How this guide is built: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a 25–40-hour, mostly linear cinematic adventure, and every guide site already has a blow-by-blow script of it. Re-typing that here would be a giant spoiler wall and exactly the thin, derivative content nobody needs. So this guide does the more useful thing: it teaches the toolkit the game under-explains (stealth, the whip, fists vs. improvised weapons vs. guns, the camera, Adventure Books, health and money), then gives a spoiler-light tour of all eight regions, then solves only the spots where players genuinely get stuck — the combination-code table, the trickiest ciphers explained by method, the endgame Secret Vault behind a spoiler wall, and the one real Archivist achievement bug. Everything is in our own words and cross-checked against the official Steam page (app 2677660), IGN, PowerPyx, Game8, TheGamer and the dedicated Steam community guides.
What is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a $69.99 single-player action-adventure from MachineGames (the Wolfenstein studio) and Bethesda Softworks, released on 9 December 2024 for PC and Xbox Series X|S (Premium Edition three days early, on 6 December) and on PS5 on 17 April 2025. It is on Game Pass. Crucially, it is played in first person — the camera only swings to third person for cutscenes and a few cinematic set-pieces — which catches a lot of players off guard. Reviews were strong: Metacritic 86–88 across platforms, Game8 92.
You are Indiana Jones (voiced by Troy Baker) in 1937, slotted neatly between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. A break-in at Marshall College sends Indy chasing the secret of the Great Circle — a ring of ancient sites that, drawn on a map, form a perfect circle around the globe — against Emmerich Voss, a Nazi archaeologist and occultist who means to harness its power for the Reich. Along the way you team up with reporter Ginetta “Gina” Lombardi, who is hunting Voss over her sister’s disappearance, and tangle with Locus, a giant who first stands in your way and later warns that the Circle’s secret must never come to light. The trail runs from Peru to the Vatican, Gizeh, the Himalayas, Shanghai, Sukhothai and finally Iraq.
Read this first: how Indy actually plays
The single biggest mistake new players make is treating this like a shooter. It isn’t. The Great Circle is a stealth-and-puzzle adventure with fists, and the moment you start spraying bullets the game gets harder, not easier. Internalise the toolkit below and the linear stretches almost play themselves; the only places you should ever really be stuck are a handful of puzzles, which we solve later.
1) Stealth and disguises come first
Most enemy camps are designed to be walked through, not fought. Pick up a fallen uniform — Blackshirt, Wehrmacht, winter gear, whatever the region uses — and you can stroll past patrols in plain sight. The catch is restricted zones: officers and certain marked areas see straight through the costume, so watch for the on-screen warning and stay out of the red. When you do need to clear a sentry, sneak up behind for a silent takedown (the whip is great for this), and stash or avoid the body so nobody raises the alarm. Treat the whole thing like a social-stealth game and you’ll conserve health, ammo and patience.
2) The whip is a multitool
Your bullwhip is the most under-used button in most people’s playthroughs. It will swing you across gaps, grab and pull items, levers and ledges, trip and disarm enemies (a disarmed enemy is a free knockout), stun a charging brute so you can close in, and solve environmental puzzles that need something pulled or yanked from a distance. If a room looks like it has no path forward, look for a whip point before you look for a door.
3) Fists first, improvised weapons second, guns last
When stealth breaks down, the game wants you to brawl. Indy’s fists never break and never run out — learn to block, dodge and counter and you can box your way through almost anything (there are even optional Boxing Champions dotted around to test you). Improvised weapons — shovels, brooms, wrenches, pans, bottles — hit much harder, but they degrade and shatter after a few swings; a Repair Kit can keep a favourite alive. Guns are the trap: they’re loud, they instantly summon every enemy in earshot, and they turn a quiet infiltration into a shooting gallery. Keep one for emergencies and forget it exists the rest of the time.
4) The camera: photograph everything
Early in the Vatican you get a camera, and it quietly becomes one of your most important tools. Photographing Strange Inscriptions, murals and puzzle hints feeds translations and progresses Mysteries, and it counts toward the Archivist achievement (collect every Journal entry). Get into the habit of snapping any carved symbol or odd marking you walk past — it costs nothing and it’s easy to lock yourself out of completion later if you don’t. (There is one Archivist bug worth knowing about; see the known-issue section near the end.)
5) Adventure Books and Adventure Points are your skill tree
There is no traditional XP bar. Instead, you earn Adventure Points by finding Notes, taking photos, making Discoveries and exploring, then spend them in Adventure Books to unlock permanent boosts — better stealth, sturdier health, more carrying capacity, combat perks and so on. Some books are sold in each region’s shops, and the most valuable ones mark every collectible in the region on your map. Buy those early and the “hunt for collectibles” turns into a tidy checklist instead of a grind — which is the single best money you’ll spend.
6) Health, stamina and money
Bandages patch you up in the field and stamina governs sprinting and struggles, so keep both topped off before a big fight. Medicine Bottles are collectibles that fill out a regional Medicine Book and raise your maximum health — grab every one you see. And mind the wallet: each region uses its own currency (Vatican Lira, and so on), and you cannot carry money from one region to the next. Loot pouches, foot lockers, locked boxes and desk drawers aggressively while you’re in a region, because anything you don’t spend there is wasted.
| Tool | Use it for | Don’t |
|---|---|---|
| Disguise | Walking through camps; skipping fights entirely | Entering restricted (red) zones — officers see through it |
| Whip | Traversal, grabbing, tripping, disarming, puzzles | Trading blows toe-to-toe — it sets up, fists finish |
| Fists | Reliable melee that never breaks; Boxing Champions | Rushing in without blocking/dodging |
| Improvised weapon | Burst damage on a tough foe | Relying on one — they shatter; carry a Repair Kit |
| Gun | Genuine emergencies only | Opening with it — the noise summons the whole camp |
| Camera | Inscriptions, hints, Mysteries, Adventure Points | Skipping markings — some feed completion |
The journey: a spoiler-light tour of all eight regions
The campaign is 10 main Adventures spread across eight locations, supported by 11 Fieldwork side-quests and 24 Mysteries (45 quests in all). Some regions are wide, semi-open hubs you can pick apart at your own pace; others are tight, scripted chapters. Here’s what each is and what new idea it introduces — no beat-by-beat, no story spoilers.
| Region | Shape | What it teaches / what’s new |
|---|---|---|
| Prologue — Peru (The Golden Idol) | Linear tutorial | Re-creates the famous Raiders opening; teaches movement, climbing and the whip. |
| Marshall College (The Break-In) | Linear | Your first proper stealth chase; sets up the whole plot. |
| The Vatican (The Stolen Cat Mummy) | Large open hub | The big one. You get the camera; disguises, Fieldwork and Mysteries all open up. Spend time here. |
| Gizeh (The Race is On, The Idol of Ra) | Open hub | Egypt by the pyramids; adds Stelae and Radio Frequencies, plus the Lighter for dark tombs. |
| The Himalayas (A Harsh Climb) | Linear | The frozen Nazi ship KMS Kummetz; home of the Kummetz Cipher wheel puzzle. |
| Shanghai (Into the Fire) | Short, linear | A tense escape under aerial bombardment; pure set-piece, few collectibles. |
| Sukhothai (Trouble in Paradise, The Blessed Pearl) | Largest open hub | Most Mysteries in the game; the Khmer cogwheel puzzles and the Hidden Pyramid. |
| Iraq — Ziggurat of Ur (Atonements) | Finale | The climax, and the Secret Vault you can return to after the credits. |
The rhythm to expect: when you reach an open hub (Vatican, Gizeh, Sukhothai), slow down. Buy the map-revealing Adventure Book, clear Fieldwork and Mysteries while you’re there, loot the region’s currency, and only then push the main Adventure forward. When you’re in a linear chapter (Himalayas, Shanghai), just enjoy the ride — there’s little to miss, and anything that is sealed off later relocates to the regional hub anyway.
Collectibles without the grind
The good news up front: nothing completion-related is missable. After the credits you can free-roam every region, and any collectible left behind in an area that later locks (a zeppelin, a hotel) is moved to that region’s hub. So don’t stress about “perfect” first runs. The collectible types you’re tracking are:
- Journal Notes — the bulk of the lore; feed the Archivist achievement.
- Ancient Relics — 50 total; these power the endgame Secret Vault (see spoiler section).
- Strange Inscriptions — photographed, not picked up; translation fuel.
- Medicine Bottles — raise your health ceiling via the regional Medicine Book.
- Stelae, Radio Frequencies, Cogwheels, Lost Artifacts, Discoveries, Disguises, Boxing Champions — region-specific extras, all tracked in the Journal and summarised per region on the Travels tab.
- Recipe cards — a charming bit of flavour (Father Giovanni’s risotto and friends). They’re lore collectibles, not a cooking mechanic; read them for the period detail.
The one trick that matters: in every region, scrape together enough local currency to buy the Adventure Book that marks collectibles on your map. With it, the Journal and map do the remembering for you and a 100% run stops being a chore. Without it, you’re hunting blind.
Getting unstuck: locked boxes and the tricky puzzles
Almost every puzzle in The Great Circle is solvable in the room: the clue is on a nearby note, mural or hint board, and the game rewards “thinking like Indy.” Try them yourself first — that’s the best part of the game. But two categories trip people up: combination locks (where the clue is easy to miss) and a handful of cipher/board puzzles. Here are the deterministic answers and, more usefully, the method behind the hard ones.
Combination codes (chests, safes, doors)
These are fixed for every player. Reach the box, then enter:
| Region | Lock | Code |
|---|---|---|
| Vatican | Belvedere Courtyard tent chest | 5238 |
| Vatican | Sistine Chapel safe (Secret of Secrets) | 4471 |
| Vatican | Museum Wing chest (A Date to Remember) | 6380 |
| Vatican | Museum Wing safe (garden storage) | 7171 |
| Vatican | Signs of Trouble safe | 1891 |
| Vatican | Father and Son safe | 5873 |
| Vatican | Post Office cellar chest (needs Cellar Key) | 1136 |
| Gizeh | Weather-station chest, NW of Workers’ Area | 0609 |
| Gizeh | Southwestern wooden hut | 3262 |
| Gizeh | Vehicle Garage chest | 0805 |
| Gizeh | Small wooden shack, NW of the garage | 13218 |
| Gizeh | German Compound safe (Hoss’ office) | 40926 |
| Gizeh | Bright Future chest (Sphinx–Khentkawes road) | 0926 |
| Himalayas | KMS Kummetz Officer’s Quarters door | 3666 |
| Sukhothai | Voss’ Gold Stash safe | 5484 |
| Sukhothai | Flooded hut near Tongdang | 2480 |
| Sukhothai | Counting Letters safe | 4134 |
| Sukhothai | Timely Arrival safe | 59404 |
| Sukhothai | A Game of Wits safe | 3186 |
Use these as a safety net, not a first resort — most of these clues are sitting on a note or board a few feet away, and finding them yourself is half the fun.
The four puzzles people actually get stuck on
- Kummetz Cipher (Himalayas, door 3666). The wheels aren’t the answer directly. Spell the clue word on the codebreaking wheels, then read the different four-letter word printed beneath it, and look that word up on the clipboard to convert it into digits.
- Counting Letters (Sukhothai, safe 4134). Decode the message JHHS on the codebreaking wheels. The trap that stalls people: one wheel has no relevant letters, and another has two — account for both before you read off the number.
- Timely Arrival (Sukhothai, safe 59404). You need two items together: the Code Lookup Table and the Shipment Table. Cross-reference one against the other to decipher the code (the reward includes the Sukhothai Medicine book).
- A Game of Wits (Sukhothai, safe 3186). This one gates the code behind a board game of Mak-Yek that you must win in four moves. Solve the board, get the number.
For the Khmer cogwheel gates in Sukhothai, the principle is simple even when the wall looks intimidating: rotate and seat the wooden cogs so their teeth mesh into one continuous chain that turns the central mechanism. If you’re short on collectible cogs late in the region, check back here — the last few often stay attached to these gate puzzles.
⚠️ Spoiler wall: the Secret Vault and the post-credits ending
The next two sections spoil the very end of the game. Skip them until you’ve rolled credits.
After the finale in Iraq, you can free-roam and open a Secret Vault for a special post-credits cutscene. It runs on Ancient Relics, and there is a nasty achievement trap baked into it:
- The 50th relic only exists after the credits. There are 50 Ancient Relics total; the vault technically opens with just 49, but the final one only appears once you can explore Iraq freely post-credits. Collecting all 50 grants the “Shadows out of Time” achievement.
- Solving the vault consumes the relics. If you open it with 49, you can never reach 50 afterward — the puzzle eats them. So collect all 50 first, then solve the vault. Do it in the wrong order and you permanently lose “Shadows out of Time.”
- The solution is four wall sections. On each, place the artifacts in the correct spots and rotate each piece — rotating right activates the spaces orthogonally adjacent, rotating left activates the spaces all around it — until the whole section lights up. The walls take roughly 11, 11, 13 and 14–15 relics respectively (the final wall can complete on its second-to-last piece; the last placement triggers the cutscene).
Finishing the vault also hands you the final Journal note, which — if you’ve gathered the rest — pops the Archivist achievement. Which brings us to the one bug worth planning around.
Known issue: the Archivist achievement bug (and the fix)
Archivist asks you to collect every Journal entry, but a handful of entries — mostly in Sukhothai — can end up unobtainable or simply not counting, leaving you stuck at 99%. The good news is that the achievement only checks your total entry count, not specific entries, so there’s a clean workaround: re-photograph hints in puzzles you’ve already solved to nudge the counter over the line.
One important caveat: don’t pre-photograph every hint during normal play. The trick only works if the bugged entry is the last thing missing; if you’ve already maxed your photo hints, you’ll have nothing left to re-snap. If you suspect you’re affected, leave some old puzzle hints un-photographed until the end. Reliable re-photograph spots include:
- Vatican — the Sacred Wounds mural under the Tower of Nicholas V; the Fountain of Confession side puzzles; the Gold Trial plaque.
- Gizeh — the Great Sphinx Gold Mask mirror room; the Statue of Light below it; the Three-Eyed Gate in the Ancient Caves.
- Himalayas — the cipher puzzle in the Captain’s Lounge.
- Sukhothai — the two Hidden Pyramid cog puzzles and the Wat Mahathat Game Room.
A couple of these can refuse the photo prompt on a revisit, or even crash the game as the camera lines up; if that happens, leave, do something else, and come back — players report it eventually takes. (Bethesda has also patched the achievement over time, so on a fully updated game you may not need this at all.)
After the credits, and the Order of Giants DLC
Beating the game drops you back into a free-roam state with every region reopened, so the natural “endgame” loop is to mop up Fieldwork, Mysteries and collectibles, beat any remaining Boxing Champions, and — once you’ve got all 50 relics — solve the Secret Vault. If you bought the map-revealing Adventure Books along the way, this cleanup is quick.
For more, The Order of Giants (released 4 September 2025) is a paid expansion set in Rome that takes place during the Vatican chapter of the main story, adding its own Adventure and Mysteries. It’s a self-contained side-story rather than an epilogue, so you can dip into it whenever your Vatican save is convenient.
Quick-start checklist
- Play it as stealth, not a shooter. Disguise up, avoid restricted zones, save guns for emergencies.
- Master the whip early — it traverses, grabs, trips and disarms, and it does silent takedowns.
- Box with your fists; carry one improvised weapon plus a Repair Kit for the tougher brutes.
- Photograph every inscription, mural and hint — it feeds Mysteries, Adventure Points and Archivist.
- In each open hub, buy the Adventure Book that marks collectibles on the map before anything else.
- Spend each region’s currency before you leave — it doesn’t travel.
- Collect all 50 Ancient Relics before you ever touch the Secret Vault.
- Relax about missables — you can finish everything in free-roam after the credits.
Watch: the official launch trailer
Sources: official Steam store page (app 2677660) and its screenshots; IGN, PowerPyx, Game8 and TheGamer walkthroughs for structure and systems; the dedicated Steam community guides for combination codes, the Secret Vault and the Archivist workaround; and Wikipedia for cast, setting and release facts. All text is original and paraphrased; screenshots are official promotional images, used to illustrate the mechanics they depict.