Welcome to Astra Malorum: the floating spooky science lab where zombies, melodrama, and spacey puzzles collide. Whether you’re there to yank souls out of poor Nikolai and Dr. Elizabeth Grey for the main quest, or you just like seeing how many rounds you can survive while screaming into your headset, this guide will help you skip the head-scratching and get right to the fun bits — namely, two annoying-but-satisfying code puzzles.
Observatory Dome Code (the “don’t pester O.S.C.A.R.” one)
Before you try this, make sure Pack-a-Punch is on and you’ve nabbed the LGM 1 Wonder Weapon. This step requires following O.S.C.A.R. around without setting him off like an overly dramatic robot. Pro tip: do it when only a handful of zombies remain so you don’t accidentally trigger chaos.
Turn on subtitles — O.S.C.A.R. will announce “Targeting Doctor Thurston” and then read out three planet names. Those planets aren’t just sci-fi flavor text; each corresponds to a single digit. The trick is to convert each planet into a number using the planet’s place from the sun: Mercury is 1, Venus 2, Earth 3, Mars 4, Jupiter 5, Saturn 6, Uranus 7, Neptune 8. Line them up from closest to the Sun to farthest and you’ve turned planets into a three-digit passcode.
For example, if O.S.C.A.R. says Neptune, Saturn, Mercury you’d convert that to 8, 6, 1 — so the code is 861. Enter that code into the machine in the Pack-a-Punch room inside the Observatory Dome. If done correctly the platform will lower and you can grab the Cryo Chamber Key. After that you can either continue to the Doctor Thurston brain step or knock out other tasks in the area while you’re nearby.
Machina Astralis Code (the four-digit telescope mystery)
This one’s different — you’ll be hunting a four-digit coordinate that changes each game. Start by using the telescope in the Observatory Dome and point it at Mars. When the view locks, check the coordinates displayed on screen (bottom-left). Those are your four digits — they will be random each match. In our run they were 4223, but you’ll need to jot down whatever your game shows.
Next objective: get a Rock Saw. Head to The Museum Infinitum and pick it up from the southwest corner. With the saw in hand, go to Machina Astralis and find the room just before the Speed Cola area. Use the saw to open the Cryo Pod, then interact with the body inside to collect Thurston’s Brain.
Now hustle to The Lumanarium and find the Perfusion Machine on the east side. There will already be a brain inside — swap it out by interacting with the machine, then interact again to start the perfusion. You’ll have to babysit the machine through waves of zombies, so make sure your loadout can clear crowds. If you defend it successfully, interact a third time to remove the brain. Heads-up: while you’re carrying the brain you won’t be able to sprint, so plan for a slow escape or a buddy to watch your back.
Take the brain back to Machina Astralis, go down the stairs, and place it in the terminal on the ground level (the terminal is on the eastern side of the main room). Hold interact a second time to connect the Perfusion Machine; that will unlock a code terminal. Use the four digits you recorded from the telescope on Mars and type them into the terminal on the ground level — that’s the code that advances this puzzle.
After entering the code, the next piece of the quest involves checking the books displayed on the terminal and solving a related puzzle over at the Archive of Orbis. It’s a bit fiddly, but once you’ve completed the Observatory and Machina Astralis steps, the rest of the Easter egg becomes much easier to manage.
If you want a walkthrough for the remaining steps of the main quest, there are full guides that cover the whole thing end-to-end — but now that you’ve got the code tricks down, you’ll at least survive long enough to read them.
Alright, space detective — go crack some planetary codes, try not to anger any robots, and for the love of DPS don’t drop the brain in a horde. You’ve got this (probably)!
