You’re driving through the neon-soaked streets of LEGO City, chasing a criminal in a brick-built sports car, when suddenly the skyscrapers vanish. The concrete jungle gives way to red dirt, towering redwood trees, and a vibe that feels like a weird, blocky love letter to the Pacific Northwest. This is Auburn. It’s easily one of the most distinct districts in LEGO City Undercover, and if you’ve spent any real time hunting for Gold Bricks, you know it’s way more than just a transition zone between the city and the mountains.
Auburn is the heart of the "rural" side of the game. It bridges the gap between the industrial grit of Bluebell National Park and the high-tech sheen of the city center. Most players just breeze through it during the early missions, but that’s a mistake. Honestly, the level design here is some of the smartest work TT Fusion ever did. It captures that specific feeling of a sleepy, forest-town outskirts while packing every corner with the kind of chaotic interactivity that makes LEGO games actually fun to play.
Exploring the Auburn Vibe and Why it Works
Most open-world games struggle with "flyover" zones. You know the ones—empty spaces designed just to make the map feel big. LEGO City Undercover Auburn avoids this by being dense. It’s the first place in the game where you really feel the scale of the environment. While the city is vertical, Auburn is wide. It’s got that massive bridge—the Auburn Bay Bridge—which is basically a rite of passage for every player. Driving across it for the first time while the music kicks in is a core memory for anyone who played this on the Wii U back in 2013 or on the modern remasters.
The district is technically home to the Auburn Harbor and the local lumber mill, which gives it a blue-collar, rugged aesthetic. You’ve got cranes, shipping containers, and a lot of breakable wooden structures. It feels different from the polished glass of Bright Lights Plaza. It’s gritty. Or, as gritty as a world made of plastic bricks can be.
The Mechanics of the Auburn Bay Bridge
The bridge isn’t just a prop. It’s a gameplay mechanic. It connects Auburn to the Uptown district, and it’s one of the best places in the game to test out the top speed of your unlocked vehicles. If you’re looking to finish those time trials, this stretch of road is where you’ll spend your time. But there's more to it than just a straight line.
Beneath the bridge, you'll find secrets. This is where the game rewards the "detective" side of Chase McCain. You need the right disguises to unlock everything here. Without the Astronaut or the Fireman, you’re basically just a tourist. If you haven't unlocked the jetpack yet, trying to scale the bridge supports is a lesson in frustration, but once you have it, the verticality of Auburn opens up completely.
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The Disguise System: Making Auburn Your Playground
To really "beat" Auburn, you need to understand the disguise system. This isn't just a cosmetic choice. It’s the key to the entire district’s progression.
- The Miner: Essential for Auburn. There are boulders and silver LEGO pieces scattered all over the outskirts and the lumber yard. Without the pickaxe and the dynamite, you’re leaving 20% of the district's collectibles on the table.
- The Robber: You’ll see plenty of ATMs and locked doors near the harbor. Auburn is a goldmine for studs if you’re willing to play the "bad guy" for a few minutes.
- The Farmer: This is where things get weirdly fun. Auburn’s proximity to the countryside means there are chicken glide points and pig cannons. Yes, pig cannons. Launching a pig back to its pen is a staple of the Auburn experience.
It’s easy to forget how complex the layering is. You’ll be walking through the forest area, see a blue-and-white wall, and realize you need the Police disguise to wall-jump. Then you hit a fuse box and need the Electrician (the Robber's color-swapped variant). It’s a constant loop of: See something, realize you don't have the tool, go finish a story mission, come back three hours later.
Hidden Secrets Most Players Miss in Auburn
There’s a specific Super Build in Auburn that everyone should prioritize. It’s the stunt ramp. Once you build it, the way you move through the district changes. You stop following the roads and start looking for air time.
The harbor area also hides one of the many "Police Shield" pieces. Most people look for these in the high-profile story levels, but the open-world ones are actually harder to find. In Auburn, it’s usually tucked away behind a stack of shipping containers that requires a specific crane puzzle to solve.
And let’s talk about the cats. LEGO City Undercover has a thing for rescuing cats. Auburn has one of the most annoying ones to find, usually stuck on a high ledge near the lumber mill that requires a series of precise jumps. It’s frustrating. It’s classic TT Games.
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Why the Wii U Version Felt Different
If you’re a purist, you might remember that Auburn felt a bit... emptier on the original Wii U hardware. The draw distance wasn't great. On the PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions, Auburn looks stunning. The way the light filters through the trees actually looks decent. It’s one of the few areas where the "remaster" really shows its worth. The loading screens—which were the bane of the original game's existence—are much shorter now, making the transition from Auburn to the rest of the map way less of a chore.
Common Misconceptions About Auburn
A lot of people think Auburn is just a tutorial area. It’s not. While the game introduces some basic concepts here, the actual 100% completion requirements for this district are surprisingly high. You can’t just walk through it and expect to see the "District Complete" notification.
Another thing: people think the lumber mill is just a backdrop. It’s actually one of the best places for "Multi-Builds." You have to choose what to build with your bricks to progress. If you build the wrong thing first, you might miss a hidden collectible and have to smash it and rebuild. It’s a tiny bit of strategy in a game that usually holds your hand.
How to Optimize Your Run Through Auburn
If you’re going for that elusive 100%, stop trying to do it during the main story. It’s a waste of time. You won't have the Rex Fury disguise until the very end of the game, and without Rex, you can’t open those orange-handled crates.
Instead, do this:
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- Blast through the story until you finish the "High Steal" mission.
- Unlock the Astronaut and the Fireman.
- Go back to Auburn with a full kit.
- Focus on the Super Builds first to unlock the fast-travel points and vehicle spawns.
This saves you hours of backtracking. Auburn is big. Walking across it because you forgot to spawn a car is a mistake you only make once.
The Cultural Impact of the District
It sounds silly to talk about the "culture" of a LEGO district, but Auburn represents a specific era of open-world design. It’s from that time when developers were realizing that maps didn't just need to be big—they needed to be distinct. Auburn feels like a separate town. It has its own rhythm. The NPCs are dressed differently, the vehicles spawning are more rugged (lots of trucks and tractors), and the sound design leans into the wind-in-the-trees vibe.
It’s the digital equivalent of that one bin of LEGOs you had as a kid—the one with the brown and green plates that you used to build "the woods" for your city sets. It’s nostalgic.
Actionable Steps for Completionists
To master Auburn and move toward that 100% trophy, focus on these specific tasks in order. First, ensure you have the Rex Fury disguise; you literally cannot finish the district without his strength to pull orange handles. Second, head to the Auburn Bay Bridge and look for the Super Build that allows you to summon vehicles; this is your anchor point for the district. Third, use the Police Scanner on the rooftops near the harbor—there are three hidden gang members in this district that only trigger when you scan certain "hotspots." Finally, don't ignore the water. There are several gold bricks floating under the docks that are only accessible by swimming or using a boat from the nearby ferry terminal. Forget the main road—the real loot is in the dirt and the water.