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If Following Orders is not spawning its notes or contraband, replay the mission and completely search the first house before you speak to the couple. Take all four contraband items—heart medicine, MP3 player, Western novel, and rations—then read the Baekseolgi-tteok recipe note. Open the red toolbox with 214 (or shoot its lock), use the peaceful interrogation choices, and in the third house rescue the hidden woman before taking Note From Mom from the crawlspace. The mission should then show NOTES FOUND: 4/4 and unlock No Stone Unturned.
The usual failure is not a random spawn bug: one first-house pickup was skipped, the couple was questioned too early, or the final crawlspace note was never made available. Follow the sequence below rather than collecting notes in isolation.
Fastest reliable fix
Use this order on a replay or an earlier checkpoint. The sequence matters because the first-house contraband changes the interrogation route and the achievement checks.
- Restart before entering or searching the first house. Treat this building as a mandatory full sweep, not an optional collectible stop.
- Collect every first-house contraband item: heart medicine, MP3 player, Western novel, and rations. Search cabinets, shelves, tables, and other searchable storage until all four pickups have registered.
- Read the Baekseolgi-tteok recipe note. Reading notes alone is not enough; the four contraband pickups must also be confiscated.
- Do not speak to the couple until the sweep is complete. Advancing the conversation first can remove the dialogue options needed for the nonviolent route.
- Open the red toolbox with 214. The combination follows the recipe quantities in flour, water, raisins order while skipping salt. Shooting the lock is a valid alternative if you want to move on quickly.
- Use the peaceful interrogation sequence. Select “Please join your husband,” then “I will not ask again.” When asked about the South Korean medicine, choose “Give up the defector. Now.” Avoid threats and physical force.
- Finish the third-house sequence. Read “A Note From Your Neighbor,” take the key, unlock the kitchen floor hatch, bring the hidden woman out, and collect “Note From Mom” in the crawlspace. Leaving her hidden can prevent the final note from appearing.
- Check the counter. After the final note, the collectibles display should read NOTES FOUND: 4/4. If all four contraband items were taken, No Stone Unturned should appear at this point.
If the counter remains incomplete, reload an earlier checkpoint or replay the mission and repeat the first-house sweep and crawlspace step. Those are the omissions most consistently identified by published walkthroughs.
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What the mission is checking
Following Orders is mission 3 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. It takes place in a North Korean village during a search for a defector. The completion logic combines two collectible sets with a dialogue condition: four contraband items, four notes, and a nonviolent interrogation route.
| Requirement | Where it is completed | Why it matters | What to verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Four contraband items | First house | Feeds the mission completion check and unlocks the interrogation options used for the peaceful route. | Heart medicine, MP3 player, Western novel, and rations all collected. |
| Baekseolgi-tteok recipe note | First house | Provides the clue for the red toolbox combination. | The note has been opened and read, not merely passed. |
| First-house timing | Before talking to the couple | Preserves the required conversation branches. | The building is empty of searchable pickups before the conversation starts. |
| “A Note From Your Neighbor” | Third house | Provides the key needed to open the kitchen floor hatch. | The note is read and the key is in your inventory. |
| “Note From Mom” | Crawlspace beneath the third-house kitchen hatch | Acts as the final note for the 4/4 counter. | The hidden woman has been brought out and the note has been picked up. |
| Peaceful interrogation | Couple encounter | Protects the No Harm Done condition and avoids locking out the intended route. | All three specified dialogue choices were used without threats or violence. |
How to clear the first house correctly
Enter the building with a completion mindset
The first house is the most common source of an apparently missing spawn. Players often read the visible note, assume the collectible work is finished, and walk to the couple. The game can still count the note while withholding the completion state because one of the four contraband objects was never confiscated.
Search every interactive surface in the house. Pick up the heart medicine, MP3 player, Western novel, and rations individually. Do not rely on the inventory feeling full or on the presence of a pickup prompt in one room; the achievement condition expects all four specific items. If a cabinet or shelf has more than one interaction, move around it and confirm each item has registered before leaving.
Read the recipe note before using the toolbox
Find and read the Baekseolgi-tteok recipe note during the same sweep. It is both a note collectible and the clue for the toolbox. Reading it establishes the intended order for the numbers: flour first, water second, raisins third, with salt omitted from the combination. The resulting code is 214.
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Delay the couple conversation
Only approach the couple after the four contraband pickups and the recipe note are complete. The first house is not just a collection area; its contraband changes which interrogation responses are available. Speaking to the couple too early can leave you with a dialogue state that does not support the peaceful achievement route, even if you later return and read every note.
The red toolbox code: 214
Set the red toolbox combination to 214. The number is derived from the recipe quantities in this order:
- Flour supplies the first digit.
- Water supplies the second digit.
- Raisins supply the third digit.
- Salt is skipped and does not contribute a digit.
The toolbox does not require a separate spawn reset. If the lock refuses to open, check that you are interacting with the red toolbox rather than another container and enter 214 in the stated order. You can also shoot the lock, which bypasses the combination and is useful when speed matters or the interaction is behaving inconsistently.
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Use the peaceful interrogation choices
Choose the exact responses
After the first-house sweep, begin the conversation and follow this sequence:
- Select “Please join your husband.”
- When the next response appears, select “I will not ask again.”
- When the discussion reaches the South Korean medicine, choose “Give up the defector. Now.”
The wording matters because the contraband supplies the dialogue options required for No Harm Done. Threats, intimidation, or physical force can end the peaceful path and leave the achievement unavailable for that run.
Why earlier choices can look like a spawn problem
If the conversation starts without the contraband having been registered, the expected responses may not appear. That can make the mission seem to have skipped a spawn even though the underlying problem is sequence order. Restarting the dialogue after collecting only the note is unlikely to repair the state; reload before the encounter or replay the mission and complete the first-house sweep first.
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Finish the third-house note sequence
Read “A Note From Your Neighbor”
In the third house, read “A Note From Your Neighbor” and take the key it reveals. The key is needed for the kitchen floor hatch. If the note is present but the hatch remains locked, confirm that the key pickup itself registered rather than assuming reading the note automatically completed both interactions.
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Open the kitchen floor hatch
Use the key on the hatch in the kitchen. The hidden woman is below the floor. Bring her out before searching for the final note. The quickest extraction sequence uses GRAB twice: perform the first grab to begin the interaction and the second when prompted to complete the pull-out. Moving on while she remains hidden can leave the crawlspace note unavailable.
Collect “Note From Mom” in the crawlspace
After the woman has been brought out, enter the crawlspace and pick up “Note From Mom”. Read it and wait for the pickup confirmation before leaving. This is the final note needed to move the display to 4/4. Finding the hatch without rescuing the woman, or rescuing her without taking the note, leaves the mission one step short.
How to confirm that the collectibles registered
Use the in-game counter rather than memory. The target state is:
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors- NOTES FOUND: 4/4 after the crawlspace note is collected.
- All four first-house contraband items shown as collected or confiscated.
- No Stone Unturned appearing after the final note when the contraband condition is also satisfied.
A note can be readable without satisfying every related condition. For example, reading the recipe note does not prove that the heart medicine, MP3 player, Western novel, and rations were all taken. Likewise, reaching the crawlspace does not prove that “Note From Mom” was collected. Look for the counter and pickup confirmation after each item.
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Common failure modes and their fixes
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The notes counter stops at 3/4. | “Note From Mom” was not taken from the crawlspace, or the hidden woman was left below the hatch. | Reload before the third-house sequence, read “A Note From Your Neighbor,” use the key, bring the woman out, then collect the crawlspace note. |
| All visible notes were read, but No Stone Unturned does not unlock. | One of the four first-house contraband items was skipped. | Replay and collect heart medicine, MP3 player, Western novel, and rations before speaking to the couple. |
| The required interrogation responses are missing. | The couple was approached before the first-house contraband was fully collected, or a hostile response was chosen. | Reload before the encounter and use the peaceful choices in the stated order. |
| The red toolbox will not open with the clue. | The digits were read in the wrong ingredient order, or salt was included. | Enter 214: flour, water, raisins. Skip salt. If needed, shoot the lock. |
| The hatch is visible but the final note is absent. | The key was not collected, or the hidden woman was not brought out. | Read “A Note From Your Neighbor,” take the key, unlock the hatch, rescue the woman, and search the crawlspace again. |
| The achievement still fails after a partial replay. | The checkpoint preserved an incomplete mission state. | Reload an earlier checkpoint or restart the mission so the first-house and third-house conditions are rebuilt in order. |
Choosing a recovery approach
Use the option that matches how much of the mission has already been completed. A partial sweep is faster only when the checkpoint is before the missed condition; otherwise a full replay is safer.
| Approach | Best use | Advantage | Risk or limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reload an earlier checkpoint | You have a checkpoint before the first-house sweep or third-house hatch. | Preserves progress while rebuilding the missing trigger. | A checkpoint taken after the wrong dialogue may retain the failure state. |
| Replay the mission from the beginning | You are unsure which pickup or response was missed. | Most complete and achievement-safe route. | Takes longer because the first house must be searched again. |
| Use toolbox code 214 | You want the intended combination route. | Confirms the recipe clue and avoids wasting ammunition. | Does not substitute for the four contraband items or notes. |
| Shoot the toolbox lock | You want the fastest toolbox access or the interaction is unreliable. | Immediate alternative to entering the code. | Only bypasses the lock; it does not repair a missing collectible trigger. |
| Use GRAB twice at the hatch | The hidden woman is still below the third-house floor. | Fastest documented extraction sequence. | The final note remains unavailable if the woman is left hidden. |
What is known about a patch
An official Activision patch-notes page dated August 2026 does not confirm a dedicated fix for this mission-specific spawning or completion issue. Walkthroughs updated October 16–17, 2026 by CODMunity, iTechGuides, and All Things How identify the same practical causes: a missed first-house contraband pickup or the final crawlspace note. That guidance supports replaying the sequence and checking the counter, but it is not evidence that a universal patch changed every affected save.
Because the issue can be caused by progression order, test the route on a replay rather than assuming a missing object will appear after repeatedly reloading a late checkpoint. If a clean replay still fails with all four contraband items, all four notes, the peaceful dialogue, and a visible 4/4 counter, record the platform, difficulty, and checkpoint used when reporting the problem; those details distinguish a reproducible software fault from a missed interaction.
Quick Recap
Printable mission checklist
- First house entered and searched completely.
- Heart medicine collected.
- MP3 player collected.
- Western novel collected.
- Rations collected.
- Baekseolgi-tteok recipe note read.
- Red toolbox opened with 214 or by shooting the lock.
- Couple approached only after the first-house sweep.
- “Please join your husband” selected.
- “I will not ask again” selected.
- “Give up the defector. Now.” selected for the South Korean medicine question.
- “A Note From Your Neighbor” read in the third house.
- Key collected.
- Kitchen floor hatch unlocked.
- Hidden woman brought out, using GRAB twice if desired.
- “Note From Mom” collected and read in the crawlspace.
- NOTES FOUND: 4/4 confirmed.
- No Stone Unturned confirmed after the final note.
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