A guide for L.A. Noire DLC case Nicholson Electroplating. Follow this guide to find all the clues, answer all the questions correctly, and get a five-star rating.
After a brief introductory cut-scene, drive with your partner to the explosion site to start the case.
Nicholson Electroplating
When you arrive at the explosion site at Nicholson Electroplating, you’ll first need to stop two fleeing looters. It’s quite simple to just shoot them as they are fleeing.
After you stop the looters, follow your partner into the destroyed building to find the coroner by an ambulance and some corpses. There is a brief cut-scene, and then it’s time to look for clues.
After taking a look at the corpses, continue further into the rubble and turn left at the vehicles that are parked there. There will be two men talking. Walk past them on a path through the rubble. The path will fork; head to the left, and underneath a bent I-beam, you will find a tattered garment; investigate it to get the clue: Laundry tag.
Continue on the path, and an officer will summon you. Investigate the case that he is looking at. In the top left corner of the case, check the camera to find two clues: Espionage and Spy camera. To the right of that is an earring that doesn’t give you a clue, but Phelps will put it in his pocket instead of back into the case. To the right of that is a business card that will give you the new POI: Tomoko Okamoto. Below that is a piece of paper and a ring to decipher the message. When you click to investigate it, it will give you the clue: Undeciphered message. You will then use the ring to decipher the message.
Solving the Cipher Puzzle
The Cipher Puzzle in Nicholson Electroplating can easily be solved. The key to the cipher is written on the paper: H = K. There are two moveable parts on the tool to decipher the message. Move the outer ring, the one with the large letters on it, so that the letter K is at the top under the red arrow. Then move the smaller, inner ring so that H is also at the top, underneath the red arrow and under the large letter K. When the rings are in this position, you can then start to decipher the message. When you move the outer ring, the inner ring moves along with it.
The goal is to match up the letter that is at the top of the inner ring with the letter on the undeciphered message so that you can figure out what it says. For instance, the first letter on the undeciphered message is K. So you move the cipher rings so that the letter K on the smaller, inner ring is at the top under the red arrow. The letter N will then be written on the top left corner of your screen, and you can move onto the next letter: S. Move the inner ring so that the smaller, inner ring has the letter S at the top. The letter V will then be written in the top left corner of the screen, and you can move on to the next letter.
Follow this same method until you decipher each letter in the message, and you will spell out: N VERMONT AVE. This will update you clue to: Deciphered message.