The third-person action and atmospheric world of Control sometimes test your cunning with interesting puzzles, including one where you have to fix an HRA machine through punch cards. For those unfamiliar with the Federal Bureau of Control, this can be a difficult obstacle in their journey. With Jesse Faden's supernatural powers, you have plenty of tools to find the right solution.
This puzzle comes from the fourth main story mission, "Old Boys Club," where Jesse has to find the laboratory of Dr. Darling. Unlike many other games, Control lets you solve situations on your own without bombarding you with visual markers or obtuse mechanics. You have a ton of freedom to solve the punch card puzzle, an approach that many hope will continue with the highly anticipated sequel in the future.
Punch Card Puzzle Solution In Control
The first step toward solving the puzzle is to collect all five punch cards in Dr. Darling's lab. The intricate world-building of Control's setting can be a bit confusing, but you should have plenty of time to explore this space to find what you need. You can find four of the cards in these locations:
- On a cluttered desk in the middle of the room.
- On a FBC box pushed against the wall.
- On the desk with the printers against the right-hand wall.
- On the floor near the stairs.
The final punch card can be discovered on the windowsill in the upper parts of the laboratory, which is just up a nearby set of stairs where you found the fourth card. Several terminals in the lab are also crucial to solving the puzzle, with four on the first floor and another on the second. Each terminal must be paired with a specific card based on the pattern of the items you've just spent some time collecting.
The image above shows every card in the lab with a number above it indicating which terminal they should be inserted into. However, you can also figure this out by investigating the whiteboards in different rooms of the area in Control. With this information in mind, the proper locations for each card are:
|
Terminal |
Correct Card |
|---|---|
|
Terminal #1 |
The card with its upper-right corner filled in black. |
|
Terminal #2 |
The card whose center is completely filled in black. |
|
Terminal #3 |
The card that doesn't have either its sides or center filled with black. |
|
Terminal #4 |
The card with every side filled with black except the bottom. |
|
Terminal #5 |
The card with its upper-left corner filled with black. |
Games with paranormal mysteries sometimes leave too many hints that make puzzles like this one extraordinarily easy to solve. However, the lack of initial guidance here makes the solution feel like a much bigger accomplishment once you decipher different context clues. Inserting all the right cards into the proper terminals will fix the HRA machine in Control and let you continue to discover intriguing challenges.
