Keys are a type of instrument used to open up locks to gain access to various areas.
Key types[]
Cut key[]
Cut keys, sometimes known as house keys, are the most common type of key. They often come in two types: flat teeth for old gates, and sharp teeth for wafer-tumbler locks. The locks used for these keys have a horseshoe-like appendage as well as a bolt.
During the 1960s, the Soviets utilized this type of key for the Groznyj Grad weapons lab's main hangar's maintenance door.
| Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?] |
The Soviets also utilized this type of key at the radio communication base at the San Hieronymo Peninsula's ravine during the 1970s.
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The Marines stationed at the United States Naval Prison Facility in Cuba were shown to utilize cut key locks for their armories, despite it being dangerously low security, largely because the armories were located in the middle of the base and thus had a moderately low risk of an enemy intruder accessing the armories undetected. Big Boss, however, during his various infiltrations in the camp, was able to utilize a lockpick to easily bypass the lock.
In 1984, both the Soviets and various PFs in Afghanistan and the Angola-Zaire border region of Africa, respectively, utilized cut key locks for various buildings and storage units. Like the real Big Boss, Venom Snake easily bypassed this security feature via a lockpick.
Car keys[]
Car keys are used to operate or gain access to a vehicle. It activates by having grooved edges that match with the car's design and then moving it to activate a mechanism that, depending on where the lock is located, either unlocks the door, or ignites the engine of the vehicle.
| Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?] |
During the San Hieronymo Incident, Roy Campbell and Naked Snake stole a set of keys for a truck and used them to steal one of the base's trucks when escaping the prison.
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Campbell's niece/birth daughter, Meryl Silverburgh, utilized keys for a Jeep during the Shadow Moses Incident when trying to escape from an impending bombing raid on Shadow Moses Island. Liquid Snake was also implied to have kept the keys to the other Jeep on his person.
Card keys[]
See main article.
Frequency key[]
Frequency keys are a type of key that utilizes a specific radio frequency to unlock a door. They usually require someone utilizing a radio to open the door, although a high-ranking officer wearing a uniform that allows clearance via implants on the uniform is not unheard of.
During the 1960s, the Soviet GRU fortress of Groznyj Grad utilized a frequency-based lock system for various rooms such as pantries, weapons cabinets, and prison cells. The only ones to freely access these rooms without a radio were high-level personnel such as the base's subcommander, Major Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov, due to implants on his uniform.
| Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?] |
During the 1970s, the Soviet missile silo on the San Hieronymo Peninsula utilized frequency based locks to guard against intruders trying to infiltrate the base in case they managed to get through the impenetrable electromagnetic door, as well as to guard sensitive documents relating to their weapons systems. However, most of the personnel had a tendency to forget what the specific frequency key was for each door, so they often wrote it on a wall or a glass window.
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Master key[]
Although technically applying to multiple different keys, a master key is a particular type of key that is specially designed to access more than one lock.
Zanzibar Land had Master Keys in the form of IC card keys that went up to three security levels.
Skeleton key[]
Skeleton key at Tselinoyarsk.
A skeleton key is a type of key named for its resemblance to a skeleton, and is often utilized as a lever key.
During the 1960s, the Soviets utilized these keys to access the electronic door to the Groznyj Grad air raid shelter built underneath Krasnogorje.
| Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?] |
During the 1970s, the Soviets utilized them as a means to lock/unlock prison cells on the various facilities at the San Hieronymo Peninsula.
| Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here. |