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How Daily Gauntlet scoring works in Vaults

The Daily Gauntlet in Vaults is one 12-wave vault with two bosses, and every player in your group gets the same map and the same waves that day. Because the board is identical, the leaderboard comes down to one thing: who turns the same waves into the most points. This guide sets out exactly how a winning run is scored so you can spend your daily attempts on the things that matter.

The formula

A winning run scores 1,000 for the win, plus 100 for every life you have left, plus half of the cash you are holding when the last bug falls, plus 40 for every lock you solved, plus a speed bonus of 500 minus the seconds the run took (it never goes below zero). A run you lose scores far less: 60 for each wave you reached plus 3 for every kill. A clean win is always worth much more than a close defeat.

Lives: the biggest lever

You start with 20 lives, so a perfect defence is worth 2,000 points on its own. Every bug that leaks past your towers costs lives, and each life is worth 100 points, which makes a leak far more expensive than anything you could gain by rushing. Relics that add lives raise the ceiling.

Locks: free points

You can solve up to two locks per wave, so a 12-wave Gauntlet allows 24 locks, worth 960 points. Each lock also pays cash (25 plus 6 for every wave number you have reached) and gives an Overclock charge. The battle clock is paused while a lock is open, and game time is what the speed bonus counts, so thinking about a lock never costs you speed. A wrong answer only costs you the time you spend. The two-per-wave limit does not carry over: a lock you skip in a wave is gone for good, so solve both before you call the next wave.

Cash: spend it, but not too early

Cash counts at half value at the end, so a pile of unspent cash is a weak result: 200 cash is only 100 points, the same as one life. Spend your money on towers and upgrades that stop leaks or kill faster. Late in the run, once the remaining waves are clearly safe, there is nothing to gain from buying more.

Speed: call waves early

The speed bonus starts at 500 and drops one point per second of game time. You can call the next wave as soon as the current one has finished spawning, and stacking waves like this is the main way to earn the bonus. It is also the main way to lose lives, so do it when your defence is clearly stronger than the next wave, not out of habit.

A simple plan

1. Build a solid opening before the first wave and keep both locks of each wave for the quiet moment before you call it.
2. Upgrade towers rather than hoarding cash.
3. Call waves early only while you have clear control.
4. Keep every life, since each one is worth the same as 200 cash.

Once you are winning cleanly, the difference between runs is usually a few hundred points of speed and cash, so small gains add up. Check the towers guide for what to build, and the lock puzzles guide if you want to solve locks faster and more reliably.