TL;DR
- There are 6 Secret Hideouts in Control Resonant — one in each zone except the Underpass.
- They are disguised as normal street-level businesses like cafes, gyms, and marts.
- Each one hides a puzzle behind a marked wall — solve it to open the hidden area.
- Every hideout contains a Health Upgrade point.
- Finding all 6 unlocks the Backroom Espionage trophy and achievement.
- Nothing is missable — all hideouts are available in free roam after the story.
- A “?” icon appears on your map when you get close enough to one.
Secret Hideouts are one of the most rewarding side activities in Control Resonant. From the outside, they look like ordinary Manhattan businesses — a laundromat, a gym, a cafe, a mart. But inside each one is a hidden wall with a black symbol on it. Find the clue, solve the puzzle, and a secret underground area opens up.
You get a Health Upgrade point from every hideout, which makes Dylan noticeably tougher in combat. On top of that, each room contains documents tied to a secret organization operating under the FBC’s nose — great extra lore if you care about the story.
This guide covers every hideout location in the game, along with the exact puzzle solution for each one.
How Secret Hideouts Work in Control Resonant
Secret Hideouts are found inside shops and businesses accessed directly from street level. Inside, look for a wall with a black marking or symbol on it — that’s the sign you’re in the right place.
There will also be a note or clue somewhere in the same room. Read it carefully, then interact with the correct objects in the correct order. If you do it right, the wall opens and you can enter the underground hideout.
They won’t appear on your map right away. A question mark icon only shows up once Dylan gets close enough to a hideout’s location. You can complete them in any order, and you can still do all of them after finishing the main story in free roam.
For more on how to build Dylan before tackling all the zones, check our Control Resonant beginner tips.
All Secret Hideout Locations — Quick Overview
- Downtown — Atlantis Cafe — Appliance sequence puzzle
- Central — Wear’Em & Wash’Em Laundromat — Washing machine binary puzzle
- Evacuation Zone — Konstig art gallery — Painting lights puzzle
- West Incursion Zone — Urban Fresh Mart — Cash register code: 1213
- The Park — Atlantis Cafe — Cash register code: BDAC
- Unknown — Pulse Fitness gym — Workout machine sequence
Secret Hideout #1 — Downtown (Atlantis Cafe)
The Downtown hideout is inside the Atlantis Cafe, located near the entrance to the Oldest House. Look for the electronic road sign directing traffic toward a detour and make your way toward the cafe nearby. Note that accessing this part of Downtown may require the Shift ability, so you might need to return here once you’ve unlocked it.
Once inside the cafe, your first step is to activate the electrical breaker in the back right corner of the room — it has an L1/LB prompt on it. This powers the appliances. The clue in the cafe tells you to activate them from smallest to largest.
Interact with the appliances in this exact order:
- Electrical Box (back right corner)
- Radio (left side as you enter)
- Dark Coffee Maker (on the counter)
- White Coffee Maker (on the metal shelf behind the counter)
- Soda Machine (next to the coffee maker)
- Microwave (next to the coffee maker)
- Fridge (behind the counter in the corner)
Follow that sequence and the hidden door opens. Head downstairs to collect your Health Upgrade and the documents inside.
The Atlantis Cafe in Downtown also comes up in our Atlantis Cafe appliance puzzle guide — check it for more detail on finding each item. Nearby, you can also grab the Atlantis Cafe cash register code.
Secret Hideout #2 — Central (Wear’Em & Wash’Em Laundromat)
The Central hideout is inside the Wear’Em & Wash’Em Laundromat, located near East Park Station and slightly south of the Field Office Station. It has a bright blue sign above the entrance so it’s easy to spot.
If the front door is blocked by a red barrier, look up for red lines running through the air. Follow those lines to find destructible objects connected to the barrier and destroy them. That clears the entrance.
Inside, find the note on the wall. It shows a pattern of 0s and 1s. The 0 means a washing machine should be off. The 1 means it should be on. There are six columns of machines — count from left to right as you enter.
Set the machines like this:
- Column 1 — turn on the 1 interactable machine
- Column 2 — turn on both interactable machines
- Column 3 — turn on both interactable machines
- Column 4 — turn off all machines (one starts on — turn it off)
- Column 5 — leave all machines off (they’re already off)
- Column 6 — turn on only the machine closest to the door; leave the other two off
Once the correct machines are running, the door to the basement opens. Go inside and collect the Health Upgrade.
The Wear’Em & Wash’Em is also where you’ll find a Shum III arcade cabinet — see our all Shum III arcade cabinet locations guide if you want to tackle that challenge too while you’re here.
Secret Hideout #3 — Evacuation Zone (Konstig Art Gallery)
The Evacuation Zone hideout is inside the Konstig building — an art gallery near the center of the zone, close to a Fast Travel point. This is considered the most visually confusing puzzle of the six because the solution is based on imagery rather than numbers.
Inside the gallery, you’ll see groups of paintings displayed on the walls. Each painting has adjustable lights positioned above it. You need to interact with the L1/LB prompts on the four pillars around the room to light up the correct paintings.
Activate the lights in this order:
- Front left pillar — select the middle light
- Back left pillar — select the left light
- Back right pillar — select the left light
- Front right pillar — select the middle light
The paintings that should be lit up depict: a road leading toward a tree, twisting branches, a V-shaped tree in an open field, and a fallen tree in water. Illuminate those four correctly and the door in the left corner opens.
You’ll need the Level 2 Keycard to access other parts of the Evacuation Zone — grab it if you haven’t already. The Konstig painting puzzle guide has a full breakdown of this one too.
Secret Hideout #4 — West Incursion Zone (Urban Fresh Mart)
From the West Incursion Zone Fast Travel point, head south until you see a large retail store with an orange Urban Fresh Mart sign above it. This is the easiest puzzle in the game — no appliance order or binary code to figure out.
Go inside and walk up to the cash register behind the counter. There’s a note nearby with flashing lights on the soda dispenser as a clue. The note tells you the answer is the reverse of what the clue shows.
Enter 1213 into the cash register. The hidden entrance opens immediately. Head downstairs and collect the Health Upgrade.
This is the same mart where one of the Shum III arcade cabinet challenges takes place. While you’re in the area heading toward the Underpass Fault quest, it’s worth knocking this one out quickly since it takes almost no time.
Secret Hideout #5 — The Park (Atlantis Cafe)
There’s a second Atlantis Cafe in the game and it also hides a Secret Hideout. This one is in the southeastern part of The Park near the Research Site. The puzzle here is different from the Downtown cafe — instead of appliances, you’re working with a cash register code.
The clue comes from a note inside that lists table numbers, and from leaflets left on those tables identifying what drink each customer ordered. Cross-reference those drinks against the cafe menu to get a letter for each table.
Here’s how it breaks down:
- Table 1 — Iced Coffee — B
- Table 5 — The Spiciest Chai — D
- Table 4 — Espresso — A
- Table 2 — Caramel Latte — C
Enter BDAC into the cash register beside the counter. The secret doorway opens. Head downstairs for the Health Upgrade and extra lore documents.
Secret Hideout #6 — Unknown (Pulse Fitness Gym)
The final Secret Hideout is inside Pulse Fitness, a gym with a purple sign found in the central part of the Unknown zone. It’s located on a lower level, so head downward when you’re in the area.
Important note: The Unknown zone has two gravity versions — a normal one and an upside-down version. If you arrive at the right map coordinates and find an art gallery instead of a gym, you’re on the wrong gravity plane. Flip the gravity 180° and you’ll find the correct side with the Pulse Fitness entrance.
Inside, go to the locker room and read the note there. It gives you a workout plan that serves as the solution. Recreate that routine by interacting with the equipment in this exact order:
- Set the Treadmill to 0.5 MPH
- Set the Cycling Machine to 15 MPH
- Interact with the Limu Vending Machine
- Set the Treadmill to 15 MPH
- Set the Cycling Machine to 0.5 MPH
Complete that sequence and the final hidden room opens. Collect the Health Upgrade and, if this is your sixth hideout, the Backroom Espionage trophy or achievement will unlock.
Need help getting to the Unknown zone? Our guide on how to reach the Unknown Zone walks you through it step by step.
Backroom Espionage Trophy and Achievement
Visiting and solving all six Secret Hideouts unlocks the Backroom Espionage trophy on PS5 and the matching achievement on Xbox and Steam. You don’t need to complete them in any particular order.
If you’ve done five and can’t find the sixth, open your map and explore that zone more carefully on foot. The “?” icon only shows when Dylan is physically close to the location — it won’t appear from far away or from just looking at the map.
All hideouts remain accessible in free roam after the story ends, so nothing is missable.
Secret Hideout Rewards — Why They’re Worth Doing
Each Secret Hideout gives you one Health Upgrade point. All six combined make a meaningful difference to Dylan’s survivability — especially going into later Resonant boss fights where enemy damage scales up fast.
On top of that, the underground rooms contain organization documents that add context to a covert group operating right beneath the FBC. It’s some of the best background lore in the game, and it’s completely easy to miss if you don’t know the hideouts exist.
For more on improving Dylan’s stats, check our all Power Upgrade chest locations guide alongside these Health Upgrades — both stat pools matter a lot in the mid and late game.
Where to Buy Control Resonant
Control Resonant is available now across all platforms. You can buy it from the official Control website, the PlayStation Store, the Xbox Store, Steam, or the Epic Games Store.
More Control Resonant Guides
- All Shum III arcade cabinet locations
- Maintenance Protocol quest walkthrough
- Underpass Resonant walkthrough
- Underpass Fault quest walkthrough
- How to reach the Unknown Resonant
- Recursions and Iterations walkthrough
- Crossing the Threshold walkthrough
- Urban Survival quest walkthrough
- Panopticon Service Request quest guide
- Should you turn in Dr. Underhill — New Growth
- How to restore power — House in Distress
- How to open metal roof hatch doors
- Pulse Fitness workout puzzle solution
- The Subway Fault — Reach ability guide
- Central Checkpoint power puzzle
- Wear’Em Wash’Em puzzle guide
- How to respec in Control Resonant
- Assist Mode settings explained
- SR Keycard clearance level guide
- Clearance Level 6 Keycard location
- All skin codes
- Alan Wake Easter egg location
- Best PC settings for Control Resonant
- Control Resonant review
