If you’ve spent any time roaming the open zones of The First Descendant, you’ve almost certainly stumbled past glowing, locked metal chests you can’t interact with, and found yourself asking where are the encrypted vaults in the first descendant, and how you can get the rare loot hidden inside. I’ve put over 60 hours into the game since launch, most of it spent wandering every corner of the map to track down collectibles and farm endgame gear, so I’ve mapped every single vault location and figured out all the tricks to unlock them without wasting resources. This guide covers everything you need to know to start farming vaults today, no advanced story progress required.
Where Are the Encrypted Vaults in The First Descendant: All Zone Locations
Encrypted vaults spawn in every open world zone in the game, and they’re all marked by a faint blue glow around the door, plus a small control panel to the left of the entrance that lights up when you’re within 10 meters. They’re easy to mix up with regular common chests at first, but regular chests don’t have the control panel, and they open without a key. Let’s break down all confirmed locations per zone, so you don’t have to waste hours searching like I did my first playthrough.
In the Vespers Starting Zone, there are three common encrypted vaults. The first is 200 meters west of the initial spawn point, tucked between two broken shipping containers next to the abandoned monorail track. The second is inside the small underground research bunker at the northern edge of the zone, you’ll have to clear a small group of level 5 scavenger enemies to get to the door. The third is on top of the water tower at the center of the abandoned town, you can climb up using the metal ladders on the south side of the tower.
The Rift Plains has four vaults total, two common and two rare. The common ones are next to the giant crystal formation in the eastern part of the zone, and inside the ruined fort at the southern border. The rare vaults are hidden: one is in a cave behind the waterfall in the northwest corner, and the other is on the second floor of the destroyed enemy command outpost at the center of the zone. Rare vaults have a darker metal frame and a purple glow instead of blue, so you can spot them from further away.
Frost Valley has three more vaults, two common and one rare. The common ones are near the frozen lake in the southern part of the zone, and inside the abandoned mining tunnel west of the Frost Colossus boss spawn. The rare vault is at the top of the mountain in the northeast corner, you’ll need to use a character with a grappling hook or double jump ability to reach the ledge it’s sitting on. You won’t find any vaults in instanced dungeon areas, so don’t waste time searching those, they only spawn in open, free-roam zones.
How to Unlock Encrypted Vaults Once You Find Them
Finding the vaults is only half the battle, you’ll need the right items to open them, and there are a few rules you need to know to avoid wasting resources. All encrypted vaults require a Vault Decryption Key to open, and there are two tiers of keys: common and rare. Common keys work for blue-glow common vaults, and rare keys work for purple-glow rare vaults. You can use a rare key on a common vault, but you won’t get any extra loot, so it’s always a waste to do that.
Keys are not super hard to farm once you know where to look, and you don’t have to grind for hours to get enough to open all the vaults you find each day. The most reliable ways to get keys are:
- Elite marked enemies (red skull icon on your map) in all open world zones have a 30% drop rate for common decryption keys, and a 5% drop rate for rare keys
- World boss clears, including the Sand Wurm in Rift Plains and Frost Colossus in Frost Valley, guarantee one rare key per weekly clear per account
- Completing 3 daily bounties for the Resource Guild gives you one free common key as a bonus reward, plus extra gold and enhancement materials
You don't need to complete any story quest to access vaults, even new players that just finished the tutorial can hunt for vaults and use keys to open them. The only restriction is that you have to be at least level 10 to get rare key drops from elite enemies, so if you’re below level 10, focus on farming common keys first to open the lower tier vaults. Keys are also account-bound, so you can farm them on your main character and use them on alts if you want, no restrictions there.
To open a vault, just walk up to the control panel next to the door, interact with it, and select the key you want to use. The door will slide open after 2 seconds, and you’ll be able to access the main chest inside. That part is straightforward, but most players miss the extra loot step right after opening.
What Loot Can You Earn From Encrypted Vaults?
The loot you get from vaults is scaled to your current character level, so you’ll always get items you can actually use, no matter what level you are when you open them. Common vaults have lower tier loot, but it’s still way better than what you get from regular chests or basic enemy drops. You can expect 10-25 thousand gold, 5-10 enhancement cores, 2-4 rare weapon parts, and a 10% chance to get a rare weapon mod from a common vault.
Rare vaults have much better rewards, and they’re the only consistent source of some endgame items. You’ll get 30-50 thousand gold, 15-20 enhancement cores, 5-10 epic weapon parts, a 40% chance to get an epic weapon mod, and a 25% chance to get a legendary weapon schematic. Some rare vaults also have a 15% chance to drop exclusive character cosmetic items you can't get anywhere else, including special outfits and weapon skins that aren’t sold in the in-game cash shop.
Most players don’t know that after you open a vault, three small waves of enemies will spawn outside the door 10 seconds after you interact with the main chest. If you clear all three waves, a hidden bonus chest will spawn next to the main one, with twice as much loot as the main chest. The bonus chest also has a 10% higher chance to drop legendary items than the main vault chest. I forgot to do this my first 10 or so vault runs, and I missed out on hundreds of thousands of gold and dozens of enhancement cores because of it. It only takes 30 seconds to clear the waves, so it’s always worth doing, even if you’re in a hurry to get to another vault.
Last week I opened a rare vault in Frost Valley and got a legendary S-tier shotgun schematic that deals 20% extra damage to boss enemies, and that shotgun is now my main weapon for endgame boss runs. I’ve also gotten two exclusive character skins from rare vaults, so it’s well worth taking the time to farm rare keys and hunt down rare vaults every cycle.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hunting Encrypted Vaults
After farming vaults for months, I’ve made just about every mistake you can make, so I’ve compiled the most common ones to help you avoid wasting time and resources. The first and biggest mistake is using rare keys on common vaults. Like I mentioned earlier, you won’t get any extra loot for using a higher tier key, so you’re just throwing away a rare key that could get you a legendary item from a rare vault. Always check the glow of the vault before you use a key, blue means common, purple means rare.
Another big mistake is not marking vault locations on your in-game map when you find them. Vaults respawn at the exact same location every 24 hour reset cycle, so if you mark all the vaults you find on your first run, you can just fast travel to each location every day to open them, no need to re-search the entire zone. I have 12 vault locations marked on my map right now, so I can run all of them in less than an hour every day, no extra searching required.
Don’t try to open a vault if there’s an active world event or world boss spawn in the same area. If you start opening the vault while the event is active, the game will despawn the vault mid-unlock, and you’ll lose your key without getting any loot. Wait until the event is fully completed and all event enemies are despawned before you try to open any vaults in that part of the zone. I lost a rare key this way my second week playing, and it was so frustrating I had to step away from the game for an hour.
Finally, don’t farm vaults alone if you can avoid it. If you’re in a group of 3 or 4 players, you only need one player to use a key to open the vault, and everyone in the group gets their own separate loot chest. That means you can open 4 times as many vaults in the same amount of time if you’re in a full group, and you don’t have to use as many keys. It’s a win for everyone, so I always join a public exploration squad when I’m farming vaults.
Now that you know where are the encrypted vaults in the first descendant, how to unlock them, and what mistakes to avoid, you can start farming them today to get all the rare loot you need to power up your characters and dominate endgame content. I’m still finding new vault locations every few weeks, so if you find one that’s not listed in this guide, feel free to share it in the comments below to help other players. Happy hunting!