Keys and access doors: how they work
What key cards and NFC cards are in DMZ: Recon, how to tell which door they open, and how to protect them across matches.
keysmapsUpdated 2026-10-19
Two kinds of cards
DMZ: Recon uses two families of access items. The names come from the in-game pickups and are the ones players use in callouts:
- Key Cards (colored): Blue, Red and others. They open color-matched access doors. Building 21 has a Blue Key Card reported just outside B1 and a Red Key Card reported at C2.
- NFC Cards (named): named after the room they open: Auto Lab NFC, Archives Room NFC, Maintenance Room NFC, Conference Room NFC, Storage Room NFC, Kurohana Ship NFC and so on. The name on the card is the name of the door.
Each map page on this site lists every card we know about, the door it opens, where players have reported finding it and how confident we are.
Where cards come from
- Ground loot in and around the room they open (common for NFC cards).
- Supply drops, high-tier crates and safes.
- Boss drops, reported for Velikan in Building 21 but not confirmed in CODM.
Reading the map labels
Building 21’s tac map labels rooms by sector letter + floor number: B1 is Sector B on Floor 1, C2 is Sector C on Floor 2. Use the same language in callouts and in your submissions so they can be verified.
Protecting a card
- Put it in a safe slot immediately. Everything outside the safe slot is lost on death.
- Split cards across the squad so one down does not lose all of them.
- If you will not reach the door this match, extract with the card rather than forcing a cross-map run through the cloud.
Confidence levels on this site
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Official | Stated by Activision or shown in official guides. |
| Verified | Confirmed by two or more independent clips or screenshots this season. |
| Reported | A single community source. Probably right, treat with care. |
| Unconfirmed | The card or room is named somewhere, but we have no location. |
Coordinates on the schematic maps are approximate until a real tac-map image is added for the map. See the repository README for how to add one.