You’re wandering through the Great Desert, sand in your boots, Naytibas breathing down your neck, and then you find it. A dead body on a shipping container. Classic Stellar Blade. Next to this poor soul is a data chip titled Third Road, and honestly, it looks like a complete mess of Greek gibberish. If you've spent more than five minutes staring at those symbols trying to figure out if you need a PhD in linguistics to open a chest, don’t worry. You aren't alone.
Most people see the string of 18 Greek letters and assume it’s some high-level math puzzle. It isn't. Shift Up loves to hide things in plain sight, and the Stellar Blade Third Road document is a prime example of a riddle that is actually telling you the answer in its own name.
Where to Actually Find the Third Road Document
First things first, you can’t solve a puzzle you don’t have. You’ll find the Third Road data chip in the northeast sector of the Great Desert. Look for a shipping container that’s mostly swallowed by the dunes. There’s a corpse right on top. Grab the chip, read the text, and you’ll see a story about "three witches" followed by a long, headache-inducing line of Greek letters.
The text itself is mostly flavor text, but the title is the mechanical key. "Third Road." It’s not just a cool-sounding name for a document; it is your literal instruction manual.
Cracking the Third Road Code (The Simple Way)
Okay, let’s look at the symbols. The string at the bottom of the document has 18 characters. If you try to input all of them, the keypad will just laugh at you. You only need six.
How do you pick them? You take every third letter.
- Look at the first three letters. Take the 3rd one.
- Look at the next three. Take the 3rd one.
- Keep going until you’ve cycled through all 18.
If you do the math—or just look at the screen—you’ll notice something kind of funny. In almost every version of this puzzle, the third letter in every cluster of three is the exact same symbol: λ (Lambda).
The passcode for the chest behind the goddess statue is λλλλλλ.
Yep. Six Lambdas. You probably spent ten minutes trying to find a pattern in the variance of the other letters when the game was just waiting for you to hit the same button six times. It feels like a bit of a troll move from the developers, but hey, that's part of the charm.
Where is the Chest?
Having the code is useless if you’re standing in the middle of nowhere. To use the Stellar Blade Third Road passcode, you need to find the "Remote Area" mentioned in the riddle. This is located at the Goddess Statue in the Great Desert.
Once you arrive at the statue, don't just stare at her face. Run around to the back. There’s a hidden chest tucked away there. Input the six Lambdas, and you’re in.
What’s Inside?
Is it worth the trek? Mostly, yeah. You’re going to get:
💡 You might also like: Four card keno strategy: How to actually play multi-card games without going broke
- Cybernetic Bondage Nano-Suit Schematic (One of the more... let's say distinctive outfits for Eve).
- A handful of Nano-Materials for upgrades.
If you’re a completionist or just want Eve to have every possible wardrobe option, this is a non-negotiable stop. Plus, the Great Desert is huge, and you’re likely passing by this area anyway while hunting for Lily’s affinity or tracking down those annoying cans.
Why This Puzzle Trips Everyone Up
The reason this specific document causes so much confusion is the "Recruit Passcode Specialists" quest. That quest also involves Greek symbols (Alpha, Beta, Theta, etc.) and altars scattered across the map. Players often get the Third Road symbols mixed up with the "Chapter of Trial" documents.
Let's be clear: they are totally separate.
- Chapter of Trial documents are for the cargo container in the sunken ship (Wasteland).
- Third Road is specifically for the Goddess Statue chest (Great Desert).
If you try to use the Trial symbols at the statue, or the Lambdas at the ship, nothing is going to happen except Eve looking disappointed at you.
A Few Pro-Tips for the Great Desert
Honestly, the Great Desert is a slog if you don't have the Solar Tower turned on. If you’re hunting for the Third Road chest, make sure you've already finished the Reboot!!! side quest. Having the map populated with supply camps makes backtracking so much less painful.
Also, watch out for the Lurkers in this area. They love to pop out of the sand right when you’re looking at your menu trying to read a document. It’s annoying. I’ve died more than once because I was busy counting Greek letters and didn't see the sand moving under my feet.
Actionable Steps for Your Playthrough
If you want to wrap this up quickly, here is your pathing:
- Fast travel to the Buried Ruins or the nearest camp in the Northeast.
- Grab the chip from the shipping container corpse.
- Head straight to the Goddess Statue.
- Circle to the back and spam the λ symbol six times.
- Take your schematic to Lily at a camp or back in Xion to craft that new suit.
Don't overthink the lore here. While some documents in Stellar Blade give deep insight into Mother Sphere or the fall of humanity, Third Road is basically a logic puzzle designed to see if you're paying attention to the title. Get your loot and move on to the next Alpha Signal.