Golden Key

The  is a rare item which unlocks a golden chest in Sanctuary. This chest contains weapons of purple and pink (e-tech) rarity scaled to the level of the character at the time of opening. If a golden key is used it is gone forever.

Ways to get Golden Keys

 * Pre-ordering Borderlands 2.
 * Signing up for Gearbox's Shift service.
 * Entering a Shift code, periodically distributed by Gearbox employees on Twitter.

Issues

 * The number of keys assigned to each player is stored in profile.bin, and all keys are lost upon deletion of this file. Profile.bin is currently not backed up to the Steam Cloud, so users who uninstall Borderlands 2 without first backing up their profile lose their keys. 2K and Gearbox currently do not replace lost keys, but say they are working on the problem.

Unsupported

 * There is a glitch on the Xbox 360 that allows the chest to be opened infinite times. The host needs to look at the chest (so X is displayed) and another player opens the chest with at least one key. This seconds player player can now open the chest infinite times for everyone to loot out of it. The host can now stop viewing the chest and can loot along with everyone else.
 * At present keys can be cheated in on PC by modifying the profile.bin file.
 * It is also possible to get infinite golden keys by playing splitscreen for example: if player(1) or player(2) and so on join they recieve a golden key, you can let the player leave and join again and it will have a golden key again. The loot will be leveled to the level of the key user. This is confirmed on Playstation 3