What is the best way to find the timed vaults?

[supified]

I seem to find them rarely, sewers is the one I run into the most and even that is very rare. I am assuming auto explore is too time wasting and likely makes it less common to get to these in time, but what is the best way to find them?

[whelen]

Their timer changes depending on how close you are, as well as how much time is left.

For instance, you'll hear something like, "You hear the frantic ticking of an ancient clock, a long ways away." That means the timer is almost up and the gate is far away. Or, you might hear something like, "you hear the brisk ticking of an ancient clock nearby." Ergo, the portal is nearby and you've got a fair amount of time left.

[tcjsavannah]

It's also a good reason to carry along at least one scroll of magic mapping along because it'll reveal itself (in tiles it looks like a shop so just head towards the first shop you see)...

[KoboldLord]

Depends on the portal type.

For unannounced portals, like the Sewers you mentioned, there's a long timer as you explore the level. This timer is long enough that you can comfortably explore the entire level before it expires. You might have problems if during your explorations of the *previous* level you poke your head down all three staircases to see what's below, as is a common practice in many other roguelikes and in old versions of Crawl. Stair-dipping starts the long timer on the first dip, unfortunately, and the long timer does eventually run out.

When you get close to the portal, the long timer gets suspended if it still hasn't expired, and a short timer starts ticking. The short timer in unannounced, too, and it starts the moment you see the fringe of the portal vault, which usually extends a few tiles in various directions around the portal. Portal vaults are easier to recognize after you've seen them a few times, fortunately. Anyway, when the short timer starts ticking you have to really rush in fast. If you stop and kill all the monsters, you might run out of time. Leave any monsters that aren't an emergency threat or an otherwise impassable barrier alone. Even if you take a hit on the way in, you will usually but not always have a safe spot at the entrance where you can heal up.

Announced vaults such as the Labyrinth and the Bazaar start with the short timer the moment you hit the level. For best results, pop off a magic mapping scroll and beeline straight for the most likely spot. You have a little bit more time since it is expected that you'll have to search an entire level, but don't bother killing anything that you don't have to. Monsters don't follow you through the portal, and they'll wander off or go to sleep by the time you're ready to return to the main dungeon.

Unannounced bazaars and troves stick around until you actually enter. Take your time.

[mageykun]

I personally find the only timer portals that are really hard to get to are wizlabs. They're unannounced, and tend to show up in places like elf and the vaults, where I tend to take my time working through crowds of enemies, and retreating to heal possibly several times. By the time I discover a patch of green or purple crystal and suddenly start to rush, the portal inside is already gone. I only seem to find them if they start near the stairs.

[joellercoaster]

+1.

I've never even seen a wizlab (with an open portal anyway).

[Sprinter]

Only had problems with wizlab for the rest ur either warned it expires or u can take ur time to explore whole lvl. If u see a purple crystal portal rush inside.

[danr]

Wow, I had no idea - I found a wizlab and went in fairly leisurely. Lucked out I guess.

[KoboldLord]

Wizlabs are fairly tricky because the vault footprint is usually quite a bit larger than with sewers or ossuaries. If you nick the edge of the vault with your line-of-sight early on without recognizing it, the short timer starts and you probably won't notice until the portal times out. There's also more ground to cover when dashing for the portal, and the ambient monsters are significantly more threatening than the rats or zombies surrounding most sewers or ossuaries, so you have to spend more time getting to the portal even if you are aware of it.

Volcanoes are another one that I've had trouble with. The outer edges of some of the entrance vaults blend right into the Orc or Lair background, so more than once I've walked right past a live portal without noticing.

[joellercoaster]

I have also never seen a volcano. And maybe one ice cave, come to think of it.

Could there be a little more hinting of vaults. Maybe like a message when you trigger the short timer, no matter what the vault type? Otherwise, this is all very, very spoiler-needing (at least, given my own 'quiet portal' finding progress, and I'm pretty spoiled).

[Stormfox]

I have also never seen a volcano. And maybe one ice cave, come to think of it.

Could there be a little more hinting of vaults. Maybe like a message when you trigger the short timer, no matter what the vault type? Otherwise, this is all very, very spoiler-needing (at least, given my own 'quiet portal' finding progress, and I'm pretty spoiled).

There's been a great suggestion in another thread for how to do this. Similar to the announcements of labyrinth and bazaar portals when you enter the level, only the portal vault message triggers when you get LOS on one of the border tiles.