THE VAULT WARDEN

• BOSS
• THE BUNKER

THE VAULT WARDEN is a boss on THE BUNKER, a place of security.

A hulking automated construct bolted to the treasury door, and the CORE's own enforcer rather than the residents'. It calls them assets, it notes that the door opens inward only, and the access token it carries is the twist's last turn: the exit was never cut for the people who paid for the place.

Where you meet it

THE BUNKER

It is placed by hand on THE BUNKER and waits at its post until you come close.

What to know

• HOW IT ENDSIts own scan finishes it. The emitter is shoved round and the beam cuts the Warden in half along the arc it had already locked. The hero: "YOU WERE NEVER GUARDING ANYTHING. YOU WERE A LOCK."
• THE ENTRANCECloses at 90/s until it has said its piece, then fights at its own pace.
• WHAT IT WAS CARRYINGMore than it should be. Its corpse sheds 2× the gold an ordinary body of its rank does.
• WHEN STRUCKIt throws sparks. A blow that overwhelms it bursts it into wire, cells and torn plate, and it smokes where it lands.

Mechanics

Every dangerous move is telegraphed — it roots, it winds up, and you get the beat you need to be somewhere else.

• SLAMWith you inside 95 it roots for 0.9s and then smashes the ground for 120% of its contact damage to everything standing in that circle. A jump sails clean over it. Once every 8s.
• SUMMONEvery 11s it calls 3 more out of the ground, up to 4 of its own summons alive at once. They arrive outside the level's wave budget, so they are extra rather than borrowed. It calls SENTRY GUN.
• LASER EYESIt roots for 1.1s first — its eyes light, and the bearing LOCKS on wherever you were standing when they did. Then a beam sweeps 90° across that bearing over 1.6s, reaching 150, burning for 50% of its contact damage every 0.4s you stand in it — and leaving the floor it crossed ON FIRE for 5.5s, biting 22% every 0.7s. The sweep travels one way, edge to edge, so the answer is to move AROUND it — toward the side it has already passed — rather than across it. Once every 10.5s.
• LOCKDOWNIt roots for 1.1s first, then drops blast shutters in a ring 78 around YOU — 16 segments with one 55° gap in them, and the gap is somewhere different every time. They are solid: they stop your shots and its own alike, and you cannot jump them. They pull back up after 7s. You are not trapped, you are cornered — take the fight in there, or spend the time finding the way out and give up the ground. Once every 18s. Only from NIGHTMARE upward.

Below 45% health it switches to:

• SLAMWith you inside 105 it roots for 0.8s and then smashes the ground for 130% of its contact damage to everything standing in that circle. A jump sails clean over it. Once every 6.5s.
• ENRAGEBelow 45% health it fights like a cornered animal for the rest of the fight — 1.3× speed and 1.25× damage, permanently.

What it drops

Every kill pays one weapon, one piece of gear, 2 medkits, one repair kit and one XP scroll.

Its drops roll 50% better on the rarity ladder than the level's ordinary loot.

Guaranteed pieces by rarity: 2 rare and 2 magic. A rarity the monster's own level has not unlocked yet is skipped, so the same fight pays better on a harder rung.

Story items

• WARDEN ACCESS TOKEN

What it says

Spoilers for this fight, covered until you ask for them.

What this scene is part of — everything said and found around it — is its chapter of the story.