Escape from Tarkov "Is This a Reference?" Quest Guide (Season 1): All 27 Camera Locations & Rewards

Escape from Tarkov's "Is This a Reference?" is the game's most cryptic Fence task — 27 riddle clues, zero map markers, and a reward case you can't get any other way. This Season 1 (patch 1.1.5.0) guide decodes every location, tells you exactly how many WI-FI Cameras to bring, and where to buy them, so you can knock out all nine maps without guessing.

Quick Answer (TL;DR)

• "Is This a Reference?" is a Fence task unlocked at level 25 with Scav karma +1 or higher.
• You must install 27 WI-FI Cameras at pop-culture "reference" spots across 9 locations: Streets of Tarkov, Ground Zero, Lighthouse, Reserve, Customs, Factory, Night Factory, Woods, and Shoreline.
• Rewards: 200,000 Roubles, ~30,000 EXP, and 1 Streamer Item Case — a container you cannot buy, barter, or find any other way.
• Bring all 27 cameras before you start. WI-FI Cameras are not lootable off players, persist through death in their special slot, and are bought from Mechanic (LL1) or bartered for 1 Electronic Component + 1 Powerbank.
• It's a permanent task now (it began as a Twitch-drop gift), so there's no deadline — but the Streamer Item Case makes it a genuine Kappa-run quality-of-life prize.

Why it trips people up: every objective is written as a joke — "the amphibian pizza lovers' hideout," "your friend Wilson," "the mother of all strategy games." There are no in-game markers. The whole quest is a scavenger hunt for players who get the references. Decode them below.

What is "Is This a Reference?" in Tarkov?

"Is This a Reference?" is a Fence quest that asks you to place remote WI-FI Cameras at 27 hidden Easter-egg spots scattered across nearly every map in the game. Each objective is phrased as a cryptic pop-culture riddle rather than a coordinate, which is the entire point of the task — Battlestate Games built it as a love letter to the community's meme culture.

To start it you need player level 25 and Scav karma of +1 or higher, so do a few clean Scav runs first if your Fence rep is negative (see our Fence reputation guide for the fastest way to climb). Once accepted, the objectives never expire.

The headline reward is the Streamer Item Case — a dedicated container that originally shipped as a Twitch subscription gift. As one veteran put it on r/EscapefromTarkov: "It doesn't give you much aside from a Streamer box for you to put Kappa items in." That "box for Kappa items" is exactly why min-maxers still grind it: extra organized storage for high-value collectibles is worth a lot on a full-loot server.

How many WI-FI Cameras do you need, and where do you buy them?

You need 27 WI-FI Cameras for this quest — one per objective. This is the single most important prep step, because the camera is a special-slot item with unusual rules:

• Not lootable from other players. You can't farm them off PMCs — kill someone carrying cameras and you won't get them.
• Persists through death. A camera you carry into a raid but don't install stays in your special item slot even if you die, so you never "lose" your unused stock.
• Sourced from Mechanic. Buy them from Mechanic at Loyalty Level 1 (unlocked once you're deep enough into the Skier/Mechanic quest line via Informed Means Armed and an Intelligence Center), or barter each one for 1 Electronic Component + 1 Powerbank at Mechanic L1.

Pro tip: buy or barter all 27 up front and stage them in your stash. Installing a camera takes a few seconds and leaves you exposed, so you don't want to run out mid-raid and have to re-queue a map just for one clue.

Quest fact	Value
Trader	Fence
Required level	25
Scav karma required	+1
Objectives	27 WI-FI Camera installs
Maps involved	9 (Streets, Ground Zero, Lighthouse, Reserve, Customs, Factory, Night Factory, Woods, Shoreline)
Cameras needed	27
Rouble reward	200,000
EXP reward	~30,000
Special reward	1 Streamer Item Case

All 27 camera locations (decoded by map)

Below is every objective in the order Fence lists them, grouped by map. Bring the exact camera count noted for each location so you can clear a map in one trip.

Streets of Tarkov (4 cameras)

• "The amphibian pizza lovers' hideout" — a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reference (amphibian = turtles, pizza lovers). Look for the turtles' sewer/pizza den set-piece.
• "The burned girl's sickroom" — a hospital/sickbed Easter egg tied to a burned character.
• "The barbed wire body" — a corpse tangled in barbed wire near a fenced area.
• "The really scary hole in the wall" — a creepy wall breach (a horror-movie nod).

Ground Zero (3 cameras)

• "The high rise where one die-hard guy kicked ass" — a Die Hard reference; the tower/high-rise office set-piece.
• "The computer with a joke for programmers" — a workstation with a coder in-joke on the screen.
• "The little chair surrounded by big black chairs" — a boardroom/office Easter egg.

Lighthouse (4 cameras)

• "By your friend Wilson" — the Cast Away volleyball reference; find the "Wilson" prop on the shore.
• "The kindled rest place" — a campfire/bonfire spot (a Dark Souls "bonfire" nod).
• "The ominous welcome sign" — a foreboding signpost at an entrance.
• "The megagenius scientist's seat" — a lab/scientist chair set-piece.

Reserve (3 cameras)

• "The place where conscripts did a very important task" — a military duty/latrine gag spot.
• "The two chair riddle" — a pair of chairs staged as a puzzle.
• "Every tank driver's first videogame" — a tank/arcade reference near Reserve's armored vehicles.

Customs (3 cameras)

• "The bucket-head villain" — a Star Wars-style helmeted-villain Easter egg.
• "Anvil 3-4 crew member's execution site" — a lore-tied execution scene.
• "Every indie developer's worst nightmare" — an in-joke about indie game dev.

Factory & Night Factory (7 cameras)

Factory holds the densest cluster — you can knock these out in a single Night Factory run with a flashlight:

• "The room where the firefighter burned the books to become happy" — a Fahrenheit 451 reference.
• "Where some valve technicians couldn't finish their third project" — a Half-Life 3 / Valve joke.
• "The dangerous Russian chocolate beauty" — a themed prop set-piece.
• "The conspiracy theorist's room" — a paranoid-den Easter egg.
• "Near where someone thought he'd get transported to the magic school" — a Harry Potter platform reference.
• "The mother of all strategy games" — a chess/strategy-board nod.
• "The stairway to the skies" — a Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven" reference on the stairs.

Woods (1 camera)

• "The bear who sat into a flaming car" — a "this is fine" / bear-in-burning-car meme spot.

Shoreline (2 cameras)

• "The upside-down chair" — an inverted-chair Easter egg.
• "The not-so-lonely bathroom" — a bathroom set-piece with a twist.

What is the Streamer Item Case reward worth?

The Streamer Item Case is the whole reason experienced players run this quest. It's a container that was never sold, bartered, or dropped as loot — the only way to own one is to finish "Is This a Reference?" That exclusivity plus its grid space make it a clean Kappa-run storage upgrade for your most valuable collectibles.

The 200,000 Roubles and ~30,000 EXP are a nice bonus, but they're not why you're here — 200k is a couple of good loot runs. If you're chasing efficient rouble income instead, dedicated map money routes like the Streets of Tarkov money guide and Reserve money guide, or the best hideout crafts for profit, pay far better per hour than this scavenger hunt. This quest is about the case and the completionist tick, not the payout.

Is "Is This a Reference?" worth doing?

Yes, if you're going for Kappa or you're a completionist — otherwise it's optional. It doesn't gate any major progression, and 27 camera installs across 9 maps is a real time sink. But it's permanent, the Streamer Item Case can't be obtained any other way, and clearing it also feeds into the newer 1.1.5.0 Fence content (it's the prerequisite for the "Can't Drink Away Skill" task). If you're settled into Season 1 with cash to spare, buy your 27 cameras, decode the list above, and clear it one map at a time. Once it's done, roll straight into the follow-up Can't Drink Away Skill task guide.

FAQ

What level do you need for "Is This a Reference?" in Tarkov? You need to be level 25 and have Scav karma of +1 or higher to accept the task from Fence. If your Fence reputation is negative, run a few clean Scav raids first.

How many WI-FI Cameras do you need for "Is This a Reference?" You need 27 cameras — one for each objective. Buy them from Mechanic (LL1) or barter each for 1 Electronic Component + 1 Powerbank. Bring all 27 before you start so you never run out mid-raid.

What is the reward for "Is This a Reference?" Completing it gives 200,000 Roubles, roughly 30,000 EXP, and 1 Streamer Item Case — a storage container you cannot buy, barter, or find any other way.

Can you lose WI-FI Cameras if you die? No. WI-FI Cameras sit in a special item slot, persist through death, and are not lootable from other players, so any unused cameras stay in your inventory even after a bad raid.

Is "Is This a Reference?" a limited-time quest? No — it's now a permanent Fence task. It started life as a Twitch subscription gift, but Battlestate Games made it a standing quest, so there's no deadline to finish it.

Which map has the most objectives? Factory (including Night Factory) has the most, with 7 camera installs clustered together — you can clear them in a single Night Factory run.

Skip the 9-map scavenger hunt. Our pros can knock out Fence tasks and push your Kappa progress while you play the raids you actually enjoy — plus instant Roubles to fund the WI-FI Camera barters.

• Tarkov Quest & Kappa Boost — skip the grind, done by pro players
• Tarkov Roubles — instant delivery — safe, best rate, fast
• Tarkov Leveling Boost — hit level 25 fast to unlock this task