You've seen the padlocked door on the big civic building in the middle of Buried City and walked away. That building is the Town Hall, and the only thing standing between you and its whole three-level interior is the Buried City Town Hall Key — a single-use Epic key that most raiders find by accident and waste on a bad rotation. This guide gives you the three things nobody spells out: where the key drops, exactly how to use it (and get out alive), and what the loot is actually worth.
Quick answer (TLDR): The Buried City Town Hall Key is a single-use Epic access key that unlocks the entire Town Hall building in Buried City — not one room, the whole three-level structure with its interior spaces and containers. You get it by scavenging loot containers around Buried City; there's no guaranteed spawn, and keys turn up more often in high-loot zones and during a Night Raid. The locked door is on the northern side of the Town Hall at ground level. Once you're in, clear top-down through the floors; on a standard raid a Raider Hatch sits just outside the north-east edge of the Town Hall for a fast exit (bring a Raider Hatch Key to open it). Loot is randomized, so some runs are far more lucrative than others, but the building rolls from a deep container set — the item page lists two Security Lockers and a Weapon Case among them, plus the drawers, desks and crates you'd expect. The key is single-use — open the building, it's gone.
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What is the Town Hall Key in ARC Raiders?
The Town Hall Key is one of Buried City's map-specific access keys — consumables that pop a sealed door and then disappear from your inventory. What sets it apart from the map's other keys is scope: where the Buried City Residential Master Key opens a single apartment room, the Town Hall Key opens an entire multi-floor building. That's why it sits at Epic rarity — it's rarer in the loot pool and it pays off bigger. One guide sums it up plainly: it's a "single-use epic key" that unlocks "the entire Town Hall" (levelupper).
Here's how it stacks up against the other Buried City access key, so you know what you're holding:
| Property | Town Hall Key | Residential Master Key |
|---|---|---|
| Rarity | Epic | Uncommon |
| Type | Single-use access key (consumed on use) | Single-use access key |
| Opens | The entire Town Hall building (three levels) | One of several locked apartment doors (one per key) |
| Map | Buried City | Buried City |
| Payoff | High — full building of containers | Modest — one apartment room |
Two takeaways. First, Epic rarity means you won't see this one often — treat every Town Hall Key you find as a genuine opportunity, not a throwaway. Second, because it opens a building rather than a single room, the loot ceiling is much higher than the map's other keys — which is exactly why it's worth planning a run around.
Where do you find the Town Hall Key in Buried City?
There's no guaranteed spawn — the Town Hall Key is a random scavenging drop pulled from loot containers as you move through Buried City. It isn't hand-placed at a fixed spot, so treat it like any other access key: it comes from looting, not from farming one exact building. In practice:
- Buried City loot containers — cabinets, drawers, desks, lockers and crates across the map's interiors. The key surfaces from ordinary scavenging, so the more containers you crack, the better your odds.
- Night Raids — the Night Raid map condition raises overall loot quality and makes keys more plentiful. As the ARC Raiders Wiki notes, Night Raid improves loot value and makes keys spawn more often — the single best condition to fish for one.
- Other players — a raider who looted a Town Hall Key and died before extracting drops it. Buried City is a hot map; watch the floor near contested buildings.
Don't dedicate a whole raid to hunting one. Loot normally as you cross the map — ideally on a Night Raid — and the key will come. Then plan the Town Hall trip for a raid where you already have it in your pocket.
How to use the Town Hall Key (and actually extract with the loot)
Using the key is the easy part — surviving the run is where players lose everything. Here's the clean loop:
- Get to the Town Hall. It's the large civic building in the central area of Buried City. Approach with the key already in your inventory — there's no dedicated key slot, it just needs to be on you.
- Open the sealed door. The locked door is on the northern side of the building at ground level. Interacting consumes the key — from that moment the whole building is yours to clear, but the door is now open, so anyone nearby knows someone's inside.
- Clear top-down through the levels. The Town Hall has three levels with containers spread across its interior spaces. Work methodically; the densest containers reward the players who don't panic-loot.
- Plan your exit before you open the door. On a standard raid, a Raider Hatch sits just outside the north-east edge of the Town Hall — the fastest exit with a full bag. Interact with its control panel (this consumes a Raider Hatch Key), the hatch stays open for roughly 10–15 seconds, then drop through to extract, so carry a Raider Hatch Key if you want that quick out. Note: Raider Hatches are not active during a Night Raid — if you run the Town Hall under that condition, head for a normal extraction point instead, because the hatch won't be usable.
That north-east Raider Hatch is what makes a standard-raid Town Hall run repeatable — you don't have to fight your way back across the map with a loaded inventory. The single biggest way raiders lose a Town Hall run is the same story every time: score the haul, then get ratted at extraction with the key already spent. On the ARC Raiders subreddit the pattern is a running joke — a dream haul, then a rat at the exit and it's all gone. Know your exit before you open the door, and don't linger for the last drawer.
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Buried City Town Hall Key loot breakdown
Here's the honest part thin guides skip: the loot is randomized. ARC Raiders doesn't hand-place a fixed item list inside the Town Hall, so anyone promising you a guaranteed weapon is guessing — and the developers built it that way, which is why some runs are far more lucrative than others. What's confirmed on the item page is the anchor container set: two Security Lockers and a Weapon Case, alongside the drawers, desks and crates you find across the building. Here's the realistic breakdown of what you're rolling from:
| Loot source in the building | What it rolls | Typical tier |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon Case | A firearm — rare or epic variants | Rare–Epic |
| Security Lockers (×2) | Gear, components, occasional blueprints | Uncommon–Epic |
| Filing cabinets & drawers | Valuables, materials, mods | Uncommon–Rare |
| Desks & office furniture | Crafting materials, attachments | Uncommon–Rare |
| Crates & misc containers | Consumables, utilities, sellable valuables | Common–Rare |
The Town Hall's edge over a single-room key is volume: more containers means more rolls, and more rolls means a genuinely higher chance at the tiers that matter — epic weapons, attachments and blueprints. It pays to time the run for a condition that lifts drop quality: per the ARC Raiders Wiki, blueprints for rare and epic items are "more commonly found during x2 Major Map Conditions." Blueprints are where the real long-term value sits — a single one pays for the key many times over.
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Is the Town Hall Key worth using?
Yes — when you already have one and can commit to the run. It's an Epic key that opens a whole building of containers, so the loot ceiling is well above anything else in Buried City. On a standard raid the Raider Hatch off the north-east corner makes extraction fast and repeatable; run it under a Night Raid and the loot value climbs (just plan a normal extraction, since hatches aren't active in that condition). Either way, the expected value on a good rotation is strongly positive.
No — don't waste it on a bad rotation. Because the loot is randomized, opening the Town Hall during a quiet, low-condition raid can leave you with a bag of mid-tier drawers. If you're holding an Epic key, hold it for a Night Raid or ×2 Major Map Condition and make it count. And never open that northern door without an exit plan — a spent Epic key plus a full bag is the juiciest target on the map.
Want the gear without the dice rolls entirely? Our ARC Raiders services get you weapons, blueprints and materials directly — see our Blue Gate Communication Tower Key guide for the map's other big key run, or the best weapons tier list to decide what's actually worth chasing.
FAQ
Where do you find the Town Hall Key in ARC Raiders? It's a random scavenging drop pulled from loot containers around Buried City — there's no fixed spawn, so it comes from ordinary looting rather than one exact building. Keys turn up more often in high-loot zones and, per the wiki, more plentifully during a Night Raid (arcraiders.wiki).
What does the Buried City Town Hall Key open? It unlocks the entire Town Hall building in Buried City — the full three-level structure with all its interior spaces and containers, not just a single room. The locked door is on the northern side at ground level. That larger footprint is why it's an Epic key rather than an Uncommon one.
Is the Town Hall Key single-use? Yes. Community guides consistently describe it as single-use — it's spent when you open the Town Hall door, so one key equals one building clear. To run the Town Hall twice, you need two keys.
How do you extract after looting the Town Hall? On a standard raid, a Raider Hatch sits just outside the north-east edge of the Town Hall. Interact with its control panel (this consumes a Raider Hatch Key), the hatch stays open for roughly 10–15 seconds, then drop through to extract — so carry a Raider Hatch Key for that quick out. Raider Hatches are not active during a Night Raid, so under that condition use a normal extraction point instead.
Is the Town Hall Key worth it? Yes, when you already have one and can time the run for a Night Raid or ×2 Major Map Condition — the full building of containers has a much higher loot ceiling than the map's single-room keys. On a standard raid the north-east Raider Hatch also makes extraction fast. Don't burn it on a quiet, low-condition rotation.
How rare is the Town Hall Key? It's Epic rarity, so it's noticeably rarer than the Uncommon Residential Master Key — you won't find one every raid. Treat each one as a real opportunity rather than a throwaway.
