Iron Key

An Iron Key exists for one purpose: opening the Locked Crypts of The Outdoors, where Lotus Petals are waiting. It looks like a vintage farmer's key made of brown iron, with a rounded hollow ring at the top and glass in the middle, and it turns up inside or on top of containers across the floor. Dressers, office desks, double office desks, table desks, cabins, fountains and vine-covered chests are all listed as spawn spots.

How many, and how they stack

A player can hold up to five, and trying to take a sixth shows a full-stack icon. The key does not take up an inventory slot, and it is removed from the inventory when The Outdoors is escaped. Rooms with several Locked Crypts spawn only one Iron Key, and if drawers are present in a room with a crypt, a key is almost guaranteed to spawn. It is still possible to end up with more keys than crypts and carry leftovers.

Why it matters

Each crypt guarantees a Lotus Petal, and eight petals are what Grampy needs to make a Lotus. A bug sometimes places an Iron Key under the floor beneath a Lotus Petal. The item was first teased in Devlog #6 as a major item before it became a minor one.