Solving the guardhouse drug storeroom door code (Resident Evil)

In the beehive passage of the Guardhouse Residence, the door to the drug storeroom is locked, with the only way to open it is via a numeric code panel next to the door.

Pressing the numbers will alter the arrangement of the red lights on the 3x3 display above the number entry panel. The following table shows which number will affect which lights. Very important note that if an affected light is already lit then it will become unlit, so each light acts as a toggle based on its current state.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

How to solve

The aim is to have every single light lit, all nine of the them all showing red. Once this is done the door will become unlocked.

So you can perform a calculated (or even random) series of number combinations using the above table as a guide to get all the lights in the 3x3 grid to be all red. However there is a predefined code you can enter for each character based on the initial state of the door code panel to unlock the door with the minimum number of key presses.

If you explore the guardhouse recreation room and examine the pool table at the back, you will find that the two pool cues in the middle are arranged and stacked in rather an odd way. Examining the table further will reveal that the position of the pool balls are located on the sides of the table in a specific pattern resembling a clock, i.e. 3, 6, 9.

This is the code needed to unlock the chemical storage room. If you treat the pool cues as representing the hands of the clock, with the longer cue being the minute hand and the shorter cue being the hour hand, you can calculate what time it is showing, and convert this into the numeric code needed for the storeroom. There are two possible sets of digits for each character, and the code you get in a specific playthrough is seemingly picked at random. Once you have the code, you can actually enter it into the keyboard in any order you like. For example, code 345 can be entered as 435, 543 or 534, and all will unlock the door.

It's worth noting that in the 1997 Director's Cut version of the game, you don't need to work out the time the pool cues represent. Simply examining the pool table itself will yield the code needed for the drug storeroom door.

Jill's code #1

The position of the pool cues in this instance, as annotated below, shows the clock time being quarter to four, or 3:45. Therefore the code for the door is translated into being "345". (This is deemed the most commonly encountered code for Jill, seemingly showing up more frequently than the other possible code shown below.)

Jill's code #2

The position of the pool cues in this instance, as annotated below, is quite confusing as it seemingly shows the clock time being quarter to twelve. However, in actuality the time being represented here is 9:58. Therefore the code for the door is translated into being "958". (This code seems to very rarely show up, and many players have apparently never encountered it before. However, it has been confirmed to appear in the original 1996 North American version of the game, and there are reports of it appearing in the GOG and Steam ports of the game for PC as well.)

Chris's code #1

The position of the pool cues in this instance, as annotated below, shows the clock time being quarter to one, or 12:45. Therefore the code for the door is translated into being "1245". (This is deemed the most commonly encountered code for Chris, seemingly showing up more frequently than the other possible code shown below.)

Chris's code #2

The position of the pool cues in this instance, as annotated below, shows the clock time being quarter past two, or 2:15. Therefore the code for the door is translated into being "215". (This code is commonly seen to appear more frequently in the original PC version of the game, including the GOG and Steam ports.)