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As the tension rises towards the end of the first Shadowrun campaign, the challenges you'll face get a bit tougher. After the hardest combat mission in the game thus far - the assault on Telestrian Industries - you're rewarded with a bit of a breather.

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While you're still in enemy territory, the morning after the siege has no combat encounters. Instead, you're tasked with posing as a janitor and infiltrating Eric Silverstar's office to secure the important Aegis sample that you'll use to defeat the True Insect Spirits. Here's how to get inside the office and bypass a frustrating puzzle involving paintings.

How To Get Into Eric Silverstar's Office

Shadowrun Returns Telestrian Guard Dialogue

To get into Eric Silverstar's office, you'll need to place three commlink bugs on certain terminals. This will make it look like the siege of the previous night was just a recon mission for something much larger.

There are three terminals that you need to bug, and each of them has an NPC standing nearby. They can all be convinced to leave their posts by talking to them, with a level four Charisma check speeding the process up.

The Telestrian Worker to the south of the map will require you to sabotage his workstation to cover for his laziness. To do this, you'll need to grab the LAN parts from the busted-up computer near the terminal to the north.

Once all three commlink bugs are planted, head back to the elevator and talk to the Telestrian Guard there. Tell them about the bugs, and you can head up to Silverstar's office.

How To Solve The Painting Puzzle

Shadowrun Returns Painting Puzzle

Once you've spoken to Silverstar, you'll be given free rein of his office. Samedi will chime in to tell you that this puzzle is time-limited, but this is only half true. You only have a certain number of attempts at this puzzle, with Eric Silverstar's investigation progressing by one stage every time you push the frame of a painting - leaving it alone is fine.

The puzzle is pretty simple. There are five paintings in Silverstar's office. From left to right, they are titled Vigilance, Independence, Unity, Efficiency, and Duty.

If you've been paying attention to the dialogue in this mission, you should recognize two of those titles as two of the three values important to Silverstar. Your job is to work out what the third one is and then "Push the frames" in the correct order.

The correct order is Duty, Efficiency, and then Vigilance.

Shadowrun Returns DNA Safe

Once you've done this, a wall will open up that leads to the safe containing the Aegis sample. Unfortunately, it's protected with a DNA lock.

Go back to the office and pick up the half-smoked cigar in the corner. You can use this to open the safe and end the mission.

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