How Keys Work
ARC Raiders keys are usually random, single-use finds, and an unused key can be lost when you die unless it is protected in a compatible safe pocket. Some keys are also quest grants or rewards, and the Raider Hatch Key has crafting and trader sources. The item name tells you which door it fits, not what that room will pay out.
| Question | What To Do |
|---|---|
| Where do keys drop? | Search drawers, filing cabinets, desks, suitcases and briefcases as part of a normal loot route. A key can turn up on a different map from the door it opens. No container guarantees the particular key you need. |
| Does a master key last longer? | No. The Buried City Residential Master Key and Blue Gate Cellar Key fit more than one eligible door, but each key item is still consumed by an unlock. Multiple destinations do not mean multiple uses. |
| What do the colours mean? | Common, Uncommon, Rare and Epic are item tiers. Green means Uncommon, blue means Rare, and purple means Epic. Those tiers are not a promise of profit or a particular blueprint. |
| Should you extract before using a found key? | Extracting lets you choose a later loadout and route, but it is not a universal requirement for using the key. Use it during the same raid only when the matching door, time remaining and exit plan make sense. |
| How do you protect it? | Check that your augment has a compatible safe pocket, then place the unused key there. A free or different loadout may not provide the storage you expect. Protection does not restore a key already spent on a door. |
| Can you sell it instead? | Yes, but compare the inventory sell value with a realistic chance to use it. Do not compare a guaranteed sale with somebody else’s best-ever room haul. |
| Does the condition matter? | Yes. Check map conditions before deploying. Night Raid can improve locked-room loot, while Close Scrutiny changes the loot emphasis and disables ordinary locked-door access. |
Where to Look for Keys
Build a repeatable container route rather than chasing a supposed guaranteed spawn. The following areas are useful search choices because they put the relevant container types on a route you can also use for other objectives.
| Map and Area | Search Plan | Useful Quest Pairing |
|---|---|---|
| Ruby Residence | Search the apartment interiors and small containers before adding another building. Leave the area once the rooms on your chosen route are empty. | The Major's Footlocker or Espresso when those objectives are active. |
| Research and Administration | Work through offices and residential-style storage, then choose between continuing inside and heading for an exit. Avoid turning a key hunt into a fight over every floor. | A Balanced Harvest and Medical Merchandise use the same wider facility. |
| Grandioso Apartments | Search apartment drawers and cabinets while keeping the return route through the building in mind. Rooftop travel is a separate exposure decision. | Unexpected Initiative and A Warm Place to Rest can give the visit another purpose. |
| Abandoned Housing Project | Use the residential buildings for a drawer-and-cabinet sweep, then stop searching when the remaining rooms require a disproportionate detour. | Keep a surface exit plan rather than carrying unrelated keys into the tunnel network. |
| Stella Montis briefcase routes | Inspect small briefcases along a route you already know. Finding a Riven Tides card here does not mean its hotel room is somewhere inside Stella Montis. | With A View and Snap and Salvage offer reasons to search office or workshop areas. |
Before You Open the Door
Listen, look behind you and decide what you will leave behind if the room fills your bag. A Door Blocker can slow someone following through the same entrance, but check that you are not trapping your own squad. A Barricade Kit or Jolt Mine is a situational defensive tool, not permission to ignore another entrance or the remaining raid time.
Which Keys Are Worth Using
Key rarity does not equal loot value. A lower-tier key beside your route can be a better use of a raid than an Epic key across the map, especially once ammunition, healing and extraction are part of the decision. Community rankings disagree because a blueprint hunter, a cash runner and someone carrying a quest item are judging different outcomes.
The orders below are practical, purpose-specific shortlists drawn from community assessments, not measured drop-rate rankings. They do not predict your next room or promise the coin totals sometimes attached to tier lists.
| Purpose | Community Shortlist, in Practical Order | When It Fits | Reason to Choose Something Else |
|---|---|---|---|
| General room loot | 1. Spaceport Container Storage Key 2. Dam Staff Room Key 3. Riven Tides Hotel Keycard No. 208 | Choose a room that fits your route and leaves time to extract. Container Storage is a loot-focused favourite, while Staff Room is often valued as a lower-rarity option. | A long exposed journey can erase the appeal of a stronger room. The hotel chain also depends on acquiring the appropriate cards. |
| Blueprint hunting | 1. Stella Montis Archives Key 2. Stella Montis Security Checkpoint Key | Archives attracts broad blueprint recommendations. Security Checkpoint is a community pick for augment-focused runs. | Neither key guarantees a blueprint, and a named blueprint in a loot report is not proof of an exclusive drop. |
| Access to a larger building | 1. Buried City Town Hall Key | Use it when Town Hall is already part of your city route and you can check more than one container before leaving. | More floor space also means more angles to cover. The key does not reserve the building for you. |
| Protecting valuable carried loot | 1. Raider Hatch Key | Keep one for a raid with an available hatch and a useful hatch approach. Its value is an extraction option rather than another loot room. | Several conditions disable hatches. Check the extraction rules before giving this key a pocket slot. |
| Choosing between several doors | 1. Blue Gate Cellar Key 2. Buried City Residential Master Key | Pick the eligible cellar or apartment that matches your current route. Community advice often favours the Grandioso apartment option. | The key still pays for one unlock. Do not plan a circuit of every matching door with a single item. |
| A planned Night Raid | 1. Town Hall or Container Storage on a familiar route 2. Archives or a Blue Gate room you already know | Night-focused community assessments favour several of these rooms for their loot upside. Route familiarity should decide which map you choose. | Darkness, altered exits and the return journey matter as much as room quality. Daytime use is not automatically a waste. |
When a Low-Ranked Key Is Still Useful
Patrol Car Key, Stella Montis Assembly Admin Key and Riven Tides Crane House Keycard appear near the bottom of some community rankings. Treat that as a warning about opportunity cost, not an instruction to throw them away. A nearby car or office can fit a short run better than a distant headline room.
Crane House is the clearest example of why purpose matters. Community reports associate it with the Powered Descender Blueprint, while some loot-value rankings dislike the journey. A possible blueprint makes it interesting to a collector, not a guaranteed blueprint farm. Search demand is not evidence that a room pays well.
Before choosing a card, compare the condition restrictions with the map’s route overview. An escape plan is more useful than a universal S-tier label.
Every Key by Map
Find the name printed on your item, then use its linked map entry for the door route. These tables are a destination index, not a list of guaranteed spawns. Shared keys are repeated where useful, while quest-only access items are separated below.
Dam Battlegrounds
| Key or Keycard | What It Opens | Planning Note |
|---|---|---|
| Raider Hatch Key | An available Raider Hatch, on this or another supported map. | Read the hatch section before bringing one into a condition that changes extraction access. |
| Dam Staff Room Key | The Staff Room in Research and Administration. | Use Research and Administration as the destination, not the central Control Tower. The room’s reputation does not make its contents fixed. |
| Dam Surveillance Key | The locked surveillance room in Water Treatment Control. | Greasing Her Palms supplies a key for its access objective. Check your stash before departing. |
| Dam Control Tower Key | The locked Control Tower access on Dam Battlegrounds. | This is the inventory name to match when another guide calls it the Dam Control Center Tower Key. |
| Dam Testing Annex Key | A locked room in the Testing Annex. | A Lay of the Land is a quest source, even though that quest takes you to Spaceport. |
| Dam Controlled Access Zone Key | A keyed door in the Controlled Access Zone building. | Do not assume it completes the separate building puzzle or replaces its interactions. |
A Research and Administration visit can combine ordinary container searching with the Staff Room. A Surveillance Key instead takes you to Water Treatment Control, where Paving the Way and Source of the Contamination offer separate nearby objectives. Keep those destinations distinct when packing keys.
Spaceport
| Key or Keycard | What It Opens | Planning Note |
|---|---|---|
| Spaceport Container Storage Key | The locked upper room in Container Storage. | Multiple entrances to the same room are not multiple separate loot rooms. |
| Spaceport Warehouse Key | A locked room in the Shipping Warehouse. | The key recovered during A Toxic Trail is for Spaceport, not another room on Dam. |
| Spaceport Control Tower Key | Locked interior access in the Control Tower A6 building. | Lost in Transmission supplies the access key. Move it from the stash into the loadout you will actually deploy with. |
| Spaceport Trench Tower Key | A matching locked Trench Tower entrance. | Choose which tower you intend to visit. One key should not be budgeted as access to both. |
The name Spaceport Outskirts Bunker Key appears in older lists, but it is not a dependable extra key entry to plan around. Hidden Bunker explicitly uses antenna activation to open a bunker and its description also uses “Outskirts Bunker”. Check the active condition and door prompt rather than assuming those names prove two separate places.
For an A6 visit, read Lost in Transmission alongside A Lay of the Land. Their objectives are not interchangeable, and a route to one tower floor does not prove that every upper-floor objective needs the same unlock.
Buried City
| Key or Keycard | What It Opens | Planning Note |
|---|---|---|
| Buried City Residential Master Key | North Grandioso Apartments ground-level arched entrance, and the second-floor door in the apartment building west of Plaza Rosa and north of Main Street. Look for the 02 floor sign. | Choose the apartment before spending the item. “Master” describes the locks it fits, not repeat use. |
| Buried City Hospital Key | A locked room on the Hospital’s upper levels. | Medical-themed containers make it a relevant detour for a medical loot run, not a promise of a particular treatment item. |
| Buried City Town Hall Key | Keyed access to Town Hall. | Our Presence Up There rewards it despite being a Dam Battlegrounds quest. |
| Buried City JKV Employee Access Card | A security door in the J Kozma Ventures Space Travel building. | Do not confuse this access with the separate Space Travel objective in Greasing Her Palms. |
A roof marker and an apartment door can sit above or below one another. At Grandioso, finish the key-room decision before committing to the roof for Unexpected Initiative or a Call Station. Extra climbing is not automatically useful quest stacking.
The Blue Gate
| Key or Keycard | What It Opens | Planning Note |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Gate Confiscation Room Key | The confiscation area in the underground complex. | Use the tunnel route from Reinforced Reception as the orientation point, rather than searching surface buildings by the key’s name. |
| Blue Gate Cellar Key | Eligible cellar doors near the Blue Gate. | The Olive Grove and Ruined Homestead area is a useful destination to identify before choosing an entrance. |
| Blue Gate Village Key | A keyed building in the Village. | Check the matching key prompt on the Village building rather than treating conflicting compass bearings as a complete door route. |
| Blue Gate Communication Tower Key | Basement corridor metal door in the Communication Tower area at Pilgrim's Peak. | Use Pilgrim’s Peak as the destination and do not confuse this tower with Spaceport’s Communications Tower. |
| Patrol Car Key | A rear patrol-car door on The Blue Gate or Riven Tides. | This scavenged key also comes from A Prime Specimen. Do not assume its item identity matches every quest card called an armored patrol key. |
The four temporary Security Codes used during Locked Gate are a separate access system. Ancient Fort, Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge and Reinforced Reception each have a code source for that event. They are not extra permanent room keys, and an Expired Security Code is not a usable substitute.
Stella Montis
| Key or Keycard | What It Opens | Planning Note |
|---|---|---|
| Stella Montis Archives Key | The Archives Key opens the Storage Room adjoining the northeastern edge of Cultural Archives on Stella Montis. | Approach Cultural Archives on the Upper layer, follow the Storage Room signs and check the Archives Key door prompt. This is not Seed Vault or Eastern Tunnel. The facility area is not an exact door pin. |
| Stella Montis Security Checkpoint Key | The keyed security area on the Lobby side of the complex. | This Security Checkpoint is not the guard-hut objective on The Blue Gate. |
| Stella Montis Assembly Admin Key | A locked administration room in the Assembly area. | Consider it while already visiting the workshops rather than changing floors solely for a speculative haul. |
| Stella Montis Medical Storage Key | A locked storage room in Medical Research. | Keep the North Wing door distinct from ordinary medical-room containers. |
Plan the level change and return route before spending a Stella Montis key. Fragmented Logs uses Cultural Archives and robotic-work areas, while Last Entry uses the Seed Vault. A similar-looking name is not enough reason to combine their routes with the Archives Key.
Riven Tides
| Key or Keycard | What It Opens | Planning Note |
|---|---|---|
| Riven Tides Secure Storage Keycard | The Secure Storage room in the Port Authority Building. | “Secure Storage Key” is a shortened search phrase, not evidence of a second item. |
| Riven Tides Crane House Keycard | The keyed middle Crane House in the Stacking Yard. | The keycard room is separate from the yard’s button-and-lift puzzle. |
| Riven Tides Classified Records Keycard | The Classified Records room in the Port Authority Building. | Carry the matching card rather than assuming the Secure Storage card opens both departments. |
| Riven Tides Hotel Keycard No. 102 | Room 102 in Hotel Panorama Azzurro. | Match the number on the card and door before committing to a hotel corridor. |
| Riven Tides Hotel Keycard No. 107 | Room 107 in Hotel Panorama Azzurro. | Battening Down rewards this card. The under-bed safe is associated with the Room 208 card chain. |
| Riven Tides Hotel Keycard No. 113 | Room 113 in Hotel Panorama Azzurro. | This is its own card, not a general pass for the neighbouring suites. |
| Riven Tides Hotel Keycard No. 205 | Room 205 in Hotel Panorama Azzurro. | Choose a return staircase before searching deeper along the hotel floor. |
| Riven Tides Hotel Keycard No. 208 | Room 208 in Hotel Panorama Azzurro. | A community loot favourite. The Room 107 chain is a way to look for its card, not a promised payout. |
| Riven Tides Hotel Keycard No. 311 | Room 311 in Hotel Panorama Azzurro. | Use the room-specific hotel route rather than assuming every suite lies on the same uninterrupted corridor. |
| Riven Tides Hotel Keycard No. 404 | Room 404 in Hotel Panorama Azzurro. | Leave time for the descent and your actual extraction, not just the trip to the door. |
| Patrol Car Key | A matching rear patrol-car door. | The same key type also works on The Blue Gate. It is not another hotel card. |
Hotel Room 103 appears in some lists, but do not plan a keycard route around that number. Do not substitute it for Room 102 or count it as an extra card when comparing inventories. Hotel room numbers, card items and open rooms are different things.
The hotel is also used by Safe Harbor and Shoring Up Defenses. Treat a nearby objective as a useful addition only while the building route remains manageable. A repair objective, a kitchen clue and a locked suite each need their own interaction.
The Raider Hatch Key
The Raider Hatch Key unlocks an available hatch so you can extract without waiting for a normal shared transport. Unlocking is not the final action: you still need to enter the open hatch. The key is consumed, and other raiders can threaten the approach or use the opening, so this is not an ambush-proof exit.
- Check the raid’s active extraction markers and condition before treating a hatch as your main exit.
- Keep the unused key in a compatible safe pocket while you travel.
- Approach with enough cover and time to stop if another raider or ARC blocks the hatch.
- Unlock the hatch and complete the entry interaction instead of standing nearby to sort your bag.
Night Raid, Electromagnetic Storm, Hidden Bunker and Locked Gate descriptions remove active Raider Hatches. Do not bring a hatch-only escape plan into those variants. Read the condition catalogue and check your live map before departing.
| Map | How to Plan the Hatch Option |
|---|---|
| Dam Battlegrounds hatch routes | Compare the hatch route with the swamp or facility exit already on your path. Do not cross the whole dam merely because you packed the key. |
| Spaceport hatch routes | Check surface travel and perimeter access before committing to a central locked room. The Hidden Bunker condition changes the extraction plan. |
| Buried City hatch routes | Budget for getting down from the roof as well as reaching the hatch. A short map distance can conceal several floors of travel. |
| The Blue Gate hatch routes | Know the surface connection from your tunnel route. A hatch on the other side of a closed gate is not a useful fallback. |
| Stella Montis hatch routes | Match the hatch to your current layer and the route out of the room, not just the nearest symbol on a different floor. |
| Riven Tides hatch routes | Account for the journey out of the hotel or port before judging the hatch distance. Leave the beach detour until after you have an exit plan. |
Quest sources include Mixed Signals and Our Presence Up There. Crafting and Shani’s stock provide other acquisition routes when their requirements and availability suit you. Check the current inventory and trader screens before selling a spare or spending materials on a replacement.
Keys You Get From Quests
Check both your stash and your quest rewards before farming for a key you already own. A starting grant, an item recovered during a raid and a completion reward are different sources. The table distinguishes them, including rewards whose destination is on a different map from the quest.
| Quest | Key or Access Item | How You Get It |
|---|---|---|
| Lost in Transmission | Spaceport Control Tower Key | Starting access grant. Check the stash and equip it before entering Spaceport. |
| Our Presence Up There | Buried City Town Hall Key and Raider Hatch Key | Completion rewards. The Town Hall door is on Buried City, not on the Dam quest route. |
| Battening Down | Riven Tides Hotel Keycard No. 107 | Completion reward. It opens Room 107, with the separate Room 208 card chain associated with its safe. |
| Greasing Her Palms | Dam Surveillance Key | Access grant for Water Treatment Control. Losing an unprotected copy is a setback, not proof that the quest is permanently impossible. |
| A Lay of the Land | Dam Testing Annex Key | Completion reward for later use on Dam Battlegrounds. |
| A Toxic Trail | Spaceport Warehouse Key | Recovered through the barrel-truck search, not the completion-reward bundle. |
| Last Entry | Seed Vault Box Key | A quest-specific key found through the Seed Vault search. Follow the current quest object and pickup prompt rather than expecting a normal loot-room key reward. |
| The Stench of Corruption | Flushing Terminal Key and Dam Staff Room Key | The terminal key is recovered during the quest. The Staff Room Key is a separate completion reward. |
| Mixed Signals | Raider Hatch Key | Completion reward, alongside the quest’s other equipment. |
| Switching the Supply | Spaceport Trench Tower Key | Completion reward. Choose the matching tower route before deploying. |
| A Prime Specimen | Patrol Car Key | Completion reward. This is a source of the ordinary patrol-car key item. |
| Paving the Way | Raider Hatch Key | Completion reward from a quest with objectives across more than one map. |
| Cold Storage | Raider Hatch Key | Completion reward. The quest’s J Kozma Ventures containers are not opened by the Buried City JKV card. |
| Hatch Repairs | Raider Hatch Key | Completion reward. Check whether hatches are available in the raid where you intend to use it. |
| The Trifecta | Dam Control Tower Key and Raider Hatch Key | Completion rewards with different jobs: one opens a Dam destination and one provides a hatch option. |
| Armored Transports | Armored Patrol Key Card | The quest names a card found through its guard-hut search. Do not replace that objective with an assumption about the ordinary Patrol Car Key. |
A Missing Quest Key Is Not Automatically a Dead End
For Armored Transports, a documented spare-card search is in the guard shack just inside the right tunnel entrance, in a floor-level rations container, while the quest is active and the card is not held. Use the quest walkthrough to check that recovery route instead of treating an old “spawns only once” warning as a permanent rule.
For any other lost key, check whether the quest supplied it on acceptance, rewarded it on completion or asked you to pick up a world object. A safe pocket prevents some losses, but it does not explain which of those recovery routes applies. Check the named quest before buying, selling or discarding a replacement.
FAQ
Are ARC Raiders keys one-time use?
Yes. Ordinary key items are consumed when used to unlock a matching door or hatch. The Residential Master Key and Cellar Key can fit several doors, but that does not make one copy reusable. Choose which eligible door you want before spending the key.
Where is the best place to find keys?
Residential and office-container routes are useful places to search, not guaranteed key farms. Ruby Residence and Research and Administration on Dam, Grandioso Apartments on Buried City, and the Abandoned Housing Project on The Blue Gate are practical starting choices. Search the containers already on your route rather than promising yourself a specific drop.
What is the best key in ARC Raiders?
The best key depends on your goal and route. Community loot assessments favour options such as Container Storage, while Archives and Security Checkpoint attract blueprint-focused recommendations. A Raider Hatch Key solves a different problem by adding an extraction option where hatches are active. None is a universal winner.
Do you lose keys when you die?
You can lose an unused key when you die if it is carried in unprotected storage. A compatible safe pocket protects the unused item, so check the actual augment and pocket before deploying. A key already consumed by unlocking a door is spent regardless of what happens afterwards.
What does the Raider Hatch Key do?
It unlocks an available Raider Hatch for extraction. You must still enter the open hatch, and reaching it can expose you to ARC or other raiders. Conditions that disable hatches remove that option, so carrying the key is not a substitute for checking the live extraction map.
How many keys are there in ARC Raiders?
This index covers 33 documented general-use key items, with disputed names and quest-only access items discussed separately. That is the scope of this page, not an official live inventory total. Shared keys are counted once, and a key that fits several doors still counts as one item.
Get the Key for Your Planned Run
A random container cannot be made to drop the exact key you need. Review the available key service for a specific item, or use the quest service when progression is the task. Neither changes what a locked room drops or removes the risk of the raid.
Gameplay Image Credits
Gameplay images adapted from the following creators. Captures have been cropped or resized for this guide.
- keys location photos: gameplay capture by TroubleChute Basics. Cropped or resized for this guide.
- keys location photos: gameplay capture by TroubleChute Basics. Cropped or resized for this guide.
- Stella Montis location photos: gameplay capture by Arekkz Gaming. Cropped or resized for this guide.