When you are stuck in a post-apocalyptic world, even the most common resources can be considered treasures. In LifeAfter, you will need to spend a lot of time looking for materials needed for rebuilding civilization. The game puts you in the shoes of one of the survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Despite being overrun by zombies, the world is still full of things that can be useful for survival.
Your job is to find those items, wherever they may be. While you explore the different zones, you will often come across crates and boxes. Some of these boxes might be locked. To open these, you will need a Master Key. The good news is that Master Keys can be crafted if you have the right materials. That’s where this LifeAfter strategy guide comes in. Keep reading to learn everything about crafting Master Keys.
1. Unlock The Formula
As you probably know by now, you would need to know the formula of an item before you can craft it. If you’re still trying to figure out how crafting works, you can check out our LifeAfter crafting guide to learn more. The Master Key’s formula can only be unlocked by raising your Crafting Mastery level. First, you need to hit level 13 in Crafting Mastery. Once you do, you need to spend New Dollars and Skill Points in order to unlock the Master Key skill. After that, the Master Key option will be available in your Make menu.
2. How To Raise Mastery Levels
Now that you know what to do, there is still the problem of actually reaching Mastery level 13. You can earn Crafting Mastery experience by simply crafting items. You can craft multiple items at once in any of the work benches or in the Make menu. You won’t earn the experience, though, until you tap and claim the items you crafted. You can leave a bunch of items queued up then claim then return later to claim them all. You will see the experience you gained as you get the items. You also earn a lot of mastery experience by completing the quests from the board of each zone.
There is another obstacle to reaching Mastery level 13 that most people overlook. You need to upgrade your Manor to level 3. Your Manor level determines the cap of your Mastery level. No matter how many items you craft, if you still haven’t upgraded your Manor, you won’t be able to raise your Mastery level beyond the cap. On top of that, the experience you are supposed to earn from the tasks you perform are all wasted. If you have completed items in the work benches, make sure you don’t claim them until you’ve upgraded your Manor.
3. Gather The Necessary Materials
Master Keys are consumable, so if you are planning to open up a lot of chests, you will need to craft multiple keys. In order to craft a Master Key, you will need 100 Wood, 50 Stone, and 1 Iron Ore. You can get Wood by chopping down trees in any zone. Stone can be acquired by breaking rocks. Iron Ore, however, is a secondary resource that has a chance of dropping from rocks. That means you will need a bit of luck in order to get a lot of Iron Ores.
All three materials for crafting can be found in Fall Forest. They can also be found in other places, but they are easiest to gather from Fall Forest because of the difficulty level of the enemies. You can spend an hour or so running around the zone and fill up your backpack with nothing but Wood, Stone, and Iron Ores. When you are satisfied with the amount of resources that you have gathered, you can ship them all through the Postman then go home.
4. Crafting The Key
Now that you have the knowledge and the materials needed for crafting, you can start making your Master Keys. Since it is crafted through the Make menu, you don’t have to be at home to actually craft it. In fact, you can craft it when you need it. Just tap on the Make button on the lower left corner of your screen. On the All tab, scroll down until you see the Master Key formula. Tap on it and set the number of keys you want to make, then tap on the Craft button on the right side of the screen. The key only takes 10 seconds to make, so you can just wait for it to finish. Once its done, it will automatically appear in your inventory.
5. Using The Master Key
The first locked chests you will encounter will be in Farstar City. You need to reach Combat Mastery 5 in order to unlock this location. If you were following the quests in the Newbie Guide, you should not have any problems reaching the place. When you find a locked chest, you don’t really need to do anything special. Just choose to unlock the chest and if you have a Master Key in your inventory, you will succeed.
You’re probably excited to use your freshly crafted keys now, so you may want to read our LifeAfter chests guide in order to find the chests faster. Don’t get too excited about the loot you will be getting, though. As far as we can tell, the rewards from locked chests are hardly any better than the ones you get from unlocked ones.
There may be updates to this in the future, but as of now, you will usually just get common items from locked chests, with a small chance of getting rare ones. Then again, the cost of crafting Master Keys isn’t that high, especially when you reach higher Gathering levels. It may be a challenge unlocking the keys when you are new to the game, but later on, they will be as common as the Wood you chopped in Fall Forest.
It’s time to explore the zones and unlock hidden treasures in LifeAfter! If you follow our LifeAfter tips, tricks and hints above then you will be amassing tons of loot in no time!