Fallout is back in a big way. The Fallout Amazon series has landed with critical and commercial success, garnering widespread praise from fans for successfully capturing that Fallout feel. And now that there’s a second season on the way, we’re looking forward to even more Vault-Tec antics.
There are two major vaults in the Amazon series — our main lead Vault Dweller Lucy exits her home of Vault 33 and later discovers how experimental vaults can be in Vault 4. We won’t spoil the secrets of the show’s vaults here, but they’re perfect representations of the kind of twisted petri dishes we’ve all encountered playing these games.
And right here we’re going to run through all the vaults to choose some of our favorite experiments. We’re delving through the history of the entire series to share the strangest vaults — we’ve combed through all the bunkers to pluck out the weirdest ones you’ll find wandering the wasteland.
#10. Vault 118 [Fallout 4]
What if the inmates ran the asylum? That’s the secret to Vault 118 — one of the most visually interesting vaults in the series. Located under the spooky Cliff’s Edge Hotel in the Far Harbor DLC, this fancy vault is home to a group of ultra-elites with plenty of amenities to keep them entertained forever. Each of the ten occupants has their own unique room — and you’ll need to search everywhere, because the Robobrains need your help solving a murder mystery.
This impressively detailed vault has its own ballroom, art studio, and an artificial beach. All the rich vault dwellers stuck their brains into robots to outlive the apocalypse, but now there’s a murderer in their midst. While the experiment is pretty bog-standard for evil companies — putting the rich in charge of an army of servants — the actual results are so fun we had to put this detective’s tail on our list.
#9. Vault 22 [Fallout: New Vegas]
Fallout: New Vegas is a fan-favorite for a reason — it’s smarter and sharper than any of the other games since Bethesda’s acquisition, but not every one of their side-quests will make you ruminate on the dark nature of humanity. We’ll get to that sort of thing later. Maybe New Vegas just wants to creep us out with spooky plants sometimes.
Vault 22 is a perfect example of a vault that exists just to be extremely weird, unique, and creepy — the exterior of the vault is overgrown with monstrous plants, and the inside is even worse. If you thought the Giant Mantises were bad, be prepared for the Spore Carriers. These walking corpses are totally infected by the fungal plague, animating them so they can spread the fungus far and wide. This is just one of the vaults we couldn’t forget in New Vegas, and there are far spookier ones to come.
#8. Vault 81 [Fallout 4]
One of the few functional vaults you’ll find in the series, Vault 81 is a seemingly normal bunker — no signs of experimentation or catastrophic failure to find inside. And there’s a good reason for that.
Entering Vault 81, you’ll get a quest to discover the source of the Mole Rat problems. These giant creatures are biting people and spreading diseases — and after following one of the dwellers, you’ll discover a secret vault. The secret vault is packed with medical equipment and observation rooms, where scientists can spy on the residents. Oh, and lots more disease-carrying mole rats. The experiment in Vault 81 involved secretly spreading diseases to unwitting subjects by a group of scientists — but instead of letting the experiment go as planned, the Overseer sealed the scientists in their secret vault. This paranoia-inducing vault is packed with secret passages, making it one of the more memorable locations in the game. You’ll also find the Curie, a robotic companion — so definitely worth checking out. It’s nice seeing Vault Dwellers alive and well for once.
#7. Vault 108 [Fallout 3]
One of the most infamous and memed vaults in the series, Vault 108 has a doozy of a premise. The backstory of this vault is really weird, complicated, and none of it matters. The end result is is all the matters. The vault is packed with insane clones named Gary. Yes, this is the Gary Vault — both macabre and totally ridiculous, just what we want from our vaults.
The experiment isn’t even worth talking about. Vault-Tec added all the cliches to one location — way too many guns, an Overseer with too much power, and how about a failed generator too. Why not. How exactly does this lead to a small army of belligerent Gary clones.
The answer is don’t worry about it. That’s just the sort of thing scientists do in the Fallout universe. We’ll be shocked if Gary doesn’t appear somewhere in the next ten seasons of Amazon’s Fallout show.
#6. Vault 12 [Fallout 1]
The original vault-gone-bad is Vault 12 — the one where we all realized something was very wrong with Vault-Tec. Found in the center of the Necropolis, an L.A. settlement populated entirely by Ghouls, you’ll learn the dark secret of Vault 12 while searching for a replacement Water Chip. In one of the most blatantly evil experiments Vault-Tec ever did, the Vault 12 door was designed to malfunction. It never closed properly. The residents got a full doze of nuclear radiation in the immediate fallout of the great war.
Instead of dying like everyone else, all that radiation made Ghouls — mutants that live forever as walking corpses. Taking the Water Chip turns the ghouls hostile to you. Normally, they won’t attack if you haven’t opened fire already — they’re a surprisingly nice bunch of ghouls despite leading an anti-human army. There’s a good reason the Ghouls here hate humans, they were kind of betrayed in the worst way possible. And while Fallout 1 didn’t feature many vaults, later games in the series made up for our desperate need for more experiments. If you’re looking for twisted, just wait for the next vault on the list.
#5. Vault 51 [Fallout 76]
The least-loved Fallout game in recent history has had something of a resurgence — Fallout 76 is adding a whole new region very soon, and there’s a massive new vault to explore. While I haven’t explored that one yet, there’s another vault everyone needs to visit. Vault 51 is one of the wackiest vaults, but it’s all in the backstory.
Before you ever step foot in Vault 51, it’s already been through hell. Instead of running a single experiment, the ZAX Supercomputer that oversees the vault runs multiple tailored experiments specifically designed to drive the inhabitants insane. ZAX forced dwellers to play rigged slot machines, listen to the sound of horse flies, and worship the supercomputer like a god. By the time you arrive in the Vault, literally everyone is dead — but you can find plenty of computer terminals and notes that fill in the full backstory of this vault.
And it’s one of the most visually impressive vaults. If it wasn’t for the evil supercomputer, the vault would be downright comfy. There’s a huge atrium leading to a gym, library, entertainment area and more. This vault has a full concert hall! The experience of exploring the area isn’t that interesting — that’s true of basically everything in Fallout 76 — but if you’re willing to read, this is one of the nastiest vaults ever.
#4. Vault 106 [Fallout 3]
If you thought the Gary Vault was creepy, you’ve seen nothing yet — Vault 106 is a haunted nightmare. The moment you walk inside you’ll experience strange sights and sounds. You’ll encounter old characters from Vault 101, your home vault, including the Tunnel Snakes or your lost father. You can attack the visions, or just keep progressing while experiencing strange sights that have stuck with us for years.
One room is packed with strange messages that mysteriously change after reading too many. Another room appears upside down through a window and turns right-side up when you enter. Insane Survivors roam the vault and attack on-sight — and you’ll soon learn why. A hallucinatory drug is being pumped into the vault at all times, and you’re infected the moment you walk inside. Why would Vault-Tec want to do something like this? It’s better not to ask questions, because the vault experiments are only going to get more ridiculous.
#3. Vault 11 [Fallout: New Vegas]
Maybe the creepiest vault in the entire series, Vault 11 is a sickening social experiment with a dark punchline waiting at the end. Exploring this abandoned vault, you’ll find election posters plastered everywhere. You’ll realize that this Vault Dwellers here are big on elections — and the elections aren’t what we think. After the vault door closed on this vault, the experiment stipulated that one person must be sacrificed for the vault every election. Those posters aren’t about picking the best. They’re about executing the most vulnerable. Literally, the people of Vault 11 voted on who would die.
The second you walk into Vault 11, the gate locks behind you. At the end of the vault, you’ll enter the execution room. The lights go out and robots are unleashed — forcing you to survive a life-or-death battle against overwhelming odds. Most everyone, including us, were so surprised by the robot ambush that we didn’t stand a change. That’s how Fallout: New Vegas rolls.
And it’s immensely creepy. The vault crumbled as more and more dwellers were killed, with different factions fighting each other to decide who would be next on the chopping block. By the end, the last few survivors discovered the trick behind the experiment — if everyone chose not to sacrifice someone, they vault’s automatic systems would congratulate the survivors for their morality. Too bad the last four didn’t figure that out until it was too late.
#2. Vault 112 [Fallout 3]
You might call Vault 112 one of the ‘successful‘ vaults. If success means giving a madman complete control for eternity, Vault 112 is one of the best. Instead of a normal vault, Vault 112 consists of special virtual reality chambers. Entering the chamber puts you in Tranquility Lane — a kind of pre-war suburban paradise. But paradise is boring, and one mysterious little girl demands your help torturing the occupants. You’ll make kids cry, break up marriages and eventually kill everyone in the simulation. You’ll be able to don the getup of the Pint-Sized Slasher and start slashing.
And there’s a reason for all this. The mad scientist Dr. Braun, the creator of the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, has grown bored of his perfect life and now torments dwellers for his own sick amusement. After killing everyone in the virtual world, he simply resets the simulation and deletes their memories. You can help him torture the residents or break the cycle for good. That makes this one of the most fun and surprising experiences in any vault.
And our last vault is so weird, it isn’t any any of the games.
#1. Vault 120 (Fallout 4)
There are non-canon vaults like Vault 0, and then there are vaults we’ll never be able to visit. Some of the wildest, weirdest vault experiments are exclusive to other media. Before Fallout 3, Bethesda commissioned a promotional comic called One Man, and a Crate of Puppets. It’s exactly what it sounds like. A single Vault Dweller is put in a vault that’s exclusively populated with puppets.
But there are weirder ideas out there, and one of the biggest disappointments of Fallout 4 is that we never got to see a giant squid overseer. And so, we’ve reached Vault 120 — a vault that was cut from Fallout 4. By teaming up with a gang of ghouls from the People’s Liberation Army of China, you’d ride a sub down to an abandoned underwater vault.
While we don’t know the specifics behind this vault, we do know that it’s built into a vast underwater gorge. You’d have to wear a set of Power Armor to cross on the sea floor to reach new areas of the vault and confront the giant squid — the idea is so awesome, intrepid modders completed the unfinished assets, creating an even-more-impressive version of Vault 120. And that’s the version you’ve been watching us play. If we fully went into the world of mods, we’ve be swimming in even more weird, insane vaults to explore.
And that’s one of the greatest strengths of the Fallout universe. The right mix of dark and darkly funny — the pitch-black humor of the vaults is something we just can’t get enough of. Whenever we find one of those big cog-wheel entrances, we can’t help but get hyped to see what new bizarre experiment we’ll encounter next.
We’re still going crazy thinking about vaults, and the Fallout series on Amazon Prime is only stoking our interest even more. Let us know your favorite vault moments in the comments, because we’ve got Fallout fever. Look out for more Fallout stuff in the near future as we mine the depths of the post-apocalypse.
