Every Vault In Fallout 3, Ranked
It is hard to imagine Fallout without its famous Vaults and, while exploring the Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3, the Lone Wanderer can uncover seven of Vault-Tec's underground shelters. Exploring these locations is always rewarding, and not just because of the loot left behind, as each Vault tells a story. Each of these facilities stands out in its own horrifying way, perfectly demonstrating Vault-Tec's true goals as their unique experiments are revealed.
While promising the American people safety in the event of nuclear war, Vault-Tec's Vaults were really the worst places people could have fled to. While seven Vaults are mentioned in Fallout 3, only six can actually be visited by the Lone Wanderer, with three directly linked to the main questline, unlike most of Fallout 4's Vaults. All the Vaults in the Capital Wasteland should be explored at least once to learn their stories, but some will definitely stick in the mind long after the visit.
7 Vault 77 - Isolation Study
Mentioned But Not Located In Fallout 3
Vault 77, despite not appearing in any Fallout game directly, is perhaps one of the best known of all Vault-Tec's experiments. Featured in the Penny Arcane comic "One Man, and a Crate of Puppets", Vault 77's goal was to study the effect of complete isolation on the human mind, by locking a single person inside a Vault with only a crate of puppets for company. The comic tells the story of that dweller, known only as "the puppet man," as he finds the puppets, plays with them, and descends into madness before finally leaving the Vault.
While Vault 77 and the Puppet Man can't be found in Fallout 3, slavers in Paradise Falls will mention the terrifying stranger with no name. A Vault 77 jumpsuit can also be found in the slaver barracks, next to a holotape of a slaver begging others to get rid of the jumpsuit. Given that the Puppet Man left the Vault around a year and a half after the bombs fell, it is unlikely he is still alive in 2277, two hundred years later. However, that hasn’t stopped the legend of him and his murderous puppets from instilling fear in slavers.
6 Vault 92 - Mind Control Experiment
Notable Loot: 4 Skill Books
Located northwest of Old Olney and directly east of Oasis is one of Fallout 3's most evil Vault-Tec experiments, Vault 92. The residents of this Vault were specifically chosen due to their musical talent, with the best musicians from across the world invited to preserve their skills. However, as with many Vaults, the residents soon found themselves the subjects of a twisted experiment involving white noise. The goal was to implant combat commands into their heads to see if anyone could be programmed to be a soldier and kill when ordered.
A pre-war violin called the Soil Stradivarius can be found in the recording studio. It belonged to a woman named Hilda Egglebrecht and can be given to her great-great-granddaughter Agatha, in return for the frequency to Agatha's radio station.
The Lone Wanderer can find holotapes from the head scientist throughout the Vault that detail the early stages of the experiment through to the residents turning on each other due to the suggestions they were hearing through the white noise. In the final holotape, the truth becomes clear, as Vault-Tec’s orders to implant combat suggestions are revealed. However, by this point, the Overseer’s command phrase was no longer working, resulting in the death of everyone in the Vault. With no one to maintain the Vault, it is flooded and overrun by mirelurks by the time of the Lone Wanderer’s visit.
5 Vault 106 - Psychoactive Gas Experiment
Notable Loot: Science Bobblehead, 2 Skill Books
Located in a cave southeast of Arefu is Vault 106, a contradictory Vault with a sad story. The interior of the Vault is heavily rusted, with blood splatter throughout, but what makes this Vault unusual is that there are still living residents. While exploring the Lone Wanderer will periodically get attacked by Insane Survivors, who are all hostile, and later on the lowest level, an enemy simply named Survivor. Notes and terminal entries start to reveal something about the air system, and the Lone Wanderer will experience strange blue hallucinations of people from Vault 101 as they investigate more.
The resident named Survivor wears a Vault-Tec lab coat instead of a Vault suit and will drop a finger if the Lone Wanderer has the Lawbringer perk.
The hallucinations get worse on lower levels, with terminals urging the Lone Wanderer to relax and stay in the Vault. Finally, a security terminal in the living quarters reveals more about Vault-Tec’s plans and that a psychoactive gas known as Control was released into the Vault. The experiment was only meant to last for 30 minutes, but something went wrong, leaving the gas continuously active. It is unclear how there could still be living survivors 200 years later as lore in Fallout 2 states that Vault 106's experiment was designed to take place 10 days after the Vault was sealed.
4 Vault 101 - Isolationist Community Experiment
Starting Vault For Fallout 3
Vault 101 is the starting Vault for the Lone Wanderer in Fallout 3 and I find it fantastic that we get to experience it for as long as we do in the introduction. The Lone Wanderer is seen growing up in the sparsely populated Vault, butting heads with other children and eventually the Overseer. The one bright spot is our childhood friend Amata, who will come to warn the Lone Wanderer when their father, James, flees the Vault. Although at first glance Vault 101 could be mistaken for a control Vault, it was actually part of a social experiment.
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Vault 101’s actual purpose was to study both a population who would never leave a Vault and the role of the Overseer. Each Overseer's goal was to control the residents and make sure they never left the Vault by telling them the outside world was uninhabitable. This isolationist ideology is tested once the Lone Wanderer and James leave, prompting the quest "Trouble on the Homefront" to be triggered in which two opposing sides have formed within Vault 101, one that wants to interact with the world and one that doesn’t.
3 Vault 108 - Cloning Facility
Notable Loot: Charisma Bobblehead, 3 Skill Books
Located south of Canterbury Commons and northeast of the Corvega Factory is Vault 108, perhaps the best-known of all Fallout 3's Vaults. Vault 108 is the strangest Vault-Tec experiment in the Capital Wasteland, with the most noticeable feature of the Vault being its cloning laboratory and numerous clones who are all named Gary. Vault 108 ran two experiments concurrently, one surrounding cloning and the other involving increasing the stress of the residents via various factors. Ultimately, the clones proved the downfall of Vault 108, overriding all other studies as each generation of Garys became more violent than the last.
Vault 108’s second experiment involved a terminally ill Overseer, an oversupply of weapons, no entertainment for the residents, and a power supply that was designed to fail.
Although the scientists in charge of the cloning attempted to dispose of the Garys, the presence of a clone named Gary 1 indicates they were unsuccessful. Eventually, the Gary clones overwhelmed everyone else in the Vault and by the time the Lone Wanderer arrives, the Garys are all that remain. They are extremely violent to non-Garys and have seemingly devolved to a state of only being able to communicate using their own name, making navigating the Vault a challenge but a rewarding one, especially for the Charisma bobblehead located in the observation room next to the main operating room.
2 Vault 87 - FEV Laboratory
Visited As Part Of Picking Up The Trail & Finding The Garden Of Eden
Perhaps one of the most evil Vault-Tec experiments, Vault 87 has a lot to answer for as the ramifications of its actions have changed the Capital Wasteland for the worse. The Lone Wanderer will visit Vault 87 as part of the main questline in search of a G.E.C.K. and discover the horrifying truth behind the presence of Super Mutants in the region. While investigating, it becomes clear that Vault-Tec had a version of the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV), and all the residents were turned into Super Mutants, although far less intelligent than the West Coast versions.
G.E.C.K. stands for Garden of Eden Creation Kit, a piece of equipment issued to some Vault with the ability to terraform an area and make it possible to rebuild civilization.
Under the orders of Vault-Tec, the Overseer and the scientists used the FEV on the Vault residents with terrible results. After the now-mutated residents broke out of the Vault, for the next 200 years they kidnapped humans to make more Super Mutants. By the time the Lone Wanderer arrives, the source of FEV has run out, forcing most of the Super Mutants to leave. However, locked inside a test chamber is Fawkes, one of the best non-human companions in Fallout, who still retains some of his humanity and was an original resident of Vault 87.
1 Vault 112 - Virtual Reality Pods
Visited As Part Of Scientific Pursuits & Tranquility Lane
Easily the most twisted experiment and the worst Fallout 3 Vault to live in is Vault 112. Vault 112 had the honor of being the home to one of the highest-ranking members of Vault-Tec, Dr. Stanislaus Braun, the person who designed and approved all the other Vault experiments. Braun invented pods that could keep people alive in stasis while their minds were part of an elaborate simulated world. However, when the Lone Wanderer arrives looking for their father and joins this world, it's clear Braun has been using it to torture the other residents for 200 years.
The Tranquility Lane simulation is one of the strangest and darkest quests in Fallout 3, as Braun's contempt for fellow human beings becomes apparent. What isn't clear is if this was his original goal, or if he was driven mad by the responsibility of maintaining the virtual world. I personally think Braun was already twisted given the nature of so many of Vault-Tec's experiments which he either created or authorized, which is confirmed when speaking with Overseer Barstow in Fallout 4’s Vault 88.
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