Fortnite Keycards Guide: Vaults, NPC Bosses, Covert Cavern

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In Fortnite, there are a couple of different vaults. There is the vault where all of the community’s favorite weapons lie and then another one. In that other vault, it is found on the island itself. Players can open up the vault with a keycard and gather fantastic loot. This Fortnite keycards guide will give you all of the details you need on those very keycards.

The Fortnite keycards guide will cover every single keycard to ever be in the game. This includes the ones in both Chapters 2 and 3. In addition, we will let you know how to get the keycard and what it is for. To help with all of this, we will make sure to give you the locations of each keycard, boss, and vault.

Bottom Line Up Front

The Fortnite keycards are an exceptional item in the battle royale game. Keycards are keys in the shape of cards that unlock particular doors. Those doors are vault doors that give you access to the best loot in a match. Players can find legendary items and weapons instantly by using a keycard to enter a vault. That is why it is so important to get one of these keycards in each match you do. However, it is tricky since the only way to get a card is to take out the NPC boss who holds it. Here are all of the cards that we will cover in this Fortnite keycards guide:

  • Agency Keycard
  • Authority Keycard
  • Catty Corner Keycard
  • Covert Cavern Keycard
  • Doom’s Domain Keycard
  • Fortilla Keycard
  • Grotto Keycard
  • Rig Keycard
  • Shark Keycard
  • Stark Industries Keycard
  • Yacht Keycard
  • Alter Keycard

What Is a Fortnite Keycard Item?

Fortnite Keycard Item

For starters, what is a keycard? It is a card that unlocks a door that is in card form. That part is understandable enough, but it has an exceptional purpose in the game. Keycards are there as an item that is elusive and hard to acquire.

But if you can get one in a match, you will be all the better for it. It will help instantly gear you up for the fights ahead. It is one of the most essential items in the game. Few players actually care about the keycards and try to find them. This leaves the door for players like yourself to swoop in and take advantage of this.

What is also noteworthy about keycards is that they are not standard items. There is about one of each keycard in every match that you do. If someone gets it first, oh well, it is already taken. Because of this, it does lead to the areas where the card is to be popular. So anyone going to get a keycard should be prepared for some fights.

Keycard Purpose Explained

The purpose of the keycard is to open up a specific door with it. The keycard on its own is pretty useless if you do not use it for its purpose. That purpose is to open up the vault. There is only one vault door associated with each keycard in the game.

With only one of each keycard type in a match, that means that you will need it if you want to open up the vault. This is why players must go immediately to the keycard location if they want to enter the vault. Fortunately, that is where we come in, as we will help you with just that.

Vaults Explained

Vault

Vaults are particular areas in Fortnite matches that cannot be accessed without a keycard. They are essentially the single most significant area of loot in every game. In most Fortnite seasons that include vaults, there are multiples of them, so more than one team can take advantage of it.

Inside the vault, you will find the black and gold chests that are massive. These are the best treasure chests in the entire battle royale game. You are almost always guaranteed to find some legendary items or weapons there. There will be plenty of recovery items, too, including large shield potions.

Players can sometimes find some of the most elusive weapons, too, that are unique to that particular season. This is why it is so vital that you go to vaults if you can. They can prepare you with the best gear around right from the very start of the match. I know that vaults are typically where I go first about half the time in matches. It is dangerous but most definitely worth it.

In general, there are two types of vaults that you should know about. The first of these are general vaults that do not require a keycard, while the other type does require keycards. For the ones that do not need a keycard, they are pretty easy to deal with.

The player simply needs to head here, and they can open up the vault door without any issue whatsoever, except for the fact that it does take two or more players to open the door. That is still the gimmick for this type of vault, as you cannot open it without at least one other person.

This is even the case in solo battle royale matches, too. I have seen situations in the past where two solo players will make a temporary truce to open a vault together. Then they will either gear up and go their separate ways to meet on the battlefield again in the future or have a duel to the death with their overpowered items.

In general, though, the first type of vault is the easier one to handle, especially if you like to play team-based modes. The other one, though, is a bit trickier to handle. That type is the keycard type of vault where you are only able to open it up with a keycard.

To make matters worse, not all keycard items open up the same vault. There are some seasons in the past where there has been more than one keycard type. Unfortunately, that keycard will only open up the vault associated with it. So even if there is more than one vault, you have to head to the right one to unlock it with the keycard.

How to Obtain a Keycard in Fortnite

So, since some vaults can only be unlocked with keycards, where do you even get them? That is a great question and each keycard is only found by killing the person holding the card. There is an NPC boss enemy in each match that holds their respective keycard.

Only that NPC boss will hold the keycard in their possession so going to another one on the island will not work. You will need to take out that specific NPC and they will drop the keycard. In addition, they will typically drop some other great loot, too, like perhaps a mythic weapon.

You will need to physically pick up the keycard and then locate the vault that it goes to. Fortunately, most of the time, the vault for the keycard is nearby to the boss themselves. This makes taking out the boss and then opening up the vault a pretty simple task once you repeat it a few times.

Of course, most of the NPC boss enemies are rather difficult to take down. They will usually have a ton of health and shields, way more than the average player can even have. To make matters worse, they sometimes have special weapons and powers to assist them in battle.

If that is not enough, they will sometimes even have other NPC enemies that act as their guards. And that is all before including the fact that there are other players you need to worry about, too. It can be a challenging task to get that keycard. Some matches in my experience were super easy and simple while others resulted in my swift demise. And still, others were a grueling gauntlet to open up the vault but was successful.

Technically, there is still one more way that you are able to get the keycard but this is exceedingly rare. If another player in the game somehow gets the keycard before you, you could take them out. If you are able to defeat them, they will then drop that same keycard item themselves.

This is rare and difficult to make happen. This is because the proximity between the keycard location and the vault is usually pretty small. So, it does not take long for a player to obtain the keycard and open up the vault. That said, it is possible to do it this way, if necessary. In my experience, it has only happened like this maybe two times. Usually, I just take someone out while they are opening up the vault and vulnerable.

All Fortnite Keycards Guide

All Keycards

In total, there are about 12 different keycards that have ever been released in Fortnite. It began in Chapter 2 where this system was first introduced. It was a novel feature at the time and has come back several times since then. While not an always active feature, keycards are at least frequently recurring.

We are going to go over every single keycard that has ever been in Fortnite battle royale. We will break down when it was released in the game and other details. This information will include where the keycard was, who had it, and where the vault was that it would open up. Let’s go ahead and get started.

Chapter 2, Season 2 Keycards

The first keycards to show up in Fortnite was in Chapter 2, Season 2. During this spy-themed season, many spy bosses appeared around the island. Alongside this, there were five new named locations that joined the game. At each of these, players could find a vault, a keycard, and a boss connecting both of them.

The Agency Keycard

The first on this list (in alphabetical order) is The Agency keycard. You could also argue that this was the most popular keycard at its time. The Agency was one of the new areas that were introduced in the same season as the keycards and vaults.

The Agency was conveniently located at the very center of the Chapter 2 island. There, players had a popular and easy-to-access destination that they could visit. It was also home to one of the most accessible vaults on the map at the time.

That was The Agency vault in the middle of the named location. It was a great place to gear up at the very start of a match. However, to do this, though, players had to take out the boss who had the keycard. That boss was none other than Midas himself.

The problem with finding and taking out Midas was that The Agency was covered in enemies. Couple that with the other players who almost always visited here, and you have a lot of trouble. The Agency keycard was an infamous one that I, personally, never even attempted to get.

The Grotto Keycard

The Grotto Keycard

Next up is The Grotto keycard. The Grotto is one of the most unique locations to ever release in Fortnite. It was an underground named location that was also a base and helipad. It was underneath the island itself with a massive hole in the ground that led to it.

The Grotto was unique and it had loads of NPC enemies that roamed the fortress. This included the boss of them all: Brutus. The vault at this location was easy to find since there was not too much to The Grotto once you got there.

But the problem was taking out enough of the enemies to get to Brutus and also take him out for the keycard. Overall, this was one of the least popular destinations in Season 2 for the keycards. This was also due to the out-of-the-way nature of The Grotto on the far eastern side of the map.

The Rig Keycard

The Rig was one of the trickier locations to get a keycard. Found near Slurpy Swamp, The Rig was a floating oil rig off the coast of the island. It was pretty difficult to reach and even harder still to get off of. That said, The Rig was also home to a vault of its own, even though it was floating in the water.

The boss of The Rig was TNTina, a fan-favorite character. As you could guess from her namesake, she is a fan of explosives. To add to the fact that you are nearly one step away from falling off The Rig at any time and you have one of the more challenging locations.

But if you could take out TNTina, you could have access to the nearby Rig vault that was easy to find. Furthermore, like The Grotto, it was not too terribly popular with most players out there.

The Shark

The Shark

The Shark was another location that was in the middle of nowhere. On the northwestern side of the island, The Shark was its own separate location. It was basically an island that had a massive shark atop it. The commander of this location was Skye.

If players were able to make it to this remote area, they would find that Skye was one of the easier enemies. If you could take her out, you would get the keycard to one of the most iconic vaults in the game. The Shark vault is a popular one that stuck through multiple seasons of the game.

That said, it was only in Season 2 that it needed the keycard to open it up.

The Yacht Keycard

Lastly, for this season, we have The Yacht. The Yacht was found off the coast of the eastern side of the island when it was first released. There is something that is rather unique about this location when it comes to keycards and bosses.

The Yacht was a massive luxury boat that players could visit. On it, there were plenty of NPC guards and loot to find. Rarely did most players ever visit here and that was because of its stranded nature. It was hard to get to the mainland from this boat, which made it unpopular.

That said, it was my go-to in this season when it came to loot and opening up the vault. There were rarely players who would visit this location and the NPC enemies were easy to pick off one by one. It helped that stealth was made for this particular area.

What made The Yacht unique is that it has had two keycards in the same season no less. At first in Season 2, Meowscles was the boss here. If you took this humanoid cat figure out, you could get the vault keycard. You could then open up the vault, which was sometimes annoying to locate in this confusing area.

But once Deadpool arrived in the game as the secret skin, it all changed. Deadpool took over The Yacht and made it his own. As such, he became the boss enemy here and players had to take him out for the keycard. It also changed the design of the keycard item to look more like him. With such unique elements about it, The Yacht keycard is one of the most memorable in this category.

Chapter 2, Season 3 Keycards

Epic Games continued the keycard trend in the following season after its introduction with Chapter 2, Season 3. In this season, we went down from about five keycards to now only three. They were each found at different locations with different boss enemies to fight. That is except for The Agency that was now known as The Authority. It remained a location for one of the vaults.

The Authority Keycard

The Authority Keycard

In Season 3, The Agency changed to The Authority. A slightly different and more interesting area, The Authority featured some major changes. One such change was the keycard item for it. Since it was no longer The Agency, it needed to change its keycard item.

The Authority keycard was born and it had a notably different design from its predecessor. Furthermore, it was now time for Midas to say goodbye and no longer be the enemy that players would have to take on to get the keycard.

Instead of Midas, the new boss enemy was Jules. This boss enemy required new strategies for players to get the keycard from her. But the same general idea of beating her and unlocking essentially the same vault still stuck around.

Catty Corner Keycard

With the end of Meowscles reign at The Yacht in Season 2, he moved to Catty Corner. In Season 3, Meowscles moved over for his family member, Kit, to appear. Kit, a fellow cat humanoid, became the new boss enemy that players had to beat for the keycard.

Kit differed in that they were a cat that piloted a mech suit, rather than the bulk biceps that Meowscles was. Kit was a slightly different boss but the fact remained that players had to beat them for the keycard. Upon doing so, they were able to open up the Catty Corner vault.

This was also the first time that Catty Corner featured a vault as that was not the case in Season 2. With the removal of The Yacht keycard and others, Catty Corner became a new favorite for some players due to its more secluded region.

The Fortilla Keycard

The Fortilla Keycard

The third and final keycard in Season 3 was The Fortilla. As you may already know, Season 3 saw the end of The Rig and other named locations. The massive flood destroyed much of the island and resulted in some new areas, too.

One such new area was The Fortilla. This became the new de facto water-based region that players could visit on the map. The Fortilla was a unique location and a popular one for players to visit. That is, of course, if you could avoid the marauders who searched the seas for players to take advantage of.

The leader for The Fortilla and the enemy that you had to beat for the keycard there was Ocean. She was a not too powerful enemy but you had to worry about the weird location here and the other NPC enemies. If you could take her out, though, you had a pretty easy way of opening a vault.

Chapter 2, Season 4 Keycards

Epic Games continued the trend once more with a third season in a row of keycards in Chapter 2, Season 4. In this Marvel-themed season, the number of keycards was further reduced. This time around, there were only two of these that players were able to find. That said, they required taking down some difficult bosses.

Doom’s Domain Keycard

Doom’s Domain Keycard

The first of the only two keycards in Season 4 was the Doom’s Domain one. For the first time in the history of Fortnite, Pleasant Park changed names to Doom’s Domain. Though the location was largely the same, Doctor Doom took over as the villain here.

Doctor Doom was also one of the hardest bosses to fight in the entire season. If you wanted this elusive keycard, you had to go through a powerful boss and other players. The location was popular and this made getting this card difficult.

Stark Industries Keycard

Stark Industries took over the Frenzy Farm area and turned it into Upstate New York. Here, Iron Man/Tony Stark waited for players to fight him. Also one of the toughest bosses in Fortnite history, it took a lot to take down Iron Man and get his keycard. To make matters worse, other players frequented this area.

Chapter 3, Season 1 Keycard

Most recently, Epic Games brought back the keycard system after being gone for quite some time. It returned in Chapter 3, Season 1 with a single keycard available. It is more limited now than ever before. That said, this one keycard is found in a pretty remote place on the island so it is also the most difficult to find.

Covert Cavern Keycard

Covert Cavern Keycard

The only keycard that is available right now is the Covert Cavern one. To get it, players have to visit this location in the northwestern area of the map where the snowy region is. There, players need to defeat Gunnar, a very strong enemy who will not go down without a huge fight. Defeating him grants the Covert Cavern keycard.

Vaulted Keycard

There is, technically, one more keycard left to go over. However, this one is a bit strange of a situation. This final keycard is one that is in the vault (the other vault) and has always been. It is in the backend of the game and has never been used to date.

Alter Keycard

The Alter keycard is an unused one in the Fortnite backend. It is believed by some that it would have been the Shadow version of the Ghost keycard in Season 2 but was never implemented that way. That said, its design was later used for The Authority keycard.

FAQs

Question: What are the keycards for in Fortnite?

Answer: The keycard items in Fortnite are strictly for opening up vaults in the game. That is the main and sole purpose of each of them. The keycard on its own is a rather useless item. It is only by using it to open up one of the unbelievably valuable vaults that you can see its real purpose.

Question: How do you get the keycard in Fortnite?

Answer: There is only one way to get the keycard in Fortnite and that is to take it from someone else. As mentioned previously in this guide, this can either be a boss NPC enemy or another player. The latter is exceptionally rare since the location of the vault is usually just nearby.
That said, the first is the method that most players will go through. You locate the NPC boss enemy who holds the correct keycard and then take it from them. This requires defeating a powerful enemy who will not go down without a huge fight. But if you are able to take them down, you will receive the keycard.
Some tips that we have for taking out NPC enemies is to make sure that other players and NPC enemies are not around. From there, you just need to make sure to have at least a little bit of decent gear to defeat the enemy. I have noticed that most NPCs with a keycard are not the hardest around. They are not The Foundation-level of difficulty at least.
In addition, if another team is fighting the boss, go ahead and let them do it. Chances are, they will either be defeated or win; both of which are good results. If they lose, the enemy will be weakened for you to finish them. If they win, the other players will be weak for you to take them out. I also highly recommend only taking on NPC bosses with at least one other teammate.

Question: Where does Meowscles’ keycard lead to?

Answer: If you defeat the NPC boss Meowscles and take his keycard, there is only one place that it will lead to. That keycard will lead you to the vault that is at the same named location. That place is Catty Corner, the home of Meowscles, and where you will find the vault that goes to the Catty Corner keycard.

Conclusion

The Fortnite keycards guide honed in on that single item in the battle royale game. Though keycards are small and elusive, they are still an important part of gearing up in certain seasons. If you are able to pick up one of these cards and open the vault, you are good to go for most fights ahead.

That said, the keycards are rather rare items that some players will never obtain. As such, we have a more general items guide for Fortnite that you should take a look at. In that guide, we go over some of the more popular and common items that you should know about.

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