SM05: Samizdat - Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Wiki Guide - IGN (2023)

The Side Mission 5: Samizdat is one of the sidequests in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided that can be started at TF29 in Prauge (Day).

Whether you choose to heed the messages of TF29 requesting you to meet with Peter Chang, or he corners you after speaking to the psychiatrist, Chang will voice his concerns about TF29’s ability to remain hidden, citing someone hacking the front company - Praha Dovoz, a real fake shipping company. He’s tracked the signal, but needs you to find out who is behind it and why.

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Video Walkthrough: Part One

Find the Source of the Hack

Head to the apartments at 33 Hlavni, not far from TF29, and get to the top floor of the apartments to find number 33. Depending on how you want to approach the place, you can either hack the level 2 lock on the door, or simply slip in through the window on the balcony.

The place appears to be empty, and largely unfurnished, which is a bit unsettling. The side room holds a table with lots of junk, some hacking software stashed in the corner, and a wall with a web of conspiracies all pointing at Praha Dovoz. The laptop appears to be owned by Samizdat, the same name as the hacker and anti-establishment newspaper seen in various places. Hack the level 1 laptop and check out the emails to confirm this hacker works for the publication. However if you switch to messenger, someone will ask why you aren’t at the meeting. You can either start interrogating, stall or inquire. You’ll learn that there is supposed to be a meeting in the sewers, and they want your story on Praha Dovoz. At this point you can command they stop (bad call), bluff or inquire that you forgot where to meet - which will give you directions to the Davny district by the old church, and a code to get in the office.

Find Samizdat in the Davny District

Head over to the far corner of the district on the other side of town and look for a manhole to descend by The Music Box. Once down in the sewers, keep moving past the homeless areas until you come to a large opening with a television of all things. Move the debris and boxes aside near the television to find the gate, and open the gate using the code you were given

Keep Samizdat from Exposing TF29

Inside you’ll find three members of the rogue conspiracy theorist publication, K, Little K, and Bones. You need them to back off of looking into TF29, and there a couple ways to do this. The simplest being just toss a frag grenade into their meeting. Or if you don’t want to kill them, use a gas grenade. Chang will then call for a team to pick them up, so they probably won’t be getting a happy ending.

However, if you’d prefer to talk things out, approach them and talk to K, and engage in a little conspiracy talk in an effort dissuade them from looking into TF29. As it turns out, they’ll be willing to turn a blind eye, but only if you can provide them with something better on Picus News, and they think the CEO of the Palisade Bank may have that news. That would involve a break-in of course, so choose which option suits you best.

Be sure to look around before you leave, the there some hacking software stashed around, and a Multi-tool in the corner by the door under a box.

Note:Your decision to prevent TF29's exposure in a violent or non-violent way will also have huge consequences for the last side mission.

Dig Up Dirt in the CEO’s Office

Video Walkthough: Part Two

Palisade Property Bank, as you might expect, is a monstrosity of a building, and will not be easy to get into, especially if your going for the CEO’s well guarded office. It’s worth noting that the building holds 9 full stories of vaults, offices, safety deposits and more should you wish to explore - but you don’t have to do it all now. You can either enter through the lobby onto the 8th (ground) floor, or sneak in through the heavily guarded parking garage to a lower level, but since your target is on the 9th and top floor, its best just to walk in the front door.

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The ground floor lobby (seen as level 2 via signs and level 8 on your map) and part of the lobby below is the only place you are allowed to wander freely. You can talk to the guy at the front desk to learn more about the place, and there’s an eBook on a couch to the left. There’s also one more eBook up the steps from the front desk behind the wall.

The only other places you are allowed to roam freely on this level are the boardroom and hall to the elevator - but the elevator won’t go up without a keycard. You can find such a keycard in the Account Manager’s room to the right of the lobby, but hacking his locked door can be a pain with people watching. You can of course bypass this by searching the boardroom for a Pocket Secretary for the passcode to his room, and quickly nab the elevator card from his desk by using your invisibility aug when entering his room.

A better way to go about things is to find a sneakier way up. Check behind the trashcan next to the elevator to find a duct leading to a maintenance hall, and use the next vent to enter the elevator shaft. If you have not already attained an elevator keycard, there is another method available if you don't have the remote hacking ability. Simply drop (or climb down using the ladder) down and go through the vent where there will be an electrical hazard and a breaker to remove said hazard. Continue going through this passage until you reach the "Executive Services" room. Move the photocopier out of the way with the "lift heavy objects" augment and pass through. In here there will be an elevator card ripe for the picking. (To check if you're in the right room, it will be on level 7 - map - or level 1 for signs) Whilst in the room, press a button underneath the desk to reveal a lv2 safe behind you.

From here you can summon the elevator to a specific floor by remote hacking the panel near you (if you have the remote hacking augment), climb onto it, and then remote hack to the top level and look for a new vent. In this maintenance area, look through the first vent on the left to see the CTO’s Office next to the elevator - with two guards inside.

Sneak across the hall to the office and hide by the door. One guard will sit in a chair to the right, while the other will patrol the first floor. You can either wait until he walks towards the other guard to sneak past, or lure him out of sight. Either way, be careful taking the stairs as a rotating camera monitors the door to the CEO’s office. Luckily, the camera’s vision doesn’t cover the level 1 locked terminal to open the door.

Your objective lies behind Ashani Talwar’s desk - a small note that states that a recent chemical spill - despite not being reported on - has been extremely hazardous to all water supply in the area. Whoops.

While you’re here, you may as well help yourself to everything the CEO and CTO have to offer. This includes the painkillers, wine, and money lying the on the desks, and the laughably level 1 locked laptops they keep. If you can hack Ashani’s level 3 laptop, note the odd email about a sculpture. Masaaki writes that the code is RTR-TTR. This references the mechanical puzzle on his desk, which you can tap to raise, or hold to turn. Knowing this, use the following combination: raise, turn, raise, turn, turn, raise.

This will open up a secret room to the right, which holds even more goodies - like another eBook, a Breach Software, and a pocket secretary noting the codes to a special storage elsewhere in the building: 1293. You can still find a stash in here, behind a painting as you walk in, and hack the level 1 safe to find a Praxis Kit, Square Enix Triangle Code, money, and… a Flight 451 Dossier? Forget the tainted water, this is huge.

To get out of the building, you can either go the way you came, or take the red cable duct in either the secret room or behind the TV in the office. They both lead down to the lobby - but they put you in a restricted hallway to the executive safes behind a laser grid, you’ll probably want to be invisible getting out. You can also jump up to the rafters of the office into a yellow duct that puts you out high up in the lobby, letting you carefully fall down into the lobby - or simply sneak back the way you came through the elevator or shaft.

Return the Dirt on Picus to K

Back in the sewers, meet with the conspiracy nuts and hand over the goods. If you only got the water contamination paper, you can give him that, but you can also choose the flight dossier if you nabbed it from the secret safe. This should be more than enough info to get people’s attention - but he’ll need one last thing on getting people’s attention - hacking the city’s info hub.

Override the City’s Info Hub

Leave the sewers and head past Monument Station to the Autodily store - as the hub is stored on the roof. To get up, you can either look for a ladder halfway up, and place a dumpster vertically to give you a boost, or go by the shop entrance to a scaffold extender and power it up with a Biocell. Once on the roof, open the panel and hack the level 1 terminal to do the deed. Now Picus’ cover ups will be posted all around the city, and TF29 can continue to operate in secrecy. As for Samizdat - they better lie low after attracting this kind of attention.