How the Zskera Vault works in WoW Dragonflight
The new ring, the Onyx Annulet, is found here.
The Zskera Vault is a new area found in The Forbidden Reach, now that the World of Warcraft: Dragonflight 10.0.7 patch has arrived. Up until now, the Dracthyr starter zone has only been available to, well, Dracthyr, but the latest update opens the zone for every other class to explore.
New activities have been added too, like world quests and a new quest hub. In addition to that though, the Zskera Vault is an underground area with treasure to find and many cosmetics to obtain, as well as the new socketable ring, the Onyx Annulet. If you're ready to discover more about this mysterious new area, here's what I've discovered about the WoW Zskera Vault in Dragonflight.
WoW Zskera Vaults: How to unlock
As soon as you arrive in The Forbidden Reach, head to Morqut Village and pick up the quest, Helping Hand and Claw—it's a simple quest with the objective marked on your map nearby. Once you're done, hand it in and pick up the Exploring Our Past quest which will take you to the entrance of the Zskera Vaults. Again, this quest objective is marked on your map so make your way there to hand it in.
You're now offered the Zskera Vault: Az quest. Talk to the NPC again to be teleported into the vault itself. Head down the stairs, defeat the enemy in the room at the bottom, then look for the object on the floor with a quest marker. This is the quest to pick up the Onyx Annulet ring back at Morqut Village.
Where to get Zskera Vault Keys
You'll get six Zskera Vault Keys from the quest The Keys You Need when you first enter the vault and you can have the chance to get more through a variety of Forbidden Reach activities. These include:
- Dropped by enemies
- Inside chests
- Sack of Oddities (buy from Morqut Village for 2000 Elemental Overflow)
Each key unlocks one of the doors in the vault, and there are several floors to work through. The doors will reset weekly, so you'll need 30 Zskera Vault Keys to unlock all the doors each week.
Zskera Vault puzzles
Behind each locked door you'll find a variety of chests, gold piles, or boxes waiting to be looted. There's also the chance that you'll release an enemy too, so be ready to fight whenever you use a key. Many of the rooms you encounter will just require you to grab the goodies and get going, but a few might leave you scratching your head on how to get your hands on the rewards. The secret to these is looking for items in other rooms to "solve" them.
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Arcane Watcher
For rooms that contain an Arcane Watcher, it will deal damage whenever you enter its ring of detection, so you'll need to find an item from another room before proceeding. The item you're looking for is an Arcane Crystal. Interacting with this blue floating crystal will give you the Reflective Arcane Ward buff that lets you ignore the damage from the Arcane Watcher.
Fire
If you find a room full of flames, the damage can be nullified by finding and interacting with a Fire Crystal. Much like the Arcane Watcher, this crystal will give you a temporary buff—this time, the Protective Ward of Flames buff—allowing you to walk into the fire unharmed.
Frost
You might also encounter a room filled with frost, and like the fire room, you'll start taking damage the moment you enter. This time, you'll need to look for an Empty Obsidian Vial, then look for a room with a cauldron so you can fill it to create a Vial of Flames. Using this in the frost room will let you thaw the ice so you can enter.
Zskera Vault rewards
Aside from the Onyx Annulet, the rewards from the Zskera Vault are purely cosmetic. Chests and containers will have the chance to reward items such as Primordial Stones, which can be socketed into the Onyx Annulet, but more commonly will reward junk items that can be sold for gold. Certain chests will also occasionally give you a mount, pet, or toy.
Here are the Zskera Vault rewards:
- Mossy Mammoth (mount)
- Brightfeather (pet)
- Emmah (pet)
- Gilded Mechafrog (pet)
- Kobaldt (pet)
- Patos (pet)
- Holoviewer: The Lady of Dreams (toy)
- Holoviewer: The Scarlet Queen (toy)
- Holoviewer: The Timeless One
- Spore-Bound Essence (toy)
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Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she's quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.