Exploration

The Last Caretaker QR Codes: Where They Are and What They Say

Short answer: The QR codes painted on walls are real QR codes, but the game does nothing with them: point a phone at your screen and each one gives a single word, such as “growing” at Eternal Flame or “authority” in an air duct. The scan tool and the drone ignore them, and there is no reward. Players think the words come from one hidden poem.

That they are real codes the game ignores, how to scan them and the two words we read ourselves are cross-checked (B). The other places and words come from single players and are marked C.

Last Updated: October 25, 2026

Game version: Early Access; codes reported from Update 5 (June 2026) to September 2026, screenshots from game 0.8.0, read on October 25, 2026

What the QR Codes Are

Are the QR codes real?

Yes. They are working QR codes painted on walls around the map. Point a phone camera or Google Lens at your screen and each one gives a short piece of text, usually a single word. Players in two Steam threads read them this way, and we read two ourselves from players’ screenshots.

Cross-checked (B) · Checked 2026-10-25 · Sources: Steam discussion: QR codes, an easter egg? Players list where they found them (June to September 2026) · Steam discussion: the QR code didn’t work (August 31, 2026) · Steam screenshot: a strange QR code at Eternal Flame, in Russian (June 30, 2026) · Steam screenshot: a QR code in an air duct that says authority (July 3, 2026)

The game does nothing with them. Aim the scan tool at one and it shows No Target, and players who tried the camera drone got nothing either. There is no reward: they are an easter egg for you, not for the Caretaker.

Cross-checked (B) · Checked 2026-10-25 · Sources: Steam screenshot: “scan QR and Win~”, with the scan tool showing No Target (June 26, 2026) · Steam discussion: the QR code didn’t work (August 31, 2026) · Steam discussion: a strange QR code at Eternal Flame, in Russian (June 30 to July 8, 2026)

How do you scan them?

Most phones will not read them straight off the screen, because the codes are pale on a dark wall, small and worn. Players got them to scan by moving close, raising the brightness or gamma, or changing the photo mode filter; one player cropped a screenshot and raised the contrast first.

From a screenshot, crop tight around the code, raise the contrast and invert the colors so the squares are dark on light. Then leave a plain border: the stray painted squares around the edge stop code readers from finding it. That is how we read the two codes below.

Cross-checked (B) · Checked 2026-10-25 · Sources: Steam screenshot: a strange QR code at Eternal Flame, in Russian (June 30, 2026) · Steam screenshot: a QR code in an air duct that says authority (July 3, 2026)

Where the QR Codes Are and What They Say

What does the Eternal Flame QR code say?

At MCV-12 Eternal Flame (map 89, 47), a code on a wall says “growing”. Two players posted screenshots of the same code, one in English and one in Russian, and both read “growing”.

Cross-checked (B) · Checked 2026-10-25 · Sources: Steam screenshot: “scan QR and Win~”, with the scan tool showing No Target (June 26, 2026) · Steam screenshot: a strange QR code at Eternal Flame, in Russian (June 30, 2026) · Steam discussion: a strange QR code at Eternal Flame, in Russian (June 30 to July 8, 2026)

Where are the “authority” codes?

A code inside an air duct says “authority”: we read it from one player’s screenshot, and another player found “authority” in the Warehouse ducts above the main hall.

Cross-checked (B) · Checked 2026-10-25 · Sources: Steam screenshot: a QR code in an air duct that says authority (July 3, 2026) · Steam discussion: QR codes, an easter egg? Players list where they found them (June to September 2026)

One player found another “Authority” code at the start of the game, in Sanctuary Dock 37: a hidden spot before the lift that you reach by stacking boxes.

Player reports, not yet verified (C) · Checked 2026-10-25 · Sources: Steam discussion: QR codes, an easter egg? Players list where they found them (June to September 2026)

Where are the other QR codes?

Players also report “system” underwater next to tower 4 at Omega (you have to dive for it), “return” at Exodus Station, and one more code at Helios Reserve Lyra that the player could not read.

Player reports, not yet verified (C) · Checked 2026-10-25 · Sources: Steam discussion: QR codes, an easter egg? Players list where they found them (June to September 2026)

Nobody we read has a full list or a count yet. Players have named at least six places, and the codes keep turning up in hidden corners, ducts and underwater.

Player reports, not yet verified (C) · Checked 2026-10-25 · Sources: Steam discussion: QR codes, an easter egg? Players list where they found them (June to September 2026)

What the Words Mean

Is there a hidden poem?

One player says the words all come from a poem on one very well hidden code, and reads it as a hint that the Caretakers before you rebelled. Other players link the codes to the rooms where robots were taken apart, and think some robots stopped treating humans as an authority.

Player reports, not yet verified (C) · Checked 2026-10-25 · Sources: Steam discussion: QR codes, an easter egg? Players list where they found them (June to September 2026) · Steam discussion: the robot torture rooms (September 7, 2026)