DRC lockers in DMZ: Shopping, Reactor and Air Base

Read the full name on your key before choosing a DRC locker. Shopping, Reactor and Air Base are three different destinations with different access problems. A key for the locker does not establish access through every door on the way there.

Choose your DRC locker

Locker and key	Destination	Key acquisition	Main access problem
Shopping DRC Locker	Underground laboratory beneath NuriGO Mall	Observed in a Cheonwang Peak Array safe; variable loot	Shopping Hacks lab access, then a separate core-gated side room
Reactor DRC Locker	Underwater in Reactor 02 at Haneul Nuclear Reactor	Listed Fallen Ember reward	Radiation preparation, descent to the pool and underwater visibility
Air Base DRC Weapons Locker	Secure armory deep in the Chang-san Air Base bunker	Unverified	Demonstrated route uses Iron Citadel’s armory, a right turn and a window

Use the Key Finder to separate a key’s pickup area from the place it opens. An area reference helps with navigation; it does not identify an exact bunker entrance or underwater locker.

Shopping: prepare the key and the extra cores

The Shopping DRC walkthrough follows Operation Shopping Hacks into the laboratory, through its computer defence and toward an additional side room. Three interactions matter:

1. The mission’s earlier laboratory gate uses four working K9 Battery Cores.
2. The later side-room gate has a reported eight-core requirement. Read that terminal’s current counter; its cost is not independently verified here.
3. The locker inside needs the Shopping DRC Locker key. Cores do not replace it.

Need the key first? The Cheonwang safe route includes an observed fourth-floor server-building safe pickup. That makes it a search lead, not a guaranteed spawn. The locker opening shows Manual: APOC-338 and weapons, with no established fixed loot table.

Reactor: prepare for an underwater opening

Follow the Reactor DRC Locker guide for the pool search and named interaction. Bring Radiation Gear and a Gas Mask, plus supplies for the return journey. The demonstrated opening takes place underwater with Reactor 02 on the HUD.

One opening visibly contains an Ultra 3-Plate Ballistic Gel Vest. The same player reports a less valuable previous opening. A recipe or Manual found elsewhere during the raid is not automatically a reward from this locker.

Ordinary reactor container searches, the Reactor 02 Control Room and The Chemist’s Secure Armory are separate stops. Check which key and objective you are following before adding another detour.

Air Base: check the item before committing to the bunker

The Air Base DRC walkthrough follows an observed approach through Iron Citadel’s armory: turn right, jump through a window and look between the surrounding lockers for the yellow-and-blue container. Its named unlock is readable in gameplay. The key description lists B6; its acquisition method remains unverified.

Keep the Air Base DRC key distinct from the Supreme Leader Access Card, Air Base Access Card – Multi Use and the access-card upgrades in Operation Iron Citadel. Opening one of those doors does not prove that it unlocks the DRC locker. Do not spend a deployment searching for a claimed guaranteed Air Base Manual or boss drop on this evidence.

What does DRC mean?

The inspected Air Base locker has a DRC logo with Defense Research Center printed beneath it. For finding loot, match the complete key name to the interaction prompt: that shared branding does not make the three keys interchangeable.

Modern Warfare 4’s official Warzone beta material also names DRC Advanced Systems, a drone assembly and manufacturing company associated with Zodiac. That reference concerns a different mode and does not establish a fourth Hajin locker. Older Modern Warfare II material calls DRC Zone 1 Defense Research Center too; the readable label on the Air Base locker is the direct evidence relevant to this guide.

If your key will not open the locker

Check the interaction’s full name, whether you are still outside a separately gated room and whether the container has already been opened. For Shopping, inspect the correct core terminal. For Reactor, return to air when needed rather than spending your remaining breath in the inventory.

Choose an extraction plan before the detour and leave room for the item you want. Read the Weapon Manuals guide before treating a Manual, recipe and finished weapon as the same reward.