Keys are a special item in DMZs that allow you to open a specific building, room, or even an item. Often there is good loot behind such doors, but the path to it can be difficult enough that the key will not be worth it.

Keys come in three different states:

• Pristine — 3 unlocks
  
• Used — 2 unlocks
  
• Worn — 1 unlock

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• Using the key to open the corresponding door or object will consume 1/3 of the key's state
  
• Using the key to open the corresponding adjacent door will also consume 1/3 of the key state, even if the building or room has been opened (especially with double doors)
  
• When opening a locked building or room from the inside, the key is not used

Currently, there are about 144 unique keys on all maps — al Mazrah, Ashika Island and Vondel.

You can also get special keys on both maps through the Barter system:


You can read more about the barter system in this guide:

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2961669349

There are several ways to obtain certain keys:


At this time, this is only relevant for some keys:

• Sattiq Poppy Farmer House
  
• Crane Control Room
  
• Lost Room 403
  
• Research Center Room Key
  
• Fire Dept. key

By exchanging fairly common items in the game, you can guarantee to get these keys.

Or, if you find a special item, you can exchange it for a Skeleton key, which can open any locked door.

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After visiting buy station, the player can see an offer to purchase a key to the local fortress for $30,000. This offer changes as you move to a new station.

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HVT (High Value Target) is a contract in the DMZ. The purpose of this contract is to kill a special bot that differs from other bots in its appearance, is additionally armored and surrounded by weaker bots.

Not only is there a monetary reward for killing it, but the HVT itself is guaranteed to drop a random key.

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Sometimes, when searching safes and tools, the player may find a random key, but the chance of finding this particular item is quite low.

However, you can increase your chances if you look in the hanging jackets - these items have a fairly good chance of finding a random key.

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Bots have a chance to drop a random key after death. In the vast majority of cases, this key will be associated with fortresses on the map — Al Bagra Underground, Art Museum, U.S. Embassy, etc.

I began to study the topic of keys in more detail starting on March 10, 2023, as the information on the Internet is quite inaccurate. Most sites that show the location of the respective places, rooms, and items do not specify the quality of the loot inside these places at all.

And some are even deliberately misleading, as the loot inside such places changes every match. But fortunately, if you do more thorough research, you can find a certain sequence of what can and cannot be found in a particular place.

The easiest thing is with items - in most cases, there is always the same loot, or a slight variation (weapon cases).

The hardest part is with rooms, because the loot there can vary greatly - from two golden skulls and killstreaks to one encrypted hard drive and mediocre loot.

Here's a table where we entered the loot data for each location separately:



In the list below you can find out:

• Where the relevant location is located
  
• How dangerous the place is (according to the number of bots, their armor and the possibility of quiet passage):
  
  
  • 🟩 — no threat or minimal threat
    
  • 🟨 — medium level of threat
    
  • 🟥 — high level of threat
    
  • 💀 = 💀
  
  
• The key is rated not only according to the loot, but also to the level of threat above
  
• How relevant the information is — respectively, Season 2 or Season 3
  
• What loot is guaranteed (or almost guaranteed) there, as well as what COULD BE (but will not necessarily be)

This is a table that contains all the keys, sorted by my score. From top to bottom, from best to worst:

• S — top
  
• A — still good
  
• B — middle
  
• C — nah
  
• F — forget about 'em
  
• N — Not enough data

If you want to know why I gave this rating to a particular key, look at the long list below, find the corresponding key, and there you will find the explanation.

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https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2890174117

• 🔄 Barter system in DMZ
  
• 🧰 All awards for weapon cases in DMZ
  
• 💀 All about the Koschei Complex in DMZ
  
• ⚙️ All about passive upgrades in DMZ
  
  
• 💰 All paid bundles with bonuses for DMZ
  
  
• ♻️ Location of all dead drops in DMZ
  
  
• 🔑 Ultimate guide about KEYS in DMZ
  
• ✍️ All about LORE NOTES in DMZ
  
• 📝 Texts of lore notes in DMZ
  
  
• 🐍 How to unlock the secret Serpentine camo in DMZ

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