Gaming Codes

Following Orders Red Safe Code in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

Where the safe sits in the house, the three-digit combination, where the hint comes from, and what the safe holds.

Where the safe sits in the house, the three-digit combination, where the hint comes from, and what the safe holds.

Image: Infinity Ward

Following Orders, the third mission in Act One of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, opens inside a family home. Your squad is there to get a defector’s location out of a husband and wife. Neither of them is hostile, and the mission objective never points you toward the red safe tucked away in a bedroom a few steps from the front door. You can skip it and still finish the mission, but the safe holds two items tied to a pair of achievements.

Quick answer: Go into the first room on the right inside the house, open the cupboard, and enter 214 on the red safe’s dial.

Image credit: Activision via YouTube/@FP Good Game

How to open the red safe in Following Orders

The safe is available as soon as the mission starts, so there’s no reason to push the story forward first. You also don’t need to deal with the couple before you go looking. Leave the interrogation for later and walk past them.

After you spawn inside the house with your squad, ignore the husband and wife for now. You don’t need to question or hurt them to reach the safe.
Head into the first room on your right after you come in. It’s a bedroom, and it’s only a short walk from where the mission begins.
Open the cupboard inside the bedroom. The red safe sits inside, and it’s locked the first time you interact with it.
Enter the code 214 by scrolling each digit into place. On PC, the arrow keys change the numbers.
Image credit: Activision via YouTube/@FP Good Game

You’ll know it worked when the door swings open and the contents become available to pick up. The combination is fixed, so 214 works on every playthrough.

If you’d rather not dial in a code, you can shoot the safe open instead. Either way you get the same items.


Where the 214 code comes from

The combination isn’t random. It’s hidden in a note in one of the kitchen cupboards of the house, titled Baekseolgi-tteok Recipe. The recipe ends with the line “flour, then water, then raisins — skip the salt,” which tells you which ingredient quantities to use and in what order.

OrderIngredientQuantityDigit
FirstRice flour2kg2
SecondWater1L1
ThirdGolden raisins4 packs4

Salt is left out entirely, so you end up with three digits. Reading the recipe also counts toward the mission’s note total, so grab it even if you already know the answer.

Image credit: Activision via YouTube/@FP Good Game

Red safe contents and the achievements they unlock

The safe holds two items:

  • A note titled “Note from your friend,” which says getting the medicine across the border wasn’t easy and hopes it’s what the family needs. It’s one of four notes in Following Orders.
  • Contraband heart medicine, one of the illegal items you can confiscate during the campaign.

Both items feed into the mission’s achievements. The heart medicine does more than count toward a collection. Having it lets you push the interrogation of the homeowners toward a peaceful outcome, which is how you get the defector’s location without anyone getting hurt.

AchievementTierRequirement
No Stone UnturnedSilver, 50GConfiscate all contraband and read all notes in Following Orders
No Harm DoneSilver, 50GGet the Defector’s location without hurting any civilians

The safe alone won’t finish No Stone Unturned, since the mission has four notes and more contraband elsewhere. It’s still the easiest pickup in Following Orders, and if you open it before you talk to the couple, you go into the interrogation already holding the item you need for No Harm Done.