Bend Studio packed the post-apocalyptic Oregon wilderness of Days Gone with subtle lore nods, Syphon Filter crossovers, hidden loot bunkers, and environmental storytelling that most players blaze right past on Deacon’s drifter bike. Thanks to the PC port’s unlocked framerates, native ultrawide FOV, and increased foliage draw distance, tracking down these hard-to-reach survival spots and developer easter eggs is sharper and more rewarding than ever. Whether you want to assemble a classified covert weapon or uncover the tragic fates of Oregon’s forgotten preppers, these are the best secret locations and easter eggs you probably missed across the Cascade, Belknap, and Crater Lake regions.
Syphon Filter Universe Connection: Gabe Logan and the IPCA Stunner
One of the coolest treats for veteran PlayStation gamers is how Bend Studio officially stitched Days Gone into the continuity of their classic stealth-action franchise, Syphon Filter. Scattered across eighteen white-suited NERO scientist corpses throughout the world are pieces of classified IPCA Tech. If you loot every single one across rogue field research camps and ambush sites, you unlock the crafting recipe for the Secret IPCA Stun Gun after completing the primary storyline.
This sidearm fires an electric projectile identical to Gabe Logan's signature combat taser from the 1999 original. Hold down the trigger, and human Marauders or Swarmers will catch fire after taking continuous voltage. Beyond the weapon itself, pay attention to the NERO Inspector field recorder logs you collect during Deacon's investigations. Several classified audio discs explicitly mention agent Gabe Logan, Lian Xing, and Teresa Lipan by name, identifying the Freaker pathogen as an airborne, targeted mutation derived directly from the Syphon Filter virus strains tested in the late 1990s. If you enjoy hunting down classified armaments across vast maps, check out our guide on hidden rewards worth hunting in massive sandboxes.
🎮 Days Gone
Looking to experience this game? Grab your digital key directly on our store for $39.99.
View on Steammoz Store →The Hidden Puppy and Iron Mike’s Scavenger Hunt
During the Lost Lake storyline, Deacon helps rescue an orphaned puppy for Boozer to lift his spirits while recovering from his amputated arm. What the game never explicitly flags on your world map, however, is that you can track down four unique dog toys scattered across ruined residential shops in the wilderness to bring back to Lost Lake.
You will find these hidden toys tucked away inside abandoned storefronts and ransacked homes:
- Marion Forks Toy Store: Look behind the checkout counter inside the collapsed gift store in Marion Forks.
- Sherman’s Camp Pet Shop: Hidden under a display shelf surrounded by sleeping Freakers in southern Lost Lake.
- Chemult Town Strip Mall: Tucked behind an overturned cash register near the gas station diner.
- Rogue Camp Clinic: Resting on a bedside nightstand inside an abandoned triage cabin near Iron Butte pass.
Whenever you return to Boozer's cabin with a chew toy in your inventory, walk up to the dog bed on the front porch. Deacon triggers a charming, unique animation sequence where he plays fetch or tug-of-war with the pup. It serves as an emotional, grounding touch in a harsh wasteland that most rush-to-credits players miss entirely.
Off-Road NERO Research Sites Behind Nitrous Jumps
While standard NERO Checkpoints are hard to miss due to their blaring speakers and perimeter fences, several high-tier NERO Research Sites do not show up on your regional cartography until you physically ramp onto isolated islands or elevated rock plateaus. These isolated nests house vital NERO Injectors, which permanently boost Deacon’s Health, Stamina, or Focus pools by 25 points per use. Much like uncovering hidden flight caches in our Everspace 2 secret locations guide, reaching these areas requires specialized gear preparation.
To reach these jumps, you must upgrade Deacon's bike at Manny's or Diamond Lake with at least the Nitrous II or Nitrous III upgrade from the late-game mechanics. Without that burst of speed, your drifter bike will smack into cliff walls or plunge into deep water, forcing a respawn and bike recovery fee.
| Secret Location | Region | Access Requirement | Hidden Reward / Easter Egg |
|---|---|---|---|
| White King Mine Plateau | Cascade | Nitrous II + Hilltop ramp line | NERO Injector, Audio Tape #17 (Patient Zero data) |
| Crater Lake Island Spire | Crater Lake | Nitrous III + Precision rocky lip jump | NERO Injector, IPCA Tech Piece #12, Sniping Vantage |
| Mount Bailey Hermit Ledge | Highway 97 | Max Speed Engine + Full Boost Bar | NERO Injector, Tragic Hunter Diary, Level 3 Suppressor |
| Santiam Tunnel Ridge | Lost Lake / Iron Butte | Off-road bike suspension tier 3 | Prepper Footlocker (3x Attractor, 2x Pipe Bombs) |
| Sherman's Reservoir Sunken Car | Lost Lake | Low water bank approach (Foot exploration) | Unique Jewelry Souvenir, Syphon Filter Lab Notes |
The White King Mine jump is particularly tricky: you must approach the ridge from a sharp downhill curve to build raw momentum before popping the nitrous boost right as your front tire clears the wooden ramp edge. If your frame rates stutter right at launch, your trajectory might drop short, so consider tweaking performance settings using our optimization breakdowns like the settings for max FPS tips to ensure smooth 60+ FPS physics responsiveness.
Unmarked Cabins, Prepper Bunkers, and Environmental Storytelling
Tucked into the dense timberline along the western rim of Belknap sits a cluster of unmarked pioneer cabins that do not register as formal map waypoints. Inside these cabins, Bend Studio's level designers constructed tragic, silent dioramas detailing the immediate collapse of society when the Freaker outbreak overran the Pacific Northwest.
In one secluded cabin north of the Belknap Caves Ambush Camp, you can crawl through a collapsed wooden root cellar to discover a fully stocked prepper panic room. Inside sits a skeleton propped up with an acoustic guitar, surrounded by dozens of empty whiskey bottles and an unplayed cassette tape. The letter next to the bed recounts a local musician who sealed himself away to wait out the end of the world, only to succumb to starvation when the hydraulic hatch jammed from a mudslide above.
These cabins are goldmines for scavengers on Survivor difficulty. While military camps are often picked clean, these unmarked woodland retreats consistently spawn pristine boxes of scrap, kerosene, spark igniters, and nest residue—essential for crafting incendiary bolts and stamina cocktails before engaging regional Hordes. If you find your game hitching when rendering deep foliage around these wilderness zones, running basic PC maintenance like our PC fixes that rescue framerates will keep exploration butter-smooth.
The Post-Credits NERO Truth: Unmasking James O’Brian
Many players defeat the militia at Wizard Island, watch Deacon and Sarah reunite at Lost Lake, and immediately uninstall the game believing the credits marked the end of the story. Doing so causes you to miss the single biggest plot twist and lore reveal in the entire game.
After finishing the main story, continue cruising the open world, clearing out straggler hordes or completing minor camp jobs. After roughly thirty to forty-five minutes of free-roam play, scientist James O’Brian contacts Deacon over the radio for a private rendezvous at the Old Pioneer Cemetery where the game’s opening tutorial took place. This triggers the classified mission titled "There’s Nothing You Can Do."
| Secret Gear / Lore Weapon | Slot | Effect / Mechanics | Unlock Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| IPCA Stun Gun | Sidearm | Continuous electrocution; ignites targets in flames | Collect all 18 IPCA Tech pieces + Finish Story |
| NERO Custom Bike Accent | Visual Custom | Gloss-black hazard aesthetic with official NERO logos | Trigger O'Brien's Secret Ending Mission |
| BND-150 Sniper Rifle | Special | Fires custom explosive, poison gas, and tracker darts | Unlocked for New Game Plus loadouts |
During this final meeting, O’Brien reveals that NERO high command knew about the mutative capabilities of the pathogen all along. When he removes his biohazard helmet, Deacon discovers O’Brien is an intelligent, mutated Freaker himself—possessing enhanced agility and physical strength while retaining full human consciousness and speech. This staggering cliffhanger recontextualizes every NERO encounter throughout the campaign. Ranking this unique stunner alongside other legendary novelty guns feels similar to analyzing classic firepower in our Blood Dragon weapon tier lists.
PC-Specific Visual Enhancements for Secret Hunters
Hunting these obscure secrets on PC provides massive gameplay advantages over the original console hardware. By navigating to the graphical options menu, players can dial Render Scale to 100% or higher and push Foliage Draw Distance and Geometry Details to "Very High." On the original PS4 release, distant cliffside entrances and hidden cliffside ramps were masked by heavy level-of-detail pop-in, making secret NERO locations hard to spot from roads below.
On PC, setting your Field of View (FOV) slider between 85 and 95 lets you spot environmental details—like frayed climbing ropes hanging down rocky crags or yellow NERO hazard markers painted on trees—while blasting down highways at maximum motorcycle speed. Combine this with the photo mode’s unlocked free-cam to scout dark cave networks during daylight hours before sending Deacon into danger, ensuring you never miss a hidden cache or a slumbering horde waiting in the dark.