Atomic Heart: How To Complete Testing Ground 8 | Puzzle Solutions Guide

The Testing Grounds are getting stranger and harder to find in Atomic Heart. Located at the Computational Center at the top of the hill in the center of the map, you’ll have to locate multiple camera relays and hack three hidden switches to unlock the doors to this dungeon. The dungeon itself is strange too — a vast complex with cyclopean-sized rooms, forcing you to platform and fight to claim your rewards. Let’s talk about how to complete Testing Ground 8 and grab awesome upgrades like the Revolver Barrel for your MP handgun.

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Testing Ground 8 | Completion Guide

Testing Ground 8 is located high up on the hill at the Computational Center. You’ll visit this area while searching for Petrov. Inside the lobby, there’s a mysterious elevator with red lights. You’ll need to find and activate hidden switches around the region to unlock the door. The switches can only be activated from cameras.

Unlocking Testing Ground 8:
Switch #1+#2: Found at the closed tunnel to the north of the Computational Center. Hack the terminal for the northern region cameras — its in an open field. Hack the camera near the Safe Room bunker, then look toward the tunnel.
Switch #3: Next, travel to the rooftop of the Computational Center. On the upper roof, use the camera terminal and hack the camera in a small military dumping area to the northwest. There’s another hidden switch in this area.

Activate all three switches and the elevator to the testing ground will open. Very tricky! Down below, you’ll encounter more classic test rooms.

Magnetic Puzzle Room:
Another chamber full of moving platforms and magnets on the ceiling. Start by zapping the roof, lowering all the platforms.
Instead of jumping across, you’ll need to climb. Jump to the yellow metal bars and shimmy left, jumping the gap. You should just barely make the jump. The goal is to jump to each bar so we can reach the blue platform on the left wall.
The blue platform leads to the second half of the chamber. Jump to the non-magnetized chamber, then switch polarity to raise the walls into the ceiling, giving you a clear jump-dodge path to the exit door.

The bronze reward chest is just around the corner. Don’t go down the stairs just yet.

BRONZE REWARD: Zvezdochka – Lower Blade With Reflex Booster.

Take the stairs down to the Safe Room and then cross the underground tunnel to the giant hydraulics testing chamber. You’ll be ambushed by drones and rolling turrets — nothing too difficult. Exit by climbing the large green containers and jump to the catwalk leading to the exit door. A reward chest is in the room down the hallway.

SILVER REWARD: Fox – Lightweight Titanium Blade: Silver Reward.
- Dominator – Vortex Inducer: Silver Reward.

Ahead, you’ll reach a gigantic submarine bay. Jump across the hanging platforms, and take a right at the empty reward chest room. Swim down the polymer fluid, then drop through the hole where the candles are falling — a polymer bubble will catch you. In this chamber, collect five candles and throw them into the five sockets above the door.

After plugging in five candles, hit the red button in the control room. Rush through the door to reach our next big challenge.

Submarine Bay Puzzle Room:
The giant sub pen is a challenge room. Go to the scaffolding / work area — on the upper right, you’ll find an empty candle socket and a yellow board pointing toward a death drop.
Grab the candle from the socket to the left. You can reach it by climbing onto the scaffolding. There’s a red circle where you need to stand to grab the candle.
Plug the candle into the upper-right socket. Now a hanging piece of scrap covered in metal bars will slide into place. Jump off the yellow plank and climb across to the hanging submarine.
Shimmy across the hanging soviet monument to reach the candle socket on the high scaffolding. From this high vantage, use telekinesis to grab the candle and plug it back into the scaffolding socket.
That moves a large metal box covered in bars into position. Now you’ll be able to climb across and onto the top of the hanging structure.
From the structure rooftop, pull the candle out of the socket from afar with telekinesis. Ride to the left, slide down the yellow pipe, jump to the hanging concrete covered in yellow bars and climb up to the exit.

Reach the end of this tricky gauntlet to claim your gold rewards. This is especially tricky — at the end, make sure your candle does not fall into the bottomless pit. If the candle falls it will reset, causing the hanging box to move back to its default position. Make sure to hang onto the candle and drop it on the rooftop before making the final jump.