The ancient civilization under Sandustry's surface left vaults and artifacts behind, and opening them "provides powerful boons" — in practice, Augments: upgrades to your utility items (Gun, Rocket, Shovel) and to yourself (move speed, boost), scattered across the planet. Community testing puts each artifact at one-fifth of an augment socket plus a skill — that split is unofficial, but the direction is right: artifacts are the endgame progression track.
The one fact that changes the hunt
The Early Access map is handcrafted and identical in every world — the developer and community have both confirmed that story structures, points of interest and artifact sites sit at the same spots regardless of seed (see the maps guide). Every artifact location is therefore a shareable, permanent fact. This page keeps a running register and marks what is confirmed versus community-reported.
Confirmed so far:
| Where | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Snow mountain, top-left of the map | Community thread with developer participation |
| The dunes (desert, right side) | Official achievement: "Ancient Technology — Recover an alien artifact from the dunes" |
The total count is not officially published. The official wiki has no artifacts page yet, and no complete vault list exists in trustworthy sources — fan sites claiming complete "all artifact locations" lists for procedurally-placed vaults are describing a system the game does not have. As we verify more sites in our own runs, this table grows.
Vault rules: lockdown zones
Vault areas are lockdown zones, and the developer has spelled out the core rule: you cannot take material into, or out of, those zones. The puzzle must be solved with what the room gives you. Individual rooms add their own restrictions — no-fly, no-build, no-flamethrower — so read the room before committing resources.
Documented puzzle mechanisms: buttons; lava fuses that release snow when lit; teleporter gaps that close if you bridge them with frozen material; and logic-style puzzles. Two official tips from the wiki's own guide: if you lack the tool a vault wants, leave and come back later — vaults are not gated in story order — and if a puzzle physically traps you, the pause menu has an unstuck command precisely for this.
Finding the unmapped ones
The intended tool is the Locator (Tier 5 research, 3000 Gold): fill it with Void Juice and it scans for hidden alien artifacts. Void Juice is itself a small production chain — Moonhop (from Mooncrystal outcrops, deep underground) mixed with Void Petals. Tier 5 also gates behind the anomaly investigation questline, so the Locator is a late-game answer to a mid-game curiosity — early on, the fixed-map register above is faster.
A note for demo veterans
Demo vault knowledge does not transfer. The demo's vaults (thick ice walls melted by flamethrower or redirected lava) lived on a different, smaller map; the EA world was rebuilt wholesale — new map, renamed materials, rewritten simulation. Old route guides describe a world that no longer ships.