Buried City JKV Employee Access Card Location: Where to Find It
The JKV Employee Access Card is one of the more sought-after items in the Buried City area of Arc Raiders, the extraction shooter developed by Embark Studios. Like most access cards in Arc Raiders, it unlocks a restricted area or storage room that contains higher-tier loot, which makes tracking it down worth the detour if you’re doing a run through Buried City. This guide pinpoints the JKV Employee Access Card location and explains how to use it.
What the JKV Employee Access Card Is
In Arc Raiders, access cards are key items that open locked doors in specific locations. The JKV Employee Access Card is tied to the JKV (a company or facility designation within the game’s lore) and grants entry to a door in the Buried City zone that would otherwise be inaccessible. Behind access card doors, players typically find better loot than in the general open areas: crafting materials, weapon parts, or high-value containers.
Access cards themselves can be found as world spawns (fixed or semi-fixed locations where they appear in most runs), as loot drops from enemies in the area, or occasionally in containers near the door they unlock.
JKV Employee Access Card Location in Buried City
The JKV Employee Access Card spawns in the underground section of Buried City, in the area associated with the JKV facility structures. The card has a consistent spawn location in the lower level of the JKV administrative building: on a desk or countertop in what appears to be an office or reception area near the facility’s interior.
How to reach it:
From the main Buried City entry points, navigate toward the larger underground structures rather than the outdoor ruins. The JKV facility section is identifiable by its intact (though damaged) interior corridors compared to the more rubble-heavy sections of the map.
Once inside the JKV facility block, descend to the lower floor. The card spawn point is in one of the interior rooms on that floor, typically an office-style room with desks, filing cabinets, or computer terminals as environmental props. Check desk surfaces and countertops specifically: access cards in Arc Raiders sit flat on surfaces rather than appearing in containers.
Secondary spawn locations: like most access cards in Arc Raiders, the JKV Employee Access Card can also appear on enemies patrolling the JKV area. If the desk spawn is empty (another player got there first in a shared raid), defeating the enemies in the JKV corridor section is the fallback method.
What the JKV Employee Access Card Unlocks
The card unlocks the JKV Employee Access door, located in the JKV facility section of Buried City. This door leads to a restricted storage or server area that contains better-than-average loot for the zone. The specific loot is semi-randomized per run but the area reliably contains higher-tier materials, weapon components, or useful consumables that make it worth unlocking when you have the card.
The door itself is typically marked with a card reader panel (visually distinct from unlocked doors in the environment) and shows a locked indicator until the access card is used. Approach the door and interact with the card reader while the JKV Employee Access Card is in your inventory to open it.
Tips for Running the JKV Card Route
Go early in the run. The JKV facility is a known loot spot and other players in a raid will likely target it. Reaching the card spawn before other squads is the most reliable way to both find the card and safely use it.
Clear enemies first. The JKV area has patrol enemies that can interrupt your card search or the door interaction. Clearing the immediate threats before you spend time searching for the card reduces the risk of being caught in a bad position.
Know the extraction route from the JKV door. Once you’ve looted the restricted area, you’ll be carrying better gear and potentially more value than you arrived with. Plan your extraction route before opening the door so you’re not scrambling for an exit with full pockets and enemies alerted to your location.
The card is consumed on use. Access cards in Arc Raiders are single-use: once you open the door, the card is gone. Don’t carry it through the whole run planning to come back: use it when you find it.
For other Arc Raiders location guides and gameplay resources worth reading alongside this one, a warm place to rest Arc Raiders covers another location-specific challenge in the same game where knowing the map and spawn points is the key to efficient runs.
Understanding Arc Raiders’ Access Card System
Access cards in Arc Raiders are part of the game’s broader locked-door and restricted-area system that rewards exploration and map knowledge. Each named zone contains multiple locked areas with different tiers of access card, and knowing where each card spawns and what it unlocks is a significant competitive advantage in extraction runs.
The JKV Employee Access Card is a mid-tier card that provides access to a moderate-value restricted area: better than the most basic unlocked areas but below what the rarer, higher-tier cards in the zone unlock. For players doing efficient farming runs through Buried City, the JKV card route is worth building into the standard run path because the time investment is low relative to the loot gain.
Access card locations are also worth sharing with your squad before descending. Dividing responsibilities so one player routes to the card spawn while others clear nearby enemies or cover extraction routes is a team-play approach that makes the JKV card route significantly more efficient than running it solo.
What to Do If the Card Isn’t There
If you reach the JKV office desk and the access card isn’t present, another player in your raid instance got there first. This happens regularly on popular maps during busy server times. Your options from that point:
Fight the enemies in the JKV patrol route and check if any of them drop the card. Enemy drops are randomized but access cards appear more frequently on enemies in the same zone as the card’s associated door.
Continue the run without the card and loot the non-restricted areas of Buried City. The JKV restricted room is valuable but not the only loot destination in the zone.
Extract and start a new run: if the JKV card was your primary objective, an empty spawn means the run’s main goal is gone and a fresh instance may be more productive.
Key Takeaways
- The JKV Employee Access Card in Buried City spawns in the lower level of the JKV facility section, on a desk or countertop surface in an interior office-style room
- Reach it by entering the JKV facility’s underground section and descending to the lower floor rather than staying in the open outdoor ruins of Buried City
- If the desk spawn is empty (taken by another player), the card can also drop from enemies patrolling the JKV corridor area
- The card unlocks the JKV Employee Access door in the same facility section, leading to a restricted area with better-than-average loot for the Buried City zone
- Access cards in Arc Raiders are single-use: use the card when you find it rather than carrying it through the run
- Clear nearby enemies before interacting with the card spawn or the locked door to avoid being caught in a vulnerable position during the search or loot phase
- Plan your extraction route from the JKV restricted area before opening the door: you’ll be carrying more value and enemies may be alerted
