Emergency Phones

The emergency phones are various orange-colored phones scattered throughout the Lower Underrail and Upper Underrail. Initially they were meant for Biocorp metro users to report various incidents using the different buttons on the phone, with Red Cross for medical emergencies, Red Rathound for wildlife, Green Shield for humans, Yellow Wrench for mechanical issues (which would also dispatch robots), Red Exclamation Mark for hazards and Blue Exclamation Mark for an explanation of what emergency phones do. Hundreds of years of disuse as well as the occasional tampering of a certain hacker have left the effects of their buttons unpredictable. Additionally, all emergency phones have a storage compartment that sometimes contains items, and may or may not be unlocked (and thus requiring Lockpicking).

Upper Underrail

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  Upper Underrail Global Map with functional emergency phones

Several phones are unusable, but 4 are functional.

• One found near the entrance to the Emporion Shopping Mall leads to a room that notably contains LMG 80-round Box Magazine in a computer rack, CACS in a locker (80 Lockpicking required) and Aegis in an unmarked trash pile.
• One found in Notus Living Block unlocks a door inside a bandit camp that cannot be reached without making the bandits hostile. It contains a High Voltage Penetrator Core required for Phreak's quest. There is also an unmarked Super Health Hypo on a shelf.
• One found at Nyx Station leads to a room that notably contains 2 EMP Grenade Mk IIs and 2 EMP Grenade Mk IIIs.
• One found near Gubbins' camp unlocks a door contains a Handmade Remote Controller required for Phreak's quest and a computer rack with an Airburst Scope.

Sounds and the Orange Box

The majority of emergency phones in Upper Underrail were modified by Phreak in order to act as hideout entrances, and interacting with him will eventually net you the Orange Box, the device used to interact with them. In order to trigger the entrance, the player has to repeat 3 randomized sequences in a row consisting of multiple button presses (roughly 5 to 9 different button presses), and failing to repeat a sequence will mean the player has to start from the beginning with a new sequence. What sound plays when pressing each button is randomized in every playthrough but all emergency phones will play the same sound when pressed the same buttons. Difficulty determines how many sound playbacks on average are unresponsive on the Orange Box (with 0-2 on Hard^Verify and 1-3 on Dominating). Successfully activating 2 emergency phones will grant the player character the Fine Tuned feat.

Solving the sound puzzles

There are several ways to improve the odds of solving the sound puzzles.

• Recording the playback on your phone makes re-listening easier
• Sometimes it can be easier to listen all the sounds that the phone buttons produce before plugging the box. And write down into two colums marks on the buttons and your associations with each sound they produce when pressed.
• Having 12 effective Perception will offer dialogue that associates each sound to a number (irrespective of the dialogue choice numbers that represent the buttons) as well as tell the player the "number sequence" of the playback, making it easier to note down each sound and associate it to a button (such as "Red Rathound to 2"). Used code is identical for all emergency phones, which allows to solve the puzzle much faster once player correctly associates the buttons.
• Setting the game's speed to normal will increase the delay between each sound playback, making it easier to keep track of it.
• Muting the game's music and other noises allows a higher degree of concentration on the sound playback.

Lower Underrail

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  Lower Underrail Global Map with functional emergency phones

Several of them can be interacted with for various unique interactions.

• One south of South Gate Station has an opened compartment containing a Black Cloth and some bullet casings.
• One east of Omega Station has a locked compartment containing 3 Barbed Throwing Nets (requires 45 Lockpicking).
• Pressing Yellow Wrench on one in the far east of the Omega Station entrance will summon a hostile Sentry Bot and unlock a nearby door. Its storage compartment also contains Blast Cloth and bullet casings.
• One north of GMS and past a bandit checkpoint can be repaired with Hacking or Electronics.
  • Pressing Red Cross will play back a conversation between Phreak and one of the Lunatics, who calls him "Phreaky"
  • Pressing Yellow Wrench will summon a neutral Industrial Robot that is immediately hostile to the nearby Lunatics. It will also unlock a door.
• One north-west of SRO can be repaired with 100 Hacking or 85 Electronics.
  • Triggering the call signal will unlock a nearby door to a room containing the remains of a Sentry Bot, a near-exact replica of an emergency phone and a Protectorate wanted poster for Phreak.
• One further west from the aforementioned emergency phone had its buttons painted completely black.
  • Pressing the fourth and sixth buttons will alert the Lurkers inside.
• Pressing Red Rathound on one found inside an Ironhead lair south-east of Foundry will lead to an angry response from Phreak; "There's no crunching happening, stop buzzing me!".
• One west of Foundry has a locked storage compartment containing an Electromagnetic Discharger (requires 70 Lockpicking).
• One east of Foundry has a locked storage compartment containing a Circular Wave Amplifier (requires 70 Lockpicking).
• One north-east of Omega Station has an opened compartment containing a Cigar.