The Clara Woods stretch of Silent Hill: Townfall hides its progression behind a chain of small combination boxes and numbered employee lockers, and the one sitting on a desk inside 5 South Brae is the first link. Crack it and you get the barcode slip that unlocks Locker 17, which holds the Boltcutters you need to cut the chains upstairs.
Quick answer: Set the three tumblers on the 5 South Brae desk box to 956, then take the CEG Lockers slip inside and scan it to reveal the Locker 17 pin code, 575.
5 South Brae locked box location in Clara Woods
The box is in the small office room of 5 South Brae, on the same desk area as the computer terminal, next to a telephone. It is a dull metal container with a three-digit tumbler lock on the front rather than a keypad, so you roll each digit into place instead of typing.
If you are turned around, pull up the booklet map. The Upper Level page of the Clara Woods Estate map marks the residential blocks and the storage building that houses the CEG Lockers, which is where this whole detour ends up.
Before you touch the lock, make sure you have the room itself sorted out:
- The vintage printer on the desk needs its power toggle switched on.
- The computer terminal must be usable, with External Disk Storage B available.
- Difficulty does not matter — combinations are identical on every setting, and the option only changes how many hints appear.
How to find the code: print the Reciprocating Compressor sheet
The game wants you to earn the number rather than guess it. A few locks in Townfall refuse your input until you have inspected the related document in-game, so printing the sheet is worth doing even if you already know the answer.
MANUAL.EML and confirm the print command.Read the Part ID off your own printout before you start rolling tumblers. The number on the sheet is the number the box wants.
Open the box and take the Barcode (South Brae) slip
Interact with the box and roll the three dials until they read 956, then lift the lid. There is no confirm button on this style of lock — the lid simply releases once the digits line up.
Inside is a blue CEG Lockers receipt filed among a few folders. It is made out to a CEG employee for Locker No. 17 and carries a barcode strip along the bottom, and it goes into your inventory as the Barcode (South Brae). The slip is the only thing in the box you need.
Scan the barcode for the Locker 17 pin code (575)
The slip does not print the pin. You have to run it through the reader in the CEG Lockers building, across the foggy courtyard from the residential block.
Those Boltcutters are the reason this chain matters. They cut the chained gate on the upper floor above the CEG Lockers, which is what opens up the North Brae side of Clara Woods.
How to confirm the South Brae box puzzle is done
Three checkpoints tell you the sequence completed properly. The box lid on the 5 South Brae desk stays open with the folders visible, the Barcode (South Brae) leaves your inventory once it has been scanned and returns the Locker 17 assignment on screen, and locker 017 sits open with the Boltcutters transferred to your kit.
If the tumblers refuse to settle or the box will not respond, check that you have actually examined the printed compressor page. A handful of locks in the game will not accept an entry until the matching document has been read, and this one leans on that sheet for its clue.
From there the pattern repeats across the estate. Each residential unit hides a black box with a three-digit code, each box coughs up a barcode slip, and each slip resolves to a numbered CEG locker holding something you need — including the Mechanical Parts for the Atlas Gate.
