Vaults was probably one of the least threatening branches for me (not counting V:5). I’m pretty sure my only deaths in Vaults were thanks to uniques, not regular inhabitants.
Out of three 0.34 characters who managed to reach Vaults, two of them died - not to uniques but to regular inhabitants.
I know that 0.34 is generally an update that makes the game a lot harder (drudes, tesseracts, slime changes). But which changes made Vaults that much harder? (Or am I just bad?)
There are a few scary units in Vaults now, but I’ve not found it a scary branch overall
Death Knights are significantly harder now that they have Hurl Torchlight.
There’s the new Flesh Cages which are somewhat beefy, and have a little resistance to all elements your spells could have. A few can spawn in an Arcanist band.
Vaults also got new enemies in 0.33 and 0.32 so it depends on what version you have experience in! Control+F Vaults in the changelog if that’s the case.
These Flesh Cages can be really annoying! One of the few acid-resisting enemies too, and my last run was with Fedhas - definitely influenced my perception of Vaults.
There are also two more buffs I’ve noticed in the changelog for 0.34: Injury Bond and Repel Missiles were buffed so now Polterguardians and Preservers aren’t as weak as they’re used to be.