One of the cool parts of Bethesda dropping Fallout 4 on us, excluding the release date that is THIS YEAR, was the companion mobile game that came along with it, Fallout Shelter. Now you can be your very own Overseer and take care of up to 200 survivors as you expand your vault to accommodate all the poor bastards who are still around after the bombs have dropped.
In case you’re having trouble getting your Vault up and running, or you’re just waiting to start until the right time, here’s a few tips to make sure you’re the best Overseer you can be.
Batten Down the Hatches
The Vault’s are super secure, what with that heavy door and being buried in a mountain and all. Except, it’s not that safe since Raiders can just shoot through it and come pillage your resources and injure your dwellers. One thing you can do (that I had to discover myself) is upgrade your Vault door. This doesn’t sound mind blowing, I know, but imagine my surprise as I started my 4th vault and having sunk at least a day into this game when I realized I could this. It takes the Raiders longer to get through and this gives you enough time to throw your strongest fellas into guard mode at the door. Later on, you can position permanent and heavily armed guards who will mow Raiders down and make sure you keep your resources for your Vault.
Scavenge
Early on, this may seem like an unviable practice as you desperately need each and every dweller to maintain acceptable levels of resources. But trust me on this, send your highest level guy (preferably one of the ‘special’ guys you unlock in a lunch box) out into the desolate wasteland to track some stuff down. It’s so worth it. The gear helps you fight off Raiders, radroaches, etc. While the caps let you upgrade your rooms so you won’t need him and he can keep exploring. Later on, let him go for a day or two and bask in the glory of what he brings back!
Be Careful Rushing
Need something badly and want to rush it? It’s a gamble but a successful rush also could deliver you bonus caps! However, if you rush and your threshold for incident causing is above 30%, you’re going to have a bad time. So, try to keep it around 25% or you’re going to be on fire way more often than you’d like.
Location, Location, Location
Your Vault is located in a mountain and you can dig deep into that mountain, allowing your dwellers to live further and further underground if you want. One of the finer points of Vault building is grouping your rooms together. Now, this started out as more of a manifestation of my OCD, but if you group rooms together, you get the benefit of merging the rooms, making them both more efficient and allowing more workers to man the room. However, what the game chooses to avoid telling you is that only three segments of the room can be merged together. So utilize your space as best as possible. Where this becomes EXTERMELY valuable right out of the gate as you can jack your water treatment plants up right away and they can be manned by a minimal team. The rest of your dwellers can be used for power and food and you can maintain your resources for a long period while also keeping your people radiation free and happy!
Don’t Wait, Procreate!
So, you’re maintaining the vault, but you really want to have one of your guys do sit ups until he’s better at working in the power plant. Thing is, more dwellers won’t show up until your Vault is working better. So, what’s to do? Throw a pair of Charismatic dwellers together, read their hilarious pick up lines for about 5 minutes (hey, nuclear winter makes people a little crazy) and then BOOM! She’s pregnant. Give it a couple of hours and you got an ungrateful kid who lowers your happiness level by being a grouchy 50%. A few hours after that and you got yourself another slave… I mean, dweller. Put them to work and watch your Vault grow!
BONUS TIP – Just as a bonus tip for getting all the way here, let me recommend that you book your addiction counselling sessions ahead of time. Let’s be honest, addiction counselling is a popular field and getting into see someone immediately isn’t an option. Put yourself on the wait list now, because by the time the day arrives, you’ll need to talk about your problem with this game.
Hopefully, these tips will help you along the first week of playing Fallout Shelter and helps you maximize your Vault. They do a great job by making sure you check back roughly every half hour (honestly, if you can wait that long, you have amazing willpower) so make the most out of all the time you throw at this one. Best of luck, Overseers!
Check out our full Fallout Shelter review HERE.
Checkout the E3 2015 Fallout 4 trailer HERE.
