This guide has mild early game story spoilers and mid-game mechanics spoilers. Keys, barriers, and supply points might be the worst in-game explained mechanic of all the Ryza games. I followed the tutorials and re-read the help multiple times. Even after that, I still had no idea how everything worked.

There are guides out there that dive into all the intricacies of the key system, but I couldn’t easily find what I needed on my first play through. During that run, I came across an Old Mining Site Ruins in the Cleria region and couldn’t figure out why my keys didn’t work on the barriers there.

There are prerequisites to opening the barriers. In the Cleria region you will encounter a quest line that involves a dispute between two artisanal workshops. Federica is tasked with solving their problem, and Ryza is recruited to lend a hand. You need to finish this quest line, ending with a quest named “For Federica”. After that, a cut-scene in the atelier reveals the secrets of making Pristine Keys.

Once you have the recipe for Pristine Key, then the process of opening barriers around the world can begin.

You need to head to the atelier and craft at least one Pristine Key. I recommend making at least a couple dozen. Choose the recipe.
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Fill out the loops. The effects on the keys don’t matter for our purposes. Then synthesize some keys.
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If this is your first set of keys, then they might already be equipped.
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In the future, you may want to swap out equipped pristine keys for newly crafted ones. You can do that by heading to the Secret Key option in the main menu.
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This may open the secret key ring, which you don’t want yet.
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Cycle the pages until the title shows “Pristine Key.”
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Once here, select any empty space on the ring and then choose a Pristine Key to equip in that slot. Fill up the rest of the ring if you have more keys.
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Head to the world map. Fast travel to any landmark with a key beacon that is charged to 100%.
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Choose any of the Pristine Keys from the ring.
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Since this process involves RNG, you likely did not generate a key that can open barriers. The highlighted portion of the image below can have various “X Effect” sections. This key won’t work on barriers because it only has Buff and Synthesis.
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Keep on hitting landmarks and using Pristine Keys on them. You will eventually get a key with what we are looking for, an Adventure Effect section.
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If you just crafted this key, then it’s in your basket and can be equipped. If you have been crafting keys as you played for a long time, and only just now got blocked in the Nemed region, then head back to the Atelier. You probably have a ton of keys in your atelier stash being unused (I sure did).
Whether in the field or back at your stash, let’s head to the key menu.
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This time, we do want the Secret Key menu.
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Select an empty space on the key ring. Equip any key with an Adventure Effect and an element value of at least one. In the image below, I am equipping a wind element key.
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Now you have an Adventure Effect key on the ring!
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If you have more Adventure Effect keys available, then equip those as well. To open more kinds of barriers, you will want a sampling from all four elements. In the image below I am adding a fire key to the ring, in addition to the wind from before.
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Now we have what we need to crack open barriers and supply points! Let’s open up the Cleria region map. Select the Mining Highway waypoint.
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Choose the Old Mining Site Ruins waypoint.
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Select the Old Minding Site Ruins landmark.
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Wander around the ground floor of this area until you find one of the barriers blocking a cave.
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Interact with the barrier to bring up the key ring. Note that if a key matches the barrier’s element, but doesn’t have an Adventure Effect, then it won’t open the barrier. There will be red warning signs above such keys on the ring. Invalid keys will be dark.
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Here is a key that will work. The barrier’s element is wind. The key’s element is wind. The key has an Adventure Effect. The key is nice and bright on the ring.
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Selecting a valid key will remove the barrier, and grant you access to the loot and material respawns inside.
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You now know everything you need to know to crack open barriers. If you don’t have the element required, then make more pristine keys and use them on landmarks until the RNG blesses you.

Here is how to use the same principles to open supply points. These are important as some recipes can only be unlocked by opening these loot boxes. First look for beacons shooting into the sky.
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Traverse the world until you reach the beacon, and find a supply point on the ground.
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Interact with the supply point. The key ring will brighten up any keys with an Adventure Effect. The element does not matter.
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Now the supply point is consumed and you have a bit more loot.
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There is a lot more that keys do, including combat buffs, synthesis effects, generating them from monsters, and field effects. I am not covering any of that here. Hopefully you now have enough knowledge to search for deeper discussions on other key mechanics.