Stalker 2 Cost of Hope: Laboratory X16 Safe Code and Projector Slides

Deep inside Laboratory X16, during The Destructive Power of the Mind mission in Stalker 2: Cost of Hope, an operating theater hides a keypad-locked safe marked with the letter “N”. It sits in the central rooms of the facility, and the code is not written anywhere on the wall. It has to be pieced together from slides fed into a nearby projector.

Quick answer: Enter 171008 on the keypad next to the safe to open it and take the Brummbar Exoskeleton.

Where the X16 safe is and what it contains

The safe is tucked into a room adjoining the operating theater, south of it, in the central rooms section of Laboratory X16. You reach this area after clearing the vents, morgue, and living quarters and unlocking the sealed gate with your key card. Open it before you leave through the maintenance hallway, because backtracking later is awkward once the mission pushes you toward Mavka and Zulu.

Detail	Value
Code	171008
Location	Central rooms, next to the operating theater
Mission	The Destructive Power of the Mind
Main reward	Brummbar Exoskeleton
Extra loot	Random ammo, food, and healing items
Required?	No, the safe is optional

The Brummbar Exoskeleton is one of the strongest armor sets in the game. Straight out of the safe it does not let you sprint, so you need to upgrade it first to unlock sprinting. Further upgrades add lead containers, which let you carry artifacts without soaking up radiation.

How to find the projector slides in Laboratory X16

The code is derived from surgical photographs stored on projector slides. You can type 171008 straight into the keypad and skip all of this, but if you want to solve it in-game, the slides are scattered around the same wing as the projector.

After you crawl out of the ventilation ducts and open the gate for the Duty soldiers, turn right. Look for the large number 3 painted on the wall and go into the room immediately to its left.

Grab the slide sitting on the table inside. A second slide can be found on a desk in a nearby office room along the same route, so sweep the side rooms before you move on.

Head to the operating theater with the projector, then climb the stairs opposite the safe. A small control terminal there overlooks a large cage on the floor below. Press the red button to open the cage door.

Go back downstairs and step into the cage. The remaining slide is resting on the electroshock therapy chair beside the skeleton.

Return to the projector on the tiled counter in the theater and interact with it to load and cycle through the slides.

Reading the slides: how 171008 is built

Only two of the projected images matter. The letter “N” beside the keypad is the hint, since both relevant slides carry an N label in a corner of the frame.

Slide marking	Where it appears	Digits
N17	Bottom-right corner	17
N 10.08	Top-left corner	1008

Put the two together in that order and you get the six-digit combination, 171008.

Note: The “.08” on the second slide is heavily faded and easy to misread as a two-digit number. Walk right up to the projection screen to make it out clearly.

Confirming the safe opened, and why it might not

A correct entry unlocks the safe door immediately and lets you loot the Brummbar Exoskeleton along with a bag of consumables. If nothing happens, the usual culprits are simple. Make sure you are entering all six digits rather than four, since most other keypads in the DLC use four-digit combinations. Also check you are at the safe keypad in the central rooms and not at the door keypad marked ДУ-III-12, which uses 1408 to open the route through the cafeteria.

Worth remembering: this safe is entirely optional. Skipping it will not block The Destructive Power of the Mind or change which ending you can reach later. But the exoskeleton is one of the few guaranteed armor rewards in the Cost of Hope DLC, which makes the short detour through the projector room one of the better uses of your time inside X16.