As soon as you enter The Stranger, the massive ringworld space station where you spend the entirety of the Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye DLC, all clues point you to the strange submerged structure in the reservoir. This prison vault is your main goal, and today we’re going to explain how to unlock it. Even if you’re new to this DLC and haven’t found a single clue, you can still pull off this completely bonkers method for unlocking the Sealed Vault. What you read below might sound like glitches, but these are all steps you absolutely need to complete. For real.
There are a few things we don’t explain in this guide you will need to know. Make sure to grab an artifact and learn how to access the Other World. You can find all the details in the guide linked below (Walkthrough Pt. 2), but the basics are — grab an Artifact from the Ghost Matter house in the River Lowlands, then travel to the Island Tower Mural Room, remove two lanterns from the mural with a ringed planet, and enter the secret room downstairs. If you know how to travel to the Other World, you’re good to go for the rest of this.
More Outer Wilds guides:
Echoes of the Eye: How To Find The Stranger | Walkthrough Pt. 1 | Echoes of the Eye: How To Travel To The Hidden World | Walkthrough Pt. 2 | Echoes of the Eye: How To Reach All Three Forbidden Archives | Walkthrough Pt. 3 | Echoes of the Eye: How To Enter The Hidden Gorge Secret Room | How To Reach The Secret Quantum Moon | How To Reach The Eye of the Universe | True Ending Guide
How To Unlock The Sealed Vault | Walkthrough Pt. 5
Go to the Cinder Isles Tower Mural Room with an Artifact. Instead of choosing to “Doze Off”, stand in the fire and die.
- You’ll appear in the Starlit Cove. Summon the boathouse with the Porthole device (left of the entrance to the village) and summon a boat.
Ride the boat, then step off into the water while it is transitioning between areas — you’ll fall through the world. You’ll land in the Underground Lake. You now have everything you need to remove all three locks from the vault.
- Lock #1: After gaining your bearings in the Underground Lake. Walk toward the light and extinguish the first Porthole. Use the raft to cross to the main area.
- Lock #2: Place your Artifact on the ground. Walk out of its sphere, and use the locking mechanism.
- Move the tumblers to align the bridge (only revealed outside the Artifact sphere) and you can reach the first Porthole. Extinguish it to remove the lock.
- Lock #3: Simply walk through red sentry lights. You’re dead, so the alarm bell can’t wake you up!
Use the large mechanism at the Sealed Vault to unlock it and go inside. I won’t spoil what you find. The ending is within. Don’t worry if you don’t get an achievement or trophy. Once you leave the vault, there’s one more little slideshow you can watch. After that, it’s over! Reset the loop, and you can continue the main game.