Resident Evil Requiem: How to Solve RPD Scavenger Hunt – Photo & Briefcase

Why These RPD Puzzles Matter (And How Long They Really Take)

After spending about an hour wandering the RPD in Resident Evil Requiem trying to “naturally” solve Barry’s photo scavenger hunt and the S.T.A.R.S. briefcase puzzle, I finally broke down, retraced my steps, and figured out a clean route. Once you know where everything is, you can clear both puzzles in 10-15 minutes and walk away with two strong charms: the S.T.A.R.S. Emblem and the Power Shades.

This walkthrough assumes you’re already in the Raccoon City Police Department as Leon. I’ll walk you through:

• Exactly how to reach the S.T.A.R.S. Office from the Main Hall
• Where every photo, note, and clue is actually hiding
• How to use the Mechanic Jack to cut down on backtracking
• How to get the JoJo locker key and open the West Office locker
• How to get the “RR” briefcase combination and unlock the Power Shades charm

If you’ve already run around the RPD in circles, don’t worry – I did the same. This route strips out the confusion and keeps the danger manageable.

Step 1: Reach the S.T.A.R.S. Office and Grab All the Initial Clues

Everything for both puzzles starts in the S.T.A.R.S. Office on the 2F of the RPD. From the Main Hall:

• Head through the door to the West Office on the left side of the Main Hall (Main Hall → West Office).
• Cross the room and exit through the far door at the back.
• Outside, turn right and then make a tight U-turn to follow the long hallway.
• There’s a cop zombie here – you can either hatchet stealth-kill from behind or put a few handgun shots in his head. Clearing him now makes later backtracking safer.
• At the end of the hall, turn left and shoot down the ladder (if it’s raised). Climb up.
• Follow the corridor straight ahead until you reach the door to the S.T.A.R.S. Office.

This path is important because you’ll be running it a couple of times; clearing that hallway zombie early saves you from nasty surprises when you’re carrying puzzle items.

Inside the S.T.A.R.S. Office: Barry’s Photos & To-Do List

Once you step into the S.T.A.R.S. Office, you can immediately start Barry’s RPD scavenger hunt:

• Photo Clue #1 – As soon as you enter, look to the right-hand lockers. Open the locker closest to the door to find a photo and a note from Barry.
• Photo Clue #2 – Walk to the far end of the room. There’s a brown S.T.A.R.S. jacket hanging up. Interact with it to grab the second photo.
• Barry’s To-Do List – Turn back toward the middle of the office and check the desk on the right-hand side. Barry’s handwritten to-do list is sitting there. Grab it.

Don’t make my early mistake of assuming the two photos point to different rooms. They’re actually two angles on the same place – the Operations Room on the first floor. We’ll head there later once we have everything we need.

Wesker’s Office: The “Falling Note” That’s Easy to Miss

This next bit is where I lost a few minutes on my first run. Wesker’s Office is just off the S.T.A.R.S. Office and contains the “random herb list” note that ties into the briefcase puzzle.

• From the entrance of the S.T.A.R.S. Office, look directly across the room. The door to Wesker’s Office is just to the left of the entrance.
• Go inside and interact with his desk drawer.
• Open it and wait a second – a note will drop down into the drawer.
• Pick up the note. It talks about herbs; at first glance it looks like flavor text, but it’s part of the clue set for the briefcase.

The key thing here is that the note doesn’t appear until after you open the drawer and give it a moment. I backed out of the interaction too fast the first time and walked away thinking the desk was empty.

Step 2: Grab the Mechanic Jack and the Hidden “RR” Combination

Before you chase Barry’s photos, it’s worth detouring through the Library. This gives you two important things:

• The Mechanic Jack to raise gates and shorten your route.
• A hidden photo that reveals the briefcase combination: “RR” (or “R-R-R” depending on how your UI displays it).

Getting the Mechanic Jack in the Library

From the S.T.A.R.S. Office, backtrack the way you came until you’re back by the ladder you shot down earlier. This time, instead of going down, turn left into the Library.

• Enter the Library.
• Cross the room to the far side, near the shuttered gate.
• You’ll find the Mechanic Jack on the ground/mechanism there.

The jack lets you lift specific gate doors around the RPD. In this sequence, it’s mainly used to reopen a previously blocked shortcut, saving you a long loop through the building.

Upstairs Library Walkway: The Hidden Combination Photo

Before you leave the Library, head upstairs to snag the final clue for the briefcase:

• Use the stairs or ladder to reach the second floor of the Library.
• Walk out onto the long central walkway.
• On your right-hand side, look for a bookshelf that oddly has just one book on the middle shelf.
• Interact with that lone book. Inside is a photo.
• Inspect the photo and flip it around. On the back you’ll see the briefcase combination: “RR”.

In my version, the briefcase only needed two letters: both set to R. Some players report a three-letter display that also uses all Rs. If you see three slots, just dial in R-R-R – functionally it’s the same idea: all red, just like the herb hint suggests.

Step 3: Follow Barry’s Photos to the Operations Room and Get the JoJo Locker Key

Now that you’ve got the Mechanic Jack and all the S.T.A.R.S. Office clues, it’s time to actually solve Barry’s RPD photo scavenger hunt and get the JoJo locker key.

Reaching the Operations Room Quickly

From the Library exit on the lower floor:

• Exit the Library and immediately take the ladder down on your left.
• Use the Mechanic Jack on the nearby gate to open a shortcut.
• Head through toward the West Office corridor.
• Go past the West Office door you used earlier, but this time simply turn left instead of making the full U-turn.
• You’ll see a zombie wrestling with a vending machine on your left. You can:
  • Stealth kill with the hatchet, or
  • Ignore him and slip past into the Operations Room.

If you’re playing on higher difficulty or low on ammo, I recommend either a quick hatchet finisher or just sprinting by. The room you need is close enough that you don’t have to stand and fight unless you want the space clear.

Finding the JoJo Locker Key in the Operations Room

Inside the Operations Room, this is where Barry’s photos finally click. Both photos show:

• A hanging TV in a ceiling cage
• A whiteboard/chalkboard
• A U.S. flag and some wooden pallets/crates

Here’s what to do (this is the step that tripped me up the first time, because I kept searching the floor):

• Find the stack of pallets/crates right next to the big board at the front of the room.
• Climb up onto the crates.
• Once you’re standing on them, turn around and look up toward the ceiling-mounted TV cage.
• Interact with the TV’s metal housing. You’ll find the JoJo locker key (it may just show as “Locker Key” in your inventory).

Don’t make my mistake of only looking from ground level. The key won’t be obvious until you’re up on the pallets and facing the TV box directly.

Opening JoJo’s Locker in the West Office

With the locker key in hand, head back to the West Office to claim your first reward:

• Leave the Operations Room and retrace your path back down the corridor to the West Office door.
• Go inside and head to the back wall lockers (the same bank from the classic RE2 JoJo locker easter egg).
• Interact with the locked one and use the JoJo locker key.

Inside you’ll find:

• A S.T.A.R.S. Emblem Charm
• A pair of Raccoon Zoo tickets (flip them over to read Barry’s little message)

The S.T.A.R.S. Emblem is a gun charm you can equip on automatic weapons. From my runs, its effect is:

• Increased firepower for the weapon it’s attached to
• At the cost of increased weapon sway while aiming

In practice, that means it’s fantastic if you like aggressive, close-to-mid-range spraying, but a bit rough if you’re trying to line up long-distance precision headshots. I’ve had the best results slapping it on a full-auto and using it to delete anything that gets too close, while relying on a steadier sidearm for careful shots.

Step 4: Open the S.T.A.R.S. Briefcase and Get the Power Shades

With Barry’s scavenger hunt wrapped up, you can now use that “RR” clue from the Library and Wesker’s herb note to crack the S.T.A.R.S. Office briefcase. This is where you earn the Power Shades charm for the Requiem revolver.

Getting Back to the S.T.A.R.S. Office

If you’ve wandered off since grabbing the locker reward, here’s the cleanest way back:

• From the Main Hall, head again to the left into the West Office.
• Exit through the back door and follow the corridor.
• Use the jack-opened gate shortcut if it’s closed.
• Shoot down or climb the ladder you used earlier.
• Follow the upper hallway back to the S.T.A.R.S. Office.

Cracking the Briefcase Combination (“RR”)

Once inside the S.T.A.R.S. Office:

• Go to the back-left corner of the room, near the lockers.
• You’ll see the briefcase tucked there.
• Interact with it to bring up the combination dials.
• Enter the combination from the Library photo:
  • If you see two letters, set them both to R (so: RR).
  • If your UI shows three slots, set all three to R-R-R.

Both versions are basically expressing the same idea: the herb note plus the photo are shouting “red, red, red” at you. Once the code is in, confirm to pop the case open.

Inside you’ll find the Power Shades charm, which you can equip to your Requiem revolver (and compatible handguns).

What the Power Shades Actually Do (And When to Use Them)

In my experience, Power Shades are one of the more fun charms in this section of the game. Their effects are tailored around the revolver’s strengths:

• Greatly increased bullet penetration – your shots can pierce through multiple enemies, letting you line up zombies in hallways and get multi-kills with a single round.
• Boosted damage on the last bullet in the cylinder – the final shot hits noticeably harder, making it perfect for finishing off tougher enemies if you manage your ammo count.

The revolver is already a high-impact weapon with limited ammo, so pairing it with Power Shades encourages deliberate, efficient shooting. I’ve had the best results:

• Waiting until several enemies funnel into a narrow corridor to fully exploit the penetration bonus.
• Keeping track of when I’m about to fire the last round and saving it for a tougher target’s head or a weak point.
• Swapping to another weapon after that empowered final bullet to avoid reloading in unsafe spots.

Putting It All Together (Fast Route Recap)

Once you’ve done this once, the whole sequence through the RPD becomes surprisingly efficient. Here’s the condensed version of the route I now use on fresh runs:

• Main Hall → West Office → Ladder → S.T.A.R.S. Office
  • Grab Barry’s Photo #1 (right locker), Photo #2 (brown jacket), Barry’s to-do list (desk), and Wesker’s falling herb note (desk drawer).
• S.T.A.R.S. Office → Library
  • Pick up the Mechanic Jack on the ground floor.
  • Go up to the Library’s second-floor walkway, open the lone book, flip the photo, note the “RR” combination.
• Library → Ladder → Gate (Jack) → West Office Hallway → Operations Room
  • Climb the pallets by the board, turn around, grab the JoJo locker key from the hanging TV box.
• Operations Room → West Office
  • Use the key on JoJo’s locker to get the S.T.A.R.S. Emblem charm and zoo tickets.
• West Office → Ladder → S.T.A.R.S. Office
  • Use combination RR (or R-R-R) on the briefcase in the back-left lockers.
  • Claim the Power Shades charm for your revolver.

Once you know this route and what to look for, both puzzles are more about efficient navigation than brute-force searching. If I can go from wandering cluelessly around the RPD to scooping up both charms in one clean loop, you can absolutely do the same – and those extra tools make the rest of Requiem’s RPD segment noticeably more manageable.