South Hell Keys: Where All 4 Keys Are and What They Unlock

Quick answer

South Hell has four keys — blue, yellow, red and green. Each one comes from a school locker and unlocks the matching colored lock on the exit door in the basement. Turn all four and the door opens so you can press E to escape.

The game states the loop on its own tutorial card: 'Find the KEYS in the LOCKERS. Unlock the EXIT DOOR in the basement.' The objective you receive after leaving the basement reads 'Find the keys 0/4', so the total you are working toward stays on screen.

All four keys at a glance

Data table

Key

Blue

Where it is found

Green lockers in the '4TH GRADE' classroom

What it unlocks

Blue padlock at the basement exit door

Key

Yellow

Where it is found

A lower locker in the 'LOCKER ROOM'

What it unlocks

Yellow lock at the exit door

Key

Red

Where it is found

Outside the 'NURSE' room

What it unlocks

Red lock at the exit door

Key

Green

Where it is found

The 'COMPUTER LAB'

What it unlocks

The fourth and final lock at the exit door

Data table

Key	Where it is found	What it unlocks
Blue	Green lockers in the '4TH GRADE' classroom	Blue padlock at the basement exit door
Yellow	A lower locker in the 'LOCKER ROOM'	Yellow lock at the exit door
Red	Outside the 'NURSE' room	Red lock at the exit door
Green	The 'COMPUTER LAB'	The fourth and final lock at the exit door

The order above is the order the keys were collected in one recorded playthrough. The objective itself only tracks the running total, 0/4, and does not attach a location to any particular color on its own.

How the keys and the exit door connect

The exit door is in the basement and carries four colored locks, one for each key color. While you are carrying a key, the game tells you the door glows, so the glow is the way to find it again: 'You got a KEY! Take it to the EXIT DOOR in the basement - it GLOWS.'

Each key turns the lock of its own color, and the counter steps up as you do it — 'Unlock the exit door 1/4', then 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4. The open/escape prompt appears only once all four locks are turned: 'The exit door is open. Get out!' Pressing E Escape at that point ends the run, and the results screen records 'Keys you found: 4'. A door that is still partly locked gives you no escape prompt, so the counter is the reliable way to check what is left.

Where each key is found

Blue Key — 4TH GRADE classroom

The blue key is in the green lockers in the '4TH GRADE' classroom. It was the first key collected in the recorded run, and it turns the blue padlock at the basement exit ('E Unlock'), moving the counter to 1/4.

Yellow Key — LOCKER ROOM

The yellow key is in a lower locker in the 'LOCKER ROOM'. Ike jumpscares the player there, so the room is worth entering with that in mind. The yellow key unlocks the yellow lock at the exit door and raises progress to 2/4.

Red Key — outside the NURSE room

The third key is found outside the 'NURSE' room, where the game reports 'KEY FOUND 3/4'. The recorded transcript shows the item as 'A Red Key'. This is also the key the player drops when Cartman catches them in the corridor on the way back; once it is picked up again it turns the red lock and raises progress to 3/4.

Green Key — COMPUTER LAB

The green key is the fourth and final one, found in the 'COMPUTER LAB' at 'KEY FOUND 4/4'. Picking it up is what starts the endgame chase, covered below.

What happens if Cartman catches you while you carry a key

A key is not a permanent item once it is in your hands. The pickup message warns you directly: 'If Cartman gets you, you DROP it.' A caught player's key falls where they were caught and can be collected again. In the recorded run, after being caught in the corridor the player respawned in the basement with the objective 'Pick up the dropped key', returned to the spot, and picked up 'A Red Key' from where they died before carrying it back to the exit door.

That makes the drop a detour rather than a loss — but it does send you back across the school to the spot where you fell, so the earlier warning about being caught on the way back to the basement is worth remembering once you are holding a key. More on handling Cartman himself is in the South Hell survival tips.

Before the key hunt: opening the basement stairs

The key objective does not start the moment the run does. The player wakes in the basement with the objective 'Find a way out of the basement', and the stairs up are boarded shut. A crowbar sits between a green electrical cabinet and the toilet; picking it up gives 'E Pick up crowbar'. With it, the boards come off with E under the objective 'Pry the boards off 0/5', and only after all five are removed does the objective change to 'Find the keys 0/4'.

So the four keys are the school-wide phase of the run, and the basement is both where you start and where the exit door waits. The South Hell basement guide covers that lower area in more detail.

The fourth key and the run back

The green key changes the pace of the run. Picking it up sets off a red 'RUN' screen with 'CARTMAN: GIVE ME THOSE KEYS!!' and 'HE KNOWS YOU HAVE THEM ALL. NOWHERE IS SAFE NOW - RUN TO THE EXIT!' From there the job is to get back to the basement and turn the last lock, after which the door reads 'The exit door is open. Get out!' and E Escape finishes the run.

If you want the wider route around that final sequence, the South Hell walkthrough follows the whole run from the basement boards to the results screen.

The short version

Four keys, four colored locks, one exit door in the basement. Blue comes from the green lockers in the 4TH GRADE classroom, yellow from a lower locker in the LOCKER ROOM, red from outside the NURSE room, and green from the COMPUTER LAB. Each key opens its own colored lock, a key drops if Cartman catches you and can be picked up again where you fell, and the fourth key starts the chase to the exit.