Buy the Gatekeeper's second key from the female NPC in the General Store near your house, then return to the Gatekeeper in Sewers F1. A release-period purchase report lists the price as $50. Speak to the NPC about the key; it is not hidden behind the store's locked back door.
Older task descriptions identify the seller as Rachel. The useful location is the General Store, and the useful action is the conversation purchase. If you have been waiting for the shop inventory to refresh or searching the Mall offices, switch to this route: the office counter belongs to the third key.
Buy the second Gate Key
Visit the General Store near home and talk to the woman inside. Look for the conversation concerning the Gatekeeper's key, then check the price presented by your game before buying. The recorded $50 cost is useful for preparation, but the dialogue on your current save is the final purchase prompt. After obtaining the key, return to the Gatekeeper to deliver it.
You do not need to open the locked room at the back of the store to reach this key. That door has caused confusion because it looks like a plausible place for a missing item, but the second key is acquired through the NPC. Spending a Basic Skeleton Key on a different lock is not a replacement for the purchase. The Skeleton Key guide explains the ordinary consumable key and its known uses.
Start the Gatekeeper task in Sewers F1
If the Gatekeeper will not accept anything yet, check that you have started his task. Speak to him in Sewers F1 and ask about opening the gates. Speak again and ask what you can do for him. You can accept the task before you have a Pizza in your inventory.
Pizza is the first objective after acceptance. This distinction matters if you assumed his refusal to open a gate meant you had to arrive with every requested item before the quest would begin. Start the conversation chain, read the task, and then collect what he asks for. Return visits are part of the sequence, so keep talking to him after completing an objective.
The task proceeds through Pizza, the first key, the second key, and the third key, with conversations between deliveries. The Gatekeeper’s current request identifies which location you need next.
Prepare the opening Pizza
The starting Cooking Pot recipe for Pizza uses Bread, Cooked Meat, Red Mushroom, Bitter Herb, and Secret Sauce, with one of each ingredient. If you are still at the food stage, obtaining the General Store key does not remove the earlier delivery. Cook the Pizza, return to the Gatekeeper, and continue his conversation before interpreting the next locked gate as a missing-key bug.
Before starting a new crop or processor, inspect the books at home for Note to Self and read it in the journal. One recorded opening supplies the Pizza ingredients as attachments after the note is marked read. Check the actual attachments in your save, collect any available ingredients, then return to the Cooking Pot. This can make the first delivery much simpler than building a new supply chain for one meal.
If you need replacement ingredients, Bread is cooked from Dough and Cooked Meat from Mystery Meat; both recipes are available at the start. Dough can be purchased at the General Store or processed from Wheat using a Grinder or Windmill. Cook those two intermediate ingredients before attempting Pizza. Putting uncooked Dough or Mystery Meat in storage does not turn it into the Bread or Cooked Meat named by the final recipe.
Secret Sauce can be the unfamiliar ingredient in this recipe. The established processing route is an Eye Ball through a Grinder. The Secret Sauce recipe guide covers that ingredient and the shop-stock uncertainty, while the Eye Balls guide explains the relevant crop and processing distinction. Those are ingredient steps, not an additional key quest.
Keep the three key locations in order
| Key | Where to look | Acquisition detail |
|---|---|---|
| First | Burgers Burgers kitchen in the Food Court | Search the kitchen for the first task key. |
| Second | General Store near your house | Purchase through the female NPC's dialogue; a release-period report gives $50. |
| Third | Mall F1 back hallways, southern office | Look on the counter after gaining access to the office area. |
Each location answers a different point in the Gatekeeper task. Return after finding the requested key so that his dialogue can advance. The table is not a list of ordinary locks that accept one universal item. If an item is explicitly a Basic Skeleton Key, do not assume it is one of these named Gate Keys.
The third location requires more Mall progression than the second purchase. Adrian's Tentacle Cleanup chain leads into the Mall back hallways, with a Mall F1 Hallway Key provided at the start of that task. The route includes the Office Worker Fishing objective and the Mall Administrator encounter before the relevant office becomes accessible. That is why a player can buy the second key yet still have a substantial task ahead before collecting the third.
Office Worker Fishing involves catching a Mall Stalktopus, with Bug bait and the Old Rod associated with that step. If fishing is the obstacle on your third-key route, use the fishing controls and bait guide.
Reach the southeast sewer area
The second-key progression is associated with access beyond the southeast sewer gate. This is relevant to the television treasure clue about a smelly place where time is told: its route leads into that section of the Sewers. If the treasure location is your reason for seeking the key, finish the Gatekeeper delivery before searching around clocks elsewhere in town. The sewer clock treasure guide gives the specific room and digging instruction.
There are several gates in the Sewers, and older task tables do not label every intermediate reward consistently. Follow the Gatekeeper's current request and inspect the newly available routes after handing over a key. Do not infer from a table row alone that every gate must open simultaneously. The practical goal at the second step is to buy the store key, deliver it, and check the southeast route you need.
Resolve an apparent second-key mismatch
Older versions had a task-description problem that mixed up the second and third key stages; the December 20, 2024 update listed a fix for those descriptions. A confusing journal entry is therefore worth checking against actual deliveries. It does not establish that every present-day save has the same bug. Start with the item you have, the location where you found it, and what the Gatekeeper currently says.
If you are searching behind the General Store's locked door, leave that search and talk to the seller. If you are in a Mall office while he still needs the second key, return to the store purchase. If you bought the key but the gate remains closed, speak to the Gatekeeper again and check whether the delivery has happened. These checks address distinct missed actions without assuming that sleeping, refreshing the shop, or buying an unrelated key will fix the task.
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