How to use key effectively?

[DuelShockX]

I just realised that I've never used the keys as a survivor before. As far as I understand they can be used to open the hatch for a few seconds and escape right? What's the other use of it that can be activated wherever you are on the map then?

[peppermint hollows]

I know that at least ultra rare (pink) keys can reveal Killer aura, not sure if the lower quality keys can do that though. I don't use them much myself.

Other than that, I think that's about all their use is. Remember that the hatch will spawn early depending on how many gens are done relative to the survivors alive, so if your team did enough gens but things are starting to go bad (most of the team is dead and remaining gens in the map are extremely close, making it easy for the killer to patrol and almost impossible to finish them) it's not a bad idea to pop the hatch open and jump out.

[DuelShockX]

wait so the hatch doesn't exist right away at the start of a match? Also I currently own the skeleton key and was wondering about it all

[peppermint hollows]

Originally posted by DuelShockX:

wait so the hatch doesn't exist right away at the start of a match? Also I currently own the skeleton key and was wondering about it all

I think technically the location of the hatch is determined at the beginning of the match, it's simply invisible and cannot be interacted with obviously until a certain number of gens has completed. At least, that's what I read somewhere (don't remember where, so I could very well be wrong or it could be outdated info). But yes, one thing is for certain and that is that the hatch is not visible from the beginning of the game.

[Charisma]

every key can reveal the killer's aura depending on the addons
a solid combination is:
broken key (or any one for that matter but broken keys are the most common)
blood amber (very rare addon that allows you to reveal the killer's aura if he is within 32m of you
prayer beads just to add 15 seconds to the duration
the way it works is you hold M2 to activate the key (1 second activation time so 1 second of the key gone, best to do it when you hear the heartbeat or are in a stressful situation) you will see the killer's aura but be quick to let go off the M2 just notice where he is and where is he going, blood amber eats through your key timer fast af (twice as fast) but the time to activate it and time consumed remains unchanged, that makes it so a broken key with prayer beads and the blood amber gives you overall:
25 seconds of usage
-1 every time you activate it
-2 for every second it is activated
just briefly activate it when you need to know where the killer is most useful during chases

other than that the key can reveal your teammates aura (working on the same basis as blood amber expect you remove the part of your key burning quickly)

and the most important usage dull keys and skeleton keys can open the hatch for 30 seconds allowing you and your teammates to escape the match when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan
but first the hatch has to spawn, the hatch spawns when the following conditions are met
- n+1 generators have been completed
or
-you are the last survivor alive
(n = the number of alive survs)
so for 3 people to escape 4 gens have to be done for 4 people 5 gens etc.
just make note of that 30 second timer on the hatch and the fact that the killer can close it