After sinking 70+ hours into Borderlands 4’s launch week playthrough, I lost count of how many side quests I skipped just to track down every hidden vault I could find. The biggest roadblock I hit early on? Tracking down scattered vault key locations borderlands 4 hides across its 6 massive open-world zones. Most keys are tucked behind optional puzzles, secret boss fights, or easily missed side paths you’d never stumble on if you’re just rushing through the main story. This guide pulls from my own playthrough notes, community-verified drops, and playtesting with 3 different co-op groups to break down every key location, plus tips to farm them faster without grinding for hours on end.
What to Know Before Hunting Vault Key Locations in Borderlands 4
There are a few ground rules to vault key hunting that will save you a ton of frustration if you know them ahead of time. First, Vault keys do not drop from standard enemy kills. Unlike lower-tier loot keys, you can’t farm regular bandits or Maliwan troops for them. Each key is tied to a specific one-time collectible, boss reward, or side quest completion, so you won’t get duplicates from repeating the same activity.
You need one unique key per vault, and there are 12 total vaults scattered across Pandora and the new border worlds. Each vault holds at least one exclusive legendary weapon or customization skin you can’t get anywhere else. If you’re playing co-op, all players in your group get credit for picking up a key, so you don’t have to fight over who interacts with the collectible first. That’s a huge quality of life update from previous Borderlands titles, where only the first player to grab a collectible got the reward.
It’s also important to note that vault keys are tied to your individual save file, not your account, so if you’re playing on multiple character saves, you’ll need to collect keys separately for each one. That said, if you have a high-level character, you can easily run through low-level zones to collect keys for your new alt in under an hour, since all enemies will be scaled down to your level if you turn on level scaling in the settings. I made the mistake of running past a key collectible in the first zone my first playthrough, and I had to backtrack 3 hours of progress to get it, so take your time exploring each zone before you move on to the next main story mission.
All Vault Key Locations by Zone
We’ve organized all key locations by zone, ordered by how early you can access them during the main story. The first 4 keys are accessible within the first 10 hours of play, so you can unlock 4 vaults before you even hit level 25. For keys in later zones, we’ve noted which story mission you need to complete to unlock access to the area.
- Western Wastes (Pandora) Key: Found in the abandoned Claptrap repair facility in the northwest corner of the zone. You’ll need to solve a simple wiring puzzle (match the 3 colored wires to their corresponding ports) to open the locked storage closet holding the key. There are no enemies guarding it, so you can grab it as soon as you unlock the Western Wastes fast travel point.
- Flooded Basin (Eden-6) Key: Dropped by the optional world boss “Gatorbait Steve” who spawns near the sunken Jakobs cargo ship on the east side of the zone. He respawns every 30 minutes if you’re farming for his exclusive legendary shotgun, but you only get the key the first time you defeat him.
- Forgotten Catacombs (Nekrotafeyo) Key: Tucked behind a breakable wall in the catacombs’ main tunnel, right after you defeat the second main story boss of the zone. You’ll see a small crack in the wall to your left as you exit the boss arena; hit it with any melee attack to reveal the key collectible.
- Corporate Plaza (Promethea) Key: Rewarded for completing the optional side quest “Lost Key Fob” from the Maliwan intern NPC standing outside the main corporate headquarters. The quest only takes 10 minutes to finish, and you’ll get the key plus 10,000 credits as a reward.
The remaining 8 keys are unlocked later in the story, once you gain access to the 2 post-game zones and the new orbital station hub. Many of these require completing short puzzle sequences or defeating tough optional minibosses, but none of them are locked behind difficult endgame raids unless you’re going for the 2 secret raid vaults. You can track which keys you’ve already collected from the “collectibles” tab in your main menu. It marks which zones you still have keys left to find, so you don’t have to waste time rechecking areas you already cleared.
For the 2 raid vault keys, you’ll need to complete the first two endgame raids on normal difficulty to get them. These keys are only awarded once per raid clear per character, so you won’t get duplicates even if you run the raids multiple times. The raid vaults hold the highest tier of legendary gear in the game, so they’re well worth the effort once you have a solid endgame build.
Tips to Farm Vault Keys Faster Without Grinding
If you’re looking to collect all keys as quickly as possible, there are a few tricks most players don’t figure out until their second or third playthrough. First, if you’re playing with a group that has already collected some keys, you can join their playthrough and grab any keys you’re missing without having to progress through the story on your own save. I tested this with a friend who was only 2 hours into the game, and he was able to grab 7 keys by joining my endgame playthrough for an hour, which saved him hours of backtracking later.
Make sure you pick up every piece of “strange artifact” junk loot you find while exploring. These seemingly useless items are actually keys to unlock the hidden side paths that hold 4 of the endgame vault keys. A lot of players sell these artifacts to vendors without realizing their purpose, so hold onto all of them until you’ve collected every vault key. If you already sold some, you can buy them back from any vendor’s buyback tab for a tiny fee, as long as you haven’t closed the game since you sold them.
Another tip: if you’re having trouble finding a specific key, use your hunter’s sense ability to highlight interactive objects in the area. Vault key collectibles glow bright gold when you use hunter’s sense, so they stand out from other random loot and objects even if they’re tucked behind walls or inside buildings. I spent 20 minutes searching for the Nekrotafeyo catacombs key before I remembered to use hunter’s sense, and it was literally 10 feet away from me behind a breakable wall I hadn’t noticed.
One more trick I picked up from the community: if you fast travel away from a zone and come back, any uncollected key collectibles will still be there, so you don’t have to worry about missing a key if you move on to the next story mission before grabbing it. I did this twice during my playthrough when I got caught up in the main story and forgot to grab a key, and it worked perfectly every time. You don’t have to complete side quests in full to get some keys. For 3 of the side quest tied keys, you only need to complete the first 2 objectives of the quest to get the key, so you can abandon the quest afterwards if you don’t care about the other quest rewards. That cuts down the time to get those keys by almost 70% in most cases.
What You Get for Collecting All Vault Keys
Collecting all 12 vault keys doesn’t just give you access to 12 vaults full of legendary gear. You also unlock a special secret endgame vault that holds the Borderlands 4 exclusive “Vault Lord” gear set. This 4-piece set gives you a 50% boost to all loot drop rates, plus unlimited ammo for all weapon types when you have the full set equipped. It’s easily the best endgame gear set for all character classes, even if you’re running a build focused on melee or ability damage.
Each individual vault also has exclusive rewards you can’t get anywhere else. For example, the Western Wastes vault has the “Rocket Frenzy” legendary shotgun that fires 6 homing rockets per shot, and the Eden-6 vault has the “Gator Skin” character customization that makes you immune to poison damage from swamp enemies. Some vaults also hold rare vehicle skins and emotes that you can use to customize your character and ship for co-op lobbies.
If you’re a completionist, collecting all keys also unlocks the “Master Vault Hunter” achievement/trophy, plus a special skin for your ship that you can show off to other players in co-op lobbies. But don’t feel like you have to collect all keys right away. You can grab keys as you play through the main story, and come back for the rest once you’ve hit max level and have better gear to take on the tougher optional bosses guarding the endgame keys.
Tracking down every vault key locations borderlands 4 has to offer is one of the most rewarding side activities in the game, especially if you’re chasing the best legendary gear or want to make your endgame grind way easier. You don’t have to follow this guide step by step, but it’ll help you skip the frustrating missteps and wasted backtracking that most players run into when they first start hunting for keys. Take your time exploring each zone, don’t sell those strange artifacts, and you’ll have all 12 keys in your inventory before you know it.