Favourite vaults

[joellercoaster]

Along with the uniques thread...

I like the ones with, for want of a better word, atmosphere. My favourites so far are the Dire Elephant temple thingy in the Lair (joke statues, very funny ha ha), and the one with the series of sliding doors and the Ancient Champions.

Stuff like this adds so much to my enjoyment of Crawl

[ryak]

The big room composed entirely of secret doors containing nothing but dangerous monsters.

[Grimm]

The wizard labs. I've only seen the flesh one so far. Very atmospheric.

[Grimm]

Just remembered my most favorite: the gnoll castle. I enjoy assaulting a large castle. More vaults like that, tribal fortifications that need to be sniped carefully, would be excellent.

[joellercoaster]

Have just seen the Gateway to Hell vault on Lair:8.

Hilarious!

(I fought my way to the gates of Hell and all I got was this lousy crystal ball...)

[vintermann]

You know that vault with a Mahkleb altar and a horde of non-flying demons (3-5) surrounded by lava? I ran into that with a Zin priest recently. Preaching to the iron imps, causing them to go drown themselves in lava - priceless.

[Grimm]

I've never played Zin - is that what he does, make demons suicide? I am intrigued.

[KoboldLord]

I've never played Zin - is that what he does, make demons suicide? I am intrigued.

One of Zin's activated abilities gives the affected monsters a status effect randomly selected from a list. In this case, it was confusion.

In other cases, the monsters get haste or berserk, so use with caution.

I'm fond of the river that I sometimes find bisecting a level. It's always tactically interesting, sometimes for me and sometimes for the monsters.

[smeej]

The big metal room with a hidden door that is full of a ton of bug monsters. And no treasure.

Also, bee rooms. Because dropping mephitic cloud in it rules.

[zasvid]

I'm fond of rooms with doors spanning multiple tiles and an assortment of tough monsters inside. Those doors suggest trouble and trouble is what I get. Now, if the monsters inside were themed somehow...

Also, castles are awesome.

[mageykun]

The big metal room with a hidden door that is full of a ton of bug monsters. And no treasure.

I hate that vault. It always spawns at depths where the nastier bugs are reasonably unkillable, and they're faster than almost everything. The only option for most of my characters to survive it is to recognize the vault, back away, and get clear before something opens the door on you.

I remember once in 0.6 I found a whole floor that consisted of a giant cross floating in a field of lava. Not sure if a whole floor counts as a vault though. I'm kinda disappointed I haven't seen it again.

[Tiber]

I remember once in 0.6 I found a whole floor that consisted of a giant cross floating in a field of lava. Not sure if a whole floor counts as a vault though. I'm kinda disappointed I haven't seen it again.

I've seen a floor like that, but I remember having distinctly different feelings about it after the bees and mosquitoes ran away over the lava and a lava worm burned up an enchant armor scroll.

[danr]

I just found an awesome vault in Vault: 6 or 7. I opened the door, and there was a guardian serpent, and behind it was THE MOTHERLODE OMGZORZ - multiple artefact dragon armours, sparkling broad axes, the biggest haul of loot I'd ever seen, better than any branch end. Thank you RNG!

So I fought my way in and ...

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Scroll down if you want to have this vault spoiled for you




















Almost everything was a mimic! At the end there was a shiny ring mail and a few scrolls, that was about it! I didn't feel ripped off though because I knew it had been too good to be true, and the armours would not have fit me anyway.


[Grimm]

Mimic hoard, check:

I remember once in 0.6 I found a whole floor that consisted of a giant cross floating in a field of lava. Not sure if a whole floor counts as a vault though. I'm kinda disappointed I haven't seen it again.

The one with the crystal walls? I've seen that about a dozen times. Very atmospheric floor.

[Dustbin]

Probably the Zot vault with the moths of wrath behind glass and about 70 trolls and ogres.

Least favourite are bee rooms, always encounter them really early and either die or have to leave the floor.

[joellercoaster]

the Dire Elephant temple thingy in the Lair

Just ran into this one again, as a squishy caster-type instead of a Blade Hands Moulinex. And have been involved in an absolutely epic battle of attrition over it for a good half an hour now... don't know how I'd have survived without semicontrolled blink.

Is the wand of lightning guaranteed? It's a pretty cunningly helpful addition!

Once again, completely brilliant vault.

[TwilightPhoenix]

I've a little tired of the dire elephant vault. It's all I ever get on Lair 8 now! That or the dogs hiding in a corner. I want to see the others.


I don't know if this counts as a vault, but once the floor of the Vaults was covered in rectangular pools of lava, filled with lava snakes, fish, etc. Wouldn't have been so bad, but there was also a timed bazaar on the floor. So I was stuck running around frantically while lava monsters took pot shots at my scrolls looking for the bazaar. Eventually I found it: in a room filled with flame clouds. Got in their safely since I had good fire resistance and ended up spending a bunch of gold, largely on artifacts to raise my score in case that character won. He didn't and later died due to running out of consumables, mostly because I used them all to make it that far.

[lucy_ferre]

The ancient champions' vault, all the wizlabs (except for Iskenderun's Mystic Tower), and the small vault with the controlled teleport square leading to a treasure room.

[Grimm]

I am digging the Humanoid Barracks - that series of small rooms with orcs, gnolls, kobolds and goblins, plus piles of their rubbish possessions.

[varkarrus]

The one full of Kobolds and Big Kobolds. Especially if you are a berserker.

[Grimm]

Christ yes, the kobold room is - with rPois - a deep leaning pleasure for melee characters.

[Stormfox]

The kobold vault is also a blast for evaporating transmuters. Burn a couple confusion potions to yield at least half a dozen poison? Fair trade.

[Curio]

The kobold vault is also a blast for evaporating transmuters. Burn a couple confusion potions to yield at least half a dozen poison? Fair trade.

And for those with Ignite poison. And bee-room.
I tell you, this spell rocks - spam it a few times and a whole bunch of those suckers die in a second

[joellercoaster]

I just found the centaur garden portal!

Unfortunately it was in a part of the game I'd parked and come back to much later than I normally would, so it was basically a storehouse of delicious centaurs to eat/zombify, but it's a very nice vault. Atmospheric 'local hazards' and good loot too

[absolutego]

this is so not-favorite:



that yellow thingy is the staircase to the vaults.
and nikola (no relec yet) and nessos are wandering around the floor just above.

[Tiber]

Jory's castle was kinda cool, though Jory himself wasn't all that hard for being a unique who gets his own vault.

[SPLH]

A spiral maze full of Great Orbs of Eyes, Eyes of devastation and Giant Orange Brains, with transparent windows... of Doom ! Very, very fun to do, especially as a berserker, juggling between amulets and rings to protect my limited intelligence, clarity of mind and speed !

[XuaXua]

I've a little tired of the dire elephant vault. It's all I ever get on Lair 8 now! That or the dogs hiding in a corner. I want to see the others.

You know you need to sometimes burn some of that forest down around the interior of the dire elephant vault, right? Couple times I've found stuff.

Consider yourself lucky, anyway.

I keep getting that F#$%#$%ing bug/rock worm one with a bunch of bugs and ZERO treasure. It's like I made it all the way down to Lair:8 and fight my way through spiny worms and rock worms and I get maybe a potion.

Thanks, Crawl.

Granted, I recently realized that there is a secret door to a room with a green dragon and a lair of treasure, so I don't mind so much.

[XuaXua]

I just found the centaur garden portal!

Unfortunately it was in a part of the game I'd parked and come back to much later than I normally would, so it was basically a storehouse of delicious centaurs to eat/zombify, but it's a very nice vault. Atmospheric 'local hazards' and good loot too

You burned the trees down, right?

[absolutego]

Granted, I recently realized that there is a SPOILER SPOILER

is that the one that looks kinda like the scandinavian peninsula? because i've gotten it twice in a row and there's nothing there, nothing. i just went back in my current game (all the way from zot) and burned a mapping scroll to no avail.

[Kate]

Mapping scrolls don't show you areas behind secret doors. (This might change, whenever someone gets round to coding it ).

[XuaXua]

Granted, I recently realized that there is a SPOILER SPOILER

is that the one that looks kinda like the scandinavian peninsula? because i've gotten it twice in a row and there's nothing there, nothing. i just went back in my current game (all the way from zot) and burned a mapping scroll to no avail.

It's the big area just near the entrance, search for secret doors along the inside, but I do suggest taking care of everything else first.

Worst case scenario, check out the files in the directories and look for the map layout.

[Tiber]

Lair 8 always has a vault. If you see a single stone wall sticking out amongst rock, That's a dragon vault. The entrance isn't necessarily there though.

And I believe mapping scrolls were specifically changed to not show secret areas; which is IMO, a completely dumb and counter-intuitive change.

[absolutego]

thanks xuaxua! it was behind two trees, it took me like a million years. i'm thick that way.
i took it out on the dragon. with a crystal spear. (and alls i gots was some moneys.)
the vault itself is fun, though.

[fnwc]

And I believe mapping scrolls were specifically changed to not show secret areas; which is IMO, a completely dumb and counter-intuitive change.

Is this true? This gets rid of one of the best things about mapping scrolls.

[Tiber]

And I believe mapping scrolls were specifically changed to not show secret areas; which is IMO, a completely dumb and counter-intuitive change.

Is this true? This gets rid of one of the best things about mapping scrolls.

https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=700&p=7713&hilit=mapping#p7713

[XuaXua]

And I believe mapping scrolls were specifically changed to not show secret areas; which is IMO, a completely dumb and counter-intuitive change.

Is this true? This gets rid of one of the best things about mapping scrolls.

https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=700&p=7713&hilit=mapping#p7713

I started playing after this was done, so I never knew it happened. I think it is quite terrible, considering the limited quantity of mapping scrolls available and the inability to truly actively train traps till it is too late to go back and find a secret timed-out vault.

Deep Dwarves have it good with their ability. Instead of not finding items, have mapping scrolls scale based on Evocations ability; no-low Evoc, get a map spray based on the mid-range mutation for mapping, good evoc, get a spray based on the high mutation, really good evoc, get full map.

Or just get the whole damn map, as said earlier.

[XuaXua]

Lair 8 always has a vault. If you see a single stone wall sticking out amongst rock, That's a dragon vault. The entrance isn't necessarily there though.
.

The rock worms and spiny worms and other crap back there will totally trick you into thinking you should go the opposite direction.

[joellercoaster]

Ooh.

I just spent half my train journey home exploring a whole-level Dungeon vault I'd never seen before, in 0.9.

It's a big, complicated lava level I found at D:21, full of Fire Giants, Dragons, Fire Bats, Hell Knights (and so on, and so forth). It has steel-walled fortressy bits (with Iron Golems), bits that are only accessible via levitation (and maybe coming from underneath, I've only found one downstairs so far) and it's great fun.

Just wanted to report back to say it's great! Keep up the good work, whoever is making these really big theme vaults

[joellercoaster]

So, in over 480 games, I just found my first ever Wizlab portal. At least I assume that's what it was, lots of purple crystal walls.

The arch was empty, natch (same level as the entrance to Crypt, which I had immediately cleared then come back - dumb!).

Does anyone else never, ever see these?

[edit: Also got the Crypt ending with the glass and steel Lich cabinets for the first time, which was great fun since I had LRD at high power. Although I did accidentally let one out, it happened on the same turn as it died - the bad news was that Khufu was in there too and behind the big glass wall - talk about tiptoeing past!]

[Grimm]

I've seen only one Wizlab ever, but I managed to get into it. It was awesome. Walls made of flesh.

[Galefury]

Wizlabs are probably my favourite portal vaults. So awesome. Sadly there are still a few I haven't seen. I only got Cigotuvi, Zonguldrok, Hellbinder and Cloud Mage so far, and some repeats. Wizlabs don't seem especially rare for me, at the depths they spawn at. Of course you have to get there first, which means many chars will never get the chance to find one.

I also got the Lethe full level vault once. Got doubleshafted into it actually. That was pretty cool, and I even survived.

[Stormfox]

Branch variant rather than a vault, but in trunk the other day I got the crocodile in the Sewers. Good times.

(Good thing that the designer didn't stick strictly with the urban legend and make it an alligator.)

[joellercoaster]

Hahaha, the Hungry Kobolds!

Well, I laughed, anyway.

[brgmahiko]

the corner vault with metal walls except 3 diggable tiles on one corner. dig at your own risk. and at your own reward

[Shade]

Along with the uniques thread...

I like the ones with, for want of a better word, atmosphere. My favourites so far are the Dire Elephant temple thingy in the Lair (joke statues, very funny ha ha), and the one with the series of sliding doors and the Ancient Champions.

Stuff like this adds so much to my enjoyment of Crawl

The first time I did that ending I was 100% sure there was a trigger to make them all un-petrify. If the developers were real jerkfaces they'd have an un-petrify trigger 1/7 of the time or so... My favourite mini-vault is the honey bear vault. It's a nice little nod without being too hamfisted. (I like nods in games, but only if they aren't too hammy and they they relate to durable cultural phenomena. A Justin Bieber reference would be ridiculously opaque 10 years from now.)

[Grimm]

I don't think the honey bear vault is a nod to anything other than the fact that bears like honey.

[Shade]

I don't think the honey bear vault is a nod to anything other than the fact that bears like honey.

Shattering my hopes of a Winnie the Poo reference to go with the Goldilocks one. Tsk. tsk. I grew up in rural northern Ontario. Bear pretty much like everything. My SO is from Montreal, the next time I take her North we're going to the municipal dump to bear watch (because they never come in the yard when she's around). I'm a classy guy, nothing says 'hot date' like taking your lady to a literal dump. After that I have to work on getting her to shoot guns... (at pop cans and stuff.) I have a strict policy of trying to maximize the horror of any urban folk with proper urban Canadian sensibilities I bring North.

[Grimm]

Winnie the Poo

This can be the shit-themed unique in the sewers.

[Rapigel]

I like the deserted forge. It shows up early and often yields the Singing Sword, which is fun to use early on, nice for an early short > long blades switch and has entertaining new dialogue.