

In these cases, it may help to just quick-save the game and reload that save from the main menu. Note that as of October 2021, one of the most common causes of problems in the Steam Tunnels appears to be a bug that prevents the opening of certain doors or valves, even though the pipes are already hot and ice should have thawed. This can happen in the area around valves D2 and D3 (see the map below). But steam coming out of pipes (not next to a valve) is very hot and will make you lose health rapidly if you walk into it.

Steam coming out of a valve is generally harmless to you.If a pipe is hot and red, but the valve it leads to is still frozen and blue, this probably means that the pressure isn’t quite high enough.In these cases, you may need to redirect more steam into this section of the pipe by opening or closing additional valves. But the steam pressure is analog: Sometimes the pressure is more than zero, but less than the maximum. The valves are binary (either open or closed, nothing in-between).The angles of the handle and the pipe are not related to each other. The handles of closed valves are always at a 45° angle, the handles of open valves are always horizontal.There’s also some other items lying around that may turn out to be important.

Explore the Steam Tunnels completely with a good light source to make sure you don’t overlook anything. Some of the valves are hidden in dark areas of the tunnels.
