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. The words may come from one hidden poem.
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; we read two of them ourselves.
The game does nothing with them. Aim the scan tool at one and it shows No Target, and the camera drone gets nothing either. There is no reward: they are an easter egg for you, not for the Caretaker.
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. Moving close, raising the brightness or gamma, or changing the photo mode filter helps; so does cropping a screenshot and raising 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.
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”.
See also: Eternal Flame on the map
Where are the other QR codes?
Other codes: “system” underwater next to tower 4 at Omega (you have to dive for it), “return” at Exodus Station, and one more at Helios Reserve Lyra that has not been read yet.
Not confirmed yet
There is no full list or count yet. At least six places are known, and the codes keep turning up in hidden corners, ducts and underwater.
Not confirmed yet
See also: diving guide · caves guide
What the Words Mean
Is there a hidden poem?
The words may all come from a poem on one very well hidden code, read as a hint that the Caretakers before you rebelled. Another theory links the codes to the rooms where robots were taken apart: some robots may have stopped treating humans as an authority.
Not confirmed yet
See also: samples and hidden lore
