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item key1

From Quake Wiki

Item Key 1 (Silver Key)

This item can be picked up by the player in order to get access to silver doors. In order to make a func_door require the Silver key, it's spawnflag must use flag 16.

Opening a key door while carrying a key will consume that key and open the door. Players can only carry one Silver key at a time. So walking over a Silver key while already carrying a Silver key will leave that key on the ground.

The visual appearance and in-game name of the key is determined by what style the level is. A medieval map will have regular keys, a runic map will have runekeys, and a base map will have keycards.

Note that by using flags 256, 512, 1028, and 2048, you can make the key not appear in certain difficulties/modes. (Easy, Normal, Hard, and Deathmatch respectively.) This can be used to make keys harder to obtain in higher difficulties.