Building 21 is the first major update for the DMZ mode, offering players a brand new area to scavenge and loot. But, to get access to it, you need a keycard, similar to strongholds. However, there’s a catch, as while the keycards are active, the map is not. Here is what we know so far about how to get into Building 21 on DMZ.

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Here is how to get a DMZ building 21 keycard and access the map. Image via Activision.

How to get Building 21 keycard in DMZ¶

Before you can access Building 21, you first need to get a keycard. Unlike regular Stronghold Keycards, the Building 21 Keycards are much rarer. So far, the most common source on how to get Building 21 keycards are in supply drops. These are airdrops players can fight over, which offer orange boxes of goodness. The Building 21 keycard seems to be a guarantee drop you can loot from these supply drops.

Note you can get supply drops from a variety of methods.

1. The first is the ones that come through planes and drop boxes in the area.
2. The other is via the SAM Sites you can take over. Sam Sites hoot planes down, and therefore they drop packages
3. The final option is the boss supply drop, which you can get from killing the boss, marked with the white skull on the map.

Do whatever is the most relevant to you, and loot those keys and other goodies from Al Mazrah DMZ mode.

Once you get your hands on the DMZ Building 21 keycard, you can then extract. Extracting with the keycard is necessary to gain access to the Building 21 level. For those of you who have played Escape From Tarkov, this is the game’s equivalent to the Labs map.

How to enter Building 21 in DMZ mode¶

Now you have your keycards and successfully extracted with them, you can now enter Building 21. It’s worth noting at the time of writing, Building 21 is not live in game. The developers confirmed that they are not launching the map as soon as Reloaded went live, and will instead be stealth patched in, so keep an eye out on it.

“Mysterious new keys have arrived in Al Mazrah… but where do they lead? Limited intel on access to the biological laboratory known as Building 21 will take players outside of Al Mazrah and into a hyper-dangerous new area of DMZ.” - Raven Software Patch Notes

But, once its live, we believe players can queue for it while in the DMZ menu. There are two big hints to this. The first is there is now a level select in DMZ, which was not there during Warzone 2 and DMZ’s initial launch. The second is the developers mentioned in the patch notes that Building 21 is not in Al Mazrah, therefore implying it is its own map.

So, for now, players will likely want to stack up on their DMZ Building 21 keys and extract with them. That way, when the map stealth launches, you have as many keys as possible to go in and loot the high tech goodies, and unlock the new Chimera weapon if you so wish.