Side story · Containment
Requires: Sever the Hedron Links + Pope's ResearchA New Directive
Starts: The Unknown · Main area: Central Field Office
Progress through The Unknown until Fra's radio calls begin, then find Fred in the Field Office Cafeteria. Learn what he wants, recreate the Director's Office inside the containment unit, prepare his portrait, coordinate with Zoe, then seal Fra inside.
- The Unknown
- Central · Field Office
- Untapped Whetstone
Progress is personal and saved in this browser only. It never reads your game save.
Quest at a glance
- Type
- Side story
- Experience
- Radio trigger · Investigation · Containment setup
- Trigger zone
- The Unknown
- Main area
- Central · Field Office
- Secondary area
- Oldest House · Director's Office
- Reward
- Untapped Whetstone
- Trophy
- Panopticon Intern
Your progress
Tick what you have done. Saved in this browser only — it never reads your game save.
1 · Radio calls
2 · Mystery Caller
3 · Containment unit
4 · Portrait
5 · Containment
Local only. Clear it any time with Reset.
How to start A New Directive
A New Directive starts with an automatic radio call in The Unknown. You cannot pick it up from the Field Office first.
- Progress Sever the Hedron Links
- Progress Pope's Research
- Explore The Unknown
These are progression prerequisites, not a single completed flag. The call fires once you are far enough into the main story and out exploring The Unknown.
The trigger has two calls, not one. Explore The Unknown, hear the first call, then keep exploring until the second call. Only then does the quest point you to the Field Office.
- First call — exploring The Unknown
- Second call — after you explore the other side
Current action: keep exploring The Unknown until the second call, then head to the Field Office.
No Field Office marker yet? That is expected until the second call has played.
Find the Mystery Caller
After the second call the quest points to Central. Go to the Field Office and enter the Cafeteria on the upper level to find Fred.
- Go to Central and enter the Field Office.
- Head through General Storage to the exterior stairs.
- Climb to the upper level.
- Enter the Cafeteria — Fred is inside.
A route, not exact coordinates. Two screenshots are enough: the Cafeteria exterior and where Fred stands.
Fred is the voice on the radio. The quest later reveals who he is and what he is really after.
Hidden until you reveal it, so search results and the page intro do not spoil the reveal.
After talking to Fred, question the FBC agents to learn the context. Langston is the key source for what happens next.
A New Directive is dialogue, placement and a final containment interaction. You do not need combat, build or ability advice for it.
The Mystery Caller / Fred location stays inside this page. It is a sub-intent of A New Directive, not its own guide URL.
Find out what Fra wants
Get Fra to explain what he wants. Bring up Jesse and ask whether he is looking for her — that is what reveals his Director ambition.
Choice text is shown from the official localization where possible. This page does not hand-translate dialogue into the other site languages.
Get a Director's Office reference
Langston's plan needs an accurate reference of the real Director's Office. Leave the Field Office for the Oldest House, then inspect the desk.
- Leave the Field Office for the Oldest House.
- Enter the real Director's Office.
- Inspect the desk to record the reference.
The Director's Office is a quest-contained POI for now, so it stays inside this page instead of owning a location URL.
Furnish the containment unit
Recreate the Director's Office inside the containment unit. The quest gives you placement markers, so match each item to its marker instead of using coordinates.
The objective only closes when all seven placements are correct. Recheck each group against the markers.
If one item is wrong the objective stays open even when the room looks finished.
Get Fra into the unit
Return to the Cafeteria and talk to Fra. The first attempt does not finish the quest — it reveals that he still needs a portrait.
Take the Jesse portrait / canvas source from the Field Office, then bring it back to Fra to alter it into his portrait.
The room is not enough: Fra wants a portrait before he cooperates. Grab a canvas, bring it back, create the portrait and hang it in the unit.
The portrait is a quest interaction, not a collectible, so it does not get a collectible URL.
Langston → Zoe at the Watchtower
Talk to Langston, then go to the Central Watchtower and talk to Zoe. After the conversation, use the radio beside her.
- Talk to Langston.
- Go to the Watchtower in Central.
- Talk to Zoe.
- Use the radio next to Zoe.
This is the step players lose: the next marker is in Central, not the Field Office.
Seal Fra Mauro
Return to the Field Office and enter the containment unit. Interact with the panel beside the door to seal Fra inside.
- Return to the Field Office.
- Enter the containment unit.
- Interact with the panel beside the door.
Fra walking into the room does not complete the quest. The final panel interaction is what seals him and closes A New Directive.
Quest reward
Untapped Whetstone
Shown as a name only — the artifact registry has no public URL for it yet.
A New Directive is one of the containment quests counted by the Panopticon Intern trophy. The trophy owns overall completion; this page owns only its part.
- A New Directive✓
- Other required containment quests
Older builds could break this quest if a Polaroid Camera caught Dylan during Fra's call. Remedy fixed the progression issue in 1.4.0.
What version are you playing on?
View the 1.4.0 fixThe Mystery Caller / Fred location stays inside this page. It is a sub-intent of A New Directive, not its own guide URL.
I'm stuck
Where are you stuck?
What next?
A New Directive sits in the containment cluster with the Panopticon Intern trophy. Its camera bug points to the 1.4.0 patch notes, while normal camera locations stay with Freeze Frame.
Tell the assistant your quest phase and which placements are done, and it can answer from that state — for example, which furniture is still missing.
Diagnose my quest state →A New Directive is one quest inside the quest hub. The patch fixed the camera progression issue, Freeze Frame owns normal camera locations, and the quest hub owns the rest.