The Vaults
Not to be confused with "vaults", pregenerated features of the dungeon.
| Possibly constructed by some powerful madman, the Vaults are said to be home to great treasures. The blood spattered liberally around the entrance suggests that there is a certain amount of violence, too.
The entrance to this branch can be found between levels 13 and 14 of the Dungeon. This branch can only be exited while carrying at least 1 rune of Zot. This branch is 5 levels deep. This branch contains the entrance to the Crypt. This branch contains the silver rune of Zot. |
The Vaults are 5-floor branch filled with long, wide hallways and countless chambers. The gate to the Vaults can be found on either floor 13 or 14 of the Dungeon.
You can enter at any time, but you must have at least 1 rune of Zot (any rune counts) in order to exit back into the Dungeon.
Contents
Layout
The Vaults are a sprawling compound made up of wide hallways and small chambers of various shapes and sizes, most of which are separated by doors. The entirety of this branch is made of undiggable material; stone, metal, and rarely crystal walls. If you aren't careful, it's easy to get cut off from an upstairs. Try to clear rooms methodically to avoid enemies you missed showing up when you're already half dead.
Vaults:5
The fifth and final floor changes this pattern abruptly. Vaults:5 contains 4 very large rectangular chambers that take up almost the entire area. Each chamber is filled with loot and/or shops. A cross-shaped hallway cuts through the center, and the outer border is a hallway. The silver rune will be in one of the chambers, although there are mimics imitating the rune.
All three of the regular staircases from Vaults:4 lead to the center of Vaults:5. The center is always surrounded by 24 vault guards, as well as a number of other angry inhabitants.
Vaults:5 often contains much stronger monsters than the rest of the branch, including titans, quicksilver dragons, golden dragons, and liches.
Strategy
The Vaults are inhabited by a wide variety of monsters, with many foes from late Dungeon and early Depths. Getting beaten to death by brute force is an everpresent threat, but there's many magical monsters as well.
Pack enemies appear in great numbers, from deep trolls and high-level orc bands, to squads of yaktaurs firing at range. The wide hallways and open chambers make it difficult to effectively bottleneck opponents or cut off lines of fire.
The various guard units unique to the Vaults each cause their own issues:
p 
Vault guard- Plentiful lumbering oafs with heavy weapons and sturdy armour.
p 
Vault sentinel- Wakes up nearby enemies, afflicts you with Sentinel's Mark, often has a crossbow.
p 
Vault warden- Can seal doors and stairs around you, forcing you to kill it to escape.
p 
Ironbound convoker- Recalls and buffs enemy units from elsewhere on the floor.
p 
Ironbound preserver- Soaks partial damage for other enemies, effectively doubling their HP until the preserver dies.
p 
Ironbound frostheart- Freezes anything standing by the walls.
O 
Ironbound thunderhulk- Ogres who bombard you with lightning, but only from a distance.
Bring sufficient firepower, take your time, and be ready to take a different staircase down if the one you just used places you in a fight you don't want to deal with right away. Also, if you get hit with a Sentinel's Mark, retreat to an empty floor as quickly as possible. The reinforcements it will bring can be devastating on a mostly unexplored floor.
Do not enter Vaults:5 before you are ready for it. If you had difficulty with floors 1-4, floor 5 will probably be too much for you, and even peeking down there can be immediately fatal. Many players will do Vaults:1-4, move on to the other branches, then come down to get the rune.
Vaults:5 Strategy
As soon as you climb down to V:5, you can be locked in by a vault warden, so preparation is important.
Preparation
Resistances are more important than usual. Shadow dragons and storm dragons can deal surprising damage if you don't resist them. Other elemental threats like titans and deep elves are common, too.
When entering V:5 for the first time, use what buffs are at your disposal before heading down: Haste, Might, Brilliance, Heroism/Finesse...
- Haste is particularly important, either for darting through the ring of guards towards a hallway, or for killing as many of them as quickly as possible.
- Invisibility isn't very helpful here -- the vault guards and many of the most dangerous threats down here can all see invisible.
Tactics
There are two/three 'common' strategies to tackling the entry vault:
- Stair dancing. Only adjacent enemies follow you up the stairs. If you have good AC (and are reasonably lucky), stair dancing can clean up the entrance party.
- However, stair dancing is complicated by a variety of foes. Vault wardens can seal stairs. Tentacled monstrosities can constrict you, and dragons can trample you away. Having a way to snipe enemies (javelins, all manner of high-level spells, offensive Invocations, evocables, etc.) is very nice to have.
- In addition, the stairs may become too dangerous to climb down. Sometimes, the best thing to do is teleport away - see below for detail.
- Teleport strategy. The basic gist is to teleport (or use an escape hatch) to land in a random location. This may land you in one of the sparsely-populated hallways along the edges of the level, where you can begin methodically clearing the level. Your goal is to end up in the corners and create a safe place to rest (by killing nearby monsters).
- Of course, it might also land you in the middle of one of the treasure chambers, along with an assortment of far deadlier enemies. You may need to teleport multiple times to get a good location - teleport early and often. Buffs are highly recommended.
- Being loud. Blast through everything in your path. If you can sustain combat for a long time, large AOE can be a good idea.
- A scroll of immolation will tear through the initial vault guards, but you'll absolutely need as much fire resistance as possible. Read the scroll on the guards (or other enemies) and start a chain reaction. It's extremely loud, so will attract a bunch of enemies, but successfully pulling it off is a blast (literally). If you plan to teleport to the edges, making noise in the center can actually be to your benefit.
- Offensive spells: Freezing Cloud, Ozocubu's Refrigeration, Starburst, Olgreb's Toxic Radiance/Ignite Poison... Extremely high-level spells like Ignition, Fire Storm, Polar Vortex, or Shatter are very effective, if you can cast them. Be aware that the noise you generate will wake and lure out monsters from the four treasure vaults.
- Discord is a powerful crowd clearing effect, though watch out for the frenzied monsters you have to deal with. Other subtle effects like Metabolic Englaciation, Eringya's Noxious Bog, and Alistair's Intoxication also work well.
- Without magic, divine abilities are useful: Cheibriados's Slouch, Nemelex Xobeh's deck of destruction, Ru's Apocalypse, or Qazlal's Disaster Area. It's best not to waste them on the initial vault guards, though.
- Without divine powers, a condenser vane or tin of tremorstones work well at clearing crowds. Even with magic or divine abilities, Evocables can be a useful supplement.
The worst possible thing that can happen on V:5 is to receive a Sentinel's Mark. If this happens, quaff a potion of cancellation or quickly retreat up the stairs to V:4. Normally, targeting yourself with your own purple draconian breath or Yara's Violent Unravelling isn't a recommended tactic, but it may just well be worth the damage.
Monsters
Uniques
S  Aizul
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H  Asterion
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d  Bai Suzhen
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L  Boris
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@  Donald
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@  Frederick
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V  Jory
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R  Mara
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@  Margery
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A  Mennas
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@  Nikola
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o  Saint Roka
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Q  Sojobo
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D  Xtahua
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a  Zenata
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History
- Prior to 0.30, you needed one rune of Zot in order to enter this branch. (This requirement has now been moved to the exit)
- 0.28 removed ironbound beastmasters.
- 0.27 added ironbound frosthearts, ironbound thunderhulks, and ironbound beastmasters. Additionally, many of the weaker enemies that could spawn in the Vaults were reduced in number or removed altogether.
- Prior to 0.14, it was not necessary to obtain a rune of Zot to enter this branch, and its entrance was located on D:15-20. Also, the four chambers on Vault:5 only had entrances on the corners nearest the center of the floor.
- Prior to 0.12, the Vaults were made up of 8 floors, the first 7 of which were all wide open areas spotted with rectangular rooms. Also, the vault guard was the only guard-type monster found here, and they usually appeared on the eighth floor.
