I've been trying to get into many highrises in the city i live in but even if I get in the door the majority of them have keycard locks for the stairs and elevators. Some even make it so that each keycard can only go to the card owners floor. For anyone who has run into this issue have you ever found a workaround or do you just give up and move onto the next building.

Is there security on site, or monitored CCTV? If not, you could tailgate a tenant up to their floor and walk the rest of the way up. You could hope the stairwell locks are only on the ground floor. I've done that in hotels but never residences. Overall this sounds like a pretty bad sign and I'd be looking for another building.

Butter knives are (hypothetically) your friend. Of course, many doors these days have latch protectors covering the strike plate, but not always- especially on older buildings.

Hypothetically, of course.

Posted by llux I've been trying to get into many highrises in the city i live in but even if I get in the door the majority of them have keycard locks for the stairs and elevators. Some even make it so that each keycard can only go to the card owners floor. For anyone who has run into this issue have you ever found a workaround or do you just give up and move onto the next building.

So this is just how doing roofs works. Hotels are usually easier, as they normally don't require keycards to enter the building or to use the elevator, but even hotels will sometimes keycard access to all of those things. Often times even if you can get to the roof hatch/door, one or more doors will be locked, alarmed, or there will even be cameras. Knowing the right route to take to avoid cameras and what tools necessary to gain entry to the roof is important, as getting caught on camera in the wrong place (if they watch the cams), setting off on alarm on a door you didn't need to take, or getting caught with tools in a building can be a quick turn for the worse. Roofs (and a good bit of involved infiltration and social engineering) will get you stopped and questioned. You will be caught by security at one point or another, on camera or off, and dealing with that appropriately is the difference between a charge or just a ban from the building. Wearing masks in a building is a bad idea, dressing like a ninja is a bad idea, bringing all your tools without knowing which ones you need is a bad idea. A lot of this is trial and error. Start out with some small hotels in your city. Don't bring any tools, just walk around and try to see what you can find. Try to be unremarkable, not sneaky. Test limits, see what you can come up with and then start building on those skills. The harder stuff will come with time as you grow more comfortable with tailing people, using tools, and dealing with confrontation or alarms and cams. A butter knife is your friend, and its quick to ditch in a pinch. Good luck man!

Posted by razzyt A butter knife is your friend, and its quick to ditch in a pinch. Good luck man!

Lol it too bad we didn't get into that vacant penthouse that one time.

Posted by MrBungle Lol it too bad we didn't get into that vacant penthouse that one time.

There's always next time Bungle ol' friend

Quiet persistence is key. One roof took me like 15 visits before I finally overcame the multiple security barriers to get to it. Shit, there's even a strategy in just visiting the building a lot so security gets used to your face. Don't want it too much. This is why a lot of the worst exploring behavior is done by people on the road visiting a city they don't live in, they have to have it that day. Patience is the biggest skill in doing a high rise roof smoothly with no trace. There have been multiple times I've found a roof door straight up left open on my 6th or 7th visit, persistence is key.

Posted by uLiveAndYouBurn Quiet persistence is key. One roof took me like 15 visits before I finally overcame the multiple security barriers to get to it. Shit, there's even a strategy in just visiting the building a lot so security gets used to your face. Don't want it too much. This is why a lot of the worst exploring behavior is done by people on the road visiting a city they don't live in, they have to have it that day. Patience is the biggest skill in doing a high rise roof smoothly with no trace. There have been multiple times I've found a roof door straight up left open on my 6th or 7th visit, persistence is key.

This! It's easy to hit a roof, what actually takes effort is leaving the roof in a position where the building management won't notice and make it harder for the next guy.