World & Vaults

Zones

Zone	What you find there
Salvador (the city)	The NPCs, the portals to the Vaults, the ranked portal. Square Defense once a day.
Forest	The starter zone. Iron ore and weak monsters.
Cave	Obsidian ore and tougher monsters, including the cave golem.
Vaults	Five dungeons, one per gem and god. This is where the real loot is.

Ore veins and monsters respawn in the open zones.

NPC	Role
Guide	Gives quests. A ! means a quest is available, a ? that one is ready to hand in.
Athena, the Merchant	Buys ore, essences and potions for sats, sells potions and some gems.
Hephaestus, the Blacksmith	Forges gear from fragments and gems.
Hermes, the Cryptomancer	Decrypts cartridges. See Hacking.

Each Vault is guarded by a god and tied to a gem. They go in order of gem hardness.

#	Vault	God	Difficulty	Key
1	Iron Vault	Prometheus	Easy	None: the initiation Vault
2	Obsidian Vault	Poseidon	Medium	Obsidian Key
3	Jade Vault	Ares	Medium-high	Jade Key
4	Quartz Vault	Zeus	High	Quartz Key
5	Diamond Vault	Atlas	Extreme	Diamond Key

Keys are forged from two gems: the one of the previous tier and the Vault’s own. Each Vault opens only once you have worked the one before. See Vault keys.
The key is consumed when you enter. Without it, the portal stays closed and tells you which key to forge.
Levels inside a Vault. Beating a boss opens two portals: Extract (blue) and Continue (red). Continue opens new areas, keeps your bag at stake, and makes every remaining monster stronger. On the last level only Extract appears.