The Sinking City 2 All Keys and the Doors They Open
Last verified · TSC2 Wiki
The Sinking City 2 uses named keys rather than a generic lockpick, and each one opens a specific door in the chapter that gives it to you. The table below lists every key we have logged, the chapter it appears in and what it unlocks — so a key sitting unused in your inventory always has a matching door nearby.
Cross-checkedConfirmed against several independent walkthroughs of the build 1.0 (launch build, August 2026) on August 22, 2026. Codes and sequences in this game are fixed, not randomised per save. If a patch changes this, tell us on the contact page and we will re-check and re-date the page.
Every key, chapter by chapter
| Key | Chapter | What it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Church Key | 1. A New Day | The church itself |
| Star Key | 1. A New Day | The church's upper-floor trident door and the churchyard outbuilding |
| Graveyard Key | 1. A New Day | The graveyard gate |
| ERC Activator Pen | 2 onward | Not a door — opens ERC supply crates |
| A.P.H. Key | 2. The Wake-Up Call | Printing house access |
| Staff Key | 2. The Wake-Up Call | The hotel Staff Room, holding three Lorelei tokens |
| Lorelei Keys ×3 | 2. The Wake-Up Call | The Lorelei lock into the hotel basement |
| Vertebral Key | 3. A Sight For Sore Eyes | An Akeley Hospital wing door |
| Caduceus Key | 3. A Sight For Sore Eyes | A second hospital door, gating mask pieces |
| Fish Eye Key | 4. Time and Tide | A dock-area door |
| Snowflake Key | 4. Time and Tide | Cold storage access |
| Sturdy Key | 5. Cold Comfort | Late-chapter access on the way to the portal |
Other things that act like keys
Several items are not called keys but behave exactly like them, and they are the ones players get stuck on:
- ERC Activator Pen — every ERC crate needs one. No pen, no crate, no prompt.
- Anti-Rust Acid — for corroded locks in the hospital. If a door refuses both hospital keys, acid is usually the answer.
- Lorelei Tokens — three of them, each consumed by one chest.
- Steel Gear, Printing Plates A–C, Leyden jars — mechanism components rather than keys, but they gate progress the same way.
- The Prism — carried between the hospital's prism stations.
The rule for finding a key you are missing
Key locations in The Sinking City 2 are almost always in the same space as the door they open, and usually on a body. The Star Key is the template: the corpse is ten metres from the lock. If you are hunting a key, search the area around the door before you go looking across the district.
The second rule is that keys are chapter-local. Nothing from A New Day opens anything in the hotel, so an unused key at the end of a chapter means an unopened door in that chapter — and with no chapter select, that is your last warning to go back.
Keys versus codes versus symbols
If a lock shows a dial, it wants one of the five safe codes. If it shows symbols or a mechanism, it is a puzzle. If it shows nothing at all and simply says locked, it is a key — and this page is the index for those.
One exception worth flagging: ERC crates show a distinct prompt and are neither a code nor a puzzle. They are the single most common "why will this not open" question in the game's first week.
If a key will not work on a door
- Wrong door, right key. Hospital doors in particular look identical; the Vertebral and Caduceus doors are in different wings.
- The lock is corroded. Use Anti-Rust Acid.
- It is a crate, not a door. Check whether the prompt mentions an activator pen.
- You are in the wrong chapter. Keys do not carry forward.
The Sinking City 2 FAQ
How many keys are in The Sinking City 2?
We have logged twelve named key items across the five chapters, plus several components — the ERC Activator Pen, Anti-Rust Acid, Lorelei tokens and the Prism — that gate progress in the same way.
Where is the Staff Key?
In the Devil's Reef Hotel during The Wake-Up Call. It opens the second-floor Staff Room, which holds the three Lorelei tokens.
Why will my ERC crate not open with a key?
Because crates do not take keys. They need an ERC Activator Pen, found elsewhere on the same level.
Sources
Every fact on this page was checked against first-party material on August 22, 2026. Solutions were cross-checked against the build 1.0 (launch build).
Last verified · TSC2 Wiki