So I think the payout is supposed to be in slime coins, which add maybe 1-2K onto the 1K crowns or so you get from playing it. This actually puts it up there with other "hard" areas like arena and danger rooms from clockwork tunnels.
This is likely why they aren't buffing the drop rate- because we "don't get it" which is fine and all, but-
A) Perception is literally all that exists to us. Science may as well be an extension of perception.
B) It's hard to get to the level, and that alone means it needs to give more. Consider a depth 25 treasure vault- that's like 30 minutes of SK for a 1/3 or 1/4 chance of it at best.
It needs to pay out a good 5-10K cr to be worthwhile, which is a ton, but with the payout in slime coins dropping is very doable. That way, it can compete with firestorm citadel. It certainly beats FSC in terms of difficulty.
I was happy to find out that the game updated with something new. The tileset looks great, and I really dig the bank heist motif of it.
However, the "bank heist aesthetic" is purely that- aesthetic.
Discarding the frustration of having to reset the arcade multiple times due to not having luck to get it, it wasn't worth the time spent on it. Let's discuss the positives in my opinion:
As far as I know, this is the first time we see the Mortafire enemy out of the Seerus' missions- which is great. The gremlin family needs to appear more in the arcade, as all encounters with it have been with the Mender enemy and rarely the Thwacker.
The Mimic enemy is nifty, and I dig the idea of a treasure box attacking back. It's not powerful enough to kill an unsuspecting knight, but is enough to keep an eye out.
But the real positives end there.
The razors are just speedy shankles with more intricate patterns. Some have said that dashing over them negates damage, and I haven't tested this myself yet. Their layout could be interesting with the timing and positioning on the knight, but so far, I have seen more designs with cramped spaces coupled with floor hazards that will invariably get you hit- even if you dash, since you'll just fall face first into a floor hazard.
And what all my friends have been complaining about: The entire stage is a mix of the clockwork terminal with the compound style. And to add insult to injury, it's the worst type of compound enemy- the spiky slime that just walks forward and damages you, unlike dust bunnies that have a windup attack, or scarabs that are a lot easier to telegraph against- since they just go in a straight line. Add the incessant spam from the jellies- PLUS the new trap block that denies AREA damage, the only thing that is guaranteed to deal with a large amount of enemies, and you're in for a simply unfun time.
The miniboss, as many have stated, is either incredibly difficult or incredibly easy with what loadout you bring. I used the Combuster's charge attack over and over and OVER until the thing went down, and also using it to keep the minis at bay. And I can sum up the fight as boring and slow.
Melee users really get the short end of the stick, and gunners with weapons that don't pierce enemies are also in a bad spot since the tentacles regenerate so fast. However, the boss would be slightly bearable if there weren't a MILLION glop drops swarming you at all times. The only way to have a slightly better breathing room is to lure all the minis you can into the lower right, and trap them there with the gate. And even THEN, there are still a ton of glop drops waiting to debuff you. Or, you could just cheese everything with the brandish line and the magnus line, repeating the charge attack-hide pattern until you go numb.
I could even forgive how difficult/boring the setups are, if there was some reward for beating it- but no, you get a bunch of boxes that you can get elsewhere with not even a tenth of the frustration. You earn around 1-2k crowns from the level, something the "bad" outcome of the arcade roulette, the graveyard, also offers, without any of the annoying compound enemies swarming your corpse.
If you really have to put an exit right at the start because the floor itself is so bad to play in, that's a red flag right there- the floor shouldn't even be there. What are new players going to think when they get mauled by an army of spiky glop drops? I'm used to farm the white core floors, and even the trainwreck of the last arena is nowhere as boring or frustrating as the boss fight.
I'm aware the community is small and probably made of old, experienced players, with a couple hundred people online at most at any given time. And yes, challenge is fun. I'm not against difficult floors. FSC is an example of a balanced mission- there are challenging arenas, Trojans can maul you if you're caught off-guard, floor hazards galore, and the boss is tanky yet fair, and the rewards are nice. I feel the treasure vault has failed in most of these aspects. But, it's nothing that can't be adjusted.