How to get and use the Red Keycard in Escape from Tarkov

The rarest loot lie behind the toughest challenges.

An image from Escape from Tarkov of the main lobby of The Lab map, which contains art of the ceiling of the sky.
Screenshot by Dot Esports

Among the countless keys in Escape from Tarkov, few are as valuable as the game’s heralded Red Keycard for the TerraGroup The Lab map.

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Getting into Tarkov’s map The Lab is already relatively difficult since you can only access the map with a certain keycard. Afterward, multiple different rooms are locked with a specific keycard, and they all contain different types of loot that range from top-tier weaponry and gear to rare items that sell for millions of Roubles on the market.

The Red Keycard, however, gives access to one of the best rooms on the map. If you’re looking for some of the best items in the game, here is how to get and use the Red Keycard in Escape from Tarkov.

How to acquire the Red Keycard in Escape from Tarkov

An image from Escape from Tarkov of the main working area in The Lab, which contains a dome.
Welcome to the Labs. Screenshot by Dot Esports

The Red Keycard is one of the rarest keys to find in Escape from Tarkov, and as a result, you’ll need to jump through multiple hoops just for a chance to find one. There are multiple spots where you can stumble upon a Red Keycard on maps but the spawn chance for the card is very low.

In many instances, you’ll need a key to open a room where the keycard could spawn. Here are all of the locations where you could find the card, from different rooms to boss inventories.

  • Multiple boss inventories
    • Tagilla (Factory)
    • Shturman (Woods)
    • Killa (Interchange)
    • Glukhar (Reserve)
    • Kaban (Streets of Tarkov)
    • Partisan (Can appear on all maps)
  • Customs
    • In the Marked Room at the three-story dormitory.
    • Underneath the Giving Tree at the old gas station.
  • Reserve
    • In the RB-BK, RB-PKPM, and RB-VO rooms (keys required).
  • Streets of Tarkov
    • In the Marked Room at Chekannaya 13 and the Abandoned Factory locations.
  • Lighthouse
    • In the Marked Room in the Peninsula.
    • In Leon’s Hideout inside a guitar.
  • Shoreline
    • At the Health Resort in Rooms 221, 218, 203, and in the basement gym.
  • Labs
    • In Quarantine Zone Room G11
    • In the Parking Garage Alarm Control Room in the basement.
    • On a bench across from the vending machine in the cafeteria on floor two.

As long as you persevere, there is a chance that you’ll find the card in some of these locations but it is a very rare occurrence. If you aren’t too patient, you might have a better time simply buying the card from the market, but it goes for around 850,000 Roubles right now. If you don’t have that kind of cash, you have no choice but to rely on luck.

What can you find in the Red Keycard room in Escape from Tarkov?

Since the Red Keycard room is where the security forces hold their weaponry and gear, you can find several top-tier ammo spawns, top-tier weapon parts and mods, modded MP5s and M4A1s, and rare loot such as golden skulls, chainlets, a Bronze Lion, and an intelligence folder.

You will also find an additional fenced storage room that has more items, but you’ll need the Arsenal Storage Room key to access it. Your best bet to find the ASR key would be to head to Customs and hunt around the dorms. Sometimes, the key will spawn in Room 215 inside the nightstand, or behind the cash register in the new gas station.

Many of these items might not be of use to you right away, but it is usually worth your time since you can sell plenty of these parts for a pretty penny on the market.

Author
Image of Tyler Esguerra
Tyler Esguerra
Lead League of Legends writer for Dot Esports. Forever an LCS supporter, AD carry main, with more than five years in the industry. Sometimes I like clicking heads in Call of Duty or VALORANT. Creator of the Critical Strike Podcast.