Wuthering Waves Secret Investigation quest guide
The Secret Investigation quest in Wuthering Waves asks you to remember a huge amount of info and answer questions on your assumed identity!
Secret Investigation is a world quest in Wuthering Waves that’s equal parts espionage and memory test, tasking the Rover with infiltrating a gang of smugglers running arms out of Jinzhou.
To pass themselves off as part of the Exile group, the Rover must memorize an elaborate cover story, don a disguise and sneak into an enemy stronghold under cover of night, answering questions about their new identity and stealing in right under the Exiles’ noses before making off with the evidence that’ll bust their ring wide open.
The Secret Investigation begins to the southwest of Jinzhou, where you speak to the soldier Qianshan. Here he - rather unprofessionally - reveals that he was just on an undercover investigation looking into a Tacetite weapons smuggling operation run by the Hall of Six out of Jinzhou.
He asks you to sneak into their camp in disguise, recover secret documents he can use to bust the ring, then return them to him.
Wuthering Waves Secret Investigation quest guide
So first you need to snag an Exile outfit. To look the part, check your map for the locations of some Exiles. You can then head over, defeat them, and take their clothes to infiltrate the smugglers.
With the clothes in-hand, return to Qianshan. He tells you that the smugglers are suspicious, and you’ll need to memorize a cover story to keep them off your back.
Hilariously, I thought this was going to be a gag where your character balked at being asked to absorb so much information at once and it would be simplified. But no, Wuthering Waves genuinely expects you to remember paragraphs and paragraphs of information about this person's life to go undercover with these smugglers.
For reference, here’s all the info:
Your name is Qiao Yang, you’re 17 and your birthday is the 4th of May. Your father’s name is Qiao Er’shou and he was a butcher who died 5 years ago. Your mother, Lin Ru, was a teacher, but she’s been missing for 10 years.
However, your older brother Qiao Sheng is a member of the camp you're trying to infiltrate and your younger sister Qiao Qiao is still in school in your hometown. Your friends are Bo’jun, who’s a fruit grocer in your hometown, and Yizhou, who’s also an Exile.
As for personal experiences, you started school at 8, but were quickly held in a juvenile detention centre for intentionally wounding a classmate in a fight. You were then taken to a shelter at 12. You were expelled from school for serious fighting at 15, but needed to spend a year in hospital at 16. Finally, you’ve been a temporary worker in Jinzhou since you left the hospital until now, when you came to the camp to seek refuge with your brother.
If that wasn’t a massive enough dump of information, you then also get a cover story bio for your older brother, Qiao Sheng.
He’s 25 and was born on December 13th. He’s been stealing to support the family since age 6, before breaking his leg at 9 trying to escape a shopkeeper who caught him. The break left him with a disability. Since then, he’s been involved with weapon street-trading since he was 10, but was arrested at 11 and held in a juvenile centre.
At 13, he escaped and left the country, joining the east branch of the Hall of Six. At 15, he was shot three times in a deal gone bad, and needed a liver transplant to survive. After that ordeal, he was promoted to a leadership position, leading one of the squads of the east branch of the Hall of Six.
This didn’t last though, when he was suspended during an internal purge when he was 18 and then transferred to the central branch at 20. In the next two years he was left with a facial burn scar during a dispute, before leaving the area and settling at the Yingbo exile camp at 22. This is when he became involved with the weapon transfers, but has been quiet for the last two years due to a police crackdown.
His friends at the camp are Auspice, who's a camp guard and older brother to Prosper. He likes fighting and guards the gate. Prosper on the other hand likes playing tricks and getting money.
Kui’xiao is the IT manager and likes studying tech alone on the 2nd floor of the camp. Zai’jia is a manager who likes meat but is very busy so doesn’t stick to a fixed location. His enemies at the camp are Fu’ze, who hates Qiao Sheng after being disciplined for refusing to obey him on a mission and Jian, the deputy leader, who doesn’t like Qiao Sheng’s entanglement with the Hall of Six and his threat to the wider leadership.
Finally, you’re then given a run-down of the factions within the camp. The progressives are Jian, Yanfeng, Zai’jia, Fu’ze, Bo and yourself. The conservative members are Zhao’an, Huai, Auspice and Prosper. Then the Neutral members are Kui’xiao, Yu’er, Tian’hai, Xinyuan and Zhao.
Seriously, you’re actually supposed to remember all of this, and Qianshan will quiz you on it next time you speak to him.
Qianshan's quiz answers
The answers to Qianshan's questions are:
What did the mother of Qiao Sheng and Qiao Yang do for a living? She was a teacher.
What was the reason for the injury on Qiao Sheng’s Right Leg? Attempted Shoplifting.
What does Kuixiao, a friend of Qiao Sheng, enjoy doing at the camp? Studying Technologies.
With the material memorised - or this page open - the infiltration mission is set for the next evening.
To advance the time, press the circle in the top right corner of the screen, then the clock in the bottom of the menu that opens up.
Secret Investigation Camp answers
At the designated time, you’ll don the disguise, ready to approach the Exiles’ camp. Over the radio, Qianshan will tell you to avoid the dogs in the camp, who will be able to smell that you’re not who you say you are. They’re marked with a black eye that will fill up red as they suspect you.
Talk to Daji at the gate and tell him that you’re Qiao Yang. Tell them you couldn’t make any money in Jinzhou, and even though they like that answer, they won’t allow you access without an entry pass.
Qianshan will then direct you to another way to sneak inside. Follow the marker, but be very careful to avoid the wandering dogs. Ride the elevator up to the second level, then follow the walkway around to the top.
Talk to Kuixiao, the IT specialist, who as described is studying tech alone. He asks who sent you, and you should say Zai’jia, who’s the manager.
Next, Kuixiao will ask if you like spicy food like your brother. This is a trick question, since the reading material didn’t say anything about spicy food. If you ask Qianshan he can help you deduce that Qiao Sheng doesn’t like spicy food because of his health conditions. Say you both dislike the spicy stuff.
Now he’s gone, investigate the terminal while his back is turned. The info you need isn’t there, so return to the lower level of the camp and speak to the guards again. Tell them you’re Qiao Yang, then sneak into the gap they leave.
Again avoiding the dogs, run up to the transmitter and destroy it to distract the manager. Sneak around the back side of the metal structure to avoid her gaze, then investigate the terminal to start sending the data.
Once the transfer is complete, leave the hut and you’ll find that you’ve been bruleed, burned, the jig is up!
To buy some time for the transmission to finish, keep up the ruse for now. Say “what security bureau” and the answer path will be linear from there. When the data is finally yours, it’s time for things to go loud. Make your way to the exit and report back to Qianshan.
As a thank you for your efforts, he’ll hand over some great EXP items, a decent chunk of Union Level EXP and some Astrite as a reward.
If you’re in need of more Astrite though, be sure to check out these Wuthering Waves codes for current promo events.