Voeld Vault Puzzle Walkthrough

[Rexxer]

The Voeld Vault will likely be encountered very early in the game, and because it has two rare quest items in it which are easily missable, this is one vault that really needs a more thorough walkthrough. The most difficult part is reaching the Remnant Data Core without doing too much backtracking. That being said, this vault is all about backtracking, so your goal should be to minimize it.

I won't cover the really obvious room features, as most people are pretty good at hunting for containers and items that are already out in the open. This vault, however hides many things and is in some ways a prototype for all subsequent vaults: if you don't investigate every switch and what it does, you will miss something. And sometimes miss an important quest item that you can't return for. A missable item that can leave a quest unfinished, forever.

The basic concept in this Vault is that each remnant console you find has two switch positions. It raises and lowers platforms, moves power around, or just makes a door openable. Also it is cold in the Vault. You cannot go more than a few seconds without having to duck into a safety bubble to warm up. This will be very important in navigating all parts of the switch puzzle.

After the first entry room you get to the first console which faces a vast lake room with vertical walls and platforms around its perimeter. I'll call this the "starting console". The default switch position here has a series of stepping platforms going off to the right side of the large room. If I were to minimize running around, however, I would first switch it to the left side of the room (the switch puzzle side) of the vault first. You will have to come back to the right side a couple times later anyway.

After hopping down to the switch puzzle area, you will see lots of consoles flush with the ground. Think of each as a toggle switch. When they are inactive, remnant consoles lower into the ground, and when active, they rise up. You can't switch them if no power is flowing to them. The only active console initially, I will call the "power console". It is also labeled "1" in one of my diagrams. You will be toggling this console A LOT because one position powers the only safety bubble there. Generally I find I can toggle about 3 or 4 consoles before having to run for the power console to power up the safety bubble. Toggling the power to a console makes it rise up and be active:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2374042645
Note: although the actual "power" beams emmanating like lasers from each console are plain white, I color code these beams in the diagrams to represent which level down the chain of switches you are at. The first level is red, then yellow, green, blue, violet.
Here is a general overview of the connections between consoles (switches).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2374043554
As you can see, it gets confusing, but if you toggle them correctly, you get a variety of prizes, including access to a rare missable part of the game-long quest for remnant data cores. If you miss it here, you can only miss ONE more somewhere else before this particular quest becomes unfinishable, forever. Many of these data cores are easily missable in the game, so don't miss it here.

To simplify the spider web of interacting consoles in the following schematic, I color coded each branch of the switch pathway, and spread it out into something more understandable:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2374045996
Basically, since the default switch settings nearly have you at lifting the data core console, and because it is so important to that quest, I always go for this first. Console 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. You will see the data core is lifted on the other side of the lake when you interact with console 6. Leave it be and jump back to the starting area and switch the console you early switched to the left back to the right side of the vault. Hop across, kill a couple remnant assemblers, duck into the nearby bubble, then look for the platform with the data core near the bubble. You have to hop out to the platform and back to retrieve it.

Since you are now on the right side, but haven't yet powered the secret room console, you can finish off the cryptographer quest just above the safety bubble. A nearby console just to the right of the door will power it on so you can enter, kill a destroyer and misc. remnant, then solve the Sudoku glyph puzzle there. When you exit the cryptographer quest puzzle area, just on the other side of the door, near the platform edge is another console. Activate it and get a warning from SAM about how you might have issues escaping purification. Ignore that since you want to have issues escaping as you want to raid the secret room on the way out.

Jump back down to the nearby bubble, then venture out toward the secret room console next to an inactive console. Kill the Nullifier so your return trip is easier. Now retrace your steps all the way back (switching the sides with the starting console). Using the diagrams you can now raid every bit of loot controlled by that switch puzzle. When you finish, just leave the console for the secret remtech room powered up. Hop all the way around again, crossing over to the distant safety bubble you up to now have just be observing. Use the secret room console (now powered by the switch puzzle) to open the doors of the room which you can barely see across the vault. It also has a force field which prevent you from raiding it early. You can only raid it once the purification cycle begins. The remnant will not respawn until you start the purificaiton cycle also, so this part is easy.

From here, you hop over to the purification console where you must first kill a bunch of remnant, more nullifiers. The start the purification cycle. This is where you must basically retrace your steps, only detouring across a bridge to the secret room to grab the loot there, then retracing back past the cryptographer's ledge, and back on over to the starting console. Then back to the entry room. It's pretty obvious how to close the doors and halt the purification. I think there's a quest marker.

[Rexxer]

So in summary, using the switch (console) labels in my diagrams, the most efficient way to do the Voeld vault is (showing the full switch chain):

1-2-3-4-5-6 (then get remnant data core, cryptographer quest item, and activate secret room bridge (important))
1-2-3-4-7-8 get minor loot container
1-2-A-B get scannable research points
1-2-A-C get minor loot container
1-2-3-4-7 power up the secret room console

If one pares down the switch chains to JUST the switches you activate in order (utilizing the default positions when entering the vault):

1, 3, 6 (then get data core, cryptographer quest, and activate secret room bridge)
1,1 (recharge life support)
4, 8 get minor loot container
1,1 (recharge life support)
2, B scan device for research points
1,1 (recharge life support)
A get minor loot container
1,1 (recharge life support)
2,7 activates the distant console controlling the doors to the secret room which you can only reach AFTER purification starts.

Use the secret room console to open the doors to the secret room. Purify the vault. Grab secret room loot container items as you are running out.

[Synavix]

This was helpful, thanks. Pretty cool puzzle, but kind of ruined by the constant level 2 hazard which makes it really tedious to experiment and find all the possible solutions.

[Hexican]

What an effort to write all this, thanks gamer!!! I just kinda needed the info of all the possible loot and I would, infact had missed few of them even when I thought I had checked all the permutations, so thx for this great walkthrough!

[ChangelingFox]

Literally the best guides for this puzzle. Not a single YouTube video helped me more than your numbered image.

[Cyanmurder]

When i restarted the vault, and exit, I reenter it and claimed all the miss chest .

[Д а н к о в с к и й]

Jesus christ I literally can't follow this. No offense to the writer this "puzzle" seems to have been designed exclusively to be frustrating.

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Д а н к о в с к и й:

Jesus christ I literally can't follow this. No offense to the writer this "puzzle" seems to have been designed exclusively to be frustrating.

I didn't design the puzzle, I just analyzed it to simplify it to its option flow tree, or "schematic". The game makes it more confusing by mixing the nodes of the option tree up on the different balconies, that's the only secret. The simplified schematic in the last diagram is all you need, but to understand it, you need to relate it to the game world version.