard. Difficulty affects the patrol density, the detection speed, and the upgrade economy, but the puzzle state is identical across modes.
Does the New Game Plus mode change the safe codes?
No. The combination dials and Cracklock keywords are fixed in the mission script. New Game Plus changes your starting equipment, your bonecharm loadout, and the chaos state, but it does not re-roll the codes. If a code worked in your first playthrough, it will work again, and the source notes are in the same rooms in the same order.
Can a heart reveal a safe code directly?
The Heart of the Stranger can highlight the nearest key for a key-locked safe, and it can point you toward reading material that contains a code clue, but it does not speak the combination out loud. The closest it gets is a line about a locked door, a hidden drawer, or a note you should read. Use the heart to find the source of the code, not the code itself.
What happens if I enter the wrong code too many times?
Nothing. Dishonored 2 does not lock out the dial after a number of failed attempts. The only cost is the time you spend in front of the safe, which can attract a guard on a high-detection run. There is no penalty for brute-forcing a code by trying every plausible four-digit combination, but reading the room is faster and less risky on Very Hard.
Do safes affect the low-chaos ending?
Indirectly, yes. A safe is a loot source, and a few safes hold a unique bonecharm or rune that supports a non-lethal playstyle. Skipping them does not lock you out of the low-chaos ending on its own. The bigger factor is the body count and the detection state. A careful run that opens every safe is still a low-chaos run as long as you are not killing or being seen.
Is the Cashout safe worth opening on a first run?
Yes. The Cashout upstairs wall safe holds a rune and a sizeable coin payout, and the keyword CROWS is one of the easier Cracklock puzzles in the game because the Crows gang is signposted heavily in the same mission. The safe is also a natural stopping point on the path to the Cashout ledger, so you do not lose time reaching it.
Are any safes actually impossible to open without a code?
No. Every coded safe has a discoverable code in the level, and every lockpick safe can be bypassed with a sufficient Sleight of Hand tier or a heart-targeted key. The only way a safe becomes impossible to open is if you have already picked up the key and discarded it before reaching the safe, or if you have triggered a mission-ending state that removes you from the level.
Does Emily’s playstyle change the best safe to target?
Emily Kaldwin has a stronger ability kit for ranged crowd control, which means she is more likely to want a rune that boosts Far Reach or Domino. Corvo’s kit is more focused on stealth and possession, so he benefits more from a rune that boosts Blink or Bend Time. The safe you target first should match the run style you intend to commit to for the rest of the mission.
What should I do if the game rejects a code I am sure is correct?
Re-read the source. The most common cause of a rejected code is reading a date as four digits instead of the four-digit dial string the game expects, or reading a Cracklock keyword with the wrong capitalization. The dial ignores spaces, but the Cracklock mechanism requires an exact word match. If the code is still rejected, the source is almost certainly a different safe in the same room, and you are solving for the wrong container.
Do I need to open every safe to finish the game?
No. The Dishonored 2 safe codes and rewards are all optional. None of them are required to reach the credits or to unlock an ending. The value of opening them is economic, gameplay-flavor, and a sense of completion, but you can ignore every safe and still see the full story. Players who skip the safes usually find that the early game feels tighter on coin, while the late game is unaffected because the economy stabilizes through other loot sources.
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