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Mapped Chronicles

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Watch Dogs 2: Hacking the Bay Area

In Watch Dogs 2, the hacker Marcus Holloway and his crew DedSec set out to bring down the surveillance network run by the Blume corporation, across a fictional Bay Area that recreates San Francisco, Oakland, Marin County and Silicon Valley. Their campaign of break-ins and leaks plays out at real landmarks and at parodies of the region's tech giants.

Contains major story spoilers.

Mapped by Mapped Chronicles editors7 locationsCountries: United StatesGPX

#san-francisco#ubisoft#silicon-valley#video-games#watch-dogs-2#hacking

Timeline & locations

What do the location labels mean?
Exact
The pin marks the actual place where it happened or was filmed.
Approximate
The right area — a town, park or district — but not a precise spot.
Fictional
The place exists only in the story; any pin marks a real-world stand-in or inspiration.

  1. In Watch Dogs 2 the side operation Stolen Signals begins near Coit Tower. Marcus hacks the phone-surveillance devices planted around the tower and exposes an operation that is intercepting ordinary people's phone data. The tower itself is a landmark on Telegraph Hill, paid for with a bequest from the socialite Lillie Hitchcock Coit and decorated inside with fresco murals by 22 artists. It still overlooks the city and the bay.

    Open inGoogle MapsApple MapsOrganic MapsOpenStreetMapVisitable

    Visitor guidance: The tower is open to visitors; the climb up Telegraph Hill is steep.

    Sources

  2. The Cyberdriver operation is one of the campaign's main missions, and part of the same mission is the Key Data package hidden in the underground garage beneath Embarcadero Center, which Marcus can collect early. Embarcadero Center is a commercial complex of four office towers, two hotels and a shopping center on the edge of the financial district; construction began in 1971 with Tower One.

    Open inGoogle MapsApple MapsOrganic MapsOpenStreetMapVisitability not confirmed

    Sources

  3. Late in the Haum Sweet Haum operation Marcus turns on Haum, the smart-home company that was selling its customers' private data. After cracking the data centre, he drives to Sutro Tower, slips past the guards, reboots the transmitter compound and scales the tower to finish the hack. Sutro Tower is the three-legged TV and radio mast on the city's west side; for decades it was the tallest structure in San Francisco, until the Salesforce Tower overtook it in 2018.

    Open inGoogle MapsApple MapsOrganic MapsOpenStreetMapVisitability not confirmed

    Sources

  4. Nudle is the game's stand-in for Google, and its campus is modelled on the Googleplex in Mountain View. In the operation Limp Nudle, Marcus and Horatio get inside the Nudle building, and Marcus finally escapes through an old drain pipe. The Googleplex is the corporate headquarters of Google and its parent company Alphabet. The real campus sits at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View.

    Real-world stand-in inGoogle MapsApple MapsOrganic MapsOpenStreetMapVisitability not confirmed

    Location precision: Nudle's campus exists only in the game; the pin marks the Googleplex in Mountain View, the real headquarters the fiction is based on.

    Sources

  5. Ubisoft put itself in the game: the side mission Ubistolen sends Marcus to the Ubisoft headquarters to steal a trailer for an announced title before the studio can release it. DedSec gets hold of it and leaks it. The mission is a wink at the studio's own San Francisco branch, which closed in December 2024. The pin marks the real studio's address rather than a game location.

    Open area inGoogle MapsApple MapsOrganic MapsOpenStreetMapVisitability not confirmed

    Location precision: The game's Ubisoft building is a stand-in; the pin marks the real Ubisoft San Francisco office address.

    Sources

  6. The Paint Job side operation has Marcus and Sitara cover the city in DedSec graffiti, and the finale is the biggest canvas of all. Marcus climbs to the uppermost part of the Golden Gate Bridge to tag the final spot. The bridge is the suspension crossing over the Golden Gate strait that links San Francisco with Marin County; it opened to traffic in 1937 and remains the city's most famous landmark.

    Open inGoogle MapsApple MapsOrganic MapsOpenStreetMapVisitable

    Visitor guidance: The bridge is free to cross on foot or by bike.

    Sources

  7. The $911 side operation closes on Alcatraz, where Marcus breaks into the prison to free a prisoner named Kestrel. He opens the cell, then has to find a boat to get off the island. Alcatraz is the small island in San Francisco Bay that held the federal penitentiary from 1934 until 1963, and it is now reached by ferry from the city.

    Open inGoogle MapsApple MapsOrganic MapsOpenStreetMapVisitable

    Visitor guidance: Alcatraz is reached by ferry; book tickets ahead.

    Sources

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