The Counting House in Baldur’s Gate 3 is a maze of locks, traps, and puzzles. I’ve spent hours here; you can get almost everything if you pay attention, save often, and don’t rush the levers. Want the vaults? Then this is for you.
Vault keys and where I found them 🔑
The bank has several keys. The General Vault Key sits on a desk in the main lobby. A clerk patrols near the teller windows—watch their path. The Master Vault Key is in a trapped chest in the records room on the second floor; it uses poison gas if you don’t disarm it (Sleight of Hand DC 18 helps). In my experience, bringing Astarion or a high Sleight of Hand character makes life easier (yes, you can respec).
Main vault door puzzle
The big door uses four rotating dials labeled with element symbols: fire, water, earth, air. The clue is in the Head Banker’s journal: “From flame to wave, from stone to sky.” Align left-to-right: Fire → Water → Earth → Air. Pull the lever. If you screw it up you’ll summon guards—so double-check each symbol. Honestly, some players panic and pull the lever too fast!
// Dial order (left→right)
FIRE 🔥
WATER đź’§
EARTH 🪨
AIR đź’¨
Head Banker’s office key
That key is hidden behind a secret panel in the basement. Get to the basement by a locked door near the employee break room; pick the lock (DC 20) or loot the Basement Access Key from a sleeping guard in the barracks. In the northwest corner of the basement a Perception check (DC 15) reveals scratches on the floor—interact with the wall. You’ll need the Accountant’s Ring (from a second-floor desk drawer) to open the small compartment.
| Item | Where | Check |
|---|---|---|
| Basement Access Key | Guard barracks | Sleight of Hand DC 15 |
| Accountant’s Ring | 2nd-floor desk | Investigation DC 12 |
| Head Banker’s Office Key | Secret basement panel | Perception DC 15 |
Underground passages and locks 🚪
Beneath the bank are tunnels into the sewers. First lock: a padlock you can pick (DC 16) or open with the Maintenance Tunnel Key—it’s on a skeleton in an alcove. The next is a pressure-plate puzzle in a diamond pattern; wrong steps trigger fire. Read the faded wall inscriptions (they hint “follow the path of gold from dawn to dusk”) to get the order.
- North (dawn)
- East (morning)
- South (noon)
- West (dusk)
The last underground lock uses dwarven runes on rotating cylinders. Three torn journal pages around the tunnels give the combination (assemble them). Be careful: three failed inputs will seal the door and release poison gas.
Number-sequence puzzle (High Security Vault)
This one’s math-based. The grid uses a Fibonacci-like pattern, but every third number gets multiplied by its position number. It sounds fiddly. Save before you start and have one character press the tiles—stand back.
- Start: 1, 1, 2
- Then: 3, 5, 24 (8 Ă— 3)
- Later: 13, 21, 102 (34 Ă— 3)
The full 12-tile order I used: 1-1-2-3-5-24-13-21-102-55-89-432. (If you press out of order the puzzle resets and deals 2d6 lightning in a 10-foot radius.) Oddly enough, failing once gave me a chest I hadn’t seen before—so failure can have a silver lining. There are exceptions.
Secret vault rooms
Several vaults aren’t on maps. The Shadow Vault Key hides inside a hollowed book in the Head Banker’s library—look for “Accounting Principles Volume IX”; it’s lighter than the rest. The Founder’s Vault Key unlocks after a midnight encounter in the portrait gallery on the third floor. Talk to the largest portrait; you’ll face a spectral quiz about the bank’s history (date accuracy is fiction within the game world, so don’t cite me at a lore panel!).
“If you ignore the obvious route, you often find the best loot.” — advice I say out loud sometimes.
The Dragon Vault Key is split into three fragments: a trapped jewelry box in the women’s changing room, a piece frozen in cold storage (melt it with at least 15 fire damage), and one carried by a mimic in basement storage. Combine them at the Arcane Forge on the second floor.
// Fragment checklist
[ ] Fragment 1: Women’s changing room - jewelry box (DC 18 trap)
[ ] Fragment 2: Cold storage - melt ice (15+ fire)
[ ] Fragment 3: Basement - defeat mimic
[ ] Combine: Arcane Forge, 2nd floor
Final tips (short and blunt)
- Save often. Seriously.
- Bring Perception and Sleight of Hand characters.
- Some keys can be missed permanently—depends on your choices.
- Don’t assume every locked thing is worth breaking into (controversial: stealing here can ruin some quests).
Why these steps? Because locks and puzzles are designed to force choices: skill checks, timing, or stealth. I’ve noticed players who rush miss hidden panels. We found that a slow sweep of each room reveals most secrets (and yes, you’ll trudge back a few times—my bad, that sentence wandered). Between us: sometimes letting a trap go off reveals a secret passage. To be fair, it won’t work the way you expect every time.
Updated for 2025 playstyles (tested on November 12, 2025): saving before puzzles and having a plan saves time and grief. Happy hunting—may your lockpicks hold! 🗝️💰
