Vault Breaker is Bungie's attempt at a roguelite game mode in Marathon, and anybody that is familiar with the roguelite genre game knows that they're typically pretty difficult. Vault Breaker is no different. It is difficult, you're going to die a lot, and to some it may seem impossible to progress. Here are five essential tips to find your groove in this new mode!
Play Your First Few Matches With a Squad
When I first stopped into Vault Breaker I was excited to play Cryo Archive solo, so I hopped right in thinking “I play Marathon a lot this won't be that hard right?”. Three runs in I and realized yeah… this is going to be very difficult.
Initially you're going to start with a bare-bones loadout and the very first room you encounter has multiple blue shielded enemies as well as one purple shielded enemy. Getting through this room alone as a solo player is extremely difficult, let alone getting through the room with enough time to actually move on and open your first Vault.
On my fourth run I decided to just use crew fill and get a trio squad going, and while it still wasn't easy, we ended up making it through the first few rooms, clearing all the enemies and finding enough batteries to unlock the Vault. We successfully looted the Vault Data and extracted. This Vault Data then set me up to upgrade my kit which is going to help in every run moving forward including solos.
Honestly? You have to be very very skilled to clear Cryo, open the Vault and extract as a solo player with basic starter kit - so I'd highly suggest playing your first few runs in a squad!
Bring a Triage
While the basic vault breaker kit doesn’t skimp out on heal consumables, and enemies are constantly dropping heals as well, bringing a Triage to a run is an absolute must.
For starters, Triage’s healing drones are so clutch, especially if playing solo. While I don’t think Triage drones are elite in PvP, they have always been great when traversing the map between PvP encounters or while dealing with AI enemies, and that situation is what you’ll be in 100% of the time during Vault Breaker.
On top of that, the Vault Breaker kit gives your a V75 Scar as your weapon, which is able to take full advantage of Triage’s Batter Overcharge ability. When activated, Battery Overcharge boosts weapon performance, but it also EMPs an enemy when you break their shields with a volt weapon. This is HUGE!
To top if all off, Reboot+ is always useful if a teammate goes down, and while it may seem useless in solo, the damage and EMP it can do to heavy weight enemies has been a live saver so far for me.
Unlock Shields Early
Once you've extracted you'll have Vault Data to spend on your upgrades. While you can use Vault Data to unlock items that you can bring into the PvP extraction modes (and you may be tempted to do so since the gear is pretty damn good), unless you plan to never play Vault Breaker again, I would highly suggest first using your Vault Data to upgrade your kit.
With the starter kit you get a grey shield that's pretty much useless and only takes a few bullets from enemies to break, so the very first thing I would look at upgrading is your Shields. You're able to get an enhanced shield for 200 Vault Data, and this is where I would start.
Backpacks, Enhanced weapons, cores and implants are nice, but if you're instantly dying then they're not going to help all that much.
Spend The Vault Data (And Get The Magnum)
After one successful extraction, I had around 280 Tier 1 Vault Data to spend on upgrades. Like I just mentioned, the very first upgrade I went for was the Enhanced Shield, but from there I had a decision to make: spend some more Vault Data? Or save up for a better upgrade down the road?
I ended up buying the Magnum upgrade and my thinking was: who knows how long it will be til I extract again, especially if playing solo, so I better get as strong as possible for my next runs.
The Magnum gives you a longer range option to the V75 Scar, and also gives you a second ammo type to take advantage of from your starting Ammo Crate. The buffs to the Magnum this season also make it pretty strong, and having a second weapon in general is a life saver in many situations.
Don’t be scared to spend Vault Data! Get stronger, exfil more often, and you’ll be rolling in Data before you know it!
Treat the Mode as a Roguelite
In roguelike games you gain power throughout a run, and Vault Breaker is no different. Enemies in Vault Breaker consistently drop Enhanced or Superior weapons and gear that you need to be looking out for.
You always want to be upgrading your weapons throughout a run and you always want to ensure that you're looking for the proper ammo types for your weapons.
Don't get too attached to a single weapon though. If you find another weapon that's using an ammo type that you have more of, you should always take that new weapon as you're going to be shooting a lot in this mode.
You also don't get to extract with the weapons you find, so you need to have a different mindset than the PvP Extraction modes where finding one of your favorite guns typically means that you'll want to keep it until the end of the run.
Don’t get attached to gear, take the gear that will help you during the very next encounter of Vault Breaker, and go from there!
So far this month is a great addition to Marathon and I'm having a ton of fun in it once once things started to ramp up. Don't get discouraged keep playing your and as your kit, the mode gets better and better.
I'll have a full guide on this mode coming out soon so make sure to check back in later on this week.
I'll see y'all on Tau Ceti!