Fallout Shelter is a simulation game that is set in the post-apocalyptic universe of the Fallout series. Created by Bethesda Game Studios, the same developers responsible for the award-winning Fallout 4, Fallout Shelter allows players to do something that they have never been able to in the Fallout games: manage their own vault.

Fallout Shelter

In the Fallout universe, the world has been annihilated in nuclear war and the surviving humans live in underground bunkers called vaults. In Fallout Shelter, you play as the Overseer whose job is to manage your vault and make sure all your people are kept happy and healthy. You do this by building facilities, such as power generators, water treatment plants, and diners, that your people need in order to survive. Power generators are necessary to power the other facilities in your vault and if your power output is too low, the lights will start to go out in the vault and other facilities will cease to function. Water treatment plants reduce the amount of radiation in the water supply and are necessary for humans to live, as are diners which provide food. In addition to these facilities, you can also build living quarters to increase the number of vault dwellers your vault can hold, storage rooms to increase the number of items and pets you can hold, med bays, science labs, and much more.

In order for each of these facilities to operate, you must assign vault dwellers to work for you. The more people you assign to a facility, the faster it generates product. Over time, your store of power, food, and water decrease as they are used by the people in your vault. The more people you have, the faster your supplies run out and the more facilities you need to build in order to sustain the population, but you also need more people to run these added facilities, so its a delicate balance.

How do you get more people into your vault? As you play, other potential dwellers may show up at your vault door seeking a safe place to live, but you can also increase the population of your vault by getting your male and female vault dwellers to hook up and have babies. Those babies eventually grow up into hard working adults that you can assign to various jobs, which allows your vault to continue expanding.

You can also send vault dwellers out into the wasteland above to explore and maybe find some cool items such as weapons and armor. However, it’s a dangerous world out there and if your dwellers aren’t equipped to handle the harsh life outdoors, they could die.

If you’ve played the Fallout series and have wondered what it would be like to run your own vault, or just enjoy the idea of a post-apocalyptic sims, then check out Fallout Shelter. It’s free for Android, MacOS, and Windows.

By C’loni Bailey (Asst. Manager Bookmans Mesa)