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You’re staring at a locked door in the Talos I Lobby. Your inventory is basically empty. You have three shotgun shells, a broken turret, and a growing sense of dread because something is scurrying in the vents above your head. This is the classic Prey experience. If you are looking for the Prey IT Supply Closet, you aren't just looking for a room; you’re looking for a lifeline. It is one of those early-game hurdles that feels like a massive payday if you can just figure out how to get inside.
The Talos I station is a labyrinth. Arkane Studios designed it to be a "metroidvania" in space, which means you see things you want long before you have the tools to grab them. The IT Supply Closet is a perfect example. It sits there on the first floor of the Lobby, mocking you. Most players find it within the first hour or two, but getting that door to slide open requires a bit of detective work that the game doesn't hand to you on a silver platter.
Where Exactly Is the Prey IT Supply Closet?
Location matters. If you’re standing in the massive, gold-hued Lobby of Talos I, you need to head toward the bulkhead that leads to Life Support and the Hardware Labs. The IT Department is tucked away on the ground floor, specifically on the West side of the main level.
You’ll see the sign for "Information Technology." Inside that office suite, there’s a smaller, much more fortified door. That’s the supply closet. It isn't just a closet for mops and extra keyboards. In the world of Prey, IT is where the tech-heavy loot lives. We are talking Neuromods. We are talking Weapon Upgrades. Things that actually keep Morgan Yu alive when the Typhon start doubling in size.
The Keycard Hunt: No, You Can't Just Hack It (Usually)
Here is the kicker. You see the keypad. You might even have a level in Hacking. But the Prey IT Supply Closet is one of those frustrating instances where a high-level security lock prevents early-game cheese. You need a keycard. Or, well, you need to be clever.
Most people start looking for a character named "Price Broadway." He’s the guy who officially had access. You can find his corpse—and his valuable keycard—down in the Life Support section of the station. The problem? You usually can't get to Life Support until much later in the main quest "Detour." This creates a paradox. You need the gear in the closet to survive the trip to Life Support, but you need to go to Life Support to get the gear.
Classic Arkane.
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The Volunteer Quarters Workaround
There is another way. If you’ve been exploring the Volunteer Quarters (which is also in the Lobby area), check the emails on the computers there. There is a specific email thread regarding a "lost" keycard. Honestly, the environmental storytelling in Prey is its greatest strength. If you read the logs, you realize the staff on Talos I were just as disorganized as a real-world office. People leave cards under desks. They lose them in breakrooms.
Specifically, look for the workstation of Jovan Gravilovic. His credentials or nearby notes often point you toward the movements of the IT staff before the "containment breach" (the fancy term for aliens eating everyone) happened.
What’s Inside? Is it Worth the Headache?
Is it worth it? Yes.
Inside the Prey IT Supply Closet, you are going to find a cache that significantly alters your power curve. Usually, there are at least two Neuromods. For a new player, two Neuromods is the difference between being able to lift heavy objects or being stuck behind a crate for three hours.
- Weapon Upgrade Kits: Essential for making that silenced pistol actually do damage.
- Recycler Charges: These are the "holy grail" of grenades. Throw one at a pile of furniture, and it turns into raw crafting materials.
- Spare Parts: If you are playing on a harder difficulty where your gear breaks, these are oxygen.
You’ll also find a fair amount of "junk" that is actually high-value mineral material once you shove it into a Recycler. If you manage to break into this room before leaving the Lobby for the first time, you are effectively "geared" for the next three missions.
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The GLOO Cannon "Skip"
Let’s talk about the way experts do it. You don't actually need a keycard if you’re willing to think in three dimensions. The Prey community discovered pretty early on that the level design is incredibly porous.
Check the ceiling.
In many rooms on Talos I, including the areas adjacent to the IT department, there are maintenance shafts or "above-ceiling" spaces. If you use your GLOO cannon to build a makeshift staircase up the wall, you can often crawl over the internal partitions of the rooms. The Prey IT Supply Closet has a gap near the top of the wall or a vent access that lets you bypass the locked door entirely. It feels like cheating. It isn't. It’s exactly how the developers intended the game to be played. They want you to feel like a literal rat in the walls.
Dealing With the Phantom
Before you go rushing in, remember: Talos I hates you. Often, when you approach the IT section, a Phantom will spawn. If you’re unlucky, it’s an Etheric Phantom—the ones that split in two and leave purple puddles of death everywhere.
The narrow hallways of the IT department are a death trap. If you’re trying to get into the closet, clear the main office first. Use the turrets found near the security desk. Drag them over. Set them up in a "kill zone" in front of the IT door. Then, and only then, should you focus on the lock. There is nothing worse than finally finding the keycard, walking to the door, and getting blasted in the back by a Typhon you ignored.
Practical Steps for Your Next Run
If you are currently paused in the game or planning your route, here is the most efficient way to handle this.
First, ignore the door initially. Go up to the second floor of the Lobby and grab the Neuromods from Morgan’s office first. You need some base stats. Second, head to the Security Office (you can get in through a vent on the outside of the room if you don't have the key). Look at the crew tracking station.
You can actually "track" Price Broadway from the security console. This puts a waypoint on your HUD. If he’s in an area you’ve already unlocked, great. If his marker is deep in a zone you haven't visited, stop wasting time looking for the card in the Lobby. Use the GLOO cannon method mentioned earlier.
Third, once you are inside, do not just grab the loot and run. Read the terminal inside the closet. There are often codes for other containers or lore bits that reveal where the next big stash is. The Prey IT Supply Closet is just one link in a chain of hidden caches spread across the station.
One final tip: save your Recycler charges. It’s tempting to use them on the Phantoms outside the door, but if you save them for the piles of high-mass debris inside the closet and surrounding offices, you’ll end up with enough Synthetic and Mineral material to craft a dozen more shotgun shells. That is the economy of survival.
Get in, grab the Neuromods, and use the terminal to see who else in IT was hiding something. The station is falling apart, but your inventory doesn't have to.