Highlights
- Fallout 4 breaks tradition by featuring seven Vaults, the most in any individual Fallout game so far, with an allegedly cut eighth Vault.
- Vaults in the Fallout franchise are known for their macabre experiments, but there are a few exceptions where the occupants rejected Vault-Tec's intentions.
- Players should explore the iconic Vaults in Fallout 4 to gather information and loot, such as Vault 75's attempt to harvest human genetics and Vault 81's thriving community.
While most of the recent games have followed a pattern of having six Vaults scattered around the different wastelands in the Fallout franchise, Fallout 4 breaks that tradition. Fallout 4 features seven Vaults that players can encounter and explore, which is the most that any individual Fallout franchise game has had so far. Not to mention, there’s also allegedly an eighth vault that was planned to be in Fallout 4, although it was cut from the final release of the game.
Most Vaults in the Fallout franchise are known for their infamous and macabre Vault-Tec experiments, though there are a few outliers. Some Vaults functioned as control groups and even then, sometimes the occupants of Vault-Tec’s most disturbing experiments have taken on a new purpose by rejecting or outlasting the Vault’s intended purposes. At any rate, players would do well to check out the iconic Vaults throughout the Fallout franchise to gather the information and loot found within, especially in Fallout 4's many Vaults.
Every Vault in Fallout 4
Vault 75: This Vault can be found in the Northeast quadrant of the map, in the basement of Malden Middle School. Not too different from how Vault 111 turned out, this Vault was the site of a morbid attempt to harvest human genetics, and the community is still debating what happened to the few survivors of Vault 75.
Vault 81: Players can find Vault 81 West of Diamond City, just beyond the Chestnut Hillock Reservoir. Possibly one of the most wholesome and honorable of Vaults in the Fallout franchise, the occupants turned this Vault into a thriving community after refusing to participate in Vault-Tec’s intended experiments. Although these occupants are no longer around, players can still recruit Curie the Miss Nanny model robot created by the original Vault dwellers as a companion in Fallout 4.
Vault 88: This Vault is located in the southeast area of Fallout 4’s wasteland and requires the Vault-Tec Workshop DLC. Players are tasked with building this Vault from scratch, although it doesn’t allow any kind of underlying sinister experimentation on the dwellers.
Vault 95: Vault 95 can be found on the Edge of the Glowing Sea in Fallout 4. This Vault’s underlying experiment came to fruition and caused the death of most of its residents until the prospect of chems attracted gunners who killed the remaining survivors and took over the Vault.
Vault 111: Unless players are using mods in Fallout 4 to give themselves a new starting sequence to the game, chances are most of them are going to begin their journey in this Vault. Located on the Northwest side of Sanctuary, this Vault has some big implications for the game’s main storyline, although it isn’t very rewarding to fully explore otherwise.
Vault 114: Vault 114 is hidden in the Park Street Station metro in the Boston Common area. This vault plays into detective Nick Valentine’s questline and sees players meet face-to-face with the gangsters that have recently taken residence here.
Vault 118: This Vault requires the Far Harbor DLC since it’s found on the island where this expansion takes place, underneath the Cliff’s Edge Hotel. While the original occupants aren’t around anymore, players can unfold a comical murder mystery between the Vault’s robot dwellers.
(Cut Content) Vault 120: Honorable mention goes to Fallout 4’s cut content that was going to feature underwater exploration elements. Thanks to data miners and the modding community for Fallout 4, it’s known that this Vault was possibly planning to include submarine combat, architecture inspired by Bioshock’s Rapture City, an encounter with a kaiju-sized mutant octopus, and other notable features. Perhaps a future Fallout game will bring deep underwater exploration to the franchise, but for now, it remains an unexplored mystery.
Fallout 4 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
