'Mass Effect: Andromeda' Elaaden Vault: Location, guide and how to ascend

There are tons of optional missions in Mass Effect: Andromeda, and in this article we'll be tackling a pretty important one: the Elaaden vault.

This is an important mission you want to make the planet suitable for habitation. If you're ready to tackle the puzzles of Elaaden vault we're here to help. Read on for our guide, based on personal experience and reinforced with help from Prima Games.

Mass Effect: Andromeda Elaaden vault location

Elaaden is a desert planet with plenty of hot spots that can't support life very well at the moment. It's your job, as part of your mission, to find a suitable, livable home for everyone. You can do this by utilizing the monoliths on Elaaden and then getting into the Vault, where you'll find the console necessary to purify the planet, much like you did on Eos a while back. 

Your first step is obviously to activate the three monoliths on Elaaden. Make sure to check out our tips and instructions on how to do this, and head out to tackle all three of the monoliths so you can unlock the vault and take care of business. 

Once you've gotten all the three monoliths wrangled, then you'll need to find the vault on Elaaden. It's one of the more difficult ones in Mass Effect: Andromeda, so be prepared for a fight. 

Mass Effect: Andromeda Elaaden vault: Walkthrough guide

Go to the marker on your map to find the Elaaden vault. When you get there you'll need to go inside and use the gravity well. Activate the console here to turn the power back on, and then go through the door. You'll see a locked door you have to open by using the consoles here. They have lights streaming out of them, some from the top and some from the bottom.

When you use a console it will change from "off" to "on." Look at the consoles as if they're numbered from left to right, one through five. You'll want to activate five, three and two in that order.

If you do this right, the door should open. Follow the line in the next room. It will lead you through a door. Go through it and then continue on into the bigger room. 

You'll need to activate certain consoles in this area. Go to the left of the room when you go in and look around between the Remnant filling the room. Kill them off when you can. Make your way very slowly over to the Remnant console to the left of the room, and then start making your way to the right. If you have to fight across the room, that's fine. Just take your time. Then go all the way back to the center. Use the console there to set up some pillars. 

The pillars you've activated will now be available on the other side of the room. They have consoles on them that you need to use in order to get four different beams of light shining into the center of the room. This will require you to go to the central platform and use every console there again. When you do this (painstakingly) you'll have to go back to the new pillar that grows as a result. Go to it and use the console there. This will open a door. 

Go through the door and follow the path it hides it all the way around until you reach another console. Use it to trigger another bridge. Now you're finally at the last part of the vault. Finish off the Remnant that spawn and activate the console in the middle. This will begin the purification process, but you've got to high-tail it out of the vault, also.

Make your way outside of the vault, and use the console near the huge plant by the exit. You've now completed the whole of the Elaaden vault.

More Mass Effect: Andromeda news, updates, tips and tricks

For more on everyone's favorite space opera, check out the rest of what Mic has to offer. Here's an essay on the troubling history of colonialism in Mass Effect, a story about the horrifying harassment campaign carried out against a former BioWare employee, a guide to removing Ryder's helmet, a guide on romancing Keri, a guide to romancing Reyes and a quick explainer on the different types of health in Andromeda.