Black Lion Key Question

I got one as a drop today. Been awhile, to the point where I forgot they could drop, or maybe assumed they just stopped doing that.

But it got me wondering. There used to be a chance to get a key as you opened a chest, like a chance that it didn't use the key. I'd call the frequency 'uncommon', but hardly rare, as I got them quite often. Then that seemed to stop. Did that stop altogether, or did they just make the drop chance super rare, like the chance of getting a key as loot?

You can preview the black lion chests for contents inside and there should be a golden black lion key or something along those lines....

I just bought 25 for the hell of it, I didn't get one as a drop but I get a few Dreamthistle skins ateast :yum:

only the golden key which is I think uncommon in the chest.Don't quote me on that as I'm not in game right now to preview a chest to know.

There are circumstances in which you can get an extra key, notably when you get a duplicate of something you already have unlocked. And, as others have noted, there's the Golden BL key, which offers a guaranteed minimum rarity of drop (spoiler alert: it's still mostly stuff that most people won't care about).

I believe the OP is correct that there was a point in time when BL keys dropped from the chest, but that hasn't been the case since they added the preview panel for the container.

Actually, if your drop is a duplicate (of something you already have unlocked), you will receive 2 Black Lion Keys. One to replace the one you used, and one extra.

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Actually, if your drop is a duplicate (of something you already have unlocked), you will receive 2 Black Lion Keys. One to replace the one you used, and one extra.

What? - how? since when? :o

@notebene.3190 said:I got one as a drop today. Been awhile, to the point where I forgot they could drop, or maybe assumed they just stopped doing that.

But it got me wondering. There used to be a chance to get a key as you opened a chest, like a chance that it didn't use the key. I'd call the frequency 'uncommon', but hardly rare, as I got them quite often. Then that seemed to stop. Did that stop altogether, or did they just make the drop chance super rare, like the chance of getting a key as loot?

in the past the key were a drop if i recall correctly, but now you do only have the chance of the 3 golden keys.

@Lindaklingomat.1253 said:

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Actually, if your drop is a duplicate (of something you already have unlocked), you will receive 2 Black Lion Keys. One to replace the one you used, and one extra.

Same here. didn't know about that.

@Lindaklingomat.1253 said:

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Actually, if your drop is a duplicate (of something you already have unlocked), you will receive 2 Black Lion Keys. One to replace the one you used, and one extra.

Since around the time they added the account-bound skins etc to the chest, I think around LS3:3.

Yeah keys used to be one of the possible drops from the chests but they took them out at some point in the past. Although I suppose they could always add them back in if they wanted to.

Also my understanding is that ideally (from Anet's perspective) no one should get 2 keys from a chest because once you've got an item you can only use once it should be removed from the drop table for you, but the double key thing is there as a back-up in case you do somehow get one.