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On this page
- How ARC Raiders keys work
- Blue Gate key locations
- Dam Battlegrounds key locations
- Spaceport key locations
- Stella Montis key locations
- Buried City key locations
- Riven Tides keycards: the hotel, the cranes and Port Authority
- Patrol Car Key, Raider Hatch Key and the Locked Gate codes
- Where ARC Raiders keys come from
- ARC Raiders key services at PandaPlay
- Frequently asked questions
- Sources and update history
ARC Raiders keys are single-use: each one opens a specific locked door, then it is gone. The game has 33 of them across six maps, from the Blue Gate Communication Tower Key to the seven Panorama Azzurro hotel keycards on Riven Tides, plus the Raider Hatch Key, which opens an extraction hatch rather than a room. Every key and what it opens is below.
How ARC Raiders keys work
A key is a small item you carry in from your stash. Walk up to the matching door, use it, and the key is consumed. That is not a wiki guess: Embark’s January 13, 2026 patch notes list a fix for “a key card exploit that allowed players to keep room keys after using them”.
Rarity is the part worth reading. Keys run from Common (the hotel cards) through Uncommon and Rare to Epic, and the room behind them scales with it. Embark’s Flashpoint update on March 31, 2026 “increased loot value in all locked rooms with a scaled increase depending on the key rarity”. That is the only official statement about what is inside; there are no published per-room loot tables, so treat anyone ranking the “best” key room as an opinion.
Keys do not stack, and the wiki lists most room keys at 0.25 weight (a few Riven Tides hotel keycards at 0.5), so a pocketful of them costs you real backpack space. The Raider Hatch Key is the exception at 0.01. Keys can also sit in your safe pocket, which the wiki says protects an item from being lost when you go down; the free loadout has no safe pocket at all. Embark confirmed keys belong there in the Cold Snap update, which fixed keys being removed from the safe pocket by the Unload Backpack action.
If you are chasing recipes rather than gear, our guide to ARC Raiders blueprint locations lists which container type each blueprint actually comes from.
How the 33 are counted: the wiki’s Key category has 38 pages. Leaving out the four Locked Gate security codes and the Expired Security Code gives 33 keys and keycards. Each numbered hotel keycard counts once, and the Patrol Car Key counts once even though it works on two maps.
Unless a line says otherwise, the map, rarity and door details in the tables below come from the community-run ARC Raiders Wiki, which transcribes the in-game item text. Embark does not publish a key list, and neither the wiki nor Embark publishes key spawn rates.
Blue Gate key locations
| Key | Rarity | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Gate Communication Tower Key | Rare | The in-game text says a door by the Communication Tower; the wiki places that room in the basement of Pilgrim’s Peak |
| Blue Gate Confiscation Room Key | Epic | Ground floor of the Security Wing in the Blue Gate underground, beside the Traffic Tunnel below the Headhouse |
| Blue Gate Cellar Key | Rare | Cellar doors near the Blue Gate; the wiki’s location shot points west of Olive Grove |
| Blue Gate Village Key | Uncommon | A door in one of the old village buildings. The wiki has not recorded which one |
The Communication Tower room is the best documented of the four: the wiki lists two to four server racks, a weapon box, two or three drawers, two or three resource crates and loose items inside. The Confiscation Room key is the only Epic key on the map, which by Embark’s rarity rule puts its room at the top of the Blue Gate scale.
Blue Gate Confiscation Room KeyThe Epic Blue Gate key for the Security Wing door in the underground, beside the Traffic Tunnel.From $0.99View offerDam Battlegrounds key locations
| Key | Rarity | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Dam Surveillance Key | Uncommon | A room on the south side of the Water Treatment buildings, first floor |
| Dam Staff Room Key | Uncommon | A door in the Research and Administration building, first floor |
| Dam Control Tower Key | Epic | The top floor of the Control Tower. Lockers, a weapon case, an ammo case and a medical bag can spawn inside |
| Dam Testing Annex Key | Rare | Two ground-level doors in the Testing Annex, one on the south side and one on the east |
| Dam Controlled Access Zone Key | Rare | A door in the Controlled Access Zone building; an electrical panel, computer, drawers and filing cabinets are listed inside |
One detail catches people out at the Testing Annex: the key fits both doors, but it is consumed by the first one you open, so a second door means a second key. Dam Battlegrounds has five map-specific keys; only Riven Tides has more.
Spaceport key locations
| Key | Rarity | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Spaceport Container Storage Key | Rare | One of three doors on the east side of Container Storage, on the top floor |
| Spaceport Warehouse Key | Uncommon | Doors on the north side of the Shipping Warehouse, second floor |
| Spaceport Trench Tower Key | Uncommon | One of eight doors at the Trench Towers: each tower has two on the first floor and two on the second |
| Spaceport Control Tower Key | Rare | Ground-level doors inside Control Tower B6 that give access to the top floor |
All four Spaceport keys open one of several possible doors rather than one fixed room, so take the nearest door on your route instead of crossing the map for a particular one. The Trench Tower Key is also a quest item: the wiki lists one being handed in for the quest Turnabout.
Stella Montis key locations
| Key | Rarity | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Stella Montis Security Checkpoint Key | Rare | A door in the Security Checkpoint. A Box Locker is listed inside; the exact door is not recorded |
| Stella Montis Archives Key | Epic | The Storage Room on the east side of the Archives, top floor |
| Stella Montis Assembly Admin Key | Uncommon | A door in Assembly. The wiki has not recorded which one |
| Stella Montis Medical Storage Key | Uncommon | A door in Medical Research. The wiki has not recorded which one |
Stella Montis is the thinnest map for documentation. Three of its four keys still read “somewhere on Stella Montis” on the wiki, with only the in-game description naming the wing. The Archives key is the one with a confirmed room, and it is Epic, which by Embark’s rarity rule puts its room at the top of the Stella Montis scale.
Buried City key locations
| Key | Rarity | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Buried City Residential Master Key | Uncommon | Apartment doors around Buried City. The wiki says it fits several different locked doors |
| Buried City JKV Employee Access Card | Uncommon | A room on the north side of the J Kozma Ventures building, marked Space Travel on the map, fourth floor |
| Buried City Hospital Key | Rare | A room in the north-west corner of the Hospital, second floor |
| Buried City Town Hall Key | Epic | A ground-level door on the north side of the Town Hall. Two security lockers and a weapon case are listed inside |
The Residential Master Key is the loosest of the four. The wiki says it opens several different locked doors spread through Buried City rather than one room in one building. The other three sit inside named landmarks you can pick out on the map screen.
Riven Tides keycards: the hotel, the cranes and Port Authority
Riven Tides uses keycards instead of keys, and it has ten of them, more than any other map. Only three open anything other than a hotel room.
- Riven Tides Secure Storage Keycard (Epic): the Secure Storage room in the Port Authority Building.
- Riven Tides Classified Records Keycard (Uncommon): the Classified Records room in the same Port Authority Building.
- Riven Tides Crane House Keycard (Uncommon): a door in the middle Crane House.
- Riven Tides Hotel Keycards No. 102, 107, 113, 205, 208, 311 and 404 (Common): one suite each in the Panorama Azzurro hotel. The wiki lists no source for No. 404.
Floors and room contents for the hotel cards, the Crane House card and the Classified Records card are in our Riven Tides keycards guide.
The hotel cards are the lowest-rarity door keys in the game, and by Embark’s rarity rule that puts their rooms at the bottom of the loot scale. The Secure Storage card is the Epic one on this map.
Patrol Car Key, Raider Hatch Key and the Locked Gate codes
Three kinds of key are not tied to one building, and two of them are easy to misread as room keys.
The Patrol Car Key (Uncommon) opens the rear door of a patrol car. Patrol cars appear on both Blue Gate and Riven Tides, and this is the only door key the wiki lists against two maps.
The Raider Hatch Key (Rare) opens no room at all. A Raider Hatch is an extraction point that stays locked until somebody provides a key; once opened it stays up for roughly 10 to 15 seconds and takes one Raider at a time, and the terminals have no shutdown timer. Hatches are tied to a map condition, which is why Embark’s Shrouded Sky update added “a ready-up warning when deploying with Raider Hatch keys into a map with no active hatches”. Check before you spend a loadout slot on one.
Last, Blue Gate has four security codes, one each from the Ancient Fort, Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge and Reinforced Reception. They are not door keys: they only exist while the Locked Gate map condition is running, and all four are submitted at terminals in the Gate Control Room to open the main gate. Extract with one instead and it turns into an Expired Security Code, which does nothing. Dam Battlegrounds also has a Power Rod that opens a door on the east side of the Power Generation Complex. The wiki lists it separately under “Non-key keys”, so it is not part of the 33.
Where ARC Raiders keys come from
The wiki lists scavenging as a source for every key except Riven Tides Hotel Keycard No. 404, whose source is still marked Unknown. Neither Embark nor the wiki publishes drop odds. Embark has only ever touched the subject sideways, with an October 31, 2025 hotfix that “fixed incorrect drop chances for keys in certain circumstances”. Any percentage you see elsewhere is an unofficial estimate, not a drop rate published by Embark or the wiki.
Three other routes exist, and each covers only some keys:
- Quests. Some keys also list quests as a source, including the Blue Gate Communication Tower, Dam Surveillance, Spaceport Trench Tower and Patrol Car keys, and the Cold Snap update added “interactions to find spare keys to several quests related to locked rooms”, so a quest that sends you behind a locked door usually leaves you a way in.
- Shani. The wiki lists the Speranza trader selling Raider Hatch Keys for 100 Cred, two per day. She is the only trader who takes Cred.
- Raider Decks. Page 5 of the free Starter Deck holds a Keyholder Pack for 80 Cred. Its keys are two Raider Hatch Keys plus one each of the Buried City Town Hall Key, Dam Staff Room Key and Spaceport Container Storage Key, and it also includes two Looting Mk. 3 (Survivor) augments.
Both Cred routes are closing. Embark’s Live Update 1.45.0 on September 8, 2026 announced that Cred is being retired: it stays usable until October 8, 2026, and any Cred left on your account expires with the Frozen Trail update, which brings “a more expansive reward system”. What replaces the Shani and Deck key purchases after that date has not been announced.
The Raider Hatch Key is also the only key you can craft. The wiki’s recipe is one Advanced Electrical Components plus three Sensors at Utility Station 2, with the Traveling Tinkerer skill.
ARC Raiders key services at PandaPlay
If a key is the only thing standing between you and a room, and you would rather not run the map until one drops, we list keys as items. All of them, plus blueprints and materials, sit on our ARC Raiders items page.
Buried City Residential Master KeyThe Uncommon key that fits several apartment doors around Buried City.From $0.99View offer
Dam Control Tower KeyEpic key for the top-floor room in the Dam Control Tower.From $1.29View offer
Raider Hatch KeyOpens a Raider Hatch; Shani only sells two a day, and Cred retires on October 8, 2026.From $0.59View offerFrequently asked questions
Are ARC Raiders keys single use?
Yes. The wiki describes keys as single-use consumables, and Embark’s January 13, 2026 patch notes list a fix for an exploit that let players keep room keys after using them. Two doors means two keys.
Do you lose your keys when you die?
Keys in your backpack drop with the rest of your loot. The wiki’s guidance is that anything in the safe pocket survives a knockout, and Embark treats keys as safe-pocket items. The free loadout has no safe pocket, so a key you carry on a free kit is gone if you are.
How many keys are there in ARC Raiders?
33 door and hatch keys across Dam Battlegrounds, Buried City, Spaceport, The Blue Gate, Stella Montis and Riven Tides, plus four Locked Gate security codes on Blue Gate and the Expired Security Code they turn into.
Which key room has the best loot?
Not confirmed. Embark has said loot value in locked rooms scales with key rarity, but it has never published room-by-room tables. On rarity alone the Epic keys are the Blue Gate Confiscation Room Key, Dam Control Tower Key, Buried City Town Hall Key, Stella Montis Archives Key and Riven Tides Secure Storage Keycard.
Can you buy keys from a trader?
Only the Raider Hatch Key, from Shani, two per day for Cred. Room keys are not sold by any trader, and Cred itself stops working after October 8, 2026.
Sources and update history
- Embark Studios: Flashpoint, Patch Notes 1.22.0 (March 31, 2026) — locked room loot scales with key rarity
- Embark Studios: Patch Notes 1.11.0 (January 13, 2026) — key card exploit fix
- Embark Studios: Shrouded Sky, Patch Notes 1.17.0 (February 24, 2026) — Raider Hatch key ready-up warning
- Embark Studios: Live Update 1.45.0 (September 8, 2026) — Cred expiration
- Embark Studios: Cold Snap, December Update 1.7.0 Patch Notes (December 16, 2025) — keys in the safe pocket, spare keys for quests
- Embark Studios: Hotfix, October 31 (October 31, 2025) — key drop chance fix
- ARC Raiders Wiki: Keys and the individual key pages (checked September 17, 2026)
- ARC Raiders Wiki: Raider Hatch, Loadout, Shani and Decks (checked September 17, 2026)
Update history: Published September 17, 2026. Facts last checked September 17, 2026 against the sources above.
