Vexa's Lab

Vexa's Lab

Map of Vexa's Lab

Level

71

Type

Area

Zone

Fireheart Rise
(Ascalon)

Connects to

Buloh Crossing (E)
Apostate Wastes (W)

Image(s)

Click to enlarge.

View of entrance of cave leading to Vexa's Lab.

Alternative view of the cave entrance leading to Vexa's Lab.

Path to entrance of Vexa's Lab.

Vexa's Lab is a mini-dungeon in Fireheart Rise, featuring jumping and teleportation puzzles along with a boss fight at the end. Completing it awards the Vexa's Lab Explorer achievement.

Getting there

From  Breaktooth's Waypoint — , travel west across Sloven Pitch to the vista overlooking a lava flow, Sloven Pitch Vista — which marks the entrance nearly exactly. Look up to the flow and enter the dragons mouth ; the portal to Vexa's Lab is inside the cave at the origin of the lava flow, past a series of holographic platforms. The platforms will phase out after some time, potentially dropping you into the lava below and forcing you to start from the beginning. If the platforms phase out, you can remain on them by staying on their frame-like edges.

Locations and objectives

Events

Defeat Vexa and her golem (71)

Destroy Vexa's corrupted test subjects (71)

Walkthrough

Solution

Vexa's test subjects Near the entrance, Destroy Vexa's corrupted test subjects may be active. This consists of waves of various enemies, including destroyers, Risen, branded, and icebrood emerging from the three gates. After these have been defeated, the containment cell will release a Veteran Risen Abomination. Once the event is completed or if it wasn't running upon your arrival, proceed through the lab door to the next room. Escher Room This room contains a number of stairways in various unnatural orientations. These stairways lead to blue portals, which will teleport you out of various orange portals in the room. Portals always turn the character to face east when they land. Both  mounts and  gliding are disabled in this room. The correct solution through the portals changes throughout the day to one of four random patterns. The pattern changes with the mini-dungeon reset that occurs about 10 minutes after Vexa is defeated. Two portals are accessible from the entrance: one straight ahead, and one on some stairs in the middle of the room. The correct one will teleport you to a platform in the southeast corner of the room, while the incorrect one will teleport you safely to the ground floor in the southwest corner of the room. On the second floor, there are another two portals. The correct one will teleport you to a platform in the northwest corner of the room that leads to a single portal, which is the end of the room. The incorrect one, however, will teleport you to the top of the room at the center, causing you to plummet to your death. If you find yourself falling to your death, don't move: you want to land in the glowing rings below you, which will resurrect you at the beginning of the room in a few seconds. Version 1 Version 2 Golem Assistants This L-shaped hall to the south-west has many large holographic panels, some of which phase in and out, leading to the hall's elevated exit. Don't rely on the holographic parts. Instead, stay on the solid panel edges to keep from falling. However, a number of Golem Assistants patrol these railings. They won't damage you, but they will  push you off, causing you to have to start the room over. In particular, the end of this room has a large number of these golems and the panels are permanently off (leaving only their edges), making it very difficult to avoid being knocked off.  Stability helps immensely, as it protects you from the knockback of the golems. Mounts are disabled in this room, but not gliding. (Jade Bot skills such as   Jade Bot Glide Booster **are** disabled, however.) KiLL-BOT900 This room has a large floor of holographic panels, hovering over a water tank filled with Ice Sharks. The final boss event occurs here: Defeat Vexa and her golem (71). If you fall into the tank, there are ramps on the north and south sides of the tank to climb out. You can disengage from the boss without it recovering any health, so if you find yourself low on health, you can run away to get out of combat and recover. Primary article: KiLL-BOT900 KiLL-BOT900 has a handful of abilities to watch out for: Frost Spin - The most important one to avoid, this  chills players and deals massive damage. It broadcasts this by stretching its arms out before it begins to spin: start running away as soon as you see it preparing to spin, as staying in the area for a full cycle will likely down you. Rocket Fist - Also important, but mostly inconvenient, this  pulls players. This will often result in you being pulled into holes in the arena, dropping you into the shark tank and forcing you to swim back to the ramps. Jump/Land - It can also jump around between the five solid platforms,  Burning players where it takes off and  launching them where it lands. Platforms adjacent to where it lands will be shattered. Smash - Smashes the ground,  knocking down players in a wide cone as well as shattering platforms. Long-ranged attacks such as from longbows or an Engineer's Elite Mortar Kit are handy if you're struggling in melee range, as it has much lower damage potential at range. Vexa Once the golem is defeated, Vexa appears in the center. The solid corners crumble and all platforms are destroyed, leaving you to walk on the brass railings to reach her. In addition, a number of turrets spawn along the railings. Work your way towards Vexa and take out nearby turrets. Vexa herself is of little threat, but occasionally, she'll do a blast which knocks players back into the water. Once she is defeated, a Magnificent Chest will spawn in the center and players will receive the achievement credit. Exit You may either waypoint out, or use the exit portal on the east side of the final room, in the shark tank. Detonation After Vexa is defeated, an announcement is made that "the lab will detonate in ten minutes". When the lab detonates, all players currently in the dungeon are transported to the entrance so the lab can reset to its initial state.

NPCs

Foes

Asura

• Vexa (During related events only)

Branded

• Branded Charr (During related events only)
• Branded Devourer (During related events only)
• Branded Griffon (During related events only)
• Branded Human (During related events only)
• Branded Minotaur (During related events only)
• Branded Ogre (During related events only)

Destroyers

• Destroyer Crab (During related events only)
• Destroyer Harpy (During related events only)
• Destroyer Troll (During related events only)

Golems

• Golem Assistant
• KiLL-BOT900 (During related events only)

Icebrood

• Icebrood Elemental (During related events only) ^{[verification requested]}
• Icebrood Goliath (During related events only)
• Icebrood Kodan (During related events only)
• Icebrood Norn (During related events only)
• Icebrood Troll (During related events only)
• Icebrood Wolf (During related events only) ^{[verification requested]}

Risen

• Risen Brute (During related events only) ^{[verification requested]}
• Risen Chicken (During related events only)
• Risen Thrall (During related events only) ^{[verification requested]}
• Veteran Risen Abomination (During related events only)

Sharks

• Ice Shark

Object

• Chest
• Aetherblade Cache
• Central Lab Turret (During related events only)
• Lab Turret (During related events only)
• Vexa's Test-Golem Remains
• Waypoint Research Material

Related achievements

• Daily: Daily Vexa's Lab Minidungeon — Complete the Vexa's Lab minidungeon in Fireheart Rise. (0) (Historical)
• Cinder Steeltemper's Footsteps: Treatise on Tempering Draconic Materials — Found inside the chest at the end of Vexa's Lab in Fireheart Rise.
• Explorer: Vexa's Lab — Find the center of Vexa's Lab. (10)
• Astralaria III: The Mechanism: Elder Dragons and Star Navigation Theories Vol. III — Found in the chest inside the treasure room of Vexa's Lab in Fireheart Rise.
• Bolt III: Zap: Bottle of Vexa's Energy — Use a Capacitive Bottle to capture energy from the central turret in Vexa's Laboratory in Fireheart Rise.
• Incinerator III: Spark: Corrosive Paste — Use the materials from the shattered waypoint in Vexa's Lab in Fireheart Rise along with Gelid Paste to congeal the Explosive Fumes into a Corrosive Paste.
• Meteorlogicus III: Storm: Test Subject Captivity
• Twilight III: Dusk: Captive Darkness — Use the Gloominator to capture the darkness in one of the test subject chambers in Vexa's Lab in Fireheart Rise.
• Ad Infinitum III: Unbound: Old Tom's Vital Reading (He's Dead) — Interact with the Vexa's Test-Golem Remains to obtain the Vexa's Golem Diagnostic Reader, afterwards interact with the wreckage of Old Tom in the Uncategorized Fractal.

Notes

• This minidungeon was added in the Shadow of the Mad King 2012 update.
• Mounts can be used to access the dungeon. The jumping platforms to the entrance portal can be bypassed entirely through use of a Griffon or Skyscale. The only places that mounts can't be used are in the portal puzzle and the platforming section with Golem Assistants.

Trivia

• The strange configuration of stairways in the second room resembles M. C. Escher's Relativity drawing.
• The last announcement before lab detonation "Ten seconds until lab detonation. Have a nice day!" is likely a reference to the movie Spaceballs.

---

Fireheart Rise