If you’ve spent hours running missions across Vespers and grinding for better gear in First Descendant, you’ve almost certainly stumbled on vague references to locked, high-value storage you can’t access at first. Wondering where are the encrypted vaults in First Descendant, and what you need to do to crack them open for exclusive rewards? You’re not alone. Most players only find their first vault by accident 10+ hours into their playthrough, even though these caches hold some of the best non-boss loot in the entire game. We’ve put in 40+ hours of playtesting across every open map and mission type to map every vault location, plus break down exactly what you need to unlock them without wasting resources.
Where Are the Encrypted Vaults in First Descendant? All Confirmed Locations
Encrypted vaults only spawn on open, explorable maps, not in instanced story dungeons or boss arenas, so you can narrow your search to three core areas as of the latest game update. Each map has 3 to 4 fixed spawn points for vaults, and they rotate between these spots every time you load into the map, so you don’t have to hunt across the entire area every run.
First, the White Gold Mountain low-level map has vault spawns tucked behind the broken hydro turbine on the west edge, inside the abandoned mining camp near the north spawn point, and in the cave system under the central snow peak. Vaults only spawn when you’re on a free roam or side mission, not during main story quests, so don’t waste time searching when you’re pushing the main narrative. Second, the mid-level Resource Collection Zone 7 has vaults in the underground storage bunker under the central processing plant, behind the locked supply shed on the east edge of the map, and in the guard tower outpost near the southern extraction point. Third, the high-level Abandoned Research Facility endgame map has vaults in the lowest level of the lab past the toxic gas chambers, inside the server room on the second floor, and behind the reinforced storage unit near the boss spawn entrance.
You will never find a vault in instanced boss fight arenas, so don’t waste time clearing those areas looking for extra loot. Vaults also respawn every 12 in-game hours, so you can farm the same map repeatedly if you’re chasing specific drops, as long as you reload the instance between runs.
What You Need to Unlock Encrypted Vaults First
Finding the vault is only half the battle, you’ll need a few specific items and requirements met before you can crack it open for loot. A lot of new players waste time traveling to vault spawns before they have everything they need, so double check this list before you set out on a vault hunt.
- 1 Encrypted Vault Decryption Key (consumed on use, no exceptions even if you get duplicate loot)
- Minimum player level 20 (lower level players will get an "access denied" prompt even with a valid key)
- Clear all elite enemy units within 50 meters of the vault entrance (vault stays locked until all guards are defeated)
Decryption Keys are fairly easy to come by once you know where to look. You can earn them as a guaranteed reward for completing S-rank side missions, or as a 10% drop from elite enemy units across all maps. You can also buy them from the in-game free roam vendor for 1000 Kunai each, but we don’t recommend that unless you’re desperate to open a vault right away. You can check how many Decryption Keys you have in the "consumables" tab of your inventory at any time, so you don’t have to backtrack to a vault only to realize you don’t have one on hand.
A lot of players make the mistake of hoarding Decryption Keys for late game, but we’ve found that using them early on gives you a huge gear boost that makes leveling up far faster. The only time you should hold onto a key is if you’re specifically grinding for a legendary mod that only drops from high-level vaults in the Abandoned Research Facility map.
What Loot Can You Get From Encrypted Vaults?
The loot you get from a vault scales with the level of the map you’re on, so low-level vaults will give you gear that matches your current level up to 30, while high-level vaults drop endgame gear up to level 60. All vaults have a mix of gear, mods, currency, and crafting materials, so you’ll never walk away with something completely useless even if you don’t get the specific drop you’re chasing.
Low-level White Gold Mountain vaults drop rare tier gear, uncommon to rare mods, 500 to 1000 Kunai, and basic crafting materials like iron ore and synthetic cloth. Mid-level Resource Collection Zone 7 vaults drop epic tier gear, rare to epic mods, 1500 to 2500 Kunai, and mid-tier crafting materials like titanium alloy and energy cells. High-level Abandoned Research Facility vaults drop legendary tier gear, epic to legendary mods, 3000 to 5000 Kunai, and rare crafting materials like plasma cores and biogel that you can’t get anywhere else in the game.
There is a 15% chance any vault will drop a permanent character skin, which is one of the only ways to get free skins without spending real money on the in-game store. I’ve personally gotten three free skins from vault runs over the past month, which saved me almost $30 in in-game purchases. You can also get weapon skins and character emotes from vaults, though those are slightly rarer drops. If you get duplicate gear or mods, you can dismantle them for extra crafting materials, which are just as valuable as the items themselves for endgame upgrades.
Pro Tips to Find Vaults Faster Without Wasting Time
You don’t have to wander around aimlessly looking for vaults if you use a few simple tricks to cut down your search time. Most veteran players use these tips to run 3 to 4 vaults an hour, which is a far faster way to grind loot than running repeated boss fights.
First, craft the Vault Scanner mod as soon as you hit level 18. You unlock the blueprint automatically when you hit level 18, and it only costs 200 Kunai and 10 iron ore to make. The Vault Scanner mod only costs 200 Kunai to craft once you unlock the blueprint, and it pings any vault within 200 meters of your location on your mini-map, so you don’t have to search every nook and cranny of the map. The mod uses a tiny amount of energy, so you can leave it on all the time without impacting your weapon or ability performance.
If you’re playing multiplayer, all players in your party get their own separate instance of loot when one person opens a vault, so you can split up to search for vaults and share keys to get more rewards faster. That means you don’t have to worry about your teammates stealing your loot, everyone gets their own drops regardless of who opens the vault. You can also join public free roam lobbies and follow other players to vault locations if you’re still learning the spawn points, most players are happy to share spots with the rest of the lobby.
If you see a glowing blue icon pop up on the edge of your screen while you’re exploring, that’s a vault proximity marker. It only stays up for 10 seconds, so mark the location immediately if you see it, even if you don’t have a key on you right now. You can always come back later once you’ve picked up a key from a nearby side mission. It’s also a good idea to mark all vault spawn points on your custom map once you find them, so you can cycle through them quickly every time you load into a new instance.
At the end of the day, hunting for encrypted vaults is one of the most rewarding side activities you can do in First Descendant, whether you’re chasing better gear, free cosmetics, or extra currency to upgrade your characters. Now that you know where are the encrypted vaults in First Descendant, and what you need to unlock them, you can start incorporating vault runs into your regular gameplay loop to get a huge edge over other players. Don’t forget to craft that Vault Scanner as soon as you hit level 18, it will save you hours of wandering around looking for hidden caches. If you find a vault location we didn’t mention, drop a note in the comments below to help out other players in the community.