Keys

Keys are obtained by knocking out a guard, and they are used to open certain Doors, allowing you to access certain areas in the prison. A plastic copy of a key can be made with a Key Mold and Molten Plastic. If the original key is kept in your inventory, you will be sent to solitary once the guard that the key was stolen from wakes up.

Summary
Every type of key opens another set of doors. Every guard (with the exception of some in HMP Irongate) randomly carries one of the five keys with them. The key will always be carried by the same guard.

You can knock out guards to steal their keys. A Cup of Molten Chocolate or Makeshift Stungun can one-shot a guard which can be useful to quickly take their stuff if you have low health. It is not a good idea to do this outside, as your heat will increase to very high levels and you will be shot by tower guards.

Make a copy of that key with a Wad of Putty and return the key back to guard's inventory. You can also place a key in an inmate's desk. You can take it out and use after getting out of the solitary. If the guard wakes up and he doesn't have his key, you will be sent to solitary.

This may also work on the console version.

Types
Cell Key (Yellow)  ItemID: 0 Utility Key (Cyan)       ItemID: 7 Entrance Key (Purple)       ItemID: 6 Staff Key (Red)        ItemID: 1 Work Key (Green)       ItemID: 43

The guards will have certain keys based on their order in the pre-game screen. Above you can see the order for PC. The guard to the leftmost position (Guard #1) has the Cell Key, the guy beside him (Guard #2) has the Utility key, and so on. After the 5th guard, the order loops.

On console the order is this:

1st Guard: Utility (Orange/Cyan)

2nd Guard: Work (Green)

3rd Guard: Entrance (Purple)

4th Guard: Staff (Red)

5th Guard: Cell (Yellow)

(Note: On Xbox One guard number does not matter)

The Cell key is only useful between 23:00 and 8:00, when cells are locked. Per its name, it allows to open the cell door, and, in certain prisons, a sub-section of the prison containing all the cells.

The Entrance key is only useful between 22:00 and 10:00, when exterior doors are locked. It open the doors that lead to the exterior yard, sometimes also an inner yard.

The Utility key can open utility areas, which usually leads to ladders to the roof or ventilation.

The Staff key opens critical areas prisoners can not access, such as the generator room, or the guards barracks.

The Work key can open workroom doors, such as the janitor room. Note that if you have a Job, you can access your job room without Keys, but not other jobs rooms (ie, if your Janitor, you can access the Janitor room, but not the Tailor room).

Other info
Be sure to make note of which guards have which key. You can find out what number the guards have by writing down the guard order when naming your people or by simply giving the first 5 guards a specific name to recognize them. The key color unlocks the color lock as is on the door. The guards from 1st to 5th have the following keys Yellow, Orange, Purple, Red, Green. You can name them the color key they have to easily remember who has what color key.

Plastic Keys are contraband and they are made with a Key Mold and Molten Plastic.

A real key obtained by using the exploit works forever.

If you access the menu from an unconscious guard and have putty, select the key and touch X on Xbox or space on PC to make a key mold without needing to access the craft menu.

There are a few colored doors that don't have their own respective key.


 * Blue doors (with star icons in TE2) can only be opened by guards or while the player is wearing a Guard Outfit.
 * White doors can only be opened by the staff (warden, guards) or unlocked by the player during a prison takeover in a lockdown. Silver doors in TE2 cannot be opened by players in any way, and only appear to open during escape cutscenes.
 * Green doors with health symbols, which can only be opened by either the infirmary staff or a player wearing the Infirmary Overalls. (Mobile/Console edition only, and TE2)

Obtaining
Obtaining a key is as simple as knocking out a guard with a method of your choice. However, when the guard wakes up and doesn't have the key, you will be sent to solitary. This can be resolved by crafting a less durable Plastic Key then putting the original back into the guard's inventory.

Crafting
The Escapists 2:

Trivia

 * On the iOS version of the Escapists 2, you can hide in the vents with a key and wait for lockdown to end. But you can't exit the vents once you have the key, since dogs will be following you from under or above.
 * There is a bug that can be exploited to obtain a key. Before Lights Out you need to knock out the targeted guard, take the key and sleep in your cell before the guard wakes up. The next day, that guard will regain the key, but the copy which you stole will remain in your inventory.
 * Surprisingly, if you give a key to someone their opinion will increase by 10.