Finding car keys

[Cress]

1) Does a car key always spawn into the world, or are there cars that don't have keys (excluding wrecks)?

2) I know there is a trick to spawning in house keys- is there any way to "force" a car key spawn?

3) Do car keys drop on corpses, or am I just wasting my time checking? I think I have found a car key on a corpse that was just lying there (spawned in dead), but not sure about new spawns.

Any other tips or tricks to finding keys?

[jerrypocalypse]

I'd like to know a couple answers to these too.

I know that car keys can be spawned on the ground around the car. I assume as a "the driver dropped them and couldn't find them before the outbreak" type thing.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

There will be keyless cars, and wrecks with keys.

Some zombies can spawn with keys to a car, cop zombies that spawned in a "police barricade" story can have the keys to the vehicles they spawned with. Not sure you can force it as easily as house keys though.

Foraging near a car can highlight keys that spawned on the ground nearby, sometimes they can spawn in nearby buildings too.

[DeadRabbit]

1) 99% sure that keys don't always spawn, but they often do. I've found keys for cars inside of grocery store shelves, so make sure you check everywhere nearby.
2) From my knowledge, no. I wouldn't be surprised if there was, though.
3) I have also never seen keys spawn on a living zombies, so if they do spawn on them, they are either extremely rare or I just don't loot zombies enough.

Hotwiring is a really good asset to have, especially because you can easily get the electronic skill from disassembling watches, the mechanics might be a bit more annoying to get.

[Ashley]

Originally posted by jerrypocalypse:

I'd like to know a couple answers to these too.

I know that car keys can be spawned on the ground around the car. I assume as a "the driver dropped them and couldn't find them before the outbreak" type thing.

Or dropped them while trying to get away from zombies.


And no from my understanding keys do not always spawn. You can check the building nearby or on the ground or inside the car itself if it's unlocked. But past that it must be hotwired.

I know you can force key spawns for buildings by killing zombies in said building but I don't think i've seen that happen with car keys.

[Couch Potato]

You can even find key in closest building to a car. I once found key to parked taxi in a warehouse next to it.

[Cress]

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

There will be keyless cars, and wrecks with keys.

Some zombies can spawn with keys to a car, cop zombies that spawned in a "police barricade" story can have the keys to the vehicles they spawned with. Not sure you can force it as easily as house keys though.

Foraging near a car can highlight keys that spawned on the ground nearby, sometimes they can spawn in nearby buildings too.

To clarify- foraging doesn't reveal hidden keys, it only shows them to you if you're blind?

[Ashley]

Originally posted by Cress:

Originally posted by Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia:

There will be keyless cars, and wrecks with keys.

Some zombies can spawn with keys to a car, cop zombies that spawned in a "police barricade" story can have the keys to the vehicles they spawned with. Not sure you can force it as easily as house keys though.

Foraging near a car can highlight keys that spawned on the ground nearby, sometimes they can spawn in nearby buildings too.

To clarify- foraging doesn't reveal hidden keys, it only shows them to you if you're blind?

They might be hard to spot depending on where the key spawns on the ground. Have heard it spawns under the car but never seen it. You could find keys on the ground without foraging before the update and still can. I have. Walk around the car with the loot table open and it might be there like any other item would show up that's on the ground.

[Silverbird]

Keys still spawn on zombies, I just got one 5000 kills in (with minimum loot settings, mind you).
That said, since corpses degrade, keys can spawn on zombies AND DISSAPPEAR if you don't loot the body.

Also there are many keyless cars (in my playthrough at least). Just use them for training or spare parts for cars you DO find, or hotwire them if it's really worth the trouble..

[-=3D=- Duckumz 31]

Almost all the driveable cars we have encountered will spawn keys in around them randomly even when there were none around them before when we checked. Must be tied to loot respawns somehow...

[JXLVII]

if a car is parked outside of a building, sometimes the car key will be inside that building

[FlyinJ]

Originally posted by Achungus Amongus:

Originally posted by Cress:

To clarify- foraging doesn't reveal hidden keys, it only shows them to you if you're blind?

They might be hard to spot depending on where the key spawns on the ground. Have heard it spawns under the car but never seen it. You could find keys on the ground without foraging before the update and still can. I have. Walk around the car with the loot table open and it might be there like any other item would show up that's on the ground.

I had no idea keys could just be on the ground, nor the idea of keeping the loot table open while walking around to find stuff near the cars.

Thanks for the tip

[Another Mother's Son]

Originally posted by Silverbird:

... That said, since corpses degrade, keys can spawn on zombies AND DISSAPPEAR if you don't loot the body.

I've gotten pretty disciplined at mini-hoard clean-up. Every time I clean out an area, I have a routine:

- Strip all the bodies and dump sh!t on the ground.
- Upgrade my clothes
- Keep good quality replacements
- Tear the rest for Tailoring materials and XP (including denim & leather if you have Scissors)
- Look for keys (to your point)
- Dismantle all digital watches (or at least make sure alarms are 'Off' if you don't have a screwdriver)
- Put all rags, jewelry, fancy watches and wallets in a Garbage Bag and drop it at the road-side end of the nearest driveway.

Checking every body means I find whatever RNG will give up