How to find the Madison lock code

Guides
By last updated

Finding the lock combination for the little ritual room door in Madison explained

Madison lock code combination
(Image credit: Bloodious Games)

The Madison lock code combination to the padlocked door in the ritual room where you get camera is a particular bugbear, as the code actually isn't given to you until much, much later. The solution is nowhere close to the time you'll first encounter the lock so you'll have to play on for a while to open it. It's a randomised code too, changing from game to game, with no easy answer beyond simply continuing the game until you finally have all you need in a much, much later. 

There's a whole other Madison picture puzzle to complete before you can finsih this. Not to mention you'll have to solve the Madison Clock Puzzle and face the Madison Blue Knees creature before you can finally pop that lock. So don't get any hopes up for an quick or easy answer. 

We'll explain how the Madison lock code combination is found below and when you'll be able to crack it.

Article continues below

How to open the combination lock and find the code in Madison

Madison lock code combination

(Image credit: Bloodious Games)

If you've just found the combination lock at the little hatchway in the camera ritual room in Madison and want to find the code - well, you can't, at least not yet. The code is an integral part of the game's plot and you can't beat Madison without opening that lock, but it's not available to open until much, much later, when you'll return to this area after having visited a more religious-themed location. If you need a hand reaching that point, we've got a full Madison walkthrough right here!

Until then, the code is unknowable for two reasons - firstly, it's gated off behind a puzzle that you don't have the means to complete until that part of the game, and secondly, the code for the combination lock is randomised from game to game. So we couldn't tell you the numbers that open it even if we want to, as your own code will be a unique combination of digits randomly generated.

The actual process for finding out the code is split across four separate puzzles in the final act, based around interpreting images that Luca starts compulsively drawing. Each drawing leads to a puzzle that rewards you with a single digit of the lock - once you have all four, you can open it and move on. The four puzzles involve the following:

  • Finding a set of horns somewhere in the house
  • Discovering relevant corpses in a morgue
  • Solve the Clock Puzzle
  • Confronting the "Blue Knees" demon and the gramophone puzzle

These puzzles compromise a major part of the game that build on many of the principles taught in the Madison Church maze and candle puzzle, though there's not much of a narrative link between that and this. So the combination lock isn't some minor bonus or collectible, it's actually an incredibly important phase of the game that you will get to, only later rather than sooner. 

Joel Franey
Joel Franey
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.