Herald Vault

Completing all Artifacts and reaching Level 100 unlocks access to The Herald Vault.

By interacting with the Artifact Tome, the player receives the rock required to enter the vault and face The Herald, the final boss of Vault Hunters.

Herald Fight

The Herald fight is divided into a normal stance and four unique phases, each inspired by the powers of the Vault Gods. After the Herald’s HP is depleted during normal stance, he shifts into one of the phases. Once a phase is completed, the Herald returns to his normal stance, repeating the cycle until all phases have been overcome.

Each phase introduces unique mechanics and requires different strategies to progress.

Phases

Normal Stance: The Herald performs melee and heavy melee attacks, dealing consistent damage while frequently knocking players back.

Wendarr Phase:

A time-based mechanic involving the destruction of hourglass sparks.

Mechanics:

Hourglass sparks spawn with a fixed lifespan of 600 ticks (~30 seconds).
All sparks must be destroyed before the timer expires.
If all sparks are destroyed:
- The Herald is instantly stunned.
- His attack is skipped entirely.
If sparks expire:
- The Herald absorbs the remaining sparks.
- He unleashes an arena-wide attack whose damage scales with the number absorbed.
He is then stunned with a yellow health bar that must be depleted.
Failure to deplete the yellow health bar repeats the mechanic.

Velara Phase:

The phase revolves around controlling enemy waves and completing arena zones.

Mechanics:

The phase consists of five fixed waves.
At the start of each wave, a gray zone appears on the arena floor.
Vault mobs spawn shortly afterward.
Players must lure mobs into the gray zone and kill them inside it.
As mobs die inside the zone, it fills from gray → green.
Once the zone is fully green:
- All current mobs despawn.
- A new zone appears elsewhere in the arena.
- The next wave begins shortly afterward.
After all five zones are completed:
- All mobs despawn.
- The Herald returns to normal stance.

Each zone focuses on a different mob category:

Horde mobs
Assassin mobs
Tank mobs
Fighter mobs
Dungeon mobs

Tenos Phase:

The Herald takes flight and bombards the arena with magical attacks that inflict slowing effects and heavy damage. Some attacks deal true damage, making the Resistance stat highly valuable.

Floating catalysts appear in the arena center, each representing a chest type (e.g., Gilded Chest). Matching chests spawn around the arena, and some contain inhibitors. Inhibitors must be thrown into the matching catalysts to damage the Herald.

The phase progresses through multiple rounds, each requiring additional catalysts.

Idona Phase:

A berserk-style phase where the Herald gains increased HP, movement speed, and extremely high melee damage.

Blood orbs spawn regularly and apply heavy bleeding damage over time. Their damage ramps up over time, although they can be destroyed by left-clicking them.

The Herald’s damage and movement speed continue increasing the longer the phase lasts.

Completing this phase defeats The Herald.

Trophy Rewards

Defeating the Herald awards a trophy based on completion time:

Icon	Trophy	Defeat Time
	Platinum	00:00 – 14:00
	Gold	14:00 – 20:00
	Silver	20:00 – 25:00
	Bronze	25:00 – 80:00

Specific attack patterns and damage values can be found on the Herald Stats page.

Tips and Tricks

The Herald remains one of the hardest encounters in Vault Hunters. Proper preparation and phase mastery are essential.

Gear Affixes: Resistance is strongly recommended due to Tenos’s true-damage attacks. Additional health, regeneration, and healing support provide consistent survivability.

Wendarr Phase Tips:

Sparks expire after ~30 seconds; prioritize destroying clustered sparks.
Hammers or cleave weapons can destroy multiple sparks at once.
Destroying all sparks skips the Herald’s attack entirely.
Burst down the yellow HP bar quickly during the stun window.

Velara Phase Tips:

Mobility and crowd-control abilities are extremely effective.
Focus on dragging mobs into the active zone before killing them.
Once a zone is completed, all mobs despawn.
Use the downtime between zones to heal and reposition so the next zone can be located quickly.

Tenos Phase Tips:

Projectiles deal 20 true damage.
Fangs deal 32 damage and have a high chance to spawn.
Movement speed and cleansing effects help counter slows and debuffs.
Collecting inhibitors efficiently is more important than dealing direct damage.
Avoid standing in the center of the arena during bombardments.

Idona Phase Tips:

Blood orbs spawn every ~5 seconds and can accumulate rapidly.
Constant movement helps maintain control of the arena.
Destroy blood orbs before their damage ramps too high.
Attack opportunities are short—strike briefly, then reposition.

Generic Stances: Between god phases, the Herald returns to melee stance with increasing health and damage. Good positioning and defensive skills minimize knockback and allow consistent chip damage.

Overall, the fight rewards patience, precision, and mastery of each individual mechanic.