How to find the Call of Duty: Cold War floppy disk code and passphrase

black ops Cold War floppy disk code
(Image credit: Activision)

Struggling to find the Black Ops - Cold War floppy disk code and passphrase? The Operation Chaos side mission features a puzzle that requires a fair bit of detective work, but once you know what you need to get started, you'll ace this mission in no time. Naturally this guide contains spoilers, so turn away now if you're not ready to take on this mission just yet.

There are a few pieces of evidence to collect, and then it's up to you to find a code and passphrase that'll decrypt the floppy disk. I'm here to streamline your time with this puzzle so that you can complete Operation Chaos as quickly as possible. Here's how to find the CoD: Cold War Operation Chaos floppy disk code and passphrase, plus all the evidence you need to collect along the way.

How to get the Black Ops - Cold War floppy disk code and passphrase

Locate the evidence

The Operation Chaos mission requires you to uncover multiple pieces of evidence, which are strewn across different missions. Here's what you need to collect to get the Call of Duty Cold War floppy disk code and the mission in which the items can be found:

  • Coded Message: Nowhere Left to Run.
  • Numbers Station Broadcast: Brick in the Wall.
  • Front page of the Observer newspaper: Redlight, Greenlight.
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The first clue is easy to retrieve. You'll find that the message is added to your inventory after you have a not-so-friendly chat with Qasim. After he mentions that "they only communicate with coded messages", the Coded Message evidence pops up on screen. 

During the Brick in the Wall mission, keep your eyes peeled for an audio reel tape—one of the old circular ones. Once you get to the door marked '732', use your lockpick to open it and head down the stairs. Take out the guards, and walk over to the table with the camera and other items on it. You can't miss the evidence, as it's clearly highlighted for you.

Finally, in the Redlight, Greenlight mission, you need to retrieve the front page of the Observer newspaper to begin decrypting the floppy disk. We managed this by taking three photos while searching for the photo intel in the Call of Duty: Cold War Redlight, Greenlight mission.

In the Operation Chaos mission, interacting with the Central Intelligence Agency terminal prompts you to enter a code and a passphrase to decrypt the floppy disk. This section requires a bit of work on your part as, from what I can tell, the solutions appear to be different for each player. When our reviewer Morgan completed this mission, his answers were '8136' and 'Austin', but these will almost certainly be different for you. I'll walk you through what you need to do generally, but prepare to do a spot of mathematics and some careful listening.

Find the passphrase

Let's look at the Black Ops Cold War Coded Message. When you examine this scrap of paper you should be able to see a string of red and blue numbers and letters. You need to work out the missing numbers in each sequence, so take a look at the red numbers and find the pattern, then move onto the blue digits.

Listen to the Numbers Station Broadcast reel and listen out for the numbers you just found. These numbers are really important as the broadcast will mention a city. The city name is the passphrase you need. 

Find the code

Now let's take a peek at the newspaper, and you'll notice that some of the letters are in red. If you piece together the letters and shuffle them around, you'll be able to spell the name of another city. Listen to the Numbers Station Broadcast once more to find the corresponding code for that city name. This code is what you need to input in order to decrypt the floppy disk. Key in both the code and passphrase, to continue the Operation Chaos mission.

Emma Matthews

As PC Gamer's guides writer, Emma is usually juggling several games at once. She loves competitive first-person shooters like CS:GO and Call of Duty, but she always has time for a few rounds of Hearthstone. She's happiest when she's rescuing pugs in Spelunky 2.