All vault locations in Fortnite and how to open a vault

Vaults are a new kind of location added to Fortnite as part of Chapter 6 Season 2’s heist shenanigans.

The new map has several vaults filled with loot scattered throughout it. Some are located in a specific building, like a bank, whereas a special kind of vault moves around on the train. Breaking into a vault certainly has its risks, but a successful heist will reward you with loot. This season also has mini-vaults that travel around on armored cars.

This guide will show you all vault locations in Fortnite and further explain how to open a vault, including those on trains and armored transports.

All vault locations in Fortnite

There are five major vault locations in total. They are located in Crime City, Masked Meadows, Seaport City, Lonewolf Lair, and on the train. (Some smaller vaults are also located on armored transports.)

We’ve listed the four static locations on the map above. Note that the train vault location is not marked on the map — it is always moving. To find it, open your map in-game and then look for an icon that looks like a vault combined with a train. It might move, but it’s not that hard to find. You can easily spot it by checking the tracks that loop around the center of the map.

How to open a vault in Fortnite

This time around, you won’t be using any fancy keycards to break into a vault. You will have to brute force your way through and use explosives and other means to reach the loot-filled rooms of each bank. Here is how to open a vault in Fortnite:

1. Before you attempt your heist, make sure you find and grab an explosive item called thermite.
2. Next, go to any one of the vault locations listed above. If it’s in a building, look around until you find a large door that looks like it has a rotating handle on it. You’ll know you found the right spot when the game gives you the option to “Place Thermite.”
3. Stick some thermite to the door and wait until it goes off. Be careful, though. Once you set the thermite, it will set off an alarm that could bring other players to you and prompt the NPCs to attack you.

1. There are two ways to handle the next step of the process. The first is to wait until the bar at the top fills and the thermite goes off, thus opening the vault. If this feels like it’s taking too long, you can use a Plasma Burst Laser to speed up the process. To do so, use the Plasma Burst Laser to shoot the glowing parts of the door and destroy them. You know it’s working when you see the laser doing damage to the door.
2. Once you damage one glowing part of the door, move on to the next and do the same thing. Keep repeating this and it will decrease the amount of time it takes to destroy the door.
3. Once you wait long enough — or use the laser to destroy the weak points — the door will explode and you can walk through it. Your heist is done and you can go collect your spoils!

Epic Games said it will be adding another item called the Rocket Drill later on in the season. According to its description, it will have a similar function as the Plasma Burst Laser and will allow players to speed up the process of breaking into a vault.

How to open a vault on a train

Opening a vault on a train works a little differently from opening a vault in a building. It’s not all that difficult but can be confusing if you don’t know what to do. Here is how to open one:

1. Before you get started, make sure you have guns and ammo to protect you. You will have a tough time breaking into the vault otherwise. Once you have some weapons, start by finding the train on your map. You can do this by looking at the moving icon that looks like a vault combined with a train.
2. Once you get to the spot marked by the map, board the train by jumping and climbing on top of it. The moment you climb up, turrets stationed on top of it will start shooting at you. Shoot the turrets to destroy them.
3. Once you destroy a turret, walk over to where it was stationed. It will look like a destroyed machine and the game will give you the option to, “Extract the thermite core.”

1. After that, we recommend destroying the other turret because it can do a lot of damage. Walk over to it and shoot it until it’s destroyed. You can grab more thermite if you’d like.
2. Now head towards the front of the train. Jump from cart to cart until you see a wolf icon in a circle on the top of one of them. Then place some thermite there.
3. Wait until the thermite explodes and you have now opened the vault on the train. Note, there are some NPCs in the train cart so be prepared for a fight.

How to find and open an armored transport 

If you want to take on an armored transport vehicle, first, you’ll need to find one — which isn’t a foregone conclusion in our experience.

These cars spawn across the map and you can encounter them in several locations. We spotted them around points of interest like Hopeful Heights, Shining Span, and Outlaw Oasis. In our experience, these vans don’t show up at the beginning of a match but tend to spawn around the halfway point. Each van is marked on the map using a tiny car icon. 

1. Approach a van with an escort and shoot at the vehicle or one of the NPCs surrounding it. Eliminate NPCs until one drops some thermite. Pick up the thermite. 
2. Now aim and throw the thermite so it lands on the armored car. It will stick to the side of the vehicle as well, so just make sure you hit some part of it. If the car drives away, you can ride one of the motorbikes that one of the henchmen rides to catch up to the car.
3. Wait until the thermite explodes and fight any NPCs that attack you. 
4. When the thermite explodes, the loot will fall out the backdoor of the armored vehicle and you can collect it.