How do you approch vaults?

[Coldbringer]

I used to always open them as I got to them, now I almost always open them. I have died from this habit many times, but it just feels like part of the challenge of an area to me.

Some aren't worth the risk of opening. You'll learn by dying to them or having to run away without loot every single time you do.
Some are too tedious to clear because of the number of stupid enemies crammed in them for the pissy loot you get. You'll learn by spending an hour clearing them with nothing worthwhile for your trouble.
Some are worth tiptoeing around, slowly fighting every tough and scary enemy until either you're victorious and get the sweet XP and loot, or have to run away screaming or die. Part of the fun is that trepidation.

Remember also that normal/adventure difficulty is quite lenient. You can get away with doing things that nightmare+/roguelike players might not consider worth the risk.
Some vaults are hard but not as bad as you've heard (e.g. I cleared the "room of death" on one character using my usual tactics before I learnt online that I wasn't meant to touch it). As long as you do them last, the worst case scenario is you lose a life and get sent back somewhere else.

Race is a factor here too because of XP penalty: if you're Cornac, you can skip every vault and level up nicely. If you're Thalore with 35% penalty, maybe you want to push through every bit of content in early-/mid-game so you can be levelled to face the main game challenges that ramp up later on, without doing even more risky things like Farportal grinding.

I do vaults for the fun of it and do them pretty often. However honestly their loot sucks and is not worth it. Chests are far better.

I've gotten a number of artifacts and useful rares from them. The experience is always valuable. Just need to know how strong your character is, if they can handle it or not.

[cctobias]

I used to always open them as I got to them, now I almost always open them. I have died from this habit many times, but it just feels like part of the challenge of an area to me.

Some aren't worth the risk of opening. You'll learn by dying to them or having to run away without loot every single time you do.
Some are too tedious to clear because of the number of stupid enemies crammed in them for the pissy loot you get. You'll learn by spending an hour clearing them with nothing worthwhile for your trouble.
Some are worth tiptoeing around, slowly fighting every tough and scary enemy until either you're victorious and get the sweet XP and loot, or have to run away screaming or die. Part of the fun is that trepidation.

Remember also that normal/adventure difficulty is quite lenient. You can get away with doing things that nightmare+/roguelike players might not consider worth the risk.
Some vaults are hard but not as bad as you've heard (e.g. I cleared the "room of death" on one character using my usual tactics before I learnt online that I wasn't meant to touch it). As long as you do them last, the worst case scenario is you lose a life and get sent back somewhere else.

Race is a factor here too because of XP penalty: if you're Cornac, you can skip every vault and level up nicely. If you're Thalore with 35% penalty, maybe you want to push through every bit of content in early-/mid-game so you can be levelled to face the main game challenges that ramp up later on, without doing even more risky things like Farportal grinding.

I do vaults for the fun of it and do them pretty often. However honestly their loot sucks and is not worth it. Chests are far better.

I've gotten a number of artifacts and useful rares from them. The experience is always valuable. Just need to know how strong your character is, if they can handle it or not.

Yes .... artifacts can spawn in vaults. They can spawn anywhere. You sometimes get an ok artifact in a vault, or very rarely something good. This is also true everywhere in the game. Vault's loot still sucks. The risk vs reward for them is terrible. Chests are far superior. Also many artifacts are not that great compared to good orange+ items, which is something chests drop regularly.

As for XP? So what you can go do farportals for infinite xp.

I clear them just for the eff of it. But if you are a bit afraid that a vault is too tough for you. DO NOT absolutely DO NOT IN ANYWAY have loot be a consideration in the decision because it will mostly likely not be anywhere near the risk if you are apprehensive. Especially in a place like DF the very hard over leveled vaults can be fun, but their loot will almost certainly not be anywhere near the nice stuff you could get from a chest in the maze that are capable of dropping t5 orange items.

The loot in vaults is poor that is just a fact.

[Faeryan]

Yes .... artifacts can spawn in vaults. They can spawn anywhere. You sometimes get an ok artifact in a vault, or very rarely something good. This is also true everywhere in the game. Vault's loot still sucks. The risk vs reward for them is terrible. Chests are far superior. Also many artifacts are not that great compared to good orange+ items, which is something chests drop regularly.

As for XP? So what you can go do farportals for infinite xp.

Is it different for Insane and/or Madness or with special addons, but for NM and Normal the risk in Vaults is far less than that of a Chest. Sure the loot quality is worse, but most the Vaults are actually rather predictable while chests can spawn just about anything.

Farportals on the other hand for me are even less worth the risk. I'd rather take my chances pretty much against any vault instead of farportals. At least with them I can clear out the surroundings beforehand and dig any tunnels I might need for quick getaways and whatnot.

Still, chests do have a tendency to give some pretty badass orange loot.

[HousePet]

Just wait until 1.4. Then vault loot can be one tier higher than the dungeon normally has.

[dukereg]

As for XP? So what you can go do farportals for infinite xp.

Obviously if a vault is likely to kill you, avoid it, just like anything else. But farportals are even less reliable for safely getting XP than vaults. You go in without having pre-cleared and pre-scouted the surrounds. You don't know whether the first one is going to give you a combo you can't take as the exit boss, and then if you survive long enough to recall, the farportal is destroyed and there goes your XP source.

[Tom]

My Alchemist finally died right after hitting level 30. Not to shabby, but looking back, I lost most of my lives dealing with vaults.

I opened every vault I could find, which in hindsight was a bad idea. What are your strategies for dealing with them. Does anyone here skip all of them? Do people come back a little later? Any tricks I should know about?

Most of your lives?
I always play rogue like. One life unless I find the potion/ring.
This makes me play more carefully and a life is precisous.

I ALWAYS open vaults.
As someone else wrote, for fun, game experience and character experience.
Together with the artifacts it is a must.

The things I do not enter are graves etc etc.

I usually play a rogue.
He usually, not always, cleans Dreadfell vaults with a mean glance and a snap with his fingers.

[rjs71053]

My Alchemist finally died right after hitting level 30. Not to shabby, but looking back, I lost most of my lives dealing with vaults.

I opened every vault I could find, which in hindsight was a bad idea. What are your strategies for dealing with them. Does anyone here skip all of them? Do people come back a little later? Any tricks I should know about?

Most of your lives?
I always play rogue like. One life unless I find the potion/ring.
This makes me play more carefully and a life is precisous.

I ALWAYS open vaults.
As someone else wrote, for fun, game experience and character experience.
Together with the artifacts it is a must.

The things I do not enter are graves etc etc.

I usually play a rogue.
He usually, not always, cleans Dreadfell vaults with a mean glance and a snap with his fingers.

Hey I'm still new, I need soft cuddly extra lives to make me feel better. And when you say ALWAYS OPEN, do you mean ALWAYS KILL EVERYTHING or SOMETIMES RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN, BUT SINCE YOU OPENED THE DOOR IT STILL COUNTS?

Because I ran into a vault in dreadfall with 4 level 64 prismatic dragons inside when I was level 31. Figured discretion would be the better part of valor there.

[netphenix]

Just wait until 1.4. Then vault loot can be one tier higher than the dungeon normally has.

Roooh, spoiler alert.